October, 2023

News and Updates

School of Population Health Appointments:

Dr. Marcie Wright has been appointed Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Dr. Kellie Carlyle has been appointed Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Megan C. Edmonds, who earned her Ph.D. in Social and Behavioral Sciences in 2021, has re-joined the department as an Assistant Professor.

Awards and Honors

Dr. Andrew Barnes received an NIDA grant as Co-PI for "Improving quality and equity of opioid use disorder treatment using a multi-state Medicaid research network."

Dr. Dina Garcia received an Outstanding Departmental Teacher Award at the annual School of Medicine Faculty Excellence Awards on September 20th.

Shillpa Naavaal received a K08 award for "The role of comprehensive adult Medicaid dental benefit in improving oral health and reducing disparities among adults and children." Read more.

Presentations

Shillpa Naavaal was a panel presenter at the Meharry Oral Systemic Integration Summit in Nashville, TN (pictured right), and her team won first place in the event's "Health Hackathon."

Dr. Autumn Lanoye: "Motivational Interviewing in Palliative Care" at VCUHealth Palliative Care Symposium, Richmond, VA

Dr. Sonya Hung: "Scaling Considerations in planning a Needs Assessment Survey" and "Applying Digital Photovoice with Social Media Techniques in Need-based Evaluators Professional Training Program" at the American Evaluation Association, Indianapolis, IN

Student Spotlight

Savannah Reitzel (pictured left) received a National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship. Read more about her project here.

Mahmoud Amoli (pictured left) successfully defended his dissertation proposal and is now a doctoral candidate.

Jackie Knight-Wilt had a first author publication accepted to the Journal of Cancer Education: Pre-diagnosis Symptoms, Attributed Causes, and Healthcare Seeiking Assests of Younger Colorectal Cancer Survivors.

Vimbai Dihwa and Guleer Shahab taught a summer course at VSU

Vimbai and Guleer co-taught a 10-week summer course for Virginia State University's Data Science for the Public Good Program. This program provides training for graduate and undergraduate students in the use of data science to address real world issues. Vimbai and Guleer co-created a curriculum based on their individual research strengths and the course focused on the fundamentals of health services research and health data analysis.