During this annual event, Pitt's Office of Health Sciences Diversity invites graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and first professional students in the biomedical and behavioral sciences to present relevant work while expanding their scientific skill set.
The term “disparities” applies to differences in health status in any studied
population compared to the comparable majority (or more commonly studied)
population. Showcased is work...
TRIB LIVE - "Inaction is no longer tolerable," says BCHS Chair STEVEN ALBERT of New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich's recent call for the repeal of the Dickey Amendment, which forbids the use of the CDC's injury prevention and control funds to lobby, or promote gun control.
ELIZABETH FELTER (BCHS ’09) joined the faculty as assistant professor in 2010. She has been a Certified Health Education Specialist since 2001 and leads the department’s health communication/health risk communication curriculum. Her teaching portfolio has expanded to include development of infographics, preparation of public service announcements, and use of video for public health communication.
DIDIER CHALHOUB (MMPH ’12, EPI ’15) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging Interdisciplinary Studies Aging Section. His areas of research include aging, osteoporosis, and sarcopenia, concentrating on osteoporosis and body composition with a special interest in understanding the effect of muscle-bone interaction on outcomes such as fractures.
While completing her MPH and PhD degrees, JEANINE BUCHANICH (EPI ’98, ’07) worked full time for the Department of Biostatistics at Pitt Public Health and was appointed research assistant professor and deputy director of the Center for Occupational Biostatistics and Epidemiology in 2008. She has served as principal investigator or coinvestigator on many studies in occupational health epidemiology, vital status systems and tracing, and other topic ...
TODD BEAR (BCHS ’07, ’13) joined the Pitt Public Health faculty as an assistant professor immediately upon earning his PhD in 2013. His primary research interest is the study of adversity, including child maltreatment and exposure to violence, and its effects on health over the lifespan. He utilizes a life-course perspective to study the behavioral and psychosocial pathways by which childhood adversity affects adolescent and adult health.
MICHAEL TALKOWSKI (HUGEN ’08) is associate professor of neurology (genetics) at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate member of the Broad Institute of the Massachusettes Institute of Technology and Harvard where he directs the Broad Structural Variation and Assembly Group. His research has led to paradigm-shifting discoveries that have left a mark on the field of genetics.
In 2012, a year before completing her MPH, CHRISTINA FARMARTINO (IDM ’13) was hired as executive director of The Open Door, which provides supportive housing and representative payee services to individuals living with HIV/AIDS—including active injection drug users—to improve their health and housing stability. Among other duties, Farmartino has raised more than $250,000 over three years in additional, diversified funding.
BERNADINE PETER (EPI ’88) is population health coordinator and registered dietitian at Val Verde Regional Medical Center in Del Rio, Texas. She previously served at Franklin Primary Health Center Inc. in Mobile, Ala., where she educated patients with diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, in addition to securing nutrition and wellness grants for the underserved.
FREDRICK MURPHY (MSHyg ’77) is executive director of Atlanta, Ga.-based Lifelong Health Inc., a nonprofit serving inner-city communities around public health and social justice issues. He served for more than 28 years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), active and inactive, and adjunct faculty member in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine.
JILL NORRIS (EPI ’88, ’90) is professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her research focuses on the relationship of environment in the development of autoimmune diseases, including type I diabetes, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus in genetically susceptible individuals.
A two-time breast cancer survivor, RUTH MODZELEWSKI (HUGEN ’96) has served as mission coordinator for Susan G. Komen Pittsburgh since 2009, when she went from researching cancer at the University of Pittsburgh to practicing and promoting cancer prevention and treatment throughout Western Pennsylvania. She oversees the Komen Pittsburgh community-based health grants program which annually gives close to $1 million back to the community.
GEN NEWS – Scientists say they have identified fifteen genes that determine our facial features. HUGEN’s SETH WEINBERG describes the process before he and his team took on a new approach. “We're basically looking for needles in a haystack… This [approach] has already led to the identification of a number of genes but, of course, the results are limited because only a small set of features are selected and tested."
JENNIFER BOWLING (IDM '21) attended the Chemical & Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference to present her paper on “Influence of Sex on Protection Conferred by Vaccination with Attenuated Strains of Francisella tularensis in the Rabbit Model.”
MCSILVER INSTITUTE – This podcast series brings together thought leaders from the public and private sectors to analyze stereotypes and dispel myths concerning Black boys and men, while providing facts and best practices for those working with these often marginalized populations. MIKE LINDSEY (HPM ’01) says, “with increased media and attention, more folks are attuned to racial issues and the long lasting impact of discrimination.”
The Department of HUGEN is pleased to announce the promotion of QUASAR PADIATH to associate professor with tenure. His primary research interest is molecular mechanisms of neurological disorders, especially myelin formation and maintenance, using data on humans and mouse and fruit fly models.
VINCENT ARENA was awarded emeritus status after retiring from the Department of Biostatistics as associate professor. He was on the faculty for 31 years. His primary research focuses on the understanding of the epidemiology and etiology of juvenile onset diabetes, the evaluation of health risk effects from outdoor air pollution, and the characterization of lifestyle risk factors and their effect on physical activity levels.
HSTODAY - NIJ and the Federal Interagency Workgroup on Teen Dating Violence are hosting a moderated webinar on Monday, February 26, at 1:00 PM to discuss interventions to reduce TDV across multiple settings with potentially high-risk populations, including within adolescent health care settings. BCHS’ LIZ MILLER will talk about universal screening, warm transfers, and reasons patients do not seek or accept assistance.
MEDPAGE TODAY - A recent study by HPM's ERIC ROBERTS showed that Medicare's Value-based Payment Modifier program inadvertently shifted money away from physicians who treated sicker, poorer patients to pay for bonuses that rewarded practices treating richer, healthier populations. "Risk adjustment is usually
inadequate in these programs, in part, because it is difficult to measure the differences in complexity of patients across providers."
IDM's NICOLE GRANT has been nominated to serve as the student representative for the department. Grant will attend faculty meetings to provide a student perspective and bring student concerns to the table. Congratulations, Nicole!