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Dean's Message - April 2024

April 29, 2024 Community

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Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz (far left) with SPHHS staff, faculty, and guests at the Chancellor's inauguration
Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz (far right) with SPHHS staff, faculty, and guests at the Chancellor's inauguration

It’s that time of year when the campus is full of events. In April, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences held its 27th annual Research Day. This year’s event was spectacular. It included the highest number of posters ever (102!) spanning all departments and academic levels – including undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students – all of which 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. The SPHHS awarded a total of eight prizes—see the related article for the names of all the winners.

Congratulations to Sofiya Alhassan, Professor of Kinesiology and Associate Dean of Inclusion and Engagement in the Graduate School, for receiving the Zenobia L. Hikes Distinguished Career Award at this year’s Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference in Arlington, Virginia! The award recognizes a woman of color with a distinguished career in higher education demonstrated by scholarly endeavors or administrative and professional accomplishments. Additionally, the award is given to 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.

The school launched a new staff recognition award in January. Congratulations to Annie Skillings, program manager in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and Katherine Reeves, Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Studies, for being our first Acknowledge the College winners! Annie won a $100 award and Katherine won a $25 award. They are among the 39 faculty and staff who received shoutouts given by faculty, staff, AND students for great work within the SPHHS. Among the 39 people who were recognized, the most frequently earned badges were for collaboration and for excellence. Way to go!

This year’s Virginia Beal Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Nutrition, featured Dr. Elizabeth Eagleson, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at UMass-Chan Baystate. Dr. Eagleson gave an outstanding talk on the importance of “food is medicine,” and the role of plant-based foods with reducing chronic diseases and how the power of community partnerships can help overcome food insecurity. She also highlighted the lack of nutrition education currently available for healthcare providers. 

To help fill this gap, the school is working with UMass Dining and faculty across the campus to launch a 2-day workshop specifically designed for healthcare professionals and students in training. The event is being held on June 5-6th as part of UMass’ Culinary Conference. The Healthcare Culinary Conference: Bridging Healthcare, Food and Community will serve as a model integrated academic-community effort to improve health outcomes, alleviate food insecurity and promote the “food is medicine” movement. If you are a practicing healthcare provider or medical, nursing, or other allied health student, please join us.

Last Friday, the UMass community came together to celebrate the inauguration of Chancellor Javier Reyes. The day was marked by inspiring speeches from Governor Healey, Representative McGovern, and UMass President Marty Meehan, all praising Chancellor Reyes's early accomplishments and highlighting his capacity to guide UMass Amherst toward a bright future. As a member of the Chancellor's leadership team, I feel honored to be part of this journey as we forge ahead into the future.

Finally, our busy month concludes with UMass Amherst’s Founder’s Day picnic – an event that always serves to bring our campus community together – and the final distinguished faculty lecture for the 2023-24 academic year, presented by our own Richard van Emmerik, Professor and Chair of Kinesiology. I hope to see you there!

Article posted in Community for Faculty , Staff , Current students , and Alumni

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