August 30, 2021
A Weekly Newsletter for Faculty and Staff of the University of Kentucky College of Public Health
News & Events
Erin Abner Featured in Buzzfeed Article
Erin Abner, PhD (Epidemiology) was featured in a Buzzfeed article regarding vaccination hesitation. She was one of a number of public health professionals asked about the subject.

For those unaware, Buzzfeed is a digitally-driven media company containing news, online quizzes, and other features. It averages over two hundred twenty million views per year.

See the full story on Buzzfeed's site.
PhD Student Accepted into SEC Workshop
Gavin Rienne, one of our Epidemiology-Biostatistics doctoral students has been accepted into the Southeastern Conference's Emerging Scholars Career Preparation Workshop.

The Emerging Scholars Career Preparation Workshop is a two-day event for doctoral students planning on pursuing faculty positions after graduation.

Congratulations Gavin!
Student & Faculty Social
A student and faculty social was held Thursday, August 26th on the lawn in front of Scovell Hall. 

Faculty from all departments were represented and everyone enjoyed catering from Panera, free CPH swag, and lawn games. While Epidemiology did dominate much of the lawn games, a cross-departmental team did see victory in the cornhole tournament.
Mandatory COVID Testing Expanded to Include Unvaccinated Employees
Announced Thursday afternoon is an expansion of the mandated testing for the campus community, which now requires unvaccinated staff and faculty to be tested weekly.

Also announced was a plan to open sites specifically for employees to be tested, as well as a plan for incentives for the vaccinated population. These measures aim to help boost our university community's vaccination rate to eighty percent. It has risen five points in the past four weeks.

Read President Capilouto's Full Message at UKNow.
KIPRC Releases K-SURE Brief
This report is based on data from possession and trafficking citations, drug overdose-related deaths, emergency department visits, hospitalizations, submissions to the state police lab, and general drug overdose-related events.

The timeline for the data in the study ranges from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2020.

Read more about it on KIPRC's website.
Quick Hits from UKNow
Research & Reports
Md Tofial Azam (Epidemiology-Biostatistics PhD student), Heather Bush, PhD and Philip M. Westgate, PhD (Biostatistics), are co-authors on "Effect sizes and intra-cluster correlation coefficients measure from the Green Dot High School study for guiding sample size calculations when designing future violence prevention cluster randomized trials in school settings". Other co-authors include Ann Coker, PhD (College of Medicine).
Phillip M. Westgate, PhD (Biostatistics) is a co-author on "A randomized controlled trial to determine whether beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate and/or eicosapentaenoic acid improves diaphragm and quadriceps strength in critically ill mechanically ventilated patients". Other co-authors include "Gerald S. Supinksi (College of Medicine), Paul F. Netzel (College of Medicine), Elizabeth A. Schroder (College of Medicine), Lin Wang (College of Medicine), and Leigh Ann Callahan (College of Medicine).