Congratulations to HELI 2018 Alumna Dr. Maichou Lor!

Maichou Lor, PhD, RN, has received a K23 award from the National Institute for Nursing Research for her project, “Information Visualization to Improve Pain Communication Between Providers, Interpreters, and Patients with Limited English Proficiency.”

Dr. Lor’s project addresses communication challenges between patients, interpreters, and providers that contribute to health disparities, especially for U.S. populations with limited English proficiency (LEP; defined as being unable to read, write, or speak English), in the context of pain. Currently, no patient-interpreter-provider pain communication interventions exist to address LEP patient culture and language barriers in pain reporting. Therefore, the purpose of Dr. Lor’s K23 project is to modify and conduct a pilot test of a tailored pain assessment information visualization (InfoViz) tool to facilitate patient-interpreter-provider triad communication of pain severity, location, and quality to increase mutual understanding (MU) during pain assessment. LEP Hmong will be the focus of this study because pain is particularly problematic for this group; they describe pain using visual metaphors that are inconsistent with providers’ knowledge and interpreters struggle to translate metaphors accurately between patients and providers.

Dr. Lor’s career goal is to establish an independent patient-oriented research program that focuses on designing, implementing, and testing InfoViz tools to improve symptom communication among LEP patients, interpreters, and providers, with the goal of ultimately improving quality of life and reducing health disparities.

Dr. Lor participated in a Mock Grant review during her time at HELI 2018 and while that project was not related to this K23, she says the experience and feedback she gained at HELI helped to guide her writing for this award.

Dr. Lor is an Assistant Professor in the UW-Madison School of Nursing.

Congrats again!

Congratulations to HELI 2019 Alumna Aishia A. Brown, PhD, on her joint appointment to be the new Director for the city of Louisville, Kentucky’s Office of Youth Development (OYD)!

Dr. Brown joins the OYD team through a joint position with University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, where she will continue her work as an assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences. She holds affiliations with the University of Louisville’s Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, Youth Violence Prevention Research Center, and the Cooperative Consortium for Social Justice Transdisciplinary Research.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer shared, “Aishia brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership skills that will help to advance our office and its programs. The Office of Youth Development will benefit greatly from her innovative policies and creative direction that will ultimately improve youth outcomes.”

Dr. Brown said she is thrilled about the opportunity to serve as the director.

“I’m excited to engage in what will be a shift from viewing youth as problems that need to be fixed to agents of change in our community,” Dr. Brown said. “I look forward to working closely with youth, youth workers, and their communities to develop transformative approaches to youth development here in Louisville.” 

Dr. Brown’s research interests focus on social justice and community youth development. Some of her most recent work examines the connections between community youth engagement, youth-adult partnerships, and recreational healing spaces. Dr. Brown is particularly interested in integrating these youth development frameworks and concepts into public health community engagement approaches.

Read the full announcement here.

The UW-Madison Population Health Institute is accepting applications for an Assistant Director.

The Assistant Director position advances applied research and uptake aligned with UWPHI mission to translate research for policy and practice; identifies research problems, designs research methodologies, secures funding, performs research, and supports dissemination to broad audiences, including scholarly publications and reports; and assists with the Institute’s strategic initiatives and provides management for a variety of research activities.

A PhD is required, preferred area of study in Population Health, Epidemiology, Demography, Anthropology, Sociology, or health sciences field and at least two years of successful and relevant experience in applied research and evaluation with population health and equity focus.

Full position description and application instructions are available here: https://jobs.hr.wisc.edu/cw/en-us/job/506893/assistant-director-population-health-institute

The deadline to apply is December 11, 2020 at 11:55pm CST.

Questions about this position may be directed to Nick Harding at neharding@wisc.edu or (608) 265-3735.

Thank you to HELI 2019 alumna Dr. Sara Lindberg for sharing!

HELI 2012 Alumna Dr. Olayinka Shiyanbola is a guest editor on the forthcoming special issue on health literacy and health equity in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

The deadline for submissions is August 1, 2021 and all details can be found here.

Health literacy is commonly defined as the ability to access, understand, and use information to make health-related decisions. Health literacy research has also emphasized the interaction between individual skill levels and the attributes of available health information and services. Studies show that on average, adults have inadequate health-related literacy skills which do not match the complexity of existing health-related tools, materials, and services. This discrepancy, often more pronounced among underserved and vulnerable populations, is a source of escalating health disparities.

This issue is interested in how health disparities can be mitigated, and health equity for underserved populations improved through the lens of health literacy. There is interest in research contributions that examine the relationship between health literacy and health equity, interventions implemented to reduce health disparities with a core focus on addressing health literacy, public health efforts to address health literacy as a social determinant of health, and papers that feature innovative strategies towards enhancing health literacy among vulnerable and underserved populations.

Dr. Shiyanbola is Associate Professor in the Social and Administrative Sciences Division in the UW=Madison School of Pharmacy. Thank you for sharing!

The American Public Health Association’s 2020 Annual Meeting & Expo took place October 24-28^th. We know many HELI alumni & faculty always attend, present, share posters, and network with colleagues at APHA.

CCHE compiled a list of HELI folks who let us know they participated to provide some initial orientation and encourage you to support and seek each other out amongst the virtual crowds. A benefit of the virtual nature of the 2020 event is that attendees have live and on-demand access to more than 750 sessions, 250 posters, and 60 roundtable presentations through August 2021. You don’t have to choose between concurrent sessions AND can tune in after the fact!

Check out the list here: https://heliuw.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/heli-folks-at-apha-2020.docx (Word)

HELI 2010 Alumna Tiffany Green, PhD, will present the annual Labelle lecture this Wednesday, November 11!

The Annual Labelle Lectureship Series was established by the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA) and the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impacts at McMaster University in memory of CHEPA founding member Roberta Labelle.

In the autumn of each year, a health services researcher with emerging recognition and an inter-disciplinary approach to research gives a general interest lecture on a topic in the broadly defined areas of health economics and/or health policy. The 2020 Labelle Lecture will be presented virtually by Dr. Tiffany Green, an economist and population health scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert in racial/ethnic and nativity disparities in reproductive health. 

The lecture will take place from 3 to 5 pm. Registration is required. To register, follow this link:  https://mcmaster.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYlcOitqj0oEtPeSICxxpwswQOjue3Zc-Gd

In her presentation, entitled “Saving Black Women and Babies: Leveraging Data and Community Engagement to Achieve Health Equity,” Dr. Green will draw from her research which focuses primarily on understanding the individual-, family-, and structural-level determinants of disparities in women’s health and birth outcomes. Her mission is to shed light on how and why Black women, regardless of socio-economic status, experience the worst maternal and child birth outcomes of any racial/ethnic group – and what evidence-based solutions might ameliorate these persistent inequalities in health and wellbeing.

Read more about the Labelle Lectureship & Dr. Green!

Congratulations to HELI 2016 alumna Ashley Munger, PhD!

Dr. Munger received early tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies in the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Los Angeles!

For the past 3.5 years, Dr. Munger has been serving as the Associate Director for the Educational Community Health Outreach – Local Dental Pilot Project (ECHO-LDPP), which promotes dental health among underserved populations in LA. She spends much of her time on service related to community outreach and engagement with ECHO.

Dr. Munger’s research occurs in the nexus of family relationships, economic hardship, health, and education and her specific research areas include food insecurity, family-centered health interventions, and programming to promote success in higher education. Her most recent research has involved college students’ basic needs, wellbeing, and retention.

Regarding the impact of HELI, Dr. Munger shared that she loved the whole experience. “The thing that has stuck with me most is the relationships and networking. Even if I don’t have the opportunity to regularly chat with members of my cohort or the other faculty that I met there, it’s great to run into people at conferences and have a network that you can connect with.” To that end, it was Dr. Munger’s HELI 2016 colleague Dr. Charles Rogers who shared the news of her tenure with us!

Well done, Ashley!

The Department of Health Policy and Community Health in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University invites applications and nominations for the position of Assistant Professor. The home campus for this position will be the Armstrong campus in Savannah, Georgia.

The mission of the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH) is to improve health, eliminate health disparities and health inequities of rural communities and underserved populations globally through excellence in teaching, public health workforce development, research, scholarship, professional service and community engagement.

The Assistant Professor will contribute to departmental and college teaching, professional service, and develop an extramurally funded research program. To complement current teaching, research, and professional services activities in the college, professional characteristics ideal for this position include the ability to articulate a clear approach to using her/his knowledge and skills to integrate principles and practices of public health into the traditional healthcare market.

The position is a 9-month, tenure-track appointment, and the salary is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience.

See position description for full details and application instructions.

Screening of applications begins December 1, 2020 and continues until the position is filled. The preferred position starting date is August 1, 2021.

Applications and nominations should be sent to:

Bettye Apenteng, PhD, Search Chair, Search #67768  
Department of Health Policy and Community Health
Georgia Southern University
P.O. Box 8015
Statesboro, GA 30460-8015
Email: jphcophsearches@georgiasouthern.edu Phone: (912) 478-2674

Thank you to HELI 2013 alumna Dr. Nandi Marshall for sharing!

Congratulations to HELI 2015 Alumna Dr. Anuli Njoku!

Anuli Njoku, DrPH, recently joined the faculty in the Department of Public Health at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) as an Associate Professor.  She is a part of a new faculty cluster hire in Equity, Social Mobility, and Access across the Public Health, Sociology, and Social Work departments at SCSU.  Dr. Njoku’s position will focus on Health Equity and Health Promotion.

The vision of the Department of Public Health at SCSU is to be a leader in academic public health, community service, and the conduit of research relevant to advancing the ideal of healthy people in healthy communities. Both the undergraduate and graduate programs in Public Health are fully accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

Dr. Njoku’s research and teaching specialties include socioecological determinants of health disparities, cultural competence in higher education, health promotion and education, rural health, and environmental health equity. Her current research projects include exploring police brutality against Blacks in the USA, ensuing protests and implications for social distancing and Black health during COVID-19; examining racism in health pedagogy; and applying the Weathering Framework to investigate the Intersection of racism, stigma, and COVID-19 as a stressful life event among African Americans.

Very best wishes in your new position, Anuli!

Congratulations to HELI 2019 alumna Maranda Ward, EdD, MPH, on her selection as the 2020-2021 Emerging Scholars Fellow at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences!

This career development award provides some research funding, a mentor team, and support for an individualized career development plan. She also gets to lead a value-driven project aligned to an institutional need.

Dr. Ward plans to focus on assessing GW’s existing commitment to health equity with its newfound commitment to racial equity. She has been tasked with developing and evaluating a train-the-trainer curriculum to advance the new Antiracism Coalition efforts for faculty, staff, and students across the medical enterprise.

“I’m excited that my career development award is aligned with an institutional need,” Ward said. “In addition to helping us truly live our social mission of advancing both racial and health equity, I also get to interface with senior leaders, expand my network, and raise my visibility.”

Dr. Ward is assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS).

Sincere congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Maranda! Onward and upward she persists!

See the official announcement from GW.