Read USF’s latest Coronavirus (COVID-19) updates.
This semester, 185 undergraduates, 61 masters and 8 doctoral students graduated and entered the public health profession. “This group of students have persevered under unprecedented circumstances. Their worlds were flipped upside down and they have hung in there, learning in new ways since March of 2020,” said USF College of Public Health Dean Donna Petersen. 
Dr. Martha Coulter recently established a planned legacy gift with USF Health’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations to support the USF Harrell Center. These planned gifts are deferred commitments made through one’s estate and ensure that their philanthropic intentions carry on their legacy, long after their lifetime. 

Dr. Jill Roberts and Dr. Katherine Drabiak went live on Facebook to answer questions and share what concerned parents and caregivers can do to protect K-12 children as they return to the classroom this school year.  

The slackening of vaccinations is leading to a large resurgence of COVID-19 infections in Florida. New data provided Dr. Edwin Michael and colleague Dr. Ken Newcomb shows that there’s been a 70 percent drop in the rate of people getting vaccinated in Hillsborough County since April.

According to data collected in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic by researchers at the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, three in five college students experienced basic needs insecurity, with food insecurity affecting 44 percent of students at two-year institutions and 38 percent of students at four-year institutions. 
Dr. Mahmooda Khaliq Pasha is training public health practitioners on how to apply social marketing to their work and achieve results. USF and the Pan American Health Organization have launched a new social marketing training program that more than 10,000 individuals have accessed.

The COPH recently signed an agreement with the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University in Thailand. Thai faculty and students exploring RNA-sequencing and drug discovery will have the opportunity to come to COPH for training. RNA is a molecule similar to DNA; RNA sequencing is a technique used to reveal the presence and quantity of RNA in a sample.
Dr. Kelli Barr has joined the USF College of Public Health as an associate research professor in global health and infectious disease.
Alumna Kristen Lewis says the most rewarding part of her work is training public health professionals in small, community-based organizations to build their evaluation resources and capabilities so they can perform their own program evaluations and increase their funding.
Class Notes

Jose Andres Ardaya, BSPH, begins an MS in medical cannabis science and therapeutics at the University of Maryland - College Park School of Pharmacy this fall.
 
Clarissa Grant, MPH, is the emergency management coordinator at the Hillsborough County Office of Emergency Management in Tampa, Fla.
 
Ingrid Hachmeister, MPH, is a multi-site workforce health and safety manager at Amazon in Orlando, Fla.
 
Taneil Lee, BSPH, begins a physician associate degree program at the Newcastle University Medical School in the United Kingdom this fall.

Congratulations to the new class of University of South Florida College of Public Health alumni. Stay connected with alma mater. We are here for you and look forward to seeing you at an upcoming COPH Alumni Society event. Go Bulls!
Media Mentions

WUSF Public Media – July 26, 2021
 
WTVT(FOX)-Tampa and other stations - July 30, 2021
 
WTVT(FOX)-Tampa – July 30, 2021
 
WTVT(FOX)-Tampa - August 1, 2021
 
WFTS(ABC)-Tampa - August 3, 2021
 
Yahoo News (Tampa Bay Times) - August 3, 2021
 
The Tallahassee Democrat - August 5, 2021
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