School of Public Health & Health Sciences 2023–2024 Annual Report
Protecting Our Core Values
Table of contents
2023–2024 Cover
Graduate students Christine Fernando and Fatma Tufa with Mary Ellen Liseno, SPHHS director of career planning, and Katherine Reeves, associate dean for graduate and professional studies, inside the cornfield at Mike’s Maze in Sunderland.
Contents
DEAN’S WELCOME
EDUCATION. ADVOCACY. INCLUSION.
- SPHHS Launches Inaugural Healthcare Culinary Conference
- Examining the Impact of Medicaid ACOs on Mental Health Care for Children in Massachusetts
- Leading the Way on Tobacco Policy
- Non-COVID-19 Deaths Among People with Diabetes Jumped During Pandemic
- Promoting the Benefits of Resistance Exercise Training
- The Serious Side of Kid and Canine Play
- Embracing Diversity: First Cohort of SLHS Clinical
- Graduates Earns Multiculturalism Certificate
TRANSFORMATIVE STUDENT EXPERIENCES
- Audiology Students Raise Awareness for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
- Student Groups Support Annual Employee Wellness Fair
- Summer Workshop Introduces Biostatistics to Undergraduates
- Transformative Student Experiences
IMPACTFUL RESEARCH
- CDC Awards UMass Amherst-UT Austin Collaboration $27.5 Million
- Robotic Hip Exoskeleton Shows Promise for Helping Stroke Patients Regain Their Stride
- Engineering the Future of Running
- Combating Water- and Vector-Borne Diseases Around the World
- Newly Discovered Genetic Markers Help Pinpoint Diabetes Risks, Complications
- New Research Links Abnormal Intestinal Function and Cognitive Decline
- Study Finds High School Students No More Likely to Use Marijuana After Legalization
- Alkema, Vandenberg Among 'Most Highly Cited' Researchers for 2023
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
- Kleinman Part of Multidisciplinary Team Receiving $13.7 Million Grant to Address Antibiotic Resistance in Nursing Homes
- Grant Examines Impact of Sex and Gender on the Metabolome and CVD
- Do ‘Forever Chemicals’ Increase Breast Cancer Risk?
- Qian to Conduct Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease Studies
- Evans Leads Assessment of New Courts Program to Provide Treatment to People with Substance Use Disorders
- Researchers to Study Involuntary Civil Commitment to Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
- Attanasio to Examine Disparities in Birth Mode for Individuals with a Prior Cesarean
- SPHHS Teams Awarded Interdisciplinary Research Grants and Large-Scale Integrative Research Awards
FACULTY AND STAFF HONORS
- In Memoriam: Paula Stamps
- Alhassan Receives Zenobia L. Hikes Distinguished Career Award
- Timme-Laragy Offers Expertise to National Academies Committee on Role of Seafood Consumption in Child Growth and Development
- Peltier Participates in State-Sponsored Trip as Part of U.S. Speaker Program
- Calabrese Receives 2023 Herbert E. Stokinger Award
- Van Emmerik Delivers Distinguished Faculty Lecture
- Frechette Named 2024 ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentor Award Winner
- Cook and Fan Receive Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2023–2024
- Mack Awarded Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
- Moore Appointed Assistant Dean for Student Affairs
- Academic Advising Teams Present at National Conference
STUDENT HONORS
- Almeida Receives Boren Fellowship to Study in India
- English Awarded National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship
- Doctoral Students Bajpai and Mottey Awarded 2023 AAUW Fellowships
- EHS Lab Members Receive 2024 Society of Toxicology Awards
- Bannon, Christophe, and Tran Named 21st Century Leaders
A LEGACY OF INNOVATION AND PHILANTHROPY
- New Building to Serve as Hub for SPHHS Community
- Mundt Family Names New SPHHS Hub Seminar Space
- 2024 SPHHS Scholarship Awards
BY THE NUMBERS
- SPHHS Announces 2024 Research Day Award Winners
- SPHHS Advisory Board
SPHHS Administration: 2023–2024 Academic Year
- Anna Maria Siega-Riz, Dean
- Donna Falcetti, Associate Dean of Administration and Finance
- Katherine Reeves, Associate Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies
- Brian Whitcomb, Associate Dean of Research
- Gloria DiFulvio, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs
- Torin Moore, Assistant Dean of Academic Success and Career Planning
- Rodmon King, Assistant Dean of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
- Lisa Chasan-Taber, Chair of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
- Song Liang, Chair of Environmental Health Sciences
- Sarah Goff, Chair of Health Promotion and Policy
- Richard van Emmerik, Chair of Kinesiology
- Lindiwe Sibeko, Chair of Nutrition
- Sarah Poissant, Chair of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Editor
- Patrick Freeman
Contributors
- Patrick Freeman
- Patricia Shillington
- Julia Westbrook
Photographers
- Lynne Graves
- Sydney Snow
- John Solem
- Keith Toffling
- Derrick Zellmann
Dean's Welcome
Our mission: to achieve health equity and improve health outcomes for all.
At the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS), our mission is clear: to achieve health equity and improve health outcomes for all. In a complex, interconnected world where the impacts of climate change or a global pandemic can have repercussions on the health of millions, it is a vital and necessary effort. It is one that we as a school take pride in and strive continuously to attain.
In our current sociopolitical climate, however, we've seen threats to the core principles that uphold our work: support for higher education, the protection of academic freedom, and access to educational opportunities for marginalized communities. Yet, amidst these challenges, SPHHS has made significant strides.
Our graduates contribute significantly to the commonwealth’s workforce, with 88 percent remaining in the state to work in hospitals, laboratories, health departments, and community health programs. Given our alumni impact, we must ensure that leadership and innovation in our field incorporate diverse perspectives, truly embodying the egalitarian principles of public health. In that respect, SPHHS has seen a heartening trend over the past five years, with increases of 17 percent and 63 percent, respectively, among our Black and Hispanic applicants.
As part of a land-grant institution and health-promoting university, SPHHS serves as a hub of innovation and leadership in public health. Our faculty and students are answering exciting research questions in data science, environmental exposures, food as medicine, health equity, speech and hearing, neuroscience and muscle biology, biomechanics, and so much more.
Academic freedom empowers us to explore contentious topics and pursue groundbreaking research that pushes boundaries and advances knowledge in our fields. It provides opportunities for our students to participate in research, with many winning awards such as those noted by the lab of Alicia Timme-Laragy in the field of toxicology. Since I have been dean, we have witnessed a 200 percent growth in the number of students participating in our annual Research Day, including a record 100 participants this past year.
I'm proud to highlight my own personal collaboration with faculty across various disciplines on the Food Is Medicine initiative, supported by seed funding from the vice chancellor for research and engagement. This initiative has not only brought together community partners in western Massachusetts to address food insecurity but also led to the successful launch of our inaugural Healthcare Culinary Conference.
In this report, we celebrate the achievements of our faculty, students, and staff over the past academic year. Join us as we delve into the impactful work that continues to shape the future of public health and health sciences.
SIEGA-RIZ REAPPOINTED DEAN
Anna Maria Siega-Riz has been reappointed as dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences for a five-year term, effective September 1, 2024. "I am confident that Dean Siega-Riz will continue to be a highly effective and accomplished leader for the school," Michael Malone, then serving as interim provost, said in a statement issued to the UMass community. "She has demonstrated this capacity through the school’s successful CEPH reaccreditation and reputational growth nationally, as evidenced by her service at the National Academy of Sciences, National Institutes of Health and SPHHS’s well-deserved 2022 Harrison C. Spencer Award by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health."
Siega-Riz was first appointed dean beginning in August 2019 and guided the school through an extraordinarily challenging time due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The provost lauded her data-informed decisions and transparent and consistent leadership, as well as her advocacy for the university’s participation in the Okanagan Charter.
“It has been a privilege and a profoundly humbling experience to serve as the dean of our esteemed school,” says Siega-Riz. “My vision for SPHHS is to foster an academic community that embodies care and support among its faculty and staff, conducts groundbreaking research, and is committed to nurturing the minds of our students. I aspire to ensure that every contribution from our dedicated faculty and staff is not only acknowledged but celebrated, while also amplifying the voices of all members of our community and fostering inclusivity in decision-making. I want to forge meaningful connections with our students, creating a sense of belonging through activities and programs that facilitate dialogue, learning, and growth. Together, we have made significant strides toward realizing this vision, but there is still work to be done. I eagerly look forward to collaborating with the SPHHS community to continue our journey towards achieving our strategic goals, furthering the cause of education and scholarship for a healthier world."
Education. Advocacy. Inclusion.
SPHHS Launches Inaugural Healthcare Culinary Conference
On June 5–6, 2024, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences welcomed a group of 40 health-care professionals—including community health workers, dietitians, and cooks from Project Bread, Revitalize CDC, Meals on Wheels, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, and the VA—to campus for its inaugural Healthcare Culinary Conference: Bridging Healthcare, Food, and Community.
The event, sponsored by Fallon Health and held in conjunction with the 30th annual Chef Culinary Conference hosted by UMass Dining, served as a model for academic- and community-led efforts to improve health outcomes, alleviate food insecurity, and promote the Food Is Medicine movement.
“We were delighted to reach our target capacity for this inaugural conference,” says Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz, a renowned expert in maternal and child nutrition. “The excitement from our participants and speakers to share information and learn from each other was palpable from the start.”
On the conference’s first day, participants convened to hear talks from keynote speaker Chef Michel Nischan, the co-founder and chair of Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit food-equity organization; nutrition experts Lorraine Cordeiro and Kurt Hager; and Dean Siega-Riz. The speakers discussed the topics of food access, food insecurity, MassHealth Flexible Services, and the evolution of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A panel discussion provided insights on how to tailor dietary guideline messages to patients for various conditions and how health-care providers can play a pivotal role in supporting community food programs.
That evening, participants joined the main Chef Culinary Conference banquet, which showcased the amazing, delicious, and healthy foods prepared by UMass Dining.
The second day of the conference featured food science experts David Julian McClements and Alissa Nolden, as well as community partners and consultants such as Milton Stokes, senior director of food and nutrition for the International Food Information Council. The speakers discussed topics including consumer perceptions of health and food trends, the importance of sensory aspects of food, and emerging plant-based foods. They were followed by a panel of community partners who work closely with the university’s Food Is Medicine programs, providing the health-care professionals with a greater understanding of what programs are available to their patients, and how to help their patients access them.
For many of the attendees, the conference was highlighted by a pair of immersive experiences that bookended the two-day event. Morning tours of Grow Food Northampton’s Crimson and Clover Farm and the UMass Agricultural Learning Center kicked off the conference, and the closing session featured cooking activities led by award-winning chefs Ana Jaramillo, Nyanyika Banda, Breana Killeen, and Michel Nischan, ending with a culminating meal highlighting different cultural and/or economic constraint dishes.
“Thank you so much for the inaugural Healthcare Culinary Conference experience,” an attendee who works as a registered dietitian at the UMass Chan Medical School wrote afterward. “It was an amazing and valuable conference. I especially enjoyed the cooking workshops!”
Another attendee who works in the food service industry remarked, “The quality and scope of the speakers were inspiring. We can’t say enough great things about the hospitality as well.”
Megan Patton-Lopez, a senior lecturer in nutrition and conference co-organizer, was proud of the success of their initial endeavors. “Food is connection, culture, and community,” she says. “I am grateful for the conversations and connections made during the two-day event. I am excited to see what future collaborations lead to as we work to improve access to nutritious and culturally preferred foods.”
The school plans to host the conference again in the second week of June 2025.
Examining the Impact of Medicaid ACOs on Mental Health Care for Children in Massachusetts
Professor and Chair of Health Promotion and Policy Sarah Goff has been awarded a five-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to examine the impact of Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) on the quality and outcomes of behavioral/mental health care for children in Massachusetts.
ACOs are the value-based health-care delivery model designed to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs while improving coordination and quality of care.
“Fundamental changes in health care are needed to address socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in behavioral health care quality and outcomes for children in vulnerable populations,” the grant summary states.
In the past decade, the prevalence of mental health disorders among children has climbed in Massachusetts, says Goff, who is a practicing pediatrician and internist.
Depression, anxiety, and suicidality have increased across all demographic groups, with youth identifying as LGBTQ+ and youth in other minoritized populations experiencing some of the highest increases. Massachusetts struggles to provide care for children with mental health disorders, Goff notes, and alternative models of health-care delivery and finance have the potential to improve care—but the impact of ACOs on behavioral health care for children is not clear.
In 2016 in Massachusetts, one in six children, ages 6–17, had a mental health diagnosis, and that rate increased to an estimated one in four during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s a huge need, an increasing need, for mental/behavioral health care for children, and it can be really challenging to access for a lot of people,” Goff says.
Goff’s new research is modeled on her ongoing, NIH-funded examination of the impact of ACOs on asthma care in children insured by Medicaid. She is collaborating with co-lead investigator Kimberley Geissler, a health economist and former UMass Amherst associate professor who now works at Baystate Health as the chief of health equity and health services research; pediatric psychiatrist Barry Sarvet, chair of psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate; and Jessica Pearlman, director of research methods programs at the UMass Amherst Institute for Social Science Research, who is working on the study’s statistical design.
The researchers will use an innovative mixed methods approach to investigate how the launching of 17 new Medicaid ACOs in Massachusetts in 2018 may have impacted mental health care for children.
The ACOs have different organizational features, such as size, whether they’re hospital- or physician-led, and the age ranges they work with. Studies of adult populations suggest that ACOs with certain organizational features may improve the quality of care for chronic diseases. Goff’s project will be the first study to focus on the associations between this new group of ACOs and the quality and outcomes of care for this large, higher-risk population of children with mental health disorders.
The researchers will analyze claims data and survey data collected by MassHealth, the Medicaid administrator in Massachusetts, and will conduct interviews with parents, ACO leaders, and mental health and primary care providers. “It’s a nice government-academic partnership,” Goff says. Findings from the study can inform providers, payers, and policymakers responsible for the care of vulnerable populations of children with mental health disorders.
"Efforts to address the shortcomings of the specialty behavioral care system, such as integrating behavioral care into pediatric primary care settings and state programs that offer telephonic psychiatry consultation to pediatricians, have helped improve care,” the grant summary states, "but immense gaps in care and disparities persist.“
Goff Selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for New Zealand
Sarah Goff will be spending the upcoming 2024–25 academic year in New Zealand after being selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar.
While there, Goff will focus her research on health-care delivery during the perinatal period and health care for people with physical disabilities. These areas represent two of the six key strategies in New Zealand’s Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Strategies. She will work with a core team of collaborators with shared interests at Victoria University of Wellington and collaborators in Auckland, Dunedin, and Sydney, Australia.
“I am so excited to have this remarkable opportunity to work with leading health services researchers in New Zealand and Australia who share my passion for using community-engaged research as a tool to create more equitable health-care systems,” says Goff. “I hope to establish deep and lasting connections to the New Zealand communities I will be working with and build long-term collaborations. Ultimately, I hope to study and learn from approaches to health-care equity in multiple countries and develop systems of information sharing to improve health care for priority populations across the globe.”
Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. Alumni of the Fulbright Program include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, and thousands of leaders and world-renowned experts in academia and many other fields across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.
Leading the Way on Tobacco Health Policy
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce has proven busy since joining the UMass Amherst faculty in September 2023 following a move from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
The new assistant professor of health policy and management, whose expertise focuses on synthesizing evidence and applying it to health policy in such areas as tobacco control and e-cigarettes, has hit the ground running since her arrival.
In November 2023, Hartmann-Boyce was selected to co-lead the Policy Analysis and Dissemination Core of the Center for the Assessment of Tobacco Regulations (CATR) run out of the University of Michigan. CATR is one of seven Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS) funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The center recently received a $20 million, five-year grant in the third cohort of TCORS. The scientific evidence from their research informs the FDA’s regulation of tobacco products.
“Smoking is a leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S. and worldwide, and a major driver of health inequalities,” says Hartmann-Boyce. “I’m thrilled to be part of this strong partnership between researchers and the FDA, and am looking forward to providing and sharing evidence that can help shape tobacco control efforts in the U.S. This work will also contribute to the School of Public Health and Health Sciences’s aim to improve quality of life and health equity in the commonwealth and beyond.”
Hartmann-Boyce also serves as an editor for Cochrane, a global nonprofit organization that produces health information to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions. There, she has led multiple high-impact Cochrane reviews in the areas of tobacco control and vaping, which have informed international policy and guidelines. Two of those reports have been published during the past academic year.
In a review published in fall 2023, Hartmann-Boyce and colleagues found that nicotine e-cigarettes and two prescription medications that curb symptoms of withdrawal are the most effective stop-smoking aids. Dual forms of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as combining a patch with gum or a lozenge, were found to be nearly as effective.
“The best thing someone who smokes can do for their health is to quit smoking,” says Hartmann-Boyce. “Our findings provide clear evidence of the effectiveness of nicotine e-cigarettes and combination nicotine replacement therapies to help people quit smoking. The evidence also is clear on the benefits of medicines cytisine and varenicline, but these may be harder for some people to access at the moment.”
Both varenicline, a World Health Organization essential medicine, and cytisine help reduce the symptoms of withdrawal. The brand-name form of varenicline—Champix—is not available in the United States and other parts of the world due to a manufacturing problem, though generic forms of varenicline have been approved by the FDA. Cytisine is not currently licensed or marketed in the United States and most other countries outside of Central and Eastern Europe.
We’re not going to prescribe methadone to people who aren’t addicted to opioids, but for people addicted to opioids, we recognize that methadone is a helpful thing.”
- JAMIE HARTMANN-BOYCE
In another Cochrane review published in early 2024, Hartmann-Boyce and colleagues again found that nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective in helping people quit smoking than conventional nicotine-replacement therapy. The reviewers found high-certainty evidence that e-cigarettes, which allow users to “vape” nicotine instead of smoke it, lead to better chances of quitting smoking than patches, gums, lozenges, or other traditional NRT.
“In England, quite different from the rest of the world, e-cigarettes have been embraced by public health agencies as a tool to help people reduce the harm from smoking,” says Hartmann-Boyce. “We need a range of evidence-based options for people to use to quit smoking, as some people will try many different ways of quitting before finding one that works for them.”
The regular review of smoking cessation studies continues to offer strong evidence that can inform public health policies and strategies, offering people who smoke better tools to quit for good. Hartmann-Boyce emphasizes that the public health message is a nuanced and complex one, especially in the United States.
While those who don’t smoke tobacco should avoid the use of e-cigarettes for their potential negative health effects, Hartmann-Boyce says, some people who smoke can improve their health and reduce their risks by quitting tobacco with the help of e-cigarettes. She compares the tobacco smoking versus e-cigarette scenario to treatment for a substance-use disorder involving opioids.
Non-COVID-19 Deaths Among People with Diabetes Jumped During Pandemic
In a global study review commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and colleagues found that non-COVID-19-related deaths among people with diabetes increased during the pandemic, as did the diabetes complication of sight loss. The review looked at 138 studies comparing pre-pandemic to during-pandemic periods from around the world.
“What we found overall was a fairly negative impact on diabetes outcomes,” says Hartmann-Boyce, the study's co-lead author.
The review also found a startling increase in diabetes-related admissions to pediatric ICUs, as well as a rise in cases of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) among children and adolescents. Some of the cases were due to new-onset diabetes, meaning DKA—a serious, potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes—coincided with the diabetes diagnosis. There was no rise in the frequency or severity of DKA among adults.
In addition to an increase in deaths, “the data on pediatric ICU admissions and pediatric diabetes ketoacidosis is probably the most striking thing that comes out of this review,” Hartmann-Boyce says. “It was very consistent across countries, and a pediatric ICU admission is a major event for kids and their families.”
Hartmann-Boyce, who herself has lived with Type 1 diabetes since she was diagnosed at age 10, had initially conducted another WHO-commissioned study review on the direct impacts of the pandemic on people with diabetes. “We set out to answer the question: Are you more at risk of dying from COVID and having serious disease if you have diabetes? And the data were clear—yes, you are,” she says.
Often Type 1 diabetes is detected at routine primary care visits, as was the case for Hartmann-Boyce, whose diabetes was discovered from a urine test during her annual well-child visit to the pediatrician. “If that had been me during the pandemic, I wouldn’t have had that visit, I wouldn’t have had that test, and I would have had to get really sick before anyone knew there was something wrong,” she says.
The negative impacts were most pronounced for females, younger people, and racial and ethnic minority groups. “The review points to the importance of ensuring all people with diabetes, but particularly those from less advantaged groups, have consistent access to diabetes medication and care,” Hartmann-Boyce says.
Hartmann-Boyce hopes to update the review in the next decade or so when more indirect pandemic impacts might become evident. “One of the interesting things about diabetes is, if your blood sugars run higher, there can be immediate impacts, but also the impacts might not be seen for five or 10 years down the line,” Hartmann-Boyce says.
Promoting the Benefits of Resistance Exercise Training
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Amanda Paluch is the lead author of a newly issued update to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) on resistance exercise training and cardiovascular disease.
The scientific statement—first issued by the AHA in 2007—highlights the positive physiological and clinical benefits of resistance training to buffer against cardiovascular disease and other risk factors. Paluch and colleagues note that “since 2007, accumulating evidence suggests resistance training is a safe and effective approach for improving cardiovascular health in adults with and without cardiovascular disease.”
The benefits of resistance training are plentiful, with evidence indicating that adults who participate in it have an approximately 15 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality and 17 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared with adults who do not.
The researchers’ key findings indicate:
- Resistance training provides significant health benefits related to cardiovascular disease risk factors. It improves blood pressure, glycemia, lipid profiles, and body composition, and it particularly benefits older adults and those with elevated cardiometabolic risk.
- Resistance training has positive effects on non-traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as cardiorespiratory fitness, endothelial function, and psychological well-being.
- Combining resistance training with aerobic training may offer more benefits in reducing certain cardiovascular disease risk factors—such as obesity, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia—compared to resistance training or aerobic training alone.
Paluch, who has been much sought after by the media and is renowned for her research on steps per day and associated health benefits, explains that resistance training benefits a wide range of populations beyond those at risk for cardiovascular disease.
“It offers tailored health benefits for specific populations including pregnant and postpartum women, older adults, and individuals with heart failure, peripheral artery disease, HIV, Alzheimer's disease, and chronic kidney disease,” notes Paluch. “These benefits encompass improvements in muscular strength, body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, and functional capacity.”
Resistance training regimens can be simple and do not require a lot of time, adds Paluch. They can involve free weights, body weight exercises, machine weights, and resistance bands. For apparently healthy adults, a regimen of eight to 10 different exercises involving major muscle groups, performed in one to three sets of moderate intensity loads (allowing eight to 12 repetitions per set) at least two times a week, is effective for achieving both muscular and cardiovascular benefits.
Paluch and her colleagues found that resistance training participation is low and calls for a renewed focus on promotion strategies.
“Just 30 to 60 minutes per week of resistance training is associated with the maximum risk reduction for all-cause mortality and incident cardiovascular disease,” says Paluch. “Despite these well-documented benefits, only 28 percent of U.S. adults report participating in resistance training two days per week by the 2018 federal Physical Activity Guidelines.”
To promote resistance training, the authors recommend addressing barriers like equipment availability, perceived complexity, and how to safely and effectively perform resistance training. They also note that disparities exist in resistance training participation across demographic groups, with older individuals, females, non-white populations, and those with lower socioeconomic status being less likely to engage in it. Tailoring resistance training promotion strategies to specific populations and considering socio-ecological factors can help address these disparities and improve resistance training participation rates, they conclude.
The Serious Side of Kid and Canine Play
With two-thirds of children in the United States failing to meet national physical activity guidelines, kinesiologists Katie Potter and Colleen Chase have been looking at the impact of the family dog on the exercise habits of kids.
Could having a canine best friend get kids on their feet and help bring them more in line with the minimum recommendation of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day?
A preliminary study in 2022, reported in the Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour, tested and validated a new approach for measuring dog-facilitated physical activity among kids. The study, involving 12 children, found that about 20 percent of their daily physical activity came from time in close proximity to the family dog. Now a larger study, aimed at including a more diverse population, is underway.
“There are so many ways we might leverage the human-dog bond to promote physical activity in kids, but first, we need to understand how much physical activity dog-owning kids get with their dogs,” says Potter, an associate professor of kinesiology.
“Our preliminary study was the first time that this type of research had been done specifically quantifying physical activity with the dog and kid in proximity together,” says Chase, lead author of the recent paper and a doctoral student in Potter’s Behavioral Medicine Lab. “We’re interested in replicating that study to see whether that 20 percent value holds at a significant sample size of participants.”
Research has shown that children get more exercise when it is enjoyable, motivational, and involves social interaction. “If a child has a dog and is bonded with the dog, that’s going to lead to greater enjoyment of whatever activity they are partaking in. And having a dog is a form of social support,” says Chase, who is leading this research study as part of her doctoral dissertation.
If the research continues to show that dogs have a positive impact on the physical activity of children, researchers can look for ways to involve kids who don’t have a family dog. “There’s a financial and time burden associated with pet ownership, and we acknowledge that,” Chase adds.
She could envision dog-walking programs in animal shelters or after-school programs involving dog play to expand access to the benefits of hanging out with a dog.
“This is a pretty concerning issue in the United States right now,” Chase says of physical inactivity among kids. “That’s why we’re trying to get creative with methods to address this. It’s a very wholesome line of research. You know, we’re working with kids. We’re working with dogs. But we do have these larger, significant health problems that we are working to address through this research."
Embracing Diversity: First Cohort of SLHS Clinical Graduates Earns Multiculturalism Certificate
This May 2024, the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences celebrated the first cohort of students to complete its new Multiculturalism Certificate in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Five students—audiology candidate Sabrina Gemme and speech-language pathology (SLP) graduates Moira O’Sullivan, Jessica Suriano, Marci Rohtstein, and Evona Eldayha—completed the yearlong program designed to provide in-depth academic and clinical training in multiculturalism and diversity.
The nine-credit certificate program is open to both audiology and SLP graduate students in the department.
Each track contains one course in their standard curriculum that contributes to their certificate. In addition, the department developed two new courses: Multiculturalism in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and a yearlong Multiculturalism Capstone Seminar.
“Our profession serves multilinguistic and multicultural populations in educational settings and in health services,” says Assistant Professor Sara Mamo, who, along with fellow Assistant Professor Megan Gross and clinical instructors Tomma Henckel and Jane Sackett, was instrumental in helping to launch the new certificate program. “There is a critical need to improve equity for diverse and underrepresented populations in these service areas. In addition to better preparing our future clinicians, we hope to attract a more culturally diverse student body into our profession, which is currently comprised of approximately 90 percent white women.”
For O’Sullivan, the decision to pursue the certificate was an easy choice. “I know as an SLP I will be working with many clients who are different from me, and I was nervous about not being prepared to work with diverse populations,” she says. “I knew that the certificate would be a good first step to understanding myself and my own biases that could impact my ability to work with clients [as well as] learning more about social justice and our role in it.”
“I believed it would make me both a more educated person and a more educated clinician,” adds Gemme, who recently began her clinical audiology externship year with Atrius Health–Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. “We had hard conversations about identity, ability, and culture that caused us to challenge the views we had and the language we use.”
The cohort began their journey together in spring 2023 during their first year in the program and finished together at the end of their second year. Two key components of the certificate are embedded in the yearlong capstone course.
First, the students must engage in a reflective journaling practice over the course of a full year during their clinical training, and second, they must also complete an immersive, yearlong service-learning project.
“I grew a lot throughout the certificate, both as an aspiring clinician and as a person,” notes SLP graduate Rohtstein. “I think one of the most beneficial aspects of the certificate is that I truly engaged with multicultural issues through reflection both as part of class discussions and through journal entries. One of the most valuable lessons from these reflections in class is that we all have moments where we make mistakes, which we refer to as 'having spinach in our teeth'. We can hope to reduce these moments with spinach in our teeth through personal reflection and learning over time, but how we react to finding out that we have spinach in our teeth in a moment is also critically important.”
To complete their yearlong service-learning projects, students selected a partner organization to work with and engaged in mutually beneficial learning experiences that culminated with the development of some type of resource for the organization and/or other professionals. Gemme’s service-learning project, for example, involved a partnership with the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the development of an “Allyship Portfolio” for use among audiologists and members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.
Earning the multicultural certificate required the students to put in time and hard work, but they all expressed that it was worth the effort.
“I am more aware of the systematic issues and how they impact our clients especially in schools and health care,” says O’Sullivan. “I have more of a whole-person approach to my clients. Culture impacts every aspect of our lives, especially communication.”
The department faculty were also thrilled with the program’s results.
In the spotlight
Attendees at the Latino Caucus for Public Health’s 50th Anniversary Gala on November 14, 2023, during the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta. The School of Public Health and Health Sciences was a proud sponsor of the event.
Transformative Student Experiences
Audiology Students Raise Awareness for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
In November 2023, Sofia Macias and Farheen Khan, both second-year audiology students pursuing a clinical doctorate in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, gave a seminar for the Boltwood Project, a student-run civic engagement and leadership program on the UMass Amherst campus. The project is designed to provide enrichment, recreation, and socialization for adults and children of intellectual or physical diverse ability.
Macias and Khan developed and delivered the presentation, which aimed to increase awareness of the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing community (DHH), the resources available to them, and understanding of the challenges they face. To make their Boltwood presentation interactive and representative of the DHH community, they had everyone wear earplugs for part of the presentation to simulate mild to moderate hearing loss.
“Hopefully, those who came to this session can use the strategies to communicate more effectively with those who are part of the DHH community and gain a better appreciation for what audiologists do,” says Khan.
Both students work under the supervision of Senior Lecturer Tomma Henckel, who runs the audiology clinic located in the Center for Language, Speech, and Hearing on campus. The center offers a comprehensive range of clinical services for individuals with communication disorders, differences, or delays. Services provided by the center include both diagnostic evaluations and treatment sessions that are available to all ages.
“There is a lack of general knowledge about hearing loss and its implications on quality of life, education, occupation, general physical and mental health, and treatment options,” says Henckel. “At the same time, there is a Deaf culture that very few people know about and it is our duty to normalize and destigmatize these facets and to improve access to our services.”
The Boltwood Project has been part of UMass for over 50 years and is one of the largest community engagement programs at UMass Amherst. Every semester, it hosts three seminars focused on disability awareness, allyship, and advocacy.
Student Groups Support Annual Employee Wellness Fair
Nearly 400 employees from across the UMass Amherst campus participated in the second annual Employee Wellness Fair on April 11, 2024. Hosted by the Public Health Promotion Center, the wellness fair celebrated and educated employees about the ongoing efforts to promote the integrated approach to wellness in support of UMass being a health-promoting university through the Okanagan Charter and Okanagan Wellbeing Collective.
Thirty-eight departments/vendors from on and off campus provided resources to employees. In addition, student groups from the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing provided health screenings, and students from the Recreation Center held yoga and mindfulness sessions.
Audiology students conducted hearing screenings, student nutritionists offered advice on hypertension and a heart-healthy diet, and kinesiology students offered a range of testing on everything from flexibility and grip strength assessments to blood pressure checks. The department’s Body Shop Fitness Center also tabled an event at the fair.
In all, 170 Narcan kits were provided, 125 seeds planted, 93 individuals surveyed, 36 blood pressures recorded, 30 hearing screenings provided, and 50 compost bins distributed. From ergonomics, to acupuncture and opportunities to talk with university departments and vendors, there was something for everyone.
Kinesiology Senior Lecturer II Judi LaBranche, who serves on the Okanagan Wellbeing Collective’s Health and Wellness Committee and was one of the fair’s lead organizers, was thrilled with the results. “I believe the greatest success was seeing SPHHS and nursing students gain the real-life experiences working with employees,” she says.
Summer Workshop Introduces Biostatistics to Undergraduates
Over a two-week span from May 28—June 7, 2024, a cohort of 25 undergraduate students embarked on an introductory journey into the field of biostatistics. Students had a range of prior experience in statistical modeling and computing. For many, the program was truly a crash course in introductory biostatistics.
The workshop featured a mixture of lectures and immersive lab sessions led by several biostatistics faculty and doctoral students. Students worked on team-based projects and presentations that covered topics ranging from genomics to an examination of the effects of historical redlining on modern-day health and environment to predictors of chronic disease using large epidemiological data sets. Guest speakers included a senior informatics epidemiologist with the MA Department of Public Health, researchers and instructors from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Smith College, and data scientists working in the biomedical industry.
"We had such a blast doing this!" says Professor of Biostatistics Raji Balasubramanian, who was the workshop's organizer. "We were energized by the students’ enthusiasm and interest in our grad programs. We were also so inspired by the diversity of students who registered to participate."
The students, which included 13 students who self-identified as a minority and/or from a disadvantaged background, ranged in academic levels of experience from rising sophomores to 'seniors-plus.' Each student received a stipend of $1,000, and on-campus housing was provided to 17 of the students, nine of whom were enrolled outside of UMass Amherst.
The workshop was a resounding success, with 87 percent of the participants surveyed saying they were more likely to take biostatistics courses in the future.
“I came into this without much, if any, interest in biostatistics,” one student notes. “Now there is a real chance that I will pursue statistics or even biostatistics in the future. I really enjoyed myself through this workshop and feel like I learned a ton. It is a really great opportunity, and even if I don't continue in this field, the skills I learned will be applicable, even if it is just a better understanding of data.”
Balasubramanian hopes that the summer workshop will be the first of many as the department plans to apply for NIH grants to secure future funding for the program.
Transformative Student Experiences
In January 2024, a cohort of graduate students were on Beacon Hill to attend the 2024 Student Forum hosted by Brandeis University's Massachusetts Health Policy Forum. The forum provided our students with an opportunity to learn about the workings of state government and to meet with state legislators.
In January 2024, a cohort of MPH students traveled to Ghana to complete their practicum coursework over the winter semester. The Ghana program is interprofessional and service-learning in nature, and has the sole aim of providing public health and health-care professionals with the ability to gain skills working and learning in low-resource health-care settings.
The second cohort of undergraduate public health sciences majors spent their spring 2024 semester in the study abroad program in Costa Rica. The students all earned upper-division public health course credits, with classes taught in three-week blocks by rotating SPHHS faculty members. Students learned about public health in a global health setting and got to experience Costa Rica through social excursions and cultural activities.
Impactful Research
CDC Awards UMass Amherst-UT Austin Collaboration $27.5 Million to Help Establish Nation’s First Disease Outbreak Response Network
A team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Texas at Austin is among 13 institutional partners chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) to establish the nation’s first outbreak response and disease modeling network.
The team, led by renowned infectious disease researchers Nicholas Reich, a professor of biostatistics who directed the UMass COVID-19 Forecast Hub during the pandemic, and Lauren Ancel Meyers, an integrative biologist who serves as the director of the Center for Pandemic Decision Science at UT Austin, was awarded $27.5 million from the CFA to helps implement forecasting and disease modeling efforts over the next five years.
The award is part of a $250 million CDC initiative that grew out of the needs and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The emerging national network will use data to support decision-makers during public health emergencies. The UMass-UT team is one of three in the nation to receive funding under the implementation category. Other categories for funding include innovation and integration.
“Implementation is where the rubber meets the road,” says Reich, who is also director of the CDC-designated Influenza Forecasting Center of Excellence. “We want to take what worked from the collaborations between public health officials and the modeling community during COVID and improve upon it.”
Meyers was an integral player in the local analysis of and response to COVID-19 in the Austin area, where she directed the UT Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. She was given a key to the city in 2023 for her lab’s round-the-clock contribution to the community during the pandemic.
“Our models have provided critical information and saved lives during COVID-19 and other public health emergencies,” says Meyers. “However, with each new threat, we scrambled to build predictive analytics and to communicate the results to decision-makers. This project represents a huge national investment in data and analytics for pandemic preparedness. It will allow us, and teams like ours, to ensure that our tools are poised to rapidly detect, forecast, and combat new threats, and that public health officials across the U.S. are equipped to use them.”
Reich’s COVID-19 Forecast Hub, which through April 2024 provided weekly “ensemble” forecasts of COVID deaths and hospitalizations from dozens of models developed by teams of highly respected infectious disease forecasters, served as the source for the CDC’s short-term forecasts for counties, states, and the nation during the pandemic. These predictions were used by the White House to inform public communications as well as by health-care and university systems in planning for coming waves, and by vaccine manufacturers in designing and siting clinical trials.
Reich says the collaboration with Meyers at UT Austin will take advantage of the strengths of both of their groups’ experiences collaborating with public health officials. The goal will be to take pilot projects that have proven successful and design them for use across jurisdictions.
Reich and Meyers will partner with two dozen academic groups and public health agencies in Texas and Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, Meagan Burns, the Department of Public Health’s senior informatics epidemiologist, will work with Reich and Meyers to strengthen the team’s academic-public health core and develop strategies for decision support during crises.
“This collaboration will allow us to leverage the expertise of our partners and result in critical tools to respond to public health threats,” says Dr. Catherine M. Brown, state epidemiologist. “DPH will help inform the development of those tools and will use them to enhance our implementation of modeling and analytics to support public health.”
Also as part of the award, the UMass-UT group will receive $500,000 a year to develop staffing and data-sharing plans when emergency activation needs to happen. “The plan is to have this network of academic and industry partners that are standing by ready to be activated when another outbreak emergency occurs, and not necessarily just the once-in-a-century pandemic,” Reich says. “Once every couple of years, there’s something like an Ebola or monkey pox outbreak, or SARS or pandemic flu.”
Robotic Hip Exoskeleton Shows Promise for Helping Stroke Patients Regain Their Stride
More than 80 percent of stroke survivors experience walking difficulty, significantly impacting their daily lives, independence, and overall quality of life. Now, a new research collaboration between Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Wouter Hoogkamer and Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Meghan Huber is pushing forward the bounds of stroke recovery with a unique robotic hip exoskeleton, designed as a training tool to improve walking function. This invites the possibility of new therapies that are more accessible and easier to translate from practice to daily life compared to current rehabilitation methods.
Following a stroke, people often experience walking asymmetry, where one step is shorter than the other. The robotic hip exoskeleton has the potential to effectively train individuals to modify their walking asymmetry, presenting a promising avenue for stroke rehabilitation.
The approach employed by the robotic exoskeleton is inspired by split-belt treadmills, which are specialized machines with two side-by-side belts moving at different speeds. Prior research has shown that repeated training on a split-belt treadmill can reduce walking asymmetry in stroke patients.
Hoogkamer has spent the last decade studying split-belt treadmills. “Split-belt treadmill training is designed to exaggerate a stroke patient’s walking asymmetry by running the belts under each foot at different speeds," he says. "Over time, the nervous system adapts, such that when the belts are set to the same speed, they walk more symmetrically.”
Unfortunately, there are limits to the benefits gained from treadmill-based training methods. “What is learned on a treadmill does not completely transfer to overground contexts,” says Banu Abdikadirova, a mechanical and industrial engineering doctoral candidate involved in the project. “This is because walking on a treadmill is not exactly the same as walking overground.”
“The ultimate goal of gait rehabilitation is not to improve walking on a treadmill—it is to improve locomotor function overground,” says Huber. “With this in mind, our focus is to develop methods of gait rehabilitation that translate to functional improvements in real-world contexts.”
With this motivation, the UMass team sought a novel way to exaggerate walking asymmetry without a treadmill. Their proof-of-concept study showed that applying resistive forces about one hip joint and assistive forces about the other with their exoskeleton mimicked the effects of split-belt treadmill training in neurologically intact individuals.
Now that the research team has proven that the exoskeleton can alter gait asymmetry, they are eager to move their research into overground contexts that are more akin to the real world.
“Because our exoskeleton is portable, it can be used during overground walking,” says Mark Price, a postdoctoral researcher in mechanical and industrial engineering and kinesiology. “We can build upon the successes of split-belt treadmill training with this device to enhance the accessibility of gait training and enhance the transfer of training benefits into everyday walking contexts.”
The researchers also plan to expand their work by measuring the neural changes caused by walking with the exoskeleton and testing this new method on stroke survivors.
“A portable exoskeleton offers numerous clinical benefits,” says Abdikadirova. “Such a device can be seamlessly integrated into the daily lives of chronic stroke survivors, offering an accessible way to increase training time, which is critical for improving walking. It can also be used during early intervention in hospitals for improved functional outcomes.”
The robotic hip exoskeleton is just one of the innovative devices designed to study and enhance gait function developed by the collaborative team of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers from the Human Robot Systems Lab, led by Huber, and the Integrative Locomotion Lab, led by Hoogkamer.
“It is inspiring to witness the innovations that emerge when individuals from diverse backgrounds unite under a shared mission,” says Huber. “Only through this type of cross-disciplinary research can we engineer technologies that can have a meaningful impact on people's lives.”
Engineering the Future of Running
The Hoogkamer-Huber research team recently announced a collaboration with athletic footwear manufacturer PUMA to expand the application of their novel robotic hip exoskeleton and inspire the next generation of performance-enhancing activewear for runners of all skill levels.
Hoogkamer, one of the leading scientists in running performance and footwear who has been working with PUMA since 2019, will lead the running performance aspect of this research while Huber will oversee the electromechanical design work.
The current device has motors at the hip joints that can apply different torques, both in flexion and extension. “Building an exoskeleton to help people run faster or farther is an exciting engineering feat, but designing it to work seamlessly with the human wearer is just as critical to truly enhance running ability,” says Huber. “With that in mind, a major aspect of this research involves deepening our understanding of running biomechanics and motor neuroscience.”
“The idea of this is still very futuristic,” says Laura Healey, manager of research and sports science at PUMA. She sees that this device—and the insights gleaned from this research—could help a wide range of runners, “whether it’s someone who doesn’t run at all, and maybe by wearing this device they can start to run, or someone that runs really fast, and then this could make them run even faster.”
Developing sports equipment for elite athletic performance is familiar territory for Hoogkamer, as the PUMA shoes designed in collaboration with his lab were recently worn by two women finishing in the top three of the U.S. Olympic marathon trials. And he sees where insights from the exoskeleton can inform new innovations beyond footwear. “Actively inputting energy is not allowed in competition,” he says. “But, if we can find a way to recycle energy, that would not necessarily be in conflict with the rules.”
The goal of the exoskeleton is not to give a runner the ability to reach unseen top speeds, but rather to amplify their existing running abilities. Between a proven track record of research with PUMA, Hoogkamer’s status as a running community leader, Huber’s innovative exoskeleton design with a wide breadth of practical applications, and the general rise of elite running in western Massachusetts, UMass Amherst is emerging as a powerhouse for innovation in running and sports technology.
Combating Water- and Vector-Borne Diseases Around the World
In October 2023, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences welcomed Song Liang as its Chair and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences. Liang joined the faculty from the University of Florida, where he previously served as a faculty member in their Department of Environmental and Global Health, Emerging Pathogens Institute, and Florida Climate Institute.
Liang’s research interests lie in the intersections of environmental epidemiology, ecology, and transmission modeling of water-and-vector-borne diseases, as well as the impacts of climate change on health. His team adopts collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches, combining field and laboratory investigations with systems modeling, all grounded in the One Health framework. One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
“Our primary focus is on studying the intricate relationships between socio-environmental determinants, human exposure, and disease risk, placing special emphasis on addressing neglected tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis, waterborne illnesses like cholera, and zoonotic diseases such as campylobacteriosis in low- and middle-income countries,” notes Liang. “Our goal is to provide insights that will inform effective surveillance and sustainable disease control measures.”
In addition, Liang’s research employs a range of empirical and mechanistic methodologies to explore how climate change and extreme weather events, such as floods and temperature fluctuations, impact disease transmission dynamics and their implications for interventions and surveillance. His work has received support from various federal and international agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), the World Health Organization (WHO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
Liang also serves as an associate editor for PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease and Infectious Diseases of Poverty, and he contributes to the WHO as a member of the Technical Advisory Group on soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis control and elimination.
Newly Discovered Genetic Markers Help Pinpoint Diabetes Risks, Complications
In the largest genome-wide association study to date on Type 2 diabetes, a team of international researchers, co-led by genetic epidemiologist Cassandra Spracklen, has located 1,289 genetic markers associated with Type 2 diabetes (145 of which are newly identified) and generated risk scores for diabetes complications.
In research published in the journal Nature that advances understanding into the inheritability of Type 2 diabetes, the scientists used cutting-edge computational approaches to identify eight distinct mechanistic clusters of genetic variants linked to the disease. They also discovered associations between individual clusters and diabetes complications.
“We tried to figure out some of the mechanisms for how these genetic variants are working—and we did,” says Spracklen, an associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology.
Ultimately, the goal is to identify potential genetic targets to treat or even cure the chronic metabolic disease that affects and sometimes debilitates more than 400 million adults worldwide, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
The study—emerging from the newly formed Type 2 Diabetes Global Genomics Initiative—included data from a highly diverse group of more than 2.5 million individuals, 428,452 of whom have Type 2 diabetes.
“We found eight clusters of Type 2 diabetes-associated variants that have also been associated with other diabetes risk factors—such as obesity and liver-lipid metabolism—suggesting the mechanisms for how the variants may be acting to cause diabetes,” Spracklen says. “Then we asked if these clusters were also associated with Type 2 diabetes complications. And we found that several of them also associated with vascular complications, such as coronary artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy.”
Even though effective treatments are available for Type 2 diabetes, the option for precision medicine tailored to the individual is still limited. For many people with the disease, treatment strategies still rely on trial and error. Being better able to understand the disease mechanisms will help predict individuals’ risk of Type 2 diabetes and allow for earlier intervention.
“We’re trying to understand how diabetes develops,” says Spracklen. “And we’re trying to better understand how these genetic variants are actually working within a biological tissue or at the cellular level, which can ultimately lead to new drug targets and treatments.”
New Research Links Abnormal Intestinal Function and Cognitive Decline
A new research study led by Assistant Professor of Nutrition Chaoran Ma associates chronic constipation with cognitive decline.
“Our study provides first-of-its-kind evidence of abnormal intestinal function being linked to cognitive decline. Specifically, we found that less frequent bowel movements were associated with poorer cognitive function,” says Ma, lead author of the study, which was first presented at the 2023 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam and later appeared in the journal Neurology.
Ma and team’s findings are based on an analysis of three prospective cohorts of 112,753 women and men from the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Data on participants’ bowel movement frequency was collected between 2012 and 2013, and self-assessments of cognitive function were obtained from 2014 to 2017. A subgroup of 12,696 participants completed the CogState neuropsychological battery for objective cognitive assessment between 2014 and 2018.
“Compared to those with bowel movements once daily, constipated participants (bowel movements every three-plus days) had significantly worse cognition, equivalent to 3.0 years more of cognitive aging,” Ma says. “We also found a slightly increased risk of cognitive decline in those who had bowel movements more than twice a day.”
Ma conducted the research when she was a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, working with senior author Dr. Dong Wang, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
In a subgroup of 515 women and men, the researchers also looked at the role of the gut microbiome in the association between bowel movement frequency and cognitive function. They found that bowel movement frequency and subjective cognition were significantly associated with the overall variation of the gut microbiome and specific microbial species.
“This research adds further evidence for a link between the microbiome and gastrointestinal function with cognitive function,” Ma says. “Our findings not only support considering constipation as a risk factor for cognitive decline, but also provide further evidence for the link between microbiome and brain function.”
About 16 percent of the world’s population experiences chronic constipation, with older adults facing higher rates of constipation due to such age-related factors as fiber-deficient diets, lack of exercise, and the use of constipating drugs to treat other medical conditions. Chronic constipation is also associated with inflammation, hormonal imbalances, and anxiety/depression.
“Our microbiome study found that individuals with specific microbial profiles in the gut, i.e., more bacteria that can cause inflammation and fewer bacteria responsible for digesting dietary fibers, had less frequent bowel movements and worse cognitive function,” Ma says. “In addition, unhealthy microbial profiles in the gut may explain the association between abnormal intestinal function and cognitive decline.”
High School Students No More Likely to Use Marijuana After Legalization in Massachusetts
High schoolers who perceive that their parents, siblings, or friends use marijuana were much more likely to use marijuana themselves—but no more so after cannabis was legalized in Massachusetts in 2016, according to research by health promotion and policy researchers Faith English and Jennifer Whitehill.
“It’s not news that youth are influenced by peers,” says English, a doctoral candidate in health policy and management and lead author of a paper published in a special issue of Clinical Therapeutics that discusses critical opportunities of cannabis legalization. “But our paper was really the first to look at these three particular roles within a person’s social network and then look at changes from pre- to post-legalization. It was really quite novel.”
While perceived marijuana use by family and friends was known to be a risk factor for adolescent marijuana use, English and Whitehill, senior author and associate professor of health policy and management, wanted to examine whether this association changed in the context of legalization. No association was found between the legalization of cannabis for adult recreational use and adolescent use, though further research is warranted, English says.
The research can help inform policy and public health guidelines, not just in Massachusetts but in other states rolling out cannabis laws. Recreational marijuana is now fully legal in 24 states plus the District of Columbia. The legal age to buy and possess marijuana for recreational use in those states is 21 years old.
“One of the million-dollar questions as cannabis policies are being implemented across the country is whether or not youth use increases after legalization,” English says. “There’s a lot of concern that underage folks will start using cannabis with greater frequency. The brain isn’t done developing until about age 26, so the messaging really is to delay use until after that age.”
Youth who perceive that their parents, siblings, or friends use marijuana are identified by the research as a subpopulation who may be at an increased risk for cannabis use and for whom additional prevention and intervention strategies should be implemented, English says.
The researchers analyzed two waves of data collected by a local substance use coalition who surveyed students at two eastern Massachusetts high schools. When comparing data from 2016, before legalization, and 2018, after legalization but before retail cannabis stores had opened, the researchers found no statistically significant differences in the prevalence of past 30-day marijuana use.
After legalization, there was an increase in the proportion of adolescents who reported a perception that their parents used marijuana (from 18 percent before legalization to 24 percent after legalization), even before retail stores opened. Perceived marijuana use by a best friend—compared to perceived use by a parent or sibling—had the largest association with marijuana use by adolescents, the research found.
Alkema, Vandenberg Among 'Most Highly Cited' Researchers for 2023
Professors Leontine Alkema (biostatistics) and Laura Vandenberg (environmental health sciences) are among the 12 UMass Amherst researchers who have been recognized as among the world’s most highly cited researchers in 2023.
The list is generated by the analytics provider Clarivate's Web of Science database. The highly cited papers rank in the top 1% by citations for their field and publication year in the Web of Science over the past decade. The 2023 list of highly cited researchers spans 67 countries or regions and represents a diverse range of research fields in the sciences and social sciences.
Of the world’s population of scientists and social scientists, highly cited researchers are 1 in 1,000, according to Clarivate.
Research Roundup
Kleinman Part of Multidisciplinary Team Receiving $13.7 Million Grant to Address Antibiotic Resistance in Nursing Homes
Six antibiotic-resistant pathogens that are serious and urgent national health threats will be studied by a national team of investigators who received a $13.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Led by infectious diseases expert Dr. Susan Huang at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine, the multidisciplinary team of researchers will collaborate to address the growing problem of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in nursing homes throughout the United States. The grant investigators include notable experts in infectious diseases, epidemiology, biostatistics, microbiology, pathogen genomics, human microbiome, systems science, health economics, and mathematical modeling. The project marks the first time all six major MDROs will be investigated using multiple scientific methods at the same time. The MDROs will be examined using one of the world’s largest compilations of specimens from health-care facilities: 16,000 samples collected from residents and environmental surfaces of 50 U.S. nursing homes.
Professor of Biostatistics Ken Kleinman is leading a part of the research that will help investigators understand how best to use the data collected. He also will design the data collection strategy.
Kleinman has worked previously with Huang on such groundbreaking research as the REDUCE MRSA Trial, which found that decolonizing all hospital intensive care unit patients with chlorhexidine and nasal mupirocin decreased all-cause bloodstream infections by nearly half.
MDROs are a serious problem for the 1.4 million people living in the nation’s 15,000 nursing homes. The estimated 65 percent of nursing home residents harboring MDROs is four to six times that seen in hospitals. Collectively, these MDROs cause about 590,000 infections and 26,000 deaths in the U.S. every year.
The researchers are seeking the best MDRO detection methods, sources, and drivers of their spread; major risk factors associated with colonization, infection, and hospitalization; and the interventions to inform infection prevention policies and reduce hospitalizations and deaths. Genome analysis of the superbug samples will show where and how the pathogens are spread in the nursing homes.
“We’ll be able to say that one resident got it from the handrail outside their room, whereas the residents of the other side of the nursing home got it from the lunch tray that was served to them,” Kleinman says. “It’s super cool science.”
Grant Examines Impact of Sex and Gender on the Metabolome and CVD
Professor of Biostatistics Raji Balasubramanian is co-principal investigator on a new four-year, $2.4 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to examine the impact of sex and gender on the metabolome and cardiovascular disease (CVD). She’ll conduct the research with Dr. Kathryn Rexrode of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Both sex and gender have profound effects on CVD occurrence and associated risk factors. Differences in CVD between men and women are often attributed to biologic sex, such as hormones, but all individuals are also deeply affected by the gender norms and expectations of their society. However, few studies have examined the impact of gender on CVD. The impact of gender can be measured in part through gender-related variables classified in the domains of gender roles, gender relations, gender identity, institutionalized gender, discrimination, and behavioral/lifestyle risk factors. Integrating the impact of both biologic sex and sociocultural gender, metabolomic profiles capture the downstream effects of genomic as well as environmental factors.
To date, no studies have examined the impact of gender on the metabolome, which may offer clues about biologic mechanistic pathways related to gender. The research team will attempt to separate the impact of sex and gender through sex-stratified evaluation of gender effects on the metabolome and subsequent CVD risk to better understand the health impacts of gender, particularly in women.
The research team has deep expertise in women's health, cardiovascular disease outcomes, metabolomics, and biostatistics/ bioinformatics. For their study, they will leverage data from three large, unique cohort studies: (1) the UK Biobank (UKB), (2) the Women's Health Initiative, and (3) the Nurses' Health Studies 1 and 2. The researchers expect the results will advance understanding of the impact of gender on health and may inform CVD prevention strategies.
Do ‘Forever Chemicals’ Increase Breast Cancer Risk?
Cancer epidemiologist Katherine Reeves will explore for the first time how women’s breast tissue is affected by exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have been widely used in consumer products with non-stick water- and stain-resistant coatings.
“Our overall goal is to understand if PFAS contribute to breast cancer development,” says Reeves, associate dean of graduate and professional studies and professor of epidemiology.
The research will be funded with a two-year, $405,000 grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost everyone in the U.S. has a measurable exposure to PFAS, one of several groups of substances called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down naturally in the environment.
“We’re exposed to them in a variety of ways,” Reeves explains. “Drinking water is certainly a very common one. Even though these chemicals are being phased out, we’re still using the consumer products that have these—think of the couch you bought 15 years ago that you Scotchguarded. You’re still being exposed. And the health effects are not entirely known.”
In the new research, Reeves will use preexisting data and biospecimens from the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank, an extraordinary resource that includes some 9,000 samples of breast tissue donated by healthy volunteers, along with their medical and reproductive history. Reeves and team will examine data from 286 postmenopausal breast tissue donors who also provided a blood sample and gave access to their mammograms and measurements of their terminal duct lobular (TDL) units. TDL produces milk after childbirth, and the “involution,” or turning on of that process, happens naturally with aging.
“Most breast cancers come out of these terminal ductal lobular units, and a greater degree of involution is associated with a lower breast cancer risk,” Reeves explains.
The researchers will measure the concentrations of the five most common PFAS chemicals in the blood serum samples. “We’re expecting to see that PFAS concentrations will be associated with less involution, meaning that there is a higher breast cancer risk,” says Reeves.
The researchers will also use the volunteers’ digital mammogram files to examine breast density. Higher PFAS concentrations associated with greater breast density would indicate a higher breast cancer risk. It’s possible that PFAS exposure itself is associated with denser breasts, Reeves says, though many other factors, including genetics and weight, are involved.
“We’re taking advantage of these well-established biomarkers of future breast cancer risk to look at associations between PFAS and those biomarkers,” Reeves says.
Qian to Conduct Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease Studies
Professor of Biostatistics Jing Qian has received a two-year, $463,739 NIH grant to analyze Alzheimer's disease (AD) studies. Qian’s expertise includes survival analysis under complex sampling, in which he develops estimation and hypothesis testing methods under censoring and dependent truncation arising from observational studies.
More than 6.5 million Americans suffer with AD, and by 2050 this number is expected to double. Yet the development of effective therapies remains an urgent unmet need. In a scenario of highly complex AD pathophysiology and a costly and long drug development process, repurposing of drugs such as statins and proton pump inhibitors that are approved for other applications is an attractive complementary approach.
Building upon extensive prior work, Qian and fellow researchers from Mass General Hospital and New York University will produce new statistical methodology that will eliminate the bias that may arise with using truncated and interval-censored covariates in data analyses, which are inherent to longitudinal cohort studies in AD and related dementias. Their methods will address analytic shortcomings that may have contributed to the conflicting findings regarding the potential efficacy of statins and the potential risk of proton pump inhibitors with respect to AD.
Evans Leads Assessment of New Courts Program to Provide Treatment to People with Substance Use Disorders
Professor of Community Health Education Elizabeth Evans will evaluate a pilot initiative in the Chicopee and Holyoke District Courts that is designed to connect court-involved individuals with substance use disorders to treatment and recovery services.
The Chicopee and Holyoke Access to Treatment and Services (CHATS) Project, funded with a three-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to the Massachusetts Trial Court, will allow each court to partner with western Massachusetts treatment provider Gándara Center.
The grant will fund the full-time services of a Peer Recovery Coach and a Recovery Support Coordinator from Gándara in both the Chicopee and Holyoke courts. They will link participants to health and social service providers in their communities.
The goal of CHATS is to reduce recidivism, opioid use and overdose deaths. The project is part of an effort to expand access to treatment and services at every stage of court proceedings, beginning at an individual’s first court appearance.
Evans will collect data on participation, engagement, and outcomes and will work with the Trial Court to evaluate how the program is implemented. For several years, she has been working with the sheriffs in Franklin and Hampshire counties to design, implement, and evaluate jail-based treatment programs for people with opioid use disorder.
“These district courts are engaged in innovative programming that has the potential to save lives and improve public safety,” Evans says. “We’ll learn whether this program is effective and whether it should expand.”
Researchers to Study Involuntary Civil Commitment to Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
Elizabeth Evans has also partnered with fellow community health education faculty member Linnea Evans on a new collaboration with the MA Department of Public Health (MDPH). Led by Drs. Peter Friedmann and Ben Bovell-Ammon, clinicians at Baystate Health, the research team will analyze data from the state’s Public Health Data Warehouse, created in response to the opioid overdose epidemic, to study involuntary civil commitment to treatment for opioid use disorder. Involuntary treatment has been a significant and often controversial policy issue in combating opioid and alcohol use disorder.
Their project with MDPH is an extension of the work currently being conducted by Elizabeth Evans and Friedmann, who are co-investigators on an opioid treatment program instituted for jail detainees in nine Massachusetts jails. Funded by a $10 million grant from NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, the research is part of the NIH’s Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), an ambitious, $155 million effort involving scientists at dozens of institutions nationwide to improve opioid addiction treatment in criminal justice settings.
An expert in health equity, Linnea Evans will use MDPH’s racial equity data road map and contribute to the project’s research design. The team hopes that they can use this project as a blueprint to build on for future externally funded projects.
Attanasio to Examine Disparities in Birth Mode for Individuals with a Prior Cesarean
Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management Laura Attanasio has received a $462,000 NIH grant to examine hospital quality, processes of care, and racial disparities in birth mode for individuals with a prior cesarean.
Addressing the persistently high rates of severe maternal morbidity among Black women is an urgent public health priority. Of the 3.8 million U.S. births each year, nearly a third occur via cesarean delivery, which is a risk factor for severe maternal morbidity, and cesarean rates are higher among Black women than among white women. For women giving birth after a prior cesarean, maternal morbidity is lowest with a vaginal birth, but higher with an unplanned (versus planned) repeat cesarean. There are racial and ethnic disparities in birth mode among women with a prior cesarean, with Black women more likely to have unplanned repeat cesareans compared to white women, but these disparities are poorly understood.
Attanasio’s study will examine how hospital characteristics and processes of care shape racial disparities in birth mode among women with a prior cesarean. Results will contribute to a better understanding of the circumstances involved with labor ending in cesarean delivery for women who have had one previously and help to identify potential interventions to improve the quality of care for women with a prior cesarean.
SPHHS Teams Awarded Interdisciplinary Research Grants and Large-Scale Integrative Research Awards
SPHHS faculty are among the 15 teams of faculty and librarians from across the UMass Amherst campus who have been awarded Interdisciplinary Research Grants and Large-Scale Integrative Research Awards for 2024.
Interdisciplinary Research Grants are offered to teams of UMass Amherst faculty and librarians from at least two different schools/colleges with the goals of empowering creativity, strengthening the campus’s areas of interdisciplinary excellence, promoting equitable collaborations, and attracting external funding and other forms of recognition across our colleges and schools.
The Large-Scale Integrative Research Awards are for faculty teams to develop equitable collaborations aimed at large-scale initiatives that require substantial external funding. The program provides professional consultations to awarded teams on integrative teaming, equitable collaboration, and budget planning and offers research development support for ideation and proposal development.
SPHHS faculty receiving 2024 Interdisciplinary Research Grants
- Project title: "Bio-Inspired Footwear: Variable Stiffness Lattice Design Shoes to Mitigate Knee Pain in Knee Osteoarthritis." Faculty: Seth Donahue, Biomedical Engineering; Katherine Boyer, Kinesiology
- Project title: "Leveraging Large Language Models to Provide Clinically Feasible Tools for Assessing Discourse in Individuals with Communication Impairments." Faculty: Jacquie Kurland, Speech, Language, and Hearing Science; Anna Liu, Mathematics and Statistics; Brendan O'Connor, Computer and Information Sciences
SPHHS faculty receiving 2024 Large-Scale Integrative Research Awards
- Project title: "Center for Community Health Equity Research: Center for Excellence in Investigator Development and Community Engagement." Faculty: Susan Shaw, Health Promotion and Policy; Kathryn Derose, Health Promotion and Policy; Airín Martínez, Health Promotion and Policy; Daniel López-Cevallos, Health Promotion and Policy; Linnea Evans, Health Promotion and Policy
- Project title: "Developing the HEART Center: Health, Environment, and the ARTs (HEART)." Faculty: Aline Gubrium, Health Promotion and Policy; Marla Miller, History; Sally Pirie, Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies; Elizabeth Krause, Anthropology; Sarah Goff, Health Promotion and Policy; Sandy Litchfield, Architecture
Faculty and Staff Honors
In Memoriam: Paula Stamps (1946–2024)
Paula L. Stamps, professor emerita of health promotion and policy, passed away on March 22, 2024.
Stamps joined the UMass Amherst faculty in 1972, serving as a faculty member in the Health Policy and Management program for over 30 years. She also served as a member of the then School of Health Sciences's leadership team, first as program head for health services administration program from 1982–84, and later, as acting director of the Division of Public Health and program head for health policy and management program from 1987–88.
Beginning in 2009, and continuing past her retirement from teaching in 2013, she served as graduate program director, first for the school's Department of Public Health, and later, the Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Health Promotion and Policy. She retired from those duties in 2022.
In this capacity, Stamps had an immeasurable impact on the countless number of graduate and undergraduate students she worked with, instructed, and mentored. Over the years, she taught courses such as Foundations of Public Health, the popular gen-ed course Health Care for All: Myths and Realities, Emergency Preparedness: From Policy to Practical Issues, and following the attack on 9/11, Bioterrorism and Challenges to Public Health.
Stamps’s research career focused on the development of robust measures for some of the variables used to measure quality in health services research, primarily on the measure of satisfaction of patients with the care they receive and the level of occupational satisfaction of both physicians and nurses. She was best known for the development of a statistically valid attitude scale used to measure the level of occupational satisfaction of nurses in clinical settings. Her Index of Work Satisfaction (IWS) is used at the professional level to manage nurse turnover, which is very costly to hospital budgets. The IWS is now the standard measure used in many regional and local studies, and is one of the quality measures required by the Joint Commission on Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations. It is also used by the American Nurses Association to help certify "magnet" hospitals. In addition to its professional use, the IWS is used to link management strategies, nurse satisfaction, and patient outcomes, which permits more complex research questions to be addressed. The IWS has also been used internationally in over 35 countries.
She was the author of six books and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Her practice-based activities included close collaborations with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on a range of activities, including developing the state-wide emergency preparedness plan, developing and implementing state-wide training courses for public health and public safety professionals, becoming a member of the local Medical Reserve Corps, implementing and evaluating regional emergency simulations, being a member of the Town of Chesterfield's emergency response team.
Stamps received many honors during her lengthy career, being selected as a recipient of the UMass Amherst Distinguished Teaching Award in 1994 and a Community Service Learning Fellowship in 1996. Nationally, she notably received the American Nurses Association's Book of the Year Award twice, in 1987 and again in 1998, for her seminal work, Nurses and Work Satisfaction: An Index for Measurement (first and second editions, respectively). She served in both the Golden Key International Honor Society and Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health.
Following her passing, the Department of Health Promotion and Policy established a new graduate student award in her name. The newly created Paula Stamps Award will be given to a graduate student who demonstrates "the high level of scholarship, compassion, and dedication to UMass shown through the years by Professor Stamps.”
Alhassan Receives Zenobia L. Hikes Distinguished Career Award
Professor of Kinesiology Sofiya Alhassan received the 2024 Zenobia L. Hikes Distinguished Career Award from the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (FWCA) during the organization's national conference held April 11–14 in Arlington, Virginia. Alhassan serves as the associate dean for Inclusion and Engagement with the UMass Amherst Graduate School.
“This award means a lot to me because it is a recognition of my scholarly work and the work I do to mentor both graduate students and faculty of color, nationally and here at UMass,” says Alhassan, who in September 2023 was also inducted as a fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology.
Named for the former vice president of student affairs at Virginia Tech, the Zenobia L. Hikes Award recognizes a woman of color with a distinguished career in higher education demonstrated by scholarly endeavors or administrative and professional accomplishments. Additionally, she is an engaged member of her campus and community, with a history of advancing the development of women of color as they pursue their education and prepare for careers in the academy and beyond.
“This award is a wonderful but not unexpected recognition, given what we know about Sofiya’s accomplishments in her field of research and the many significant contributions to the campus community,” says Richard van Emmerik, professor and chair of kinesiology.
Since joining the UMass Amherst faculty in 2007, Alhassan has served as the graduate program director of the kinesiology department, an ADVANCE Faculty Fellow, and a scholar for the Center for Research on Families. Nationally, she is a fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology and has served on the board of trustees of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), where she is a member of several committees and was previously a Leadership and Diversity Fellow. She serves as editor of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. She has and continues to mentor several students and faculty of color across the UMass campus.
Timme-Laragy Offers Expertise on Role of Seafood Consumption in Child Growth and Development
Alicia Timme-Laragy, a professor of environmental health sciences whose research expertise focuses on developmental toxicology and environmental pollutants, served as a consultant for the National Academies Committee on The Role of Seafood in Child Growth and Development.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in partnership with other federal agencies, tasked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) with convening an expert committee to examine associations between seafood intake for children, adolescents, and pregnant and lactating women and child growth and development.
“My role was to (1) serve as a technical expert to advise NASEM staff on the design, structure, and implementation of a systematic review to support the study and (2) serve as an advisor to the committee regarding the structure and conduct of the systematic review,” says Timme-Laragy. “Primarily, these efforts focused on the toxicology and pollutant exposure side of the report. I learned a lot about how research can contribute to science-based policy assessments and recommendations, as well as how scientists from different disciplines can work together towards a common goal.”
The committee completed its study and released an overview of its conclusions and recommendations in a public webinar in spring 2024. The full and final report is now available online.
Peltier Participates in State-Sponsored Trip as Part of U.S. Speaker Program
Early in 2024, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Richard Peltier spent two weeks in India on a U.S. State Department-sponsored trip as part of its U.S. Speaker Program. For this diplomatic effort, Peltier visited four cities where he met with local stakeholders, government ministers, local staff, students, and academics to talk about the state of the science in the field of air pollution and health.
Peltier’s expertise is often sought by national media outlets, government agencies, and NGOs, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and he currently serves on the World Health Organization's Global Air Pollution and Health Technical Advisory Group.
For his advocacy, Peltier was named a 2023 Science Defender by the Union of Concerned Scientists. He was one of four individuals and groups recognized for their outstanding work to defend science, or who have put science to work to help people and change the world for the better. Peltier was honored for his work "helping communities breathe easier" and was cited for his work collecting and interpreting data on air quality around the world. His team works in countries such as Nepal and Bolivia, “where there are air pollution problems that are not being seen, observed, or interrogated.” Closer to home, he’s worked with grassroots environmental justice organizations in Kansas, Texas, and Tennessee to help them make the scientific case for limiting emissions of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic gas released by certain industrial facilities.
Calabrese Receives 2023 Herbert E. Stokinger Award
The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) named Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Edward Calabrese as its 2023 Herbert E. Stokinger Award recipient. Calabrese received the award and delivered a keynote lecture during the organization's online awards ceremony in October 2023.
Initiated in 1977, the Herbert E. Stokinger Award recognizes significant contributions in the broad field of industrial and environmental toxicology. The award’s namesake served as chairman of the Chemical Substances Threshold Limit Values Committee from 1961–1975. Calabrese and past winners comprise a virtual “Who’s Who” in ACGIH and industrial hygiene overall.
"It is both my great honor and great pleasure to receive the 2023 Stokinger Award of the ACGIH," Calabrese said in remarks delivered to the organization. "I greatly appreciate receiving the Stokinger Award since my work in the area of hormesis and the historical foundations of cancer risk assessment have been controversial and very challenging to the field and regulatory agencies."
Calabrese has researched extensively in the area of host factors affecting susceptibility to pollutants. He is the author of over 1,000 papers in scholarly journals, as well as more than 10 books. He has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and NATO Countries Safe Drinking Water committees, and on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. He also serves as chairman of the Biological Effects of Low-Level Exposures (BELLE) and as director of the Northeast Regional Environmental Public Health Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Among his many awards, Calabrese was awarded the Marie Curie Prize for his body of work on hormesis in 2009.
Van Emmerik Delivers Distinguished Faculty Lecture
Professor and Chair of Kinesiology Richard van Emmerik was the final speaker in the 2023–2024 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series, delivering a talk to the campus community on April 30, 2024. During the lecture, he was presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed upon faculty by the campus.
In his lecture, titled “Understanding the Movement Challenges in People with Multiple Sclerosis (MS),” van Emmerik gave an overview of the history, etiology, and symptoms of MS; explained the different subtypes of the disease; and discussed the specific movement sensory functions that are impacted in MS. He rounded out his lecture with a discussion of how the latest research in MS may help in developing innovative treatments for balance and gait dysfunction, and how adaptive physical activity programs may be beneficial for overall well-being in people with MS.
Established in 1974, the annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture is dedicated to acknowledging the work of the university’s most esteemed and accomplished faculty members. The lecture series not only honors individual faculty members and their achievements but also celebrates the values of academic excellence that we share as a community.
Frechette Named 2024 ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentor Award Winner
Senior Lecturer II of Kinesiology Eliza Frechette was named one of the nine winners of the 2024 UMass ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentor Award.
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentor Awards for each college recognize the invaluable contributions of faculty members in mentoring and supporting their colleagues' professional development. The winners, selected from a competitive pool of nominees, were honored at the ADVANCE Annual Distinguished Lecture and Awards Reception, held March 27, 2024, at the Campus Center.
Frechette serves as the kinesiology undergraduate program director. As one nominator stated, Frechette “effortlessly and tirelessly models effective communication, inclusion, and advocacy for all. She is a 'natural' at peer mentoring, but that term might belie the fact that mentoring is something Eliza works on with great dedication.” Another nominator describes how the care and compassion with which Frechette handled a delicate situation taught him how best to support and advocate for students. Another celebrates the care she took in walking a new faculty member through a difficult first semester, including navigating their first academic misconduct case and forging mentorship networks to help her balance the demands of pre-tenure work and new motherhood.
Cook and Fan Named Outstanding Teaching Award Recipients
Elizabeth Cook, a senior lecturer in epidemiology, was named the school’s 2023–24 College Outstanding Teacher Award (COTA) winner. The COTA is co-administered by the UMass Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning and given annually to one member of each college’s faculty who demonstrates excellence and creativity in teaching, a positive impact on their students, and a mastery of their subject.
During the 2023–24 academic year, Cook taught two undergraduate courses, PUBHLTH 224: Epidemiology in Public Health and SPHHS 150: Great Challenges in Public Health, and two new courses in the graduate Master of Public Health curriculum, SPHHS 615 and SPHHS 616.
Cook notes that her teaching philosophy is centered around the core values of connection, relevance, humility, and trust. Most of the courses she has taught have been required for most, if not all, of the students enrolled. For some students, this may have been the course they’ve been looking forward to for years; for others, this required course may be viewed as a major speed bump on their path to a degree in another area of public health.
“This means that students come to the class from a variety of academic, professional, and personal backgrounds—all with different goals,” Cook says. “My challenge is to find a way to inspire all of them. I just hope that my students learn that they are active partners in their learning and that I am invested in their success. I’d love for everyone to leave my classes thinking like an epidemiologist!”
Rong Fan, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutrition, was named the winner of the annual Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award. Over the past academic year, Fan served as an instructor for Nutrition 130: Nutrition/Healthy Lifestyle in the fall and as the head teaching assistant in the spring.
“I am thrilled and deeply honored to have received this award,” Fan says. “It means so much to me as it acknowledges my dedication to teaching. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to teach, and for my wonderful students.”
Mack Awarded Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
Assistant Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Jennifer Mack was one of the eight UMass Amherst faculty members selected as 2024–25 Lilly Fellows for Teaching Excellence by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Established in 1986, the Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence supports the university’s strategic interest in developing academic leaders in the area of teaching. During their fellowship year, participants attend regular seminars on pedagogy, develop a new course or substantially redesign an existing one, complete a teaching portfolio that includes teaching reflections and activities adapted to the course, and work collaboratively to anticipate many of the challenges and rewards of faculty life at UMass Amherst.
Mack will redesign SLHS 215: Introduction to Language Science. The course will weave together multiple perspectives on language, including language structure and meaning, the cognitive bases of language, language as an important aspect of our identities and social experiences, and the experience of living with conditions that affect language.
Moore Appointed Assistant Dean of Academic Success and Career Planning
The SPHHS announced the appointment of Torin Moore as its new assistant dean of academic success and career planning beginning November 1, 2023.
Moore served as an SPHHS student success advisor for six years previously. Prior to that, he worked at Amherst College as their assistant dean of students and director of residential life and at Hampshire College as the assistant dean of students for enrollment and retention. Moore is a UMass Amherst alumnus, having earned his undergraduate degree in political science and his master’s degree in education.
"Torin is well suited to continue the great work started in the Office for Student Success as well as incorporate his vision and insights gained from his extensive experience," says Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz. "He is a coalition builder, supporter of a student-centered approach to decision-making, and is passionate about making all students feel that they belong in SPHHS and UMass. We are so fortunate to have him here in SPHHS and now on our leadership team."
Academic Advising Teams Present at National Conference
Two teams of academic advisors gave presentations at the National Academic Advising Association’s Region 1 Conference held on February 20–22, 2024, in Providence, RI.
Assistant Dean of Academic Success and Career Planning Torin Moore and UMass advising staff from the Commonwealth Honors College, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and College of Education hosted a roundtable discussion titled “Unpacking the Experience of Advisors of Color in a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).” There, they provided support to Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) academic advisors in navigating their experiences working at PWIs, offering solidarity in their experiences and ways in which they can thrive in their work. They shared collective insights and an opportunity to network with other advisors of color to share strategies and take meaningful steps toward a more inclusive and equitable academic advising landscape.
In a separate session, academic advisors Karin Cooley-Sanieski, Katherine Hanson, Jesse Hunsicker, and Brigid Williams presented a talk on “Leveraging ChatGPT to Support Academic Advising.” In their talk, the SPHHS advising team discussed the growing popularity of ChatGPT, a language-based-model chatbot, and held a conversation regarding its ethical and practical use on college campuses.
“We take the stance that AI and new technologies like ChatGPT will be part of the fabric of everyday life,” the team notes in their talk summary, “and would like to initiate dialogue among colleagues on how to harness these tools to support academic advising.” The talk provided participants with an overview of ChatGPT, its potential and limitations for academic advising in its current state, and tips on how to effectively use it in everyday practice. They noted that for academic advisors, “ChatGPT can be an effective time-saving tool, for example, by creating administrative efficiencies with tasks such as course selection, career advising, writing letters of recommendation, designing administrative templates, and even event planning, to name a few.”
Student Honors
Almeida Receives Boren Fellowship to Study in India
Community health education doctoral student Fiona Almeida is among the three UMass Amherst graduate students who received National Security Education Program Boren Graduate Fellowships in 2024 to study languages in regions critical to U.S. interests. While living abroad, the students will immerse themselves in the culture of their host country. Following their studies, each recipient will enter public service at a federal agency for at least a year.
Almeida works with Professors Aline Gubrium and Krishna Poudel with a focus on women’s reproductive health, menstrual stigma, and equity. Almeida will study the Kannada language in Karnataka, South India. Proficiency in Kannada is vital for her future goal to strengthen the Bureau for Global Health’s collaboration with South Asia to design innovative digital health education to improve health care for girls and women.
"I feel immense gratitude, especially to the community of people who have supported me through this process," says Almeida, who will complete her dissertation work following her year abroad. "It still feels like a dream."
The National Security Education Program was founded by the David L. Boren National Security Education Act of 1991, which also created the National Security Education Board and resources to provide undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and institutional grants. It is guided by a mission that seeks to lead in the development of the national capacity to educate U.S. citizens, understand foreign cultures, strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness, and enhance international cooperation and security.
English Awarded National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship
Faith English, a doctoral candidate in health promotion and policy, has received a two-year graduate research fellowship from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The $111,000 award will support her dissertation research examining whether proportions of school-based discipline for cannabis-related incidents among youth under age 21 have changed as cannabis policies have become increasingly liberal in Massachusetts between 2005–2021.
NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Its graduate research fellowship program supports doctoral students engaged in research that advances NIJ’s mission to improve knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through science, thereby increasing the pool of scholars engaged in research that addresses the challenges of crime and justice in the United States, particularly at the state and local levels.
English is investigating the sociodemographic characteristics of school districts with relatively high and low proportions of school-based discipline, incorporating a community-engaged research approach to explore youth perceptions of and experiences with school-based discipline for cannabis offenses.
“Existing research has shown that school suspension and expulsion during adolescence is associated with multiple adverse outcomes such as not completing high school and later involvement with the criminal justice system,” says English. “The ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ has increased youth involvement in the criminal justice system, as schools have adopted zero tolerance for drug possession and use on school grounds. These policies have disproportionately affected youth of color and youth from urban settings, with higher rates of suspension, expulsion, and criminal justice involvement, despite rates of drug use that are similar to or lower than white youth.”
English added that in some states, the legalization of cannabis for persons aged 21-plus is associated with a decrease in arrests among adults, but the evidence among youth is mixed. With her dissertation research, English will examine the relationship between these policies and risks of disciplinary action for youth.
Bajpai and Mottey Awarded AAUW Fellowships
Doctoral students Shivangi Bajpai (kinesiology) and Barbara Elorm Mottey (environmental health sciences) were awarded fellowships from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) for the 2023–24 academic year.
AAUW is one of the world’s oldest leading supporters of graduate women’s education. Since 1888, it has awarded more than $135 million in fellowships, grants, and awards to 13,000 women from 150 countries.
Bajpai and Mottey both received International Doctoral Degree Fellowships. The program provides support for women pursuing full-time graduate or
postdoctoral study in the United States who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Recipients return to their home countries to become leaders in business, government, academia, community activism, the arts or scientific fields.
Bajpai’s work currently focuses on advancing measurement of physical activity and studying the association of physical activity with various health outcomes. Her dissertation work centers around exploring the benefits of wearable device metrics in monitoring cardiovascular health of Alzheimer’s and related dementia caregivers.
Mottey's research specializes in air pollution and its impact in sub-Saharan Africa as this region is characterized with little data. Using a five-year longitudinal data set from 10 fixed sites in the greater Accra metropolitan area, Ghana, she aims to assess the trend in PM2.5 and black carbon particulate matter and what factors are driving these increases. She will also assess how prenatal exposures to these pollutants are associated with adverse birth outcomes using a recently developed land-use regression model.
EHS Lab Members Receive 2024 Society of Toxicology Awards
Four researchers working in the environmental health science labs of faculty members Alexander Suvorov and Alicia Timme-Laragy received awards at the Society of Toxicology’s (SOT) 63rd Annual Meeting held this spring in Salt Lake City, UT. The award recipients include three doctoral students and one postdoctoral researcher.
"I'm incredibly proud of our students!” says Timme-Laragy, whose student and postdoctoral lab members have received distinctions at the annual meeting nearly every year for the past decade. “These awards are a testament to the high caliber and quality of the research they are conducting here at UMass, and I'm delighted that SOT has recognized them."
Doctoral candidate Olatunbosun Arowolo, who works in the Suvorov Lab, received the Toxicologist of African Origin Student Research Award.
Doctoral candidate Marjorie Marin, who works in the Timme-Laragy Lab, received two awards: the Graduate Student Travel Award from the Northeast SOT Regional Chapter and the Hispanic Organization of Toxicologists Travel Award (honorable mention).
Doctoral candidate Madeline Tompach, who also works in the Timme-Laragy Lab, picked up three awards: the Graduate Student Travel Award from the Northeast SOT Regional Chapter (first place), the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section’s Graduate Student Poster competition (second place), and the Mechanisms Specialty Section Sheldon D. Murphy Graduate Travel Award.
Postdoctoral researcher Kruuttika Satbhai of the Timme-Laragy Lab brought home two awards for her work. They are the Gabriel L. Plaa Education Award (second place) and the Association of Scientists of Indian Origin’s Dr. Dharm Singh Postdoctoral Fellow Best Abstract Award (first place).
Founded in 1961, the SOT is a professional and scholarly organization of scientists from academic institutions, government, and industry representing the great variety of scientists who practice toxicology in the United States and abroad. The society’s mission is to create a safer and healthier world by advancing the science and increasing the impact of toxicology.
Bannon, Christophe, and Tran Named 21st Century Leaders
The University of Massachusetts Amherst honored SPHHS students Sean Bannon, Naicha Christophe, and Caroline Tran as 21st Century Leaders during the 2024 Undergraduate Commencement on May 18, 2024. Each year, the university honors 10 of its most talented and accomplished graduating seniors for their exemplary achievements, initiative, and leadership.
Bannon, a Commonwealth Honors College student, graduated on the pre-medical track with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. As a junior, he won a UMass Amherst Rising Researcher Award. As a senior, he also earned first place for his undergraduate poster presentation at the annual SPHHS Research Day and served as the school’s student speaker during its SPHHS Senior Recognition Ceremony.
While pursuing his degree, he worked in research labs at the UMass Institute for Applied Life Sciences, Harvard Medical School, and the Mayo Clinic. His investigations of the effects of cigarette smoke on the human body have appeared in two co-authored papers, and he has first-authored papers under review at the American Journal of Pathology and Free Radical Biology and Medicine. Bannon has presented his findings at national conferences and is an ad hoc peer-reviewer for high-impact journals such as the Journal of Life Sciences.
Beyond the lab, Bannon was an operations supervisor at the UMass Amherst Recreation Center and a peer advisor and teaching assistant for the Department of Kinesiology. An accomplished athlete, Bannon completed an Ironman Triathlon at age 19 and, shortly after graduation, he become one of just over 1,900 individuals to swim he English Channel.
Naicha Christophe earned dual degrees in psychology and public health, with a certificate in criminology. Christophe’s dedication to social justice and public health is evident in her extracurricular and research endeavors. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, she also was president of the Haitian American Student Association and reactivated the organization’s charity initiative, P.E.A.C.H., to help raise nearly $6,000 for the Haitian Health Foundation and for winter blankets to donate to a local migrant shelter.
She has interned at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School’s Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, as well as its Center for Addiction Medicine, where she co-authored a research paper about opioid use disorder and smoking cessation.
Christophe is a strong advocate for students of color, making their voices heard through her involvement on the executive boards of multiple student organizations, in peer mentoring programs, and with the Day by Day podcast that explores the unique challenges faced by students of color. She has also served the community as a tour guide, residential assistant, teaching assistant, and as secretary of registry for the Student Government Association.
Caroline Tran, also a member of the Commonwealth Honors College and a pre-medical-track student, graduated with dual degrees in microbiology and public health sciences. The daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, she proudly embraces her status as a first-generation college student.
Tran is deeply passionate about youth development, equitable education access, and community service. Under Assistant Professor Christine St. Laurent in the Moove and Snooze Lab, Tran completed her honors thesis, “Understanding Family Childcare Providers’ Knowledge and Practices Relating to Children’s 24-Hour Movement Behaviors.” She also started a free college application assistance program for underrepresented high schoolers, guiding students through the application process and conducting workshops on topics related to the university experience.
As president of the Student National Medical Association–Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students, Tran co-led UMass’s first pre-health formal with the Pre-Medical Society and supported a mentorship program that paired over 80 upperclassmen with underclassmen. She additionally served as vice president for Kappa Phi Lambda Sorority Inc., mentoring sorority chair officers to raise thousands of dollars for philanthropies and spreading cultural awareness. Tran has also been a peer advisor in multiple departments, assisting hundreds of UMass students with their academic concerns.
A Legacy of Innovation and Philanthropy
New Building to Serve as Hub for SPHHS Community
In May 2024, shortly after graduation caps were tossed in the air and settled to the ground, construction began on the SPHHS Hub—a new, student-centered building to serve as a future home for the SPHHS community.
“We are so excited to finally have a building that connects our teaching with student services,” says Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz. “The new SPHHS Hub will be a modern, inspiring building designed to serve as the heart of our school, providing a dedicated space for students to come together, find their campus home, and enhance their experience of belonging to UMass.”
To mark the occasion, the SPHHS and Office of Community Relations and Events hosted a construction celebration on September 10 with keynote speakers including Chancellor Javier Reyes, Dean Siega-Riz, and other campus, community, and state stakeholders.
Historically, the SPHHS has been housed across five buildings scattered throughout the expansive UMass Amherst campus, with limited classroom and seminar space. Since 2019, there has been a concerted effort by school leadership to advocate for a unified gathering place where students can collaborate, access support services, receive advising, and foster a stronger sense of community.
Siega-Riz notes that UMass Amherst is the largest producer of baccalaureate-level STEM graduates in the state by a wide margin. “UMass has experienced rapid growth in the demand for its STEM programs, especially from Massachusetts high school students and Massachusetts community college transfer students,” she says. “The School of Public Health and Health Sciences houses some of the fastest growing programs on the campus since its four undergraduate majors feed into various health-care careers. This demand is consistent with the workforce development needs of the state. The student success space developed in this project will ensure that we continue to meet these demands.”
The new space will encourage both intentional and serendipitous teamwork for learning and innovation to improve the health of the commonwealth and beyond. Designed by the architectural firm Leers Weinzapfel Associates, the 26,800-gross-square-foot building will house:
- state-of-the-art, team-based learning classrooms
- a one-stop student advising and career services location with rooms for seminars and workshops
- a large seminar room (seating capacity of 120) that allows for the exchange of new knowledge, innovative programs, and engagement with key stakeholders in our fields
- open areas and collaboration spaces for supporting a learning culture that is inclusive, engaging, and promotes well-being
- an outdoor event space to complement the interior academic program spaces to allow SPHHS to host a wide variety of community events
“Completion of this project will ensure that all students in the school will have equitable access to academic and student success services to ensure their ability to progress in their degree programs,” adds Siega-Riz. “We expect that this project will enable the SPHHS to produce more, and better educated, graduates who will join the public health and health sciences workforce.”
As an energy-efficient and sustainable facility, the building will aim to exceed the minimum certification level of LEED Silver®, prioritize low energy use, minimize the use of fossil fuels, and be ready to support the implementation of the UMass Carbon Zero initiative to create a net zero carbon emissions campus. The SPHHS Hub is slated to open in the spring of 2026.
Mundt Family Names New SPHHS Hub Seminar Space
Kenneth and Elizabeth Mundt have made a $1 million bequest in support of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences.
The gift will include the naming rights to the large, 120-person capacity seminar space in the new SPHHS Hub building currently under construction. “Elizabeth and I are thrilled to have been able to support the new SPHHS Hub,” says Kenneth Mundt. “The Hub symbolizes what we believe leads to success in public health, that is, an open exchange of ideas and perspectives across disciplines. We especially are honored to have been invited to place our name on the symposium room, where such essential activities will take place.”
A former school advisory board member, Kenneth Mundt has a long history in support of the school. He is an SPHHS alumnus, having earned his master’s degree in epidemiology from the school in 1986, and served for 11 years as a faculty member in epidemiology. He left academia to found Applied Epidemiology, Inc., and subsequently served as a partner and principal with Environ (and Ramboll Environ) following their merger. He now consults for private industry.
The Mundts have made multiple gifts to the school in support of its students, having previously endowed the Diane J. Mundt Memorial Scholarship in epidemiology, the Global Health Impact Fund, and a new Student Enhancement Fund for the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. In addition to his service on the school’s advisory board, Kenneth Mundt sponsored a number of seminars on topics ranging from diabetes to alcohol use and supported numerous student internships through his Amherst-based companies.
The Mundt family deeply appreciates the key role the SPHHS has played in our lives. This spans decades from my first semester as a student [to] my sister Diane's doctoral studies [and] my return as a faculty member—keenly watched and supported by our dear, now departed, parents who never had the opportunity to pursue higher education. The Seminar Room—and the Hub—will remain part of their legacy.”
- Kenneth Mundt
To learn more about giving and naming opportunities and how you can help support our students, contact David Catrambone, executive director of development, at dcatrambone [at] uma-foundation [dot] org.
SPHHS Scholarship Awards
In May 2024, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences honored a group of over 50 undergraduate and graduate students during its annual awards celebration. The event recognizes outstanding student achievements in the classroom, in research, and through service to the community. The SPHHS awarded nearly $100,000 in scholarship payouts thanks to its dedicated donors.
By the Numbers
In the spotlight
29 among graduate schools of public health in the 2024 — 14 spots higher than the previous year's rank.
Chart
Increase in Research Day Participation Over the Past 10 Years
Total Research Proposals (FY24)
Total Research Awards Accepted (FY24)
Faculty Holding Grants as PI or Co-I
First Gen Students
Underrepresented Minority Undergraduates
Underrepresented Minority Graduate Students
Students in Spring 2024
Faculty
Departments
Staff
Doctoral Programs
Master's Programs
4+1 Programs
Undergraduate Majors
Undergraduate Enrollment (Spring 2024)
Graduate Enrollment (Spring 2024)
Grad Students Enrolled in U+ (Online Programs)
Undergraduate Degrees Awarded (Spring 2024)
Graduate Degrees Awarded (Spring 2024)
Total Degrees Awarded (Spring 2024)
2024 Research Day Award Winners
The School of Public Health and Health Sciences held its annual Research Day on April 17, 2024, in the Campus Center Auditorium.
Now in its 27th year, SPHHS Research Day is a showcase for the research and practice conducted by students in all of its departments. Undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers, are invited to present their work to faculty, staff, peers, and the broader community.
This year’s event included two separate sessions comprised of a total of 102 poster presentations. Participants spanned all departments and academic levels—including undergraduate, masters, and doctoral presenters—and served to highlight the depth and breadth of SPHHS student research. The day’s program also featured a keynote talk from biostatistics alumnus Mark Chang ’98 MS, PhD and faculty presentations by Christine St. Laurent, Song Liang, and Chaoran Ma.
"Research Day was spectacular,” says Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz. “The enormous participation by our students and faculty exceeded our expectations. It was an amazing display of the far-ranging research being done in the school by our faculty and the students who they are mentoring in their labs. I know that this type of mentoring and excellence in research takes time and, for many faculty, it is this passion that keeps them here."
This year, the SPHHS awarded a total of nine prizes: travel awards for best presentation in health sciences and in public health, three graduate student research awards, and four undergraduate student research awards.
The 2024 Research Day Travel Award winners are:
- First place (Research Category–Health Sciences): Brent Momb, Kinesiology, PHD
- First place (Research Category–Public Health): Chi Zhao, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, PHD
The 2024 Research Day Graduate Student Poster Award winners are:
- First place: Barbara E. Mottey, Environmental Health Sciences, PhD
- Second place: Carissa Lange, Environmental Health Sciences, PHD
- Third place: Rachel Wacks, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, PHD
The 2024 Research Day Undergraduate Student Poster Award winners are:
- First place: Sean T. Bannon, Kinesiology, BS
- Second place (tie): Molly Fabrizio and Aaryan Chaudhry, Mechanical Engineering and Biochemical Engineering, BS
- Second place (tie): Abigail Grimm, Public Health Sciences, BS
- Third place: Rakan Rafat Rihani, Kinesiology, BS
SPHHS Advisory Board:
In 2019, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences merged the Community and Dean’s Advisory Boards to better partner with and engage its constituents. Board members include community stakeholders, alumni, employers, and other relevant community partners. They serve in order to provide an opportunity for dialogue, feedback, and new ideas on such topics as advancement and fundraising, curriculum and workforce development, student opportunities, and much more.
SPHHS Advisory Board Members:
- John L. Brooks III, Founder, Healthcare Capital Consulting LLC
- Katie Bruno, Manager, Health Management Program Department, Health New England
- Thomas Carbone, Andover Director of Public Health
- Christopher H. Colecchi, Managing Director, Broadview Ventures
- Jessica Collins, Executive Director, Public Health Institute of Western MA
- Soloe Dennis, Director of the Worcester Division of Public Health
- Efosa Guobadia, Founder and CEO, Move Together; Co-Founder, Global PT Day of Service
- Paul Halfmann, Assistant Director, Community Sanitation Program, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
- Frederick Hooven, Associate Professor and Director of Public Health, American International College
- Cristina Huebner Torres, Chief Research and Population Health Officer, Caring Health Center
- Robert Littleton Jr., Founder and President, Evergreen Center, Beacon ABA Services, and Criterion Child Enrichment
- Lori Anne Lyne, Clinical Placement Coordinator/Lecturer, Elaine Marieb College of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Vanessa Martínez, Professor, Holyoke Community College; Co-Founder, Women of Color Health Equity Collective
- Swati Mathai, Strategic Healthcare Advisor
- Kate Duffy Mazan, Attorney and Founding Member, Clinical Technology Transfer Group
- Charlene Mazer, Former Vice President and Principal, STANPAK Systems, Inc.
- Michael Motta, Founder and President, Net Positive Coaching
- Mark Pettus, Chief Medical Officer, Preventia Group
- Charles Pozner, Physician Consultant, EBSCO Information Services, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Frank Robinson, Former Vice President of Public Health and Community Relations, Baystate Health
- Biani Salas-Morales, Community Health Worker, Hilltown Community Health Centers, Inc.
- Howard Shane, Director, Center for Communication Enhancement and the Autism Language Program, Boston Children’s Hospital
- Geoff Sullivan, Managing Member, Continuum Performance Center in East Longmeadow, MA
- Steven J. Ward, Adjunct Professor, Worcester State University; Founder, Public Health Solutions, LLC
- Debra Wein, CEO and Founder, Wellness Workdays
- Ben Wood, Senior Director, Policy and Practice, Health Resources in Action