AP — Wolf said he intends to nominate a deputy chief of staff, Alison Beam, to take over as secretary of the Department of Health. Wolf, meanwhile, elevated Dr. Wendy Braund to acting interim physician general. Braund is currently the DoH's COVID-19 response director. Before that, she held multiple leadership positions at Pitt Public Health, including director of the Center for Public Health Practice and associate dean for practice, and a prof...
TRI-COUNTY INDEPENDENT - “These communities have demonstrated their commitment to expanding opportunities for physical activity in the built environment,” said Carol Reichbaum, director of WalkWorks in Pitt Public Health’s Center for Public Health Practice. “Each will engage community members to assist with the identification of a 1- to 2-mile walking route, which will be used by residents of and visitors to the area.”
EPI's Catherine Haggerty and HPM's Wendy Braund lead a conversation about the health department response to COVID-19 at the local and state levels. Haggerty starts the conversation with a discussion of the approaches, impact, and challenges of containment and mitigation efforts at the county level. Braund continues the conversation by comparing and contrasting the response at the state level.
In a letter to the community, Chancellor Gallagher shares his outrage, grief, and anger. He challenges us all to demonstrate solidarity by standing with Pitt’s African American students, faculty, staff, and alumni in a shared commitment to realizing meaningful change. "How many times must we witness these blatant examples of injustice, hatred, brutality, and discrimination before we resolve to change things?" We must plot a path forward.
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With this advisory, the American Heart Association is calling for a sustained commitment of health care and other stakeholders at the local, state, and national levels to work together to improve rural health. HPM's Wendy Braund was among the authors stating, "understanding and addressing the unique health needs of people residing in rural America is critical to the American Heart Association's commitment to health equity and its focus on social...
MYCHESCO - “Having access to activity-friendly walking routes is essential in helping to keep Pennsylvanians healthy,” said Secretary of Health Rachel Levine. Director of WalkWorks, Carol Reichbaum, adds that the partner communities “have demonstrated their commitment to expanding opportunities for physical activity in the built environment. Each will engage community members to assist with the identification of a 1- to 2-mile walking route, whi...
MPH student Margaret Carr (EPI ‘20) has been awarded the 2019 Bernard D. Goldstein Student Award in Environmental Health Disparities and Public Health Practice in recognition of her project, "Hepatitis C Surveillance at Allegheny County Health Department". In the award citation, CPHP Director Wendy Braund cites, “Your work with ACHD is an outstanding example of the actively involved Pitt Public Health student-taking your learning from the classr...
ASTHOEXPERTS BLOG - HPM's Wendy Braund, director of the Center for Public Health Practice, wrote a blog for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials that says that both practice-based research and implementation science are vital but that neither receives adequate effort and gives us ideas to address this challenge.
Congratulations to HPM's Wendy Braund for receiving the inaugural award, selected by and presented by ACPM CEO Donna Grande at the Prevention 2019 Conference in Pittsburgh on May 20, 2019. Braund has a long history of service to ACPM. Currently, she is secretary of the ACPM Board of Regents and chair of the CME/MOC Committee. She is also a fellow of the college.
The Center for Public Health Practice's latest training center works to strengthen the public health workforce through collaboration with schools and agencies across a five-state region. The center meets workforce training needs on topics from project management and data analytics to the opioid epidemic. "Our ultimate goal is to improve the public's health by working even better together," says Center Director Elizabeth Van Nostrand.
In conjunction with Dean's Day, Margaret Carr (EPI '22) was awarded the Center for Public Health Practice Award for Translation and Application of Research to Public Health Policy and Practice. In addition, Emily Fitzpatrick (EPI '19) and Abisola Olaniyan (BCHS '21) were awarded with the Catherine Cartier Ulrich Memorial Award for Service to the Underserved.
Pitt Public Health was one of the host sites for the Pennsylvania Opioid Code-a-thon. MICHAEL MALLON (BCHS '13), project coordinator for opioid initiatives, said, "watching the teams in action over the first weekend was fun and encouraging! I have been impressed with their critical thinking, observations, and exploration into the data and systems at work in this crisis."
The Center for Healthy Aging’s (CHA) 10 Keys™ public health campaign has traveled across the seas. PPG and CHA have partnered to provide CHA’s 10 Keys to Healthy Aging Resource Guide to PPG employees working in Europe. The PPG European Wellness Newsletter, published in Geneva, Switzerland, announced the campaign. Healthy aging and prevention continues to be an important public health goal for populations around the world.
TRIB LIVE - Environmental planning and design officials plan to reveal a draft report of Oakmont's pedestrian transportation plan this month. The plan is being paid for partially through an $11,000 grant from Pitt Public Health's WalkWorks program. Project Manager CAROLYN YAGLE said they will highlight findings during a presentation and take questions from residents afterward. "This is a draft set of recommendations for both policy and project i...
PITTSBURGH JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY LAW & POLICY - HPM's Tina Batra Hershey and Dean Burke discuss the early pioneering work of researchers in the legal field who developed the "Pittsburgh System" a precursor to the computerized legal research tools ubiquitous today.
TRIB LIVE - Oakmont officials are taking advantage of a $11,000 Pitt Public Health WALKWORKS program grant to encourage and improve walking safety in the borough. A consulting firm will study pedestrian traffic and develop a specific plan for sidewalk and intersection modifications. Oakmont is one of four communities, and the only one in Allegheny County, to receive WalkWorks funding.
JD/MPH student ALIX WARE (HPM ’19) was awarded the 2017 Bernard D. Goldstein Award in Environmental Health Disparities and in Public Health Practice for her work on the development of the Emergency Law Inventory (ELI). Created to help individuals navigate through 1,500 law summaries impacting volunteer participation in disaster scenarios, ELI provides emergency volunteers with easy access to the laws most relevant to become better prepared for e...
Although studies show that using information technology to analyze big health datasets and guide public health decisions can improve health equity, most community health center staff report receiving little to no training in health informatics. At the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2017 annual meeting, HPM’s ELIZABETH (BJERKE) VAN NOSTRAND shared four free, open-access public health informatics tools to aid public health workers prepar...
WHAT IS ELI? Check out this introductory video about the Emergency Law Inventory (ELI) and how to use it. The tool, developed by the Pitt Public Health Center for Public Health Practice, is particularly appropriate now as aid organizations struggle to respond to the devastating Texas aftermath of hurricane Harvey.
In May 2017, ELIZABETH VAN NOSTRAND and her team from the Center for Public Health Practice were honored with the Medical Reserve Corps Program National Partner Recognition Award for the development of ELI, the Emergency Law Inventory tool — a repository of statutes and regulations that impact volunteers participating in emergency response activities on the topics of liability, license reciprocity, scope of practice, and workers’ benefits.