Two April exhibits illustrated the wide range of research interests being investigated by students at the School of Public Health.

The School’s Office of Research, under the direction of Sandra Martin, PhD, associate dean for research and professor of maternal and child health, sponsored the April 10 “Spotlight on Student Research,” a School-wide event represented by all seven academic departments and the N.C. Institute for Public Health.

On April 21, students in the program assessment course in the Department of Maternal and Child Health, along with their mentors, presented findings from their evaluations of community programs. Anita Farel, PhD, professor in the Department, teaches the course.

Both events took place in the Michael Hooker Research Center atrium. 

Presenters at the Office of Research event included:

• Sunil Agarwal, MPH program, epidemiology, “Benign prostate hypertrophy: is it a component of metabolic syndrome?”
• Kim Angelon, MSPH program, epidemiology, “Combinability of exposure groups to evaluate in-utero effects of radiation”
• Kate Barr, Jessica Hughes, Christine Nelsen, MPH program, health behavior and health education, “Improving literacy through public health interventions”
• Emily A. Bobrow, PhD program, maternal and child health, and Melissa C. Watt, PhD program, health behavior and health education, “Integrating insights from IPV survivors and emergency room nurses: a qualitative study and performance”
• Alex Carll, MSPH program, environmental sciences and engineering, “Acute exposure to particulate matter in a rat model of heart failure”
• Mia Chabot, Andrea Nikolai, Rebecca Wright, MPH program, nutrition, “They call it ‘nivity’: teaching nutrition in a different culture”
• Zulfiya Chariyeva, PhD program, health behavior and health education, “Lives of sex workers in Turkmenistan: their sexual practices, knowledge and perceptions of risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections”
• Andrew Edmonds, PhD program, epidemiology, “The effect of antiretroviral treatment on incident TB in HIV-positive children in Kinshasa, DRC”
• Anthony Fleg, School of Medicine, and Shannon Fleg, certificate program, N.C. Institute for Public Health, “Native Health Initiative: a partnership to address health inequities through loving service”
• Ruchika Goel, MPH program, epidemiology, “Hypertension is associated with markers of obesitiy, LDL-cholesterol and family history of hypertension in Asian Indian adolescents”
• Scott Hauswirth, MS program, environmental sciences and engineering, “Composition and properties of coal tar DNAPLs at former manufactured gas plants”
• Marc Jeuland, PhD program, environmental sciences and engineering, “A cost-benefit analysis of cholera vaccination in Beira, Mozambique”
• Natalie Johns, MPH program, maternal and child health, "Domestic violence and sexual assault agency directors’ perspectives on services that help survivors”
• Rachel Kuliani, Kate Barr, Yuli Chang, Julie Hammer, Kate Nelson, Ciara Zachary, MPH program, health behavior and health education, “Applying community-based participatory research to a community of persons with disabilities in Durham, North Carolina”
• Brooke A. Levandowski, PhD program, epidemiology, “HIV prevention behaviors among young, rural South African and Malawian Women”
• Peter Leese, MSPH program, health policy and administration, “Cost-effectiveness of left ventricular hypertrophy diagnosis in newly diagnosed hypertensives: ECG versus Echo”
• Isabelle Michaud-Letourneau, MPH program, maternal and child health, “Motivations of community volunteers in northern Mozambique: Save the Children’s food security program”
• Flavio Rojas, PhD, postdoctoral program, biostatistics, “Inequalities that kill: poverty determinants of acute respiratory infections among Mapuche population at ninth region of Araucania, Chile: Integrating a geographical information system with satellite imagery and spatial statistics to identify disparities in health (2000-2005)”
• Ghazaleh Samandari, PhD program, maternal and child health, “Pregnancy-associated suicide and homicide in North Carolina”
• Janice P. Tzeng, MPH program, health behavior and health education, “Role of health literacy in assigning meaning to breast cancer recurrence risk”
• Melissa Watt, PhD program, health behavior and health education, “Missed opportunities for religious organizations to support people living with HIV/AIDS: findings from Tanzania” and “Translating research results into practice for sustainable development: an intervention for HIV+ patients initiating antiretroviral therapy in Tanzania”
• Elizabeth Wiley-Exley, PhD program, health policy and administration, “Complementary and alternative medicine use in musculoskeletal disorders: does medical skepticism matter?”
• Karen Ziarnowski, MPH program, health behavior and health education, “Anticipated regret and HPV vaccination”
  

Assessment posters presented at the April 21 event included:

• Pam Dardess, Tricia Lally, Stacey  Williams, Recommendations for the N.C. Division of Public Health regarding an adolescent health assessment
• Jo Bauer, Leah Gilbert, Katie Massey, Reduction of no-show rate among Latino users of services at the Orange County Health Department
• Bonnie Jones, Anna McCullough, Brett Nishikawa, National survey of the transition of youth with special health care needs from pediatric to adult health care
• Natalie Johns, Linda Leviel, Lillianne Lewis, Survey of women of childbearing age regarding their decisions about reproduction and reproductive health
• Morgan Barlow, Michael Park, Emily Pelino, Culturally appropriate ways to share targeted health information with children enrolled in Head Start, especially during routine well-child checks
• Sarah Davis, Chris Deery, Miriam Schreier, Saratu Omagbemi Usman-oyowe, Assessment of MEASURE (Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results, a USAID program) evaluation activities for capacity building among international training partners
• Robyn Dayton, Regina Rutledge, Veronica Sunderland-Perez, Collecting data for Ipas’ “Latina Sexual and Reproductive Health Initiative”
• Weezie Tomm, Lauren Dunnington, Stephanie Murray, Reproductive justice for Latinas in regard to emergency contraception
• Mary Nyhan, Carey Serafin, Liz Miller, Consideration of a school-based health center at Orange County middle school
  
  
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School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.