News
Home 'sick' home? Here's how to keep your house healthy
Dean Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, shares her expertise in environmental health by explaining how common household conditions can negatively affect indoor air quality and respiratory health.
“Air pollution indoors is worse than outdoors. Often people don’t realize that,” Lichtveld said. “But the solutions are easier than we think.”
Researchers receive NIH grant to study how early-life environmental exposures affect kidney health
Alison Sanders, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and associate dean for research at Pitt Public Health, and Izzuddin M. Aris, associate professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School, have received a nearly $3.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how early-life environmental exposures may influence kidney health and blood pressure later in life.
‘You are prepared, you are ready’: Commencement celebrations across Pitt Health Sciences
The end of the academic year is just the beginning for the hundreds of graduates of the six University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences schools. With the schools’ graduation ceremonies stretching over more than two weeks in May, it has been a season of ritual, regalia, pride and joy. Among the many highlights this year, the School of Public Health celebrated 350 graduates—the largest class in the school’s 78-year history, reflecting the school’s growth.
Nationwide trial: Whole blood and components equally effective in prehospital trauma care
Giving whole blood or the component parts of blood are equally effective options for paramedics and emergency medical technicians to use in treating patients with severe, traumatic bleeding before arriving at the hospital, according to a large, nationwide trial directed by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC clinicians and scientists. “Our thoughtful approach to the study design allowed us to not only answer the important question of the efficacy of whole blood compared to component therapy, but also to evaluate the health impact of an important public health question, the age of whole blood,” said senior author Stephen Wisniewski, PhD, professor of epidemiology and co-director of the Epidemiology Data Center at Pitt’s School of Public Health.
Dean Maureen Lichtveld recognized as a Pittsburgh Business Times 2026 Women of Influence honoree
Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Business Times as part of its 2026 Women of Influence awards. The honor recognizes leaders across the region for their professional accomplishments, community impact and leadership.
Cancer mystery solved: Scientists discover how melanoma becomes “immortal”
Pattra Chun-on, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Pitt’s School of Public Health, ultimately helped identify a previously overlooked genetic partnership that keeps melanoma cells effectively immortal, allowing tumors to continue dividing long after normal cells would shut down. Working in the lab of Jonathan Alder, assistant professor in Pitt's School of Medicine, the study points to a possible new weakness in cancer cells that future treatments could target.
Public Health professor’s ‘Coverage Denied’ book dives into health insurance quagmire
Unlike most of us who stress out over and decry the ever-escalating cost and complexities of health insurance coverage, Pitt Public Health's Miranda Yaver, assistant professor of health policy and management, did something about it. She wrote a book.
Pitt Public Health students harness the power of history to produce podcasts
In a unique collaboration between the Heinz History Center and Pitt Public Health, students in the Introduction to Community-Based Approaches to Public Health course are bridging the gap between past and present.
Women of Influence: Get to know the 2026 honorees
Dean Maureen Lichtveld has been honored by the Pittsburgh Business Times as part of its 2026 Women of Influence awards, which recognize regional leaders making significant impacts through their organizations and communities. (Subscription required.)
Improving Protections from Heart Disease for Women with Type 1 Diabetes
Rachel Miller, research associate professor of epidemiology, and her team are studying how patterns of risk factors beyond blood glucose (blood sugar) differ for men and women with type 1 diabetes across their lifespan, and how these differences affect heart disease and other diabetes complications. Their work revealed that women with type 1 diabetes experience a significant drop in diastolic blood pressure as early as their 20s, decades sooner than the decline that naturally comes with reaching menopause
From marathons to medicine: The multi-hyphenate journey of Sammy Cohan
Crossing the finish line of the Pittsburgh Marathon on the Boulevard of the Allies, Sammy Cohan (MPH ‘27) stretched his arms wide. Clad in his Pitt cap and gown, he was celebrating two major milestones at once: the completion of 26.2 miles and his graduation with a degree in neuroscience. While the finish line marked the end of his undergraduate career, it served as the starting line for his next chapter at Pitt Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management.
Data, dissertations and diapers: Balancing research and family at Pitt Public Health
Before Xue Yang (PhD ‘26) and Jinhong Li (PhD ‘25) started their doctoral journeys within the Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science at Pitt Public Health, they were total strangers. By May 2026, their lives looked much different. The couple crossed the commencement stage together to celebrate their new futures in biostatistics—this time with their one-year-old son, Jason, cheering them on from the audience.
It’s Academic
Allegheny County Health Department Director Iulia Vann, MD, MPH, recently visited an “Essentials in Public Health” class to share information about the Academic Health Department partnership between the health department and the School of Public Health and to lead students through exercises to prepare them for genuine public health emergencies they might face in the future.
Pennsylvania lawmakers: Falling school vaccine rates need to be made public
Based on a recent analysis, the current rates in some of the schools in Pittsburgh are alarming and could lead to hundreds of cases of measles across Allegheny County, said Mary Krauland, an HPM assistant professor and investigator in the Pitt Public Health's Public Health Dynamics Laboratory. “These things can really blow up,” she said. “Every unprotected person is a possible case.” Not only should the information be provided by the state, she said, but “it needs to be done in a user-friendly manner. It needs to be out there.”