Student Recognition

Ahsan successfully defends dissertation

Karar Zunaid Ahsan

Congratulations to Zunaid Ahsan, MIPH, MSc, for successfully defending his dissertation! His dissertation titled, “Equity in Maternal Health Services Use in Bangladesh: An Analysis of Social Gradients, Demographic and Structural Determinants, and Major Policy Changes” was defended on April 14th, 2021. His research was focused on examining how equity in maternal health services had evolved in Bangladesh.

Cartwright co-authors two articles

Alice Cartwright

Doctoral student, Alice Cartwright, has co-authored two articles looking at the impact of state abortion restrictions on people’s pregnancy outcomes and decision certainty about pregnancy and abortion. Some of the impacts include prolonged abortion seeking and additional financial barriers. In addition, living in a state with a waiting period or a two-visit requirement to receive abortion care is not associated with increased decision certainty. Read article one and article two.

Franchino-Olsen, Lewis, Rivero inducted into Delta Omega

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen

Ariel Lewis

Vanessa Rivero

Congratulations to Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Ariel Lewis and Vannessa Rivero for being inducted into Delta Omega, the Honor Society for Public Health.  Established in 1924, the purpose of Delta Omega, is to encourage excellence in student scholarship and research and to recognize academic and professional achievement in the field of Public Health. Students selected for Delta Omega must demonstrate academic excellence, as well as real or potential qualities of leadership in Public Health and a desire to follow a career in Public Health or Allied Health.

Choundhury featured in Gillings Research, Innovation and Global Solutions Newsletter

Allysha Choudhury

Doctoral student, Allysha Choudhury, ScM, was recently featured in the Gillings Research, Innovation, and Global Solutions Newsletter! In the feature, Allysha shares what sparked her interest in public health, why she decided to enroll at Gillings, and what she hopes for the future of public health. If you want to learn more about her experiences and what superpower she would want, check out the feature in the newsletter.

Rivero featured in The Pivot

Vanessa Rivero

Second-year MPH student, Vanessa Rivero, was recently featured in The Pivot, a series that connects the Gillings community! In her feature, she shares her viewpoints on maternal and child health and her role in the National Workforce Development Center. As part of the development team help state agencies with Title V funding complete health transformation projects. Read more about her work on The Pivot.

Chandler, Silverstein receive Dissertation Completion Fellowships

Caroline Chandler

Hannah Silverstein

Congratulations to doctoral students, Caroline Chandler, MPH, and Hannah Silverstein, MPH for receiving the Dissertation Completion Fellowships from The Graduate School for the 2021-2022 academic year! These fellowships support promising students in the final year of dissertation work by enabling them to focus full time on their research and completing their program of study without the obligation of a service assignment.

LocalRoots Compost receives $25,000 award from Victoria Secret’s Pick with Purpose Project

Mallory Turner

LocalRoots Compost, the business venture that doctoral candidate, Mallory Turner, MSPH, has co-founded, was selected as one of 15 recipients of  $25,000 for the Victoria Secret’s Pink with Purpose Project! LocalRoots Compost leverages the combined buying power of local restaurants to secure low prices on compostable food ware and then incentivizes restaurant patrons to compost those products. Its mission is to make sustainable choices easier for businesses and people of all ethnicities and levels of wealth. The award will be used to pilot LocalRoots this summer with 5-10 restaurants in the Triangle area.

Morgan, Cilenti featured in MCH Journal

Isabel Morgan

Doctoral student, Isabel Morgan, MPSH, in collaboration with faculty member Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, was recently featured in the Maternal and Child Health Journal for their article discussing North Carolina maternal and child health initiatives using the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory. This inventory allowed them to identify opportunities for improvement in several local, cross-sector partnerships, suggesting promise for other communities seeking to enhance their impact on maternal and child health. Read the article.

Franchino-Olsen defends dissertation

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen

Congratulations to Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, MPH, MS, for successfully defending her dissertation! Her dissertation titled, “Minor Sex Trafficking and Violence Victimization: Experiences of Interpersonal Violence Among Minors Who Have Experienced Sex Trafficking in the United States” was defended on February 25th, 2021. Her research was focused on examining the associations between domestic minor sex trafficking and interpersonal violence victimizations (intimate partner violence) and the associations between interpersonal violence victimizations in young adulthood and victimizations in adolescence/childhood (DMST, interpersonal violence, maltreatment).

Bogdewic authors PLOS One article

Stephanie Bogdewic

Doctoral student, Stephanie Bogdewic, MPH, is first author of a new article published in the PLOS One, titled “The cost-effectiveness of a program to reduce intrapartum and neonatal mortality in a referral hospital in Ghana.” In this article, the authors discuss how an integrated approach to systems strengthening in referral hospitals has the potential to reduce neonatal and intrapartum mortality in low resource settings and is likely to be cost-effective. Read the full article: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242170.

Morgan co-authors article and named to leadership program

Isabel Morgan

Congratulations to doctoral student, Isabel Morgan, MSPH for being named one of NBEC’s 2020 Class of Birth Equity Research Scholars! The Birth Equity Research Scholars Program is a two-year leadership development program designed to prepare doctoral students for research and practice careers that advance birth equity in disenfranchised communities. Isabel has also co-authored a new article published in the Harvard Law and Policy Review Journal, titled “Black Maternal Health Research Re-Envisioned: Best Practices for the Conduct of Research With, For, and By Black Mamas.” Read the full article here: https://harvardlpr.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/BMMA-Research-Working-Group.pdf

Westgard to present at conference

Christopher Westgard

Doctoral student, Christopher Westgard, MA, was invited to present at the 2020 Global Digital Health Forum Conference! He discussed digital tools for child health and development and presented an app that he has developed to identify an evidence-based solution to address poor child health in Amazonian communities.

Turner wins multiple awards in pitch competition

Mallory Turner

Doctoral student Mallory Turner, MSPH, won first place for best live pitch and second place in the Early-Stage Social Ventures category during the Gillings School Student Pitch Competition! Her pitch was for Full Cycle, a business that she co-founded, which provides closed-loop solutions for local food economies by procuring affordable compostable packaging.

Folger is first author

Lian Folger

Congratulations to second-year MPH-MCFH student, Lian Folger, on her first article as first author! Her article, “Diagnostic accuracy of neonatal foot length to identify preterm and low birth weight infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis” was published in the BMJ Global Health Journal. In the article, the authors synthesized 41 studies on the diagnostic accuracy of neonatal foot length and found that overall, foot length can identify low birth weight infants with high sensitivity. Read the full article: https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/11/e002976.full.

Williams co-authors AJPH article

Caitlin Williams

Doctoral candidate, Caitlin Williams, co-authored a new article published in the American Journal of Public Health, titled “Populist Nationalism Threatens Health and Human Rights in the COVID-19 Response.” In the article, the authors describe the threat that populist nationalism poses to public health and human rights, and the choice that lies before the country and the world. Read the full article here: https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305952

Swiatlo defends dissertation

Alison Swiatlo

Congratulations to Alison Swiatlo, MPH, for successfully defending her dissertation! Her dissertation titled, “Latent contraceptive behavior dynamics and pregnancy experiences among a national sample of U.S. women” was focused on identifying the existence and relative size of interpretable subgroups of latent contraceptive behavior in order to develop new hypotheses about contraceptive behavior dynamics.

APHA awards Jaffe for her research

Elana Jaffe

Congratulations to second-year MCFH student, Elana Jaffe, for receiving the 2020 Master’s Research Award from the American Public Health Association for her research on the experiences of menopause in prison. Her interviews with perimenopausal women incarcerated at the NC Correctional Institution for Women will provide much-needed insight into the priorities, concerns, and areas for intervention among this population.

Simmons co-authors article

Elizabeth Simmons

Doctoral student, Lizzy Simmons, MPH, co-authored a new article with faculty member Kavita Singh, PhD, in the Population Health Metrics Journal titled, “Assessing coverage of essential maternal and child health interventions using health-facility data in Uganda.” In the article, the authors seek to determine if electronic routine health information system (RHIS) data could help track progress in coverage estimates of life-saving maternal and child interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Their analysis indicates that additional efforts to improve the accuracy of estimates from RHIS sources are needed and that Nationally representative household surveys will likely continue to be the gold standard even if they do not provide timely information on coverage at the local and health facility level. Read the full article.

Ankamah recieves award

Doreen Ankamah

Congratulations to second-year MCFH student, Doreen Ankamah for receiving the Humanitarian Health Initiative Award for her work in the Gillings Zambia Hub. Over the summer, she completed her practicum which was focused on supporting optimal infant feeding and stimulation of HIV-exposed uninfected infants in Zambia. While she was not able to go to Zambia due to the pandemic, she was still able to contribute to significant research. Read more online.

Rivero speaks on self-reflection

Vanessa Rivero

Vanessa Rivero, second-year MCFH student, wrote a piece for the National MCH Trainee Blog which speaks about her experience and story that represents her fulfillment of the MCH competency 2: Self-Reflection. She emphasizes the importance of creating space for self-reflection within our busy lives so that we best serve and protect some of the most vulnerable populations as public health leaders. Read the full post.

Another successful day of packaging period products for the Diaper Bank!

From l-r, Rosie Hatley, Ollie Kuo, Sydney Nadel and Callie Rowland.

First-year MCFH students Josie Hatley, Ollie Kuo, Sydney Nadel, and Callie Rowland packaged more than 8,000 period products for the North Carolina Diaper Bank in an effort to fill the gap in basic needs unmet by federal or state assistance. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals and families across the country have been forced to make impossible decisions about how to spend limited financial resources. In response to this, the North Carolina Diaper Bank has distributed more than 1.2 million diapers and period products since March.

Cartwright co-authors article in Global Health: Science and Practice

Alice Cartwright

Congratulations to doctoral student, Alice Cartwright, MPH, for co-authoring a new article in the Global Health: Science and Practice Journal titled, “Factors Associated With Delayed Contraceptive Implant Removal in Ethiopia.” In the article, the authors discuss barriers as to why women who received a contraceptive implant by health extension workers (HEWs) were unable to get it removed during the recommended 3-year postinsertion date. The most common barriers to removal among respondents who had their implant beyond 3 years were forgetting, not knowing the removal date, or having impediments getting to the facility. Read the full article.

Williams co-authors commentary in The Lancet Public Health Journal

Caitlin Williams

Doctoral candidate, Caitlin Williams, recently co-authored a new commentary published in The Lancet Public Health Journal, titled “The Shibboleth of Human Rights in Public Health.” In the commentary, the authors describe the specific kinds of curricular changes that can be implemented to center rights in public health education and build a strong, rights-based foundation for the next generation of public health leaders. Read the full commentary.

Westgard published in Frontiers in Public Health

Christopher Westgard

Doctoral student, Christopher Westgard, in collaboration with faculty member Oscar Fleming, DrPH, recently published a new article in the Frontiers in Public Health Journal, titled “The Use of Implementation Science Tools to Design, Implement, and Monitor a Community-Based mHealth Intervention for Child Health in the Amazon.” In the article, the authors provide insight into the components of implementation in Amazonian communities, as well as the process of using implementation science tools in any global health setting. Read the full article.

Doctoral student featured by Launch Chapel Hill

Mallory Turner

Doctoral candidate, Mallory Turner, was recently featured by Launch Chapel Hill for her work co-founding the Better Market. The goal of Better Market is to develop accessible plastic-free products that will provide consumers with an opportunity to reduce their plastic usage and waste. “I came to the conclusion that new parents may be a challenging group to begin forming that community, since they are already so overwhelmed and busy. I decided instead to start with a single-use-plastic-free store that was accessible and desirable to the communities who are most affected by the environmental effects of plastic and other waste: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and low-wealth communities,” states Mallory. Read more about the Better Market.

Doctoral student published in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health

Alison Swiatlo

Doctoral candidate, Alison Swiatlo, MPH, in collaboration alumna and adjunct faculty member, Nicole Khan, PhD, and MCH Department Chair, Carolyn Halpern, PhD, published a new article in the Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health Journal, titled “Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Victimization Among Young Adult Sexual Minorities.” In the article, the authors discuss how some sexual minority groups are disproportionately affected by IPV, indicating a need for increased prevention efforts and for studies exploring the mechanisms underlying these differences. Read the full article.

Lesak, Simmons receive training grants

Alex Lesak

Lizzy Simmons

Congratulations to doctoral students Alex Lesak and Lizzy Simmons for receiving the MCH Center of Excellence (CoE) Epidemiology Doctoral Training Grants! The MCH CoE provides educational, practice, research and leadership programs that prepare students to become leaders in the MCH field, with an emphasis on advancing and promoting health equity as well as racial, social, and economic justice for women, children, and families. The Epidemiology Doctoral Training Grants will help support Alex and Lizzy’s dissertation work to help promote advancements in applied maternal and child health research.

Doctoral student publishes review on Housing Stress with Child Maltreatment

Caroline Chandler

Congratulations to doctoral student, Caroline Chandler, for her recent publication in the Trauma, Violence, and Abuse Journal, in collaboration with faculty members Anna Austin, PhD, and Meghan Shanahan, PhD. This paper critically evaluated the association of various types of housing stress, such as homelessness and overcrowding, with child maltreatment by conducting a systematic database search for relevant peer-reviewed studies. Results from this body of literature indicate that housing stress is associated with an increased likelihood of caregiver or child self-reported maltreatment, child protective services (CPS) reports, investigated and substantiated CPS reports, out-of-home placements and maltreatment death. Read more about their findings in the online journal.

MCH Students help community

Caroline, Emily, Lian and Alex brave the heat.

Our students Caroline Chandler, Emily Howe, Lian Folger and Alex Lesak have continued to demonstrate their commitment to serve their community during a time of need by helping to package 11,000 tampons for The Diaper Bank of North Carolina. The tampons will be distributed as part of their On the Spot Program in which they partner with local organizations (schools, doctors offices, social service agencies, etc.) and provide them with period products to those in need. This program has also been supplying period products to the COVID hospital in Halifax and the service members in the North Carolina National Guard.

Doctoral Student Published in Trauma, Violence, and Abuse Journal

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen

Congratulations to doctoral student, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, for her recent publication in the Trauma, Violence, and Abuse Journal, in collaboration with alumni Colleen Boyle ’19 and Lily Stevens ’20, and faculty member Sandy Martin, PhD. This paper investigated research regarding the magnitude of minor sex trafficking (domestic minor sex trafficking and/or commercial sexual exploitation of children) in the United States, summarizing estimates, methodologies, and strengths and weaknesses of the studies, estimates, methodologies, and strengths and weaknesses of the studies. Read more about their findings on SAGE Journals.

Doctoral Student Advances Maternal and Child Health in Peru

Christopher Westgard

While completing his doctoral studies, Christopher Westgard, has continued to work to advance maternal and child health in Peru. Westgard currently serves as the co-founder and director for Elementos, overseeing a grant project and traveling back to the region every three to four months to assess progress and implement adjustments of the mHealth tool. “The mHealth tool gives us the ability to collect data and share it with the community health posts, identify where illnesses are taking place, track epidemics before they get too widespread,” Westgard says. It is providing the local health system important information that was previously unavailable. Read more about Christopher’s work and future goals with Elementos.

Doctoral Student Published in Social Work in Public Health Journal

Mallory Turner

Doctoral student, Mallory Turner, in collaboration with MCH alum Ana Cabello-De La Garza and Paul Lanier, PhD of the UNC School of Social Work has recently published an article in the Social Work in Public Health Journal. Their article discusses several hypotheses about the factors that influence maternal intentions during in-home visitation services and the link between these intentions and the receipt of a home visit. The findings suggest that mothers who intend to use services look substantially different from those who do not state an intention to participate in home visitation. The results indicate that lower infant birth weight and greater comfort with a provider in one’s home are significant predictors of maternal intentions to utilize home visiting services. Read the full article.

Doctoral Students Published in Implementation Science Journal

Caitlin Williams

Stephanie Bogdewic

Doctoral students, Stephanie Bogdewic and Caitlin Williams, in collaboration with faculty Rohit Ramaswamy, PhD has recently published an article in the Implementation Science Journal. Their article discusses the rapid growth in the development of frameworks, models, and theories of implementation to help midwives assess, diagnose, and determine appropriate care plans more quickly and accurately but the little guidance on how to use these to operationalize implementation practice. Their study proposes one method for using implementation theory, paired with other kinds of mid-level and program theory, to guide the replication and evaluation of clinical intervention in a complex, real-world setting. Read more about the results of their study.

Doctoral Students Published in International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen

Hannah Silverstein

Congratulations to doctoral students, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen and Hannah Silverstein for their recent publication in the International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare with MCH alum Nicole Khan, PhD, MEd, and faculty member Sandy Martin, PhD. Their paper investigates the associations between minor women’s disability status and victimization via minor sex trafficking. They found that girls with any disability had a higher prevalence of minor sex trafficking than their peers without disabilities. Results for girls with mild or moderate physical disabilities were not statistically significant compared to peers without disabilities. Read more about their findings.

Doctoral Students Develop Bilingual Video Series about COVID-19

Caitlin Williams

Shara Evans

Doctoral students, Caitlin Williams and Shara Evans, are the voice of CoronaChat, an online bilingual video series to address misconceptions of COVID-19. Available on multiple social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, Williams posts a short video every day addressing relevant COVID-19 topics after researching and strategizing with Evans. “We do all of this from scratch every day, Monday through Friday,” Williams explained. “I have the utmost respect for anyone working in news. It is really hard to work on this kind of timeline, and the pressure to get things right is tremendous.” Read more about their plans for their video series.

MCH Recognizes Delta Omega Recipients

Congratulations to Edam Aidam, Allie Atkeson, Laura Powis, and Lily Stevens for being inducted into the Theta Chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health. Membership in Delta Omega reflects the individual dedication to quality in the field of public health as well as to the protection and advancement of the health of all people. Also, congratulations to Lia Garman, recipient of the Delta Omega Service Award, and Michelle Matusinski, recipient of the Delta Omega Academic Excellence Award.

Doctoral Student Writes Pots for MCH Center of Excellence Blog

Alex Lesak

First-year doctoral student, Alexandria Lesak, recently wrote a blog post for the MCH Center of Excellence blog. In her blog post, she discusses her experience working in the Akron Children’s Hospital prior to beginning her doctoral studies, as well as her current involvement with Teach2Reach, to emphasize the importance of collaboration for experiential learning. Read more about Alex’s experience here.

Doctoral Student Selected to Take American Higher Education Class

Nkechi Charles

Congratulations to third-year Doctoral student, Nkechi Charles, MA, for being selected to take The American Professoriate class that is being co-taught by Chancellor Guskiewicz, Buck Goldstein and Matt Springer in the Fall! The focus of the class is to help doctoral students understand the history and challenges related to American higher education, and then provide them with practical skills they will need to be successful in academia.

MCH Students Volunteer with PORCH during time of need

Second-year MPH students Allie Atkeson and Laura Powis, first-year MCFH student Emily Howe, and recent MCH graduate Kathleen Shumaker volunteered with PORCH to assist with food distribution. Most of their regular volunteers are 65+ and don’t need to be putting themselves at risk for COVID-19, so these students helped fill the need for extra hands!

Second-year MPH students Allie Atkeson and Laura Powis, first-year MCFH student Emily Howe, and recent MCH graduate Kathleen Shumaker volunteered with PORCH to assist with food distribution.

Literature regarding access to reproductive health services highlighted in doctoral student’s published research

Tara Casebolt

Congratulations to doctoral student, Tara Casebolt, for her publication in the Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare Journal. The publication was focused on determining the existing literature regarding access to reproductive health services for women with disabilities in low- and middle- income countries. View the publication here.

Doctoral student’s research published in Reproductive Health Journal

Caitlin Williams

Congratulations to doctoral student, Caitlin Williams, for her publication in the Reproductive Health Journal. The publication was focused on discussing the importance of providing “the most respectful, humane, careful, friendly, effective, evidence-based childbirth care in our health facilities.” View the publication here.

Doctoral student’s manuscript accepted for publication

Christopher Westgard

Christopher Westgard, current doctoral student had a new manuscript accepted for publication! The manuscript is focused on discussing the impact of an mHealth tool used for health promotion and surveillance by CHAs to improve child development in the Peruvian Amazon. Read more here.

Research by Master’s Student published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth Journal

Lian Folger

Congratulations to first year Master’s student, Lian Folger, for her publication in the BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth Journal. The publication was focused on describing the population-based prevalence, risk factors, etiology and antimicrobial resistance patterns of UTIs in pregnancy in Bangladesh. The publication can be found here.

Academic-practice partnerships highlighted in doctoral student’s published research

Isabel Morgan

Congratulations to doctoral student, Isabel Morgan, for her publication in the North Carolina Medical Journal with research staff, Diana Urlaub, and faculty members Christine Tucker, PhD, MPH, and Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, MPH, MSW. The publication was focused on how an academic-practice partnership was integral to successful implementation of a community maternal and child health program, and how it may serve as a model for such moving evidence-based programs to practice in local health departments.

Doctoral student publishes commentary with faculty member

Caitlin Williams

Congratulations to doctoral student, Caitlin Williams, for her publication with faculty member, Benjamin Mason Meier. Inspired by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women’s September report on mistreatment and violence against women in sexual and reproductive health services, they developed a commentary, ‘Ending the abuse: the human rights implications of obstetric violence and the promise of rights-based policy to realise respectful maternity care’. The commentary, which was recently published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, builds on the report and outlines potential avenues for operationalizing the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations via rights-based health policy. The publication can be found here.

Doctoral student reveals high health service utilization by prospective mothers in Amazonian communities

Christopher Westgard

Doctoral student, Christopher Westgard, reveals how health service utilization for prospective mothers in Amazonian communities is relativity high in an article published in the International Journal for Equity in Health. However, there are individual- and contextual- level factors that may affect their experiences: (i) embarrassment, fear, and trust, (ii) insufficient number and poor attitudes of health personnel, (iii) limited supply of basic medicines and materials in the health facility, and (iv) low demand for family planning services and limited awareness of adolescent-specific services. Read the article.

Students volunteer at Diaper Bank

Special shout out to Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Allie Atkeson, Chelsea Ducille, Alex Lesak, Hannah Winslow, Elizabeth Reddington, Marjorie McVay, Caitlin Gest and Lian Folger for joining Dr. Meghan Shanahan and Dr. Anna Austin and volunteering at the Diaper Bank of North Carolina on September 28, 2019!

Students volunteer at the Diaper Bank.

MCH students visit Zambia

Two Maternal and Child Health students, Enam and Munguu, visited Zambia this past summer, to support the Fetal Age and Machine Learning Initiative. The Initiative aims to develop a robust, affordable ultrasound device that can be deployed in limited-resource settings.

Two Maternal and Child Health students, Enam and Munguu, visited Zambia this past summer, to support the Fetal Age and Machine Learning Initiative.

Three Gillings School graduate students selected as 2019 Winston Policy Scholars

Three students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health were named recently as 2019 Winston Policy Scholars.

Allie Atkeson, Adrienne Lloyd and Laura Ellen Powis were among the 19 recipients of the David A. Winston Health Policy Scholarship. Atkeson and Powis are both master’s students in the maternal and child health department, and Lloyd is a master’s student in the health behavior department. As Winston Policy Scholars, they all have been recognized for their excellence and achievement as students of health administration, health policy and public health.

The scholarship commemorates the qualities and contributions of David A. Winston, who played a significant role for 20 years in shaping health policy in the United States. The award includes $10,000 and the opportunity to attend a two-day paid health policy symposium in Washington, D.C. Read more.

Doctoral candidate, Mallory Turner, Poster Winner at 2019 Population Association of America Annual Meeting

Mallory Turner

Intergenerational Effects of Mass Incarceration: Parental Incarceration and Children’s Earnings in Young Adulthood

Mallory Turner , University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Carolyn Tucker Halpern, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Objective: To analyze the association between maternal/paternal incarceration and children’s earnings during young adulthood. Methods: Data were from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Using propensity score weighting, a two-part model calculated the association between maternal/paternal incarceration and children’s earnings between ages 32–42. Results: Maternal incarceration was associated with average earnings significantly lower for respondents who were not yet born ($19,063.25), or ages 0–4 ($14,754.60), 5–10 ($10,544.68), and 15–17 ($8,453.85) at first maternal incarceration, compared to those whose mothers were never incarcerated. Paternal incarceration was associated with significantly lower average earnings for respondents ages 5–10 ($7,929.68), 11–14 ($10,264.91), and 15–17 ($10,670.16) at first paternal incarceration. Conclusions: On average, children experiencing maternal/paternal incarceration earn less during young adulthood than children who do not. The association is stronger when children were younger when their mothers were incarcerated, or older when their fathers were incarcerated. [April 2019]

Doctoral candidate, Kurar Ahsan heads to Malawi as Policy Communication Fellow

This June, Karar Zunaid Ahsan, MIPH, MSc, will visit Lilongwe, Malawi, to kick off a year of service as a Policy Communication Fellow. Implemented by the Population Reference Bureau and the African Institute for Development Policy, the fellowship focuses on effectively communicating research findings to influence policy development on a global scale.

Karar Zunaid Ahsan

Ahsan, who is a doctoral student of maternal and child health in the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, will build on a wealth of previous international experience. Originally from Bangladesh, he has conducted monitoring, evaluation and research in the health sector for more than 12 years. Most recently, he worked at UNC’s MEASURE Evaluation, where he was a senior research associate and served as the monitoring and evaluation adviser to the Program Management and Monitoring Unit of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in Bangladesh. [read more]

Katie Wouk, PhD, one of three selected for NC TraCS funding

Three researchers from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health are among those selected for funding by the N.C. Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS).

Dr. Katie Wouk

Dr. Carol Golin

Dr. Alexandra Lightfoot

Kathryn Wouk, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow with the Gillings School’s Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute, was funded with a pilot grant for her project, “Predictors of Postpartum Health Care Utilization and Receipt of Recommended Health Services Among Underserved Mothers in North Carolina.”

Carol Golin, MD, professor of health behavior at the Gillings School and of medicine in the UNC School of Medicine, will work with Alexandra Lightfoot, EdD, assistant professor of health behavior, on a project funded by NC TraCS’ Stakeholder Engagement Voucher Program.

Their project is “Engaging Stakeholders in a Community-Academic Partnership to Address Mental Health and Access to Care among Durham Housing Authority Residents.”  [March 2019]

Stacey Klaman, MPH, successfully defended her research on opioid treatment programs and sexual and reproductive health

Stacey Klaman

Stacey received a Bachelor of Art degree in English from CUNY, Brooklyn college and later earned her Master of Public Health degree from the Gillings School of Global Public Health in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at UNC-CH before moving into the PhD program. Stacey has had an interesting variety of volunteer and professional experiences outside of her academic work. Not surprisingly, given her MCH interests, Stacey has been a volunteer birth doula since 2012.

She also has extensive professional experience developing K-8 science and social studies curricula and has worked for many years as an editor and director for different publishing firms.  Stacey’s dissertation work focuses on the possibility of integrating reproductive and sexual health education and services into opioid treatment programs.  Congratulations Stacey!

Doctoral candidate, Anna Austin, MPH successfully defends her dissertation

Anna Austin

Anna earned a BA in Psychology and BS in Statistics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2011.  In 2013, Anna received her MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University. Prior to entering the MCH doctoral program, she completed a CDC/CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship in the North Carolina Division of Public Health Injury and Violence Prevention Branch. Anna was the recipient of numerous honors during her doctoral training, including the APHA Maternal and Child Health Section Outstanding Student Author award, a UNC Injury and Violence Prevention Fellowship, and a UNC Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

Anna has authored an impressive 25 publications, 14 of which are first authored, and has presented her work at numerous local and national meetings. Anna produced a well-designed dissertation project that will make a significant contribution to applied child health research as it involves using methods to simultaneously model risk and protective factors for child well-being, as well as model trajectories of child maltreatment exposure. Congratulations, Anna!

Doctoral candidate Franchino-Olsen authors publication on sexual exploitation

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, MPH authored a new publication, “Vulnerabilities Relevant for Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children/Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: A Systematic Review of Risk Factors.”

Franchino-Olsen holds a BS in biology, an MS in physiology and developmental biology, and recently completed her MPH in maternal and child health at UNC. She is currently a trainee with the Carolina Population Center Predoctoral Traineeship and a previous winner of the Doctoral Merit Assistantship, the FLAS, and the Master’s Merit Assistantship.[see published article]

Three MCH students chosen among eight as injury and violence prevention fellows.

Anna Austin

Eight students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health have been named inaugural Injury and Violence Prevention (IVP) fellows at the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC).

They are Anna Austin, Natalie Blackburn, Jess Bousquette, Venita Embry, Alex Gertner, Sarah Treves-Kagan, Kathleen Shumaker and Venera Urbaeva.

Venera Urbaeva

Austin, a fourth-year doctoral student in maternal and child health, earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) in chronic disease epidemiology from the Yale University School of Public Health and worked as a fellow for the New Haven Mental Health Outreach for Mothers Partnership. Her research interests include the prevention of child maltreatment and other adverse childhood experiences and parenting in the context of substance use.

Blackburn is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in health behavior. She holds an MPH in behavioral sciences and health education from Emory University. Prior to starting the UNC doctoral program, she was an ORISE fellow in the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where she focused on strengthening the evidence for screening of hepatitis C among persons who use drugs.

Kathleen Shumaker

Bousquette is a first-year MPH student in health behavior. She previously served as the child protection policy adviser at World Vision, where she focused on violence against children, child labor and children affected by armed conflict.

Embry, a third-year health behavior doctoral student, earned an MPH at Emory University. Her research interests include violence prevention interventions, court system responses to public health problems, and the effects of justice involvement on health. [read more]

Doctoral candidate, Bianka Reese, MSPH successfully defends her dissertation

Bianka Reese

Bianka earned a BSPH, summa cum laude, from the dept of HPM here at UNC in 2012 and her MSPH from the MCH department in 2013; her master’s thesis was titled Sequences of Sexual Initiation and Subsequent Depression Among Adolescents.  During that time Bianka was also a predoctoral trainee in the highly competitive population science training program at the Carolina Population Center. She has received numerous honors including a Career Development Award from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and the Cynthia H. Cassell Doctoral Dissertation Award in MCH.

Bianka has an impressive 7 peer reviewed publications, the majority of those first authored, and numerous invited and peer reviewed presentations. Bianka is a gifted teacher, and has generously shared her expertise with undergraduate and graduate students within and beyond the MCH department. She has been working full time as a program evaluation specialist at SHIFT NC since 2017, yet her discipline, intellect, and hard work have brought her to this place and time to defend her innovative and important dissertation work. Congratulations Bianka!

Doctoral student publishes three studies about women’s reproductive health

Isabel Morgan

Prior to her August 2018 enrollment in the doctoral program in maternal and child health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Isabel Morgan, MSPH, led a range of research projects during her tenure at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The results of three of those projects recently were published in noted journals.

Morgan’s research team — comprised of CDC colleagues Yokabed Ermias, MPH, Lauren B. Zapata, PhD, Kathryn M. Curtis, PhD, and Maura K. Whiteman, PhD – analyzed health care providers’ attitudes and practices related to providing adolescents contraception on the day of the initial health care visit. The findings, “Health Care Provider Attitudes and Practices Related to ‘Quick Start’ Provision of Combined Hormonal Contraception and Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate to Adolescents,” were published online Nov. 1, 2018, in the Journal of Adolescent Health.  [Read more]

Chauvenet lead author for WIC program shopping experience study

Christina Chauvenet

Researchers from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health examined how participants in the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program viewed their retail environment.

The findings, “WIC Recipients in the Retail Environment: A Qualitative Study Assessing Customer Experience and Satisfaction,” were published online Nov. 27 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The study identified problem areas that could direct future interventions to improve the shopping experience for WIC recipients. Maximizing the program benefits should encourage healthier food choices leading to prevention and treatment of obesity and food insecurity.

Christina Chauvenet, MSc, MSPH, is a doctoral candidate in maternal and child health, with a minor in health behavior, at the Gillings School. [Read more] [December 2018]