Faculty News

SPHHS

The School of Public Health and Health Sciences received its re-accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health in June 2001.

The School of Public Health and Health Sciences and the School of Nursing received a $1,000,000 federal grant to develop a master's level, nursing education program that prepares nurses to serve in leadership roles in state and local public health agencies. The Partnership for Developing Public Health Nursing Leadership will provide a joint master of science and master of public health degree, enrolling up to 20 students each year. The program aims to accommodate working professionals and parents by providing the option of part-time study, distance learning, and late afternoon and evening classes. In addition, fieldwork may be completed during the academic year or summer, and students will be linked with support resources such as childcare. It is anticipated that the program will admit students beginning in the fall of 2002.

Online graduate programs offered in public health and business administration are ranked among the top programs in the nation, according to a new survey by U.S. News & World Report. Both programs are available through the Division of Continuing Education.

The Master of Public Health(MPH) program, offered by the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, was among the three top programs cited by the magazine. The rankings are featured in the Oct. 15, 2001 issue of the magazine. Overall, U.S. News & WorldReport said it looked at data from 130 programs in a variety of graduate fields for the rankings.

The Center for Research and Education in Women's Health has formalized a partnership with Baystate Health System. This collaboration will allow for greater research and education activities to take place in women's health in western Massachusetts. The executive committee for the collaboration includes representatives from both Baystate and UMass. Some of the upcoming activities for this new partnership include a research forum intended for UMass and Baystate researchers to exchange ideas, discuss their current work and network to find partners for future research activities; and an interdisciplinary course on women's health to be developed by Professor Kathryn Tracy, doctoral student Gloria DiFulvio and Baystate microbiologist Margaret Reece.

Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Drs. Philip Nasca and Harris Pastides, are the authors of the text, Fundamentals of Cancer Epidemiology. Published by Aspen Publishers, Inc. in March 2001, the book is intended for students and teachers of cancer epidemiology courses in schools of public health, schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and allied health programs. Nasca was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach at the Hanoi School of Public Health from September to mid-January 2002. His award is one of 2,000 Fulbright grants.

Dr. Julio Singer, Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, visited the UMass Amherst Biostatistics and Epidemiology Department for three weeks in January 2002. Dr. Singer is collaborating with Drs. Stanek, Stoddard, Puleo, and Buonaccorsi (UMass Mathematics and Statistics) on a project developing methods for analyzing data from clustered randomized studies (funded by NIH). The project will continue through the spring semester (when Dr. Stanek will join with two other collaborators, Dr. Andrade and Bolfarine for one week in Brazil). The Brazilians will return to Amherst in the summer to continue the research.

Dr. Anne Stoddard is working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston as a Visiting Scientist in the Center for Community Based Research (CCBR). She has been collaborating with Dr. Glorian Sorensen and others at the CCBR for several years and Stoddard is now enjoying working more closely with them. Her work will involve beginning the analysis of two large intervention projects that promote behavior change to reduce cancer risk in working class, multi-ethnic populations. The behaviors being targeted are increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables, decrease in consumption of red meat and increase in moderate or vigorous physical activity. Stoddard will return to UMass Amherst in June 2002.

Communication Disorders

Dr. Harry Seymour presented research on the Dialect Sensitive Language Test and gave a talk on careers in science and research at the April 2001 Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing annual convention.

Dr. Shelley Velleman shares the following publication news: "The construction of a first phonology," with M. M. Vihman, Phonetica , 57, 255-266, 2000 and "More crosslinguistic evidence on fillers in the late single-word period: Response to Peters," with M. M. Vihman, Journal of Child Language, in press.

Community Health Studies

In November, Dr. George Cernada was elected Vice-President of the Massachusetts Society of Professors.

Dr. Dan Gerber received a $15,000 grant. The UMass Public Service Endowment Grant called, Empowerment of At-Risk and Low-Income Young People Through Mentoring Partnerships with Local Business People. The objective of the grant is to establish a mentoring program for at-risk and low-income young people participating in entrepreneurial and employment training program.

Environmental Health Science

The First International Congress on Petroleum Contaminated Soils, Sediments and Water took place in August 2001 at Imperial College in London. This conference builds on the work of Dr. Paul Kostecki, who for the past six years, has been working on the Kuwait contamination problem.

In October 2001, President Bulger and the Board of Trustees of the University of Massachusetts presented Dr. Gary Moore with the President's Public Service Award for outstanding service. This award is based on his pioneering work in distance education, writing and publishing a nationally recognized book on online education, and his continued efforts to provide certification and training programs to the public health work force across the state.

In addition, Moore co-authored a book with Dr. Kathryn Winograd, director of Academic Services at eCollege, with contributions from Dan Lange, Faculty Technology Coordinator at Blue Mountain Community College. The book, You Can Teach Online, gives educators advice from the inside experts about how to create an engaging and academically sound e-learning environment.

Exercise Science

Dr. Barry Braun has received two grants, totalling $44,000, both from the BayState/UMass Biomedical Research Program. The grants are: Effects of Insulin Resistance on Carbohydrate Utilization during Exercise and Roles of Estrogen and Progesterone in Regulating Substrate Utilization during Exercise in Women. In addition, Braun was nominated for the University Distinguished Teaching Award as well as the 2001 nominee from UMass for The Medical Foundation New Investigator Awards Program.

Dr. Gary Kamen's textbook entitled, Foundations of Exercise Science, was published by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins in November 2001. Kamen will be on sabbatical in spring 2002 at the University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. He will conduct research aimed at understanding the cortical control of motor preparation and skill acquisition using transcranial magnetic stimulation techniques. Kamen was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

Dr. Jane Kent-Braun was elected to the Board of Trustees for the American College of Sports Medicine.

Nutrition

Dr. Elena Carbone was awarded a $20,000 American Cancer Society individual research grant in March 2001 to support her research in understanding how people process information about diet-related cancer prevention messages.

Dr. Nancy Cohen was elected chair of the Nutrition Education Research Interest Section of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences. She was also appointed co-chair of the Massachusetts Dietetic Association.

Dr. Stella Volpe was elected as president for New England American College of Sports Medicine. She was an invited speaker at the 8th International Sports Sciences Course in Caracas, Venezuela in October. She presented her work on "Supplements for Muscle Building and Weight Loss" during a symposium on ergogenic aids for athletics and chaired a session on weight loss at the 48th Annual ACSM Meeting held in Baltimore last spring.