WQED - EPI’s Dara Mendez, BCHS’s Patricia Documet, and Diego Chaves-Gnecco (MMPH ’00) are featured in a 30-minute documentary showcasing widespread and troubling health disparities. Lack of access to affordable care, racism, marginalization and other factors have led to increased rates of cancer, diabetes, asthma, and fetal and maternal death in Pittsburgh’s African American, Latinx, LGBTQIA+ and disabilities communities.
CNN - Many doctors, including Diego Chaves-Gnecco (MMPH ‘00), are encouraging their patients' parents to vaccinate as soon as possible in hopes of protecting children and those around them. Chaves-Gnecco, who is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician, plans on bringing together his mother and his 7-year-old son this holiday season for the first time since the start of the pandemic -- after the latter gets vaccinated.
WESA-FM - Reaching 50 percent of Latinos was made possible by intentional directed community efforts, according to Diego Chaves-Gnecco (MMPH '00). "We take people on a walk-in basis. We're vaccinating adults without health insurance, without appointments, and in their same language, in Spanish," he said. "We are also not requiring any type of documentation."
"The application of the epidemiological method to everyday problems is something that pleases me and creates challenges for me. I enjoy my work because most of the time I have been involved in the analysis of morbidity and mortality data, in the research of health problems from the epidemiological perspective, and in teaching physicians who are in the training of a medical residency in epidemiology."
Program Director and Founder of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Salud Para Niños Diego Chaves-Gnecco (MMPH ’00) helped to host “COVID-19: What you need to know in Pittsburgh” where he addressed concerns about staying safe during the pandemic for Pittsburgh’s Latino community. “I have been particularly encouraged by the resilience of the Latino community…[and] I am humbled by the fact that I might be able to help others with my work.”
PITT NURSE MAGAZINE - Claudia Kregg-Byers RN, MPH (MMPH ’14), PhD teaches her senior students in Pitt Nursing’s Department of Health and Community Systems that health doesn’t begin and end at the bedside but encompasses where someone comes from—a whole confluence of communal and individual factors: environment, county, neighborhood, home, culture, standard of living, education, socioeconomic status, friendships, family, support systems.
THE PITT NEWS - The pad and tampon dispensers in women’s bathrooms across campus have sat empty for years. But check again. Pitt is stocking a number of bathrooms with menstrual products, and there’s no payment required. Kathleen Koesarie (MMPH '21), said “it’s important that students who need menstrual products have access to them without leaving school. It’s a period equity issue, it’s an equality issue, and it’s a public health issue.”
Lauren Risser (BCHS '20), Kathleen Koesarie (MMPH '18), and BCHS's Martha Ann Terry table at the Women's Health Activist Movement (WHAMglobal) Birthing a Movement art and activism event. The event addressed issues of maternal mortality and women's health. Risser co-founded the Pitt Public Health chapter of Period, a non-profit which aims to reduce the stigma of mensuration and provide hygiene products to those in need.
Pitt Medicine and Pitt Public Health graduate, Eva Chernoff (MMPH '19, MD '19) was honored with the 2019 U.S. Public Health Service Excellence in Public Health Award in recognition of her commitment to advocacy, education, and service for marginalized and underserved populations, and leadership in policy change in public health. The award recognizes visionary medical students who are public health champions advancing the service's mission to “pr...
PR NEWSWIRE - The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the leading authority on children's oral health, inducted a new president and other new board officers and trustees including Angela Stout (MMPH '98). Stout is a passionate child advocate in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. She is the former chair of the PA Dental Association's Prevent Abuse and Neglect through Dental Awareness Coalition.