The EHGES back-to-school social on September 12 at the Houston campus was a huge success! EHGES faculty, staff, and students shared a delicious pizza lunch with their new EHGES professors. View photos from the event here! | |
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Dr. Rena S. Day, EHGES Professor, Retires after 42-Year Career Dedicated to UTHealth Houston School of Public Health
Dr. Rena S. Day, EHGES professor, retired from UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in August after 42 years of dedicated service to the School of Public Health. Dr. Day earned her BS from Texas Tech University in 1977 and transferred to UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, where she earned her MS in Nutrition and Population Studies and a PhD in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Nutrition. Dr. Day, who goes by Susie to her friends and colleagues, decided to stay at UTHealth Houston and became a well-respected professor in the EHGES department, including the SWCOEH, over the next 40 years.
Her colleague, David Gimeno Ruiz de Porras, PhD, director of SWCOEH, had this to say about Dr. Day's dedication to creating opportunities for students, "Dr. Day was instrumental in establishing and obtaining funding for the first in the nation, and still the only, graduate-level program in Total Worker Health® in 2018 as part of the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, the NIOSH-funded Education and Research Center (ERC) at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health."
Her colleague, Brett Perkison, MD, assistant professor with EHGES, said about his time working with Susie in the Occupational Health Sciences program, "I have enjoyed working with Dr. Day a great deal in our time together in EOHS. Two of our Total Worker Health PhD students were also residents in our occupational residency program. Thanks to her hard work and close collaboration, we were able to add these two stellar and qualified residents to be future leaders in the field of occupational medicine and total worker health. Thanks so much, Susie!"
Vice-chair of the EHGES department, Shreela Sharma, PhD, remarked, "As a fellow nutrition epidemiologist, Dr. Day was committed to furthering the science of dietary measurement to inform and improve the health of Texans. Through her nutritional epidemiology class, Dr. Day inspired many students to learn the art and science of food and how it relates to health."
EHGES faculty and staff celebrated Dr. Day's extraordinary career with a retirement send-off party on August 23 at the School of Public Health.
Click here to see the photos!
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Restrepo Presents at Prestigious Keystone Symposia and Appointed to Newly Funded Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center
Blanca I. Restrepo, PhD, associate professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Brownsville Campus, presented her novel findings on the higher risk of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in people with diabetes at the prestigious Keystone Symposia's 50th Anniversary event in Breckenridge, Colorado.
Restrepo's research is gaining attention given the increased resurgence of TB among people with diabetes in the US and the world. She is also the Clinical Core co-director for the new NIH-funded Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio.
Read more here.
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Lanza Awarded
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Grant to Further Study Safe Routes to School for Children
Kevin Lanza, PhD, assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Austin Campus, has been awarded a grant from NIEHS to determine the relations between built environment changes from Safe Routes to School (a national intervention program to encourage children to walk or bike to school), children's exposure to ambient temperature, and their active school commuting behavior.
During the three-year study, Lanza will improve his research skills under the guidance of primary mentor Julia Gohlke, PhD, Associate Professor at Virginia Tech, and co-mentors David Gimeno, PhD, Professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health San Antonio Campus, and Perry Sheffield, PhD, Associate Professor with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and collaborator Baojiang Chen, PhD, Associate Professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Austin Campus.
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Rodriguez Receives OSHA Grant Focused on Transmission Prevention in the Texas Rio Grande Valley
Anabel Rodriguez, PhD, assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health San Antonio Campus, working with the Southwest Center of Occupational and Environmental Health Research Center, has been awarded the OSHA Susan Harwood Training Program America Rescue Plan Act of 2021 Workplace Safety and Health Training on Infectious Diseases Grant.
The grant-funded outreach will be focused on culturally, linguistically (English & Spanish), and literacy-appropriate training focused on transmission prevention of influenza, tetanus, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and COVID-19 to 1000 agricultural workers and a 2-hour training to 16 employers in the Texas Rio Grande Valley.
The target audience includes hard-to-reach, minority workers with limited English proficiency and incomplete formal education working in small agricultural businesses with a high risk of infectious diseases.
David Gimeno, PhD, Professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health San Antonio Campus, is also the co-investigator on this grant.
Read more about Rodriquez's agricultural background that inspired her public health calling here.
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Prestigious NCI-funded F99/K00 Fellowship Awarded to Holly Hill, MPH, PhD Epidemiology student at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health
What does this prestigious fellowship mean to you?
Hill: "I'm very honored to receive this fellowship. I feel the award reflects the valuable mentorship, education, and opportunities I've received during my time at UTSPH and MD Anderson. I'm looking forward to exploring research ideas to further cancer research and precision health."
How does this fellowship support your predoctoral training?
Hill: "The funding from the NCI allows me to freely pursue projects related to my dissertation research as I complete my time as a PhD student. Additionally, this support will assist me in looking for postdoctoral fellowships for the K00 phase."
What will your focus be on during this time?
Hill: "I'll be focusing on utilizing various statistical techniques and models to understand further the prognostic indicators of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a rare, incurable type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Because MCL is rare, sample sizes can sometimes be limiting when employing predictive analyses, especially when implementing large amounts of genomic and clinical data. My major aim is to pinpoint the most important predictive characteristics in MCL outcomes using feature engineering and machine learning methods. I'm hoping the insights I gain can be used for other types of rare or difficult to treat cancers."
Learn more about the NCI Fellowship Award here.
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27 EHGES FACULTY AND STAFF EARNED STAR AWARDS FOR 2021
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health honors employees who reached career milestones with the annual Star Awards! Beginning five years into their time with UTHealth Houston, employees receive Star Awards on each fifth anniversary.
For the fiscal year 2021, 27 faculty and staff with EHGES hit their Star Anniversary from 5 years to 50 years! Way to go, EHGES!
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EPI Preliminary Exam Workshops
Are you planning to take the
Epidemiology Preliminary Exam
on January 04, 2023?
This workshop is for you! Interested students may attend one of the
workshops on the dates listed below.
Friday, Oct. 7 at noon, via WebEx
Tuesday, Oct. 11 at noon, via WebEx
Please RSVP to
JR.F.Bright@uth.tmc.edu
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Fellowship Application Now Open
UTHealth Biomedical Informatics, Genomics, and Translational Cancer Research Training Program (BIG-TCR) fellowship positions have been generously funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT, RP210045) for Fall 2022. The predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowship application cycle is now open to all six schools of UTHealth Houston.
Please see the link for details on how to apply and more.
BIG-TCR Cancer and Artificial Intelligence Research
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UTHealth Student Financial Aid Office has all the student information you need about financial aid disbursements, upcoming deadlines, FAFSA assistance, and more! Visit the Student Financial Services website and download their latest newsletter! | |
The Texas Medical Center Library and the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health library offer many student and faculty services, including Canvas training, navigating the SPH library website, writing services, and much more. Contact Kelsey Koym for assistance and more information. Email Kelsey Kohm here or visit the TMC Library website for more details. | |
Reminder: For more information on how to handle media requests, see the UTHealth Houston HOOP policy here. If you are contacted by the media, please call the UTHealth Houston Media Relations team on the hotline, 713-500-3030 - someone is available 24/7. Deb Lake is the designated School of Public Health contact. Always choose to call the hotline for immediate assistance. | |
Submissions and Newsletter Deadline | | |
All campuses are encouraged to submit items for consideration for the monthly EHGES newsletter. Please feel free to submit your items to sphehges@uth.tmc.edu.
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