April 23, 2010

Details of these and other awards are available at Student Resources.


FACULTY



Devlin joins School as Gillings Visiting Professor

Leah M. Devlin, DDS, MPH, former N.C. State Health Director, was appointed as a Gillings Visiting Professor in fall 2009. The position is based in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

In her new role, Devlin is connecting the School, including the N.C. Institute for Public Health, with legislators and others working on public health issues in practice. She also is consulting with School leaders to develop approaches to strengthen the school’s capacity as a regional and national leader in public health quality improvement.


Dr. Eugenia Eng and Dr. Allan Steckler

Dr. Eugenia Eng and Dr. Allan Steckler

Steckler and Eng recognized as Distinguished Fellows, SOPHE’s highest honor

Allan B. Steckler, DrPH, and Eugenia (Geni) Eng, DrPH, professors of health behavior and health education, received the Society for Public Health Education’s Distinguished Fellow Award for significant and lasting contributions to SOPHE and to the profession of health education.

The awards, which are the Society’s highest honor, were presented at the organization’s annual meeting in Philadelphia in November 2009.

SOPHE is an independent, international professional association made up of health education professionals and students.



Herring elected president of ENAR, prestigious biostatistics organization

Amy Herring, ScD, associate professor of biostatistics, was elected president of the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society (IBS) for a three-year term, ending in 2013.

IBS is the largest professional organization of biostatisticians and biometricians in the world, drawing its 5,800 members from more than 25 countries. ENAR is the largest subgroup of the organization, incorporating 1,600 members from the United States and Canada.

Our School has a strong history of leadership in the society, with four members of the faculty–including the late Dr. Bernard Greenberg and Drs. Jim Grizzle, Gary Koch and Lisa LaVange–having previously served as president.



Richardson appointed to White House advisory board

David B. Richardson, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology, was appointed by President Obama in October 2009 to the White House Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health.

Richardson’s research investigates occupational and environmental causes of disease, with a particular focus on ionizing radiation. He has served in various capacities at the University of North Carolina since 1996 when he began as a postdoctoral researcher.



Dilworth-Anderson leads Gerontological Society, receives Reagan Award for Alzheimer’s research

Peggye Dilworth- Anderson, PhD, professor of health policy and management and interim co-director of UNC’s Institute on Aging, was inducted in November 2009 as the new president of the Gerontological Society of America at GSA’s 62nd annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

Dilworth-Anderson is a member of the National Advisory Council for the National Institute on Aging and former member of the board of directors of the National Alzheimer’s Association.

Dilworth-Anderson also received the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute on Alzheimer’s Disease Award. She was honored on March 9, 2010, during the seventh annual National Alzheimer’s Gala in Washington, D.C.



Baric elected to American Academy for Microbiology

Ralph Baric, PhD, professor of epidemiology at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been elected to the American Academy for Microbiology. He will be recognized at the Academy Fellows luncheon in San Diego in May 2010.

The American Academy of Microbiology is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology, the world’s oldest and largest life science organization. Baric’s groundbreaking research focuses on coronaviruses, including SARS, and on noroviruses.

Read more about his research on page 10.



Adimora selected as one of top 100 African- American leaders by The Root magazine

Adaora Adimora, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine and clinical professor of epidemiology in the public health school, was selected by The Root magazine as one of the top 100 African- American leaders.

The Root is a daily online magazine that aims to provide thought-provoking news commentary from a variety of black perspectives. “The Root 100″ is a new honor that highlights the leadership and service of African-American men and women whose work impacts their communities and the world.

Adimora was honored for her research in HIV/AIDS.



Pink awarded distinguished professorship in health policy and management

George Pink, PhD, has been appointed Humana Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management.

Established through a grant from the Humana Foundation, the professorship is awarded to a health policy and management faculty member with a national reputation for scholarship in health informatics.

Pink is a fellow at the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and lead investigator in the center’s N.C. rural health research and policy analysis center.



Ammerman appointed to state food advisory council

Alice Ammerman, DrPH, professor of nutrition and director of UNC’s Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, has joined a new state council focused on improving policies and access to local, sustainable food in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council was established by the N.C. General Assembly in August 2009 to study, develop and promote policies that will create jobs, support communities, preserve the natural environment, increase access to fresh and nutritious foods, and provide greater food security for all North Carolinians.



Holliday wins award from N.C. Dietetic Association for contributions to field

Amanda Holliday, MS, RD, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition, was named Outstanding Dietetic Educator of the Year by the Durham-Chapel Hill (N.C.) Dietetic Association and by the North Carolina Dietetic Association. She accepted the statewide award at an awards event in Princeton, N.J., on March 25, 2010.


STUDENTS


Graduate School announces 24 merit awards for public health students

Twenty-four UNC public health graduate students received merit awards for study in 2009-2010 and beyond, the UNC Graduate School announced in fall 2009.

The students are Sayan Dasgupta (biostatistics); Jonathan Crocker, Katherine Harrold and Edema Ojomo (environmental sciences and engineering); Jane Der, Katelyn Hausman, Chantel Martin, Melanie Napier, Damon Ogburn and Amitabh Suthar (epidemiology); Andrea Des Marais, Ann Gottert, Jessica Kadis, Elizabeth King and Sarah Lieff (health behavior and health education); Kristin Geonnotti, Elise Lockamy and Sarah Rutstein (health policy and management); Anna Bauer and Anupama Gomez (maternal and child health); and Scott Ickes, Erik Karlsson, Tosha Smith and Rebecca Tkachuk (nutrition).


(L-R) Presha Patel, Gregory Mascavage, Jessica Folmar

(L-R) Presha Patel, Gregory Mascavage, Jessica Folmar

 


Health policy and management teams compete in case competitions

Presha Patel, Gregory Mascavage and Jessica Folmar, second-year Master of Public Health students in the health policy and management department, won second place in the 14th annual Everett V. Fox Student Case Competition, held during the National Association of Health Services Executives’ annual educational conference in October 2009, in Orlando, Fla.

The competition offers first- and secondyear graduate students an educational experience to enhance their problem analysis and presentation skills. Students are charged with applying their creativity, knowledge and experience to analyze real and diverse issues facing a health care organization.

Ashley Winslow, Sadaf Houssain and Matt Hasbrouck, graduate students in health policy and management, were among the top five teams at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s annual health care case competition on Feb. 11, 2010. A total of 24 teams participated in the competition.



Doctoral candidate Long among those honored with UNC teaching awards

Dustin Long, doctoral candidate in biostatistics, has received a Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by a Graduate Assistant. The award, given annually to five UNC graduate assistants, carries a $5,000 stipend.

Long was among 21 students and faculty members who received teaching awards in January.


Phi Beta Kappa inducts nine undergraduates from UNC public health school

Nine of the 146 UNC undergraduates inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in fall 2009 hail from four public health departments.

The students, all from North Carolina, include Kateland Elizabeth Branch, Julia Vivian Loewenthal and Patty Tian Wang (nutrition); Bita Jasmine Emrani, Jared Richard Lowe and Pranay Prabhakar (health policy and management); Patrick Nathaniel Healy and Andrew Parker Morgan (biostatistics and biology); and Rachel Parker Stevens (environmental health science).


King, PHLP master’s student, wins Kuno Research Award

Bradley King, a Master of Public Health student, has received the Michiko Kuno Award for Excellence in Student Research. The award, presented Jan. 27 as part of the UNC School of Medicine’s John B. Graham Medical Student Research Day, recognized King’s research on diabetic retinopathy screening.

King is a health care and prevention student in the public health school’s Public Health Leadership Program and has completed his third year of medical school at UNC.


STAFF



NCIPH’s Place receives leadership award

Janet Place, director of the Southeast Public Health Training Center, part of the N.C. Institute for Public Health, has received an award for Best Leadership Project at the Southeast Public Health Leadership Institute (SEPHLI) meeting, held in Winston-Salem, N.C. Her project was titled “Workforce Development Roadmap.”


ALUMNI



Alumnus Jenkins presented with APHA’s Lilienfield Award for teaching excellence

Bill Jenkins, PhD, MPH, received the American Public Health Association’s 2009 Abraham Lilienfield Award, which recognizes excellence in the teaching of epidemiology during the course of a career. An alumnus of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Jenkins is an affiliate of the UNC Institute of African-American Research (www.unc. edu/iaar) and co-director of UNC’s Minority Health Project.

He previously had a long, successful career at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at the Center for Research on Health Disparities at Morehouse College in Atlanta.


N.C. INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH


NCIPH honored for state service

The North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) received the N.C. Public Health Association’s Partners in Public Health Distinguished Group Award in October 2009 at the Association’s 100th anniversary meeting in Asheville.

The Institute, directed by Ed Baker, MD, MPH, research professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2009, highlighted by an event on Friday, Oct. 9. The NCPHA award was established in 1998 to recognize organizations and professions that have made significant contributions to public health in North Carolina.


Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. To view previous issues, please visit www.sph.unc.edu/cph.

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