Paul Markgraf joined BCHS in 2016 as academic administrator. He was motivated to choose BCHS because he believes in what our school is doing and wanted to be a part of it. He previously worked at a “for-profit” university and couldn’t morally justify what they were doing there. Markgraf is proud of the work our students and faculty members do here at Pitt.
Amanda Cruce is a BCHS MPH student in a joint Social Work PhD program whose role models in community and public health are the individuals and families that are impacted by the work. She believes that both community and public health are best implemented when impacted groups are involved in the whole process. Their voice, lives, and health depend on an imperfect system and are the real heroes!
Lyn Barry Robertson (BCHS '05) awarded Margaret F. Gloninger Service Award in recognition of significant contribution to the school or greater community through volunteer service.
BCHS’ Jessica Burke has been selected to participate in the 2021-2022 ACC Academic Leaders Network (ALN) program. This exciting collaborative leadership program is for faculty at ACC institutions who aspire to leadership roles in higher education.
“At my core, I am a health educator. However, I know that we can’t address health inequities by simply looking at the individual. We must interrogate the structural and historical causes that disproportionately impact the health of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ folks,” said Kayla Ortiz (BCHS ’23).
MPH student Samantha Rosenberg is currently working for the Department of Psychology's Brain Aging and Cognitive Health Lab at Pitt. The lab is focused on healthy aging and specifically on how regular physical activity relates to changes in cognitive health and overall well-being among older adults. Rosenberg is the lead recruiter for three of the research studies and heavily involved with community-outreach efforts. Recently, the lab’s focus ha...
Elizabeth Felter joined BCHS as a faculty member in 2010. Her research and practice-based work is focused mainly in the area of health education/communications and evaluation, including supporting health departments, health clinics, and non-profits with their COVID-19 response. She was motivated to join the faculty as a doctoral student. "I remember falling in love with the faculty at Accepted Applicant's Day!"
MNT - BCHS’s Steven Albert who said, “If social isolation truly increases [the] risk of poor health by elevating immune markers, we need to redouble our efforts to reduce social isolation. The strength of the association between [the] level of isolation and IL-6 and CRP differed and only showed a dose response for CRP. This suggests a complex association. The clinical significance of the size of the association also needs further study.”
MPH student Michaela Avino was motivated to choose BCHS because of Pitt’s reputation in the field of public health. She got a good feeling from the BCHS faculty and the broader school faculty, as well as the students who made her feel like everyone really cared about and respected each other as whole people – not just as researchers, academics, and educators. All of the students who she had the opportunity to speak with sounded genuinely very ha...
“My focus on public health and equity is rooted in my lived experiences as a Black woman but more importantly, the centering of others’ experiences with oppression to let their narratives drive equity work,” explains Monica Henderson (BCHS ’22). Her interests include child health and racial equity and for her thesis she plans to explore Black hair politics and the impact on the health of Black youth.
Sarah Scott (BCHS ’23) is a first year MPH student and Pittsburgh native who returned home after completing her undergraduate degree in psychology at Pepperdine University. “I am most looking forward to learning more about health equity theories and frameworks to better develop my research projects,” said Scott of joining the Health Justice Scholars program.
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE - During his campaign, Gainey often focused on task force reports, one of which says that their needs to be a shift in the police bureau. BCHS’s Richard Garland, a member of the task force, said the report showed officers needed more training – particularly in de-escalation techniques – and a better understanding of their communities. He said officers do need to walk the beats and their neighborhoods.
PITT WIRE - The Hillman Foundation awarded Reimagine Reentry, a program run by BCHS’ Richard Garland, a $1.5 million grant. The program is committed to reducing recidivism in a state where 63 percent of parolees return to corrections within three years. They provide services including case mentoring and management, workforce training, family reunification education and housing assistance planning.
PITTWIRE - Johannes John-Langba (BCHS '04) will serve as regional vice president for Africa of the World Federation for Mental Health organization. Administrative positions in the University of KwaZulu-Natal and his research area is on the psychosocial dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic among university students in five African countries and its impact on careers of persons with mental and neurological disorders.
NEW YORK TIMES - In a study published on a preprint server in August that has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh used mathematical modeling to predict how severe the upcoming flu season might be based on this increased susceptibility. They reported that if flu and flu vaccination levels are typical of prior years, 102,000 more Americans than average could be hospitalized with influenza — a 20 percent incr...