OUR FINAL ISSUE!

As of January 1, 2024, Health Behavior and Policy will split into two separate departments

Dr. Peter Cunningham will serve as Interim Chair of the Department of Health Policy, and Dr. Jessica LaRose will continue as Interim Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

New websites for each department will be launching in the new year. Please give both new departments a follow on social media!

HBP Students, Staff, and Faculty attended this year's APHA conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Pictured above are Valentina Vega and Sherline Pierre-Louis.

Dr. Dina Garcia presented a talk entitled "Oral Health Related Quality of Life of People Living with HIV" at the World AIDS Day event hosted by the Student Research Group at the VCU School of Dentistry December 1, 2023.

Dr. Kathy Tossas developed and chaired the inaugural National Cancer Catchment Area Data Conference December 7-9, 2023, Richmond, VA. More info here.

Russo, J., Lefeavers, S. A., Conley, A., Wallace, M., Anderson, A., Perera, R., Oyefuga, E., Carlyle, K., & Shakeshaft, C. (2024, March). Praesidium's Safety Equation®: Immediate posttest results of an educator sexual misconduct training. 45th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Philadelphia, PA.

On November 30th the AcademyHealth VCU Student Chapter hosted a talk by Scott Castro, MPP, Director of Health Policy at the Medical Society of Virginia.

Danielle Montoya, Shillpa Naavaal, Guleer Shahab, and Fariha Tariq (pictured left) successfully proposed their dissertations and are now doctoral candidates.

Stacie Lefeavers was inducted into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi on November 16.

Sarah Marks had two first author publications accepted:

 Marks SJ,* Pham H,* McCray N, et al. Associations Between Patient-Reported Experiences with Opioid Use Disorder Treatment and Unmet Treatment Needs and Discontinuation Among Virginia Medicaid Members. Substance Abuse. 2023;44(3):196-208. doi:10.1177/08897077231186218 *Contributed equally 

and

Marks SJ, Saunders H, Shadowen H, McCray N, Bachireddy C, Guerra L, Cunningham PJ. Prevalence and Correlates of Unmet Medical and Social Needs in Virginia’s Medicaid Managed Long Term Services and Supports Program. Medical Care- Accepted. 

Paula Rivera successfully completed her training as a Clinton Global Initiative Scholar, where she worked on developing innovative solutions to identify and address psychological stress among women with abnormal cervical cancer screening findings.

Congratulations to Fariha Tariq, who won the department student award for the SBS program, and Gus White who won for the HCPR program!

Congratulations to our new Social and Behavioral Sciences Ph.D. holders!

HBP had its final gathering as a single department at the winter potluck on December 13th, complete with a white elephant gift exchange!

Dr. Alex Lucas ran the Richmond Marathon and Dr. Richard Brown ran the 8K on November 11th!

Drs. Tossas and Thomson completed a ropes course and zip line!

Wishing everyone a safe and healthy New Year!