SBS Department Newsletter
Fall1, 2021
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What Does it Feel Like to be a Black Child Growing Up in America Today? |
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Welcome to our first SBS newsletter of this new academic year. I want to warmly welcome all of our new students, as well as our returning ones. Welcome back to in-person classes, and it is my hope that we will continue to inch towards normalcy as our school year continues. I am also enormously appreciative of the hard work of our dedicated staff who journeyed extra miles, whenever needed, as we navigated the twists and turns of this pandemic. I am also grateful for our outstanding faculty whose research and advocacy have shone brightly during this time. And, of course, we want all of our alumni to remember that you are very much in our thoughts as you make a difference on the frontlines of public health.
Sunday, October 10 was World Mental Health Day. A 2015 JAMA Pediatrics study is a stark reminder of the critical work in mental health that we urgently need to do. This study, using national data, documented that suicide rates among elementary school children (aged 5 to 11), were stable overall and for Asian and Latino children, between 1993 and 2012. In contrast, the suicide rate had markedly declined for white children but doubled for black children. A follow-up analysis found that between 2001 and 2015 black boys and girls aged 5 to 13, had a rate of suicide that was twice as high as white children. These studies raise for me the question of what does it feel like to be a black child growing up in America today?
We do not know precisely what is driving the increase in child suicide. But Brendesha Tynes’ research tells us that racial discrimination in online contexts adversely affects child and youth mental health and that for African American and Latinx 11 to 19-year-olds, greater exposure to online images of persons from their ethnic group being beaten, arrested or shot by the police is associated with higher PTSD and depressive symptoms. Stephanie Fryberg has also taught us that exposure of American Indian students to Native American mascots, leads to declines in self-esteem, community worth and achievement aspirations. And we have all witnessed a dramatic increase in Asian American hate in our society.
All this research emphasizes our need to acknowledge that racism that is deeply embedded in our culture and social institutions likely plays a greater role in adversely impacting the mental health of our children than we have previously recognized. We also need to better understand how racism in its myriad forms chips away at the dignity and humanity of our children and destroys their hopes and dreams for the future. We need new innovative initiatives to effectively engage our children, provide safe spaces where we can listen to them, help them feel that they are not alone and link them with resources to cope. Most importantly, we need redoubled efforts to dismantle the structures of racism that are adversely impacting, and even terrorizing, children growing up in the U.S. today. The time has come for a major new commitment to nurture the mental health of all of our children.
David R. Williams
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Even Paglisotti, PhD ’25 (they, them) is a second-year doctoral student in SBS interested in social and structural determinants of gender and sexual minority mental health. Even was awarded a 2021 Rose Learning Service Fellowship to fund their summer project, "Partnership with SAYFTEE to Support TNB Youth and Caregivers."
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"I worked with Dr. Sabra Katz-Wise and clinicians at SAYFTEE to evaluate the effectiveness of the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Toolkit, an intervention for parents and caretakers of trans youth. I also supported sexual and gender minority individuals and caregivers who were referred to SAYFTEE for care through resource connection and by building data systems necessary to conduct a needs assessment. I also collaborated with clinicians on youth programming and events.
My experiences as a trans community member initially inspired me to begin working in transgender healthcare. The more research I read, the more urgency I felt to address the mental health disparities I saw both in the data and in experiences with my peers. After attending my first trans health conference, a mentor asked me to consider what primary prevention for gender minority youth’s mental health disparities should look like. In pondering this question, I thought of the importance of parents and caregivers as advocates for transgender and nonbinary young people, and I have been working to find ways to support trans and nonbinary youth and families since."
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From left to right: Lisa Burke, Joe Hallow, Kamini Mallick, Sakurako Shiba Okuzono
Lisa Burke joined the SBS department in October 2021 as an Assistant Director of Operations and Strategy at the Harvard Chan Center for Work, Health, & Well-being, a NIOSH Total Worker Health® Center of Excellence (Glorian Sorensen, PI). She also serves as Director of Outreach for the Center, a position she has held as a DFCI employee since 2017. Established in 2007 and recently funded through 2026, the Center focuses on protecting and promoting the health, safety, and well-being of working populations, generating and applying evidence-based research to advance policy and practice recommendations that improve working conditions. Burke earned her B.A. from Williams College and her M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Joe Hallow is a graduate of Suffolk University where he studied English and Classical Literature, focusing on the works of Herman Melville and Virgil. Prior to joining SBS, Hallow worked as a Financial Officer at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial intelligence Laboratory. In his free time, he enjoys writing, hiking, and saltwater fishing.
Kamini Mallick joined the SBS department in September 2021 as a Research Project Manager in the Prevention Research Center for a new CDC funded grant addressing COVID-19 information and vaccine access. Her previous research experience includes evaluating the types and efficacy of COVID-19 messages in local immigrant communities and adjusting efforts to address misinformation in scientific, socially, and culturally appropriate ways. Mallick holds a master's degree in Medical Anthropology from Boston University School of Medicine and a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Macalester College.
Sakurako Shiba Okuzono has joined the SBS department as a research assistant. Her work focuses on understanding the life-course impact of childhood adversity on later health and its mitigating factors and using machine learning methods to understand disaster-related trauma and its long-term impact on health. Okuzono has a Master's degree in Public Health and is a certified social worker in Japan, and worked in child-related fields before coming to the SBS department.
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In July 2021, Harold Lee started a T32 postdoctoral fellowship on the Genetic Epidemiology of Heart, Lung, and Blood Traits at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In July 2022, he will join the Department of Biobehavioral Health in the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University as a tenure-track assistant professor in precision population health.
Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald has accepted and recently started a joint position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and as a Researcher at the Research Center of the Montreal Mental Health University Institute, in Canada. She is now pursuing her research on the interplay between mental and physical health at these two institutions while continuing to collaborate with the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness as an Affiliate Scientist and with HSPH scholars as a Visiting Scientist.
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Krieger N, Hammonds E
Harvard Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, VPAL Signature Event
Cambridge, MA (Online) | Jun 30, 2021.
Jiménez MC, Fuller CH, Maybank KA, Krieger N
FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University's Anti-Racism in Public Health Policies, Practice, and Research
Invited Participant for Panel | Boston, MA (Online) | Sep 17, 2021
Krieger N
Health justice, structural racism, and the embodied truths of public health data National Academy of Medicine Symposium's New Directions Exploring Data Justice and Structural Racism in the Context of COVID and Climate Change
Invited Panelist | Washington, DC (Online) | Oct 17, 2021
Stelson E, McCorkell L, Fitzgerald M, Redfield S
Findings from the Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC)'s Long-COVID Survey and Implications for the Workplace
United States Department of Transportation
Online | Aug 18, 2021
Trudel-Fitzgerald, C
[French: Promouvoir le bien-être psychologique: Pourquoi et comment?]
Association Française et Francophone de Psychologie Positive Congrès français et francophone de Psychologie Positive
Invited Keynote Lecture | Online | Jun 3, 2021
Viswanath K
WHO Global Conference on Communicating Science During Health Emergencies
Panel Presentation | Online | Jun 7, 2021
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Chen JT, Testa C, Hanage WP, Krieger N
Gilman M, Bassett MT
WBUR | Jun 18, 2021
Chung A, Tully L, Czernin S, Thompson R, Mansoor A, Gortmaker S
BMJ | Vol. 374(1716), 1-4 | Aug 10, 2021
Harriman NW, Williams DR, Morgan JW, et al
Racial Disparities in Psychological Distress in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Results from the SANHANES-1 Survey
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol | In press
Katz-Wise SL, Galman SC, Friedman LE, Kidd KM
J Fam Issues | Sep 10, 2021, online ahead of print
Nishimi KM, Koenen KC, Coull BA, Kubzansky LD
J Adolesc Health | Sep 11, 2021, online ahead of print
Gilsanz P, Young JG, Glymour MM, Tchetgen Tchetgen EJ, Eng CW, Koenen KC, Kubzansky LD
Marginal structural models for life-course theories and social epidemiology: Definitions, sources of bias, and simulated illustrations
Am J Epidemiol | In press.
Nishimi KM, Koenen KC, Coull BA, Chen R, Kubzansky LD
PNAS | Vol. 118 (32), e2102619118 | Aug 10, 2021
Krieger N
Am J Public Health | Vol. 111(S2), S91-S92, Jul 1, 2021
Krieger N
New York: Oxford University Press | In press, Oct 2021
Liu J, Heckel E, Coriou A, Rees V
Subst Abus | Jul 8, 2021, online ahead of print
Nagler EM, Stelson EA, Karapanos M, Burke L, Wallace LM, Peters SE, Nielsen K, Sorensen G
Int J Environ Res Public Health | Vol. 18(17), 9383 | Sep 6, 2021
Garcia Saiz E, Sarda V, Pletta DR, Reisner SL, Katz-Wise SL
Arch Sex Behav | Sep 29, 2021, online ahead of print
Ramanadhan S, Revette A, Lee RM, Aveling EL
Implement Sci Commun | Vol. 2, 7 | Jun 29, 2021
Shiba K, Torres JM, Daoud A, Inoue K, Kanamori S, Tsuji T, Kamada M, Kondo K, Kawachi I.
Epidemiol | Vol. 32(6), 886-895 | Nov 1, 2021
Shiba K, Daoud A, Hikichi H, Yazawa A, Aida J, Kondo K, Kawachi I.
Sci Adv | Vol. 7(40) | Sep 29, 2021
Fenelon A, Boudreaux M, Slopen N, Newman S
Demography | Vol. 58(4), 1171–1195, Aug 1, 2021
Slopen N, Williams DR
Dev Psychopathol | Vol. 33(2), 614-624 | May 6, 2021
Stelson E, Kulkacek L, Frasso R, Hall M, Guevara J
Breastfeed Med | May 19, 2021, online ahead of print
Heemann M, Kim R, Vollmer S, Subramanian SV
JAMA Netw Open | Vol. 4(8), e2120627 | Aug 12, 2021
Rodgers J, Lee H-Y, Kim R, Mor N, Subramanian SV
Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol | Aug 31, 2021, online ahead of print
Subramanian S V
Lancet Glob Health | Vol. 9(9), e1201-1202 | Sep 1, 2021
Trudel-Fitzgerald C, Reduron LR, Kawachi I, Kubzansky LD
Psychosom Med | Vol. 83(5), 402-409 | Jun 1, 2021
Toussaint L, Cheadle L, Dezutter J, Williams DR
Front Psychol | Vol. 12, 731017 | Sep 29, 2021
Lavizzo‑Mourey RJ, Besser RE, Williams DR
NEJM | Vol. 384(18), 1681-1684 | May 6, 2021
McBride CM, Cooper HLF, Williams DR, Emmons KM
Soc Sci Med | Vol. 283, 114189 | Jul 4, 2021
Boutrin M-C, Williams DR
Healthc (Amst) | Vol. 9(6), 673 | Jun 4, 2021
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Oct 28 | 12–1:15 pm | Center for Population and Development Studies
Oct 28 | 1–1:50 pm | Women, Gender, and Health
Oct 29 | 12–1 pm | Center for Population and Development Studies
Nov 4 | 12–1:15 pm | Center for Population and Development Studies
Nov 5 | 12–1 pm | Center for Population and Development Studies
Nov 10 | 1–1:50 pm | Women, Gender, and Health
Nov 22 | 1–1:50 pm | SBS
Nov 17 | 1–1:50 pm | Center for Health and Happiness
Nov 18 | 12–1:15 pm | Center for Population and Development Studies
Dec 1 | 1–1:50 pm | Women, Gender, and Health
Dec 2 | 12–1:15 pm | Center for Population and Development Studies
Dec 3 | 12–1 pm | Center for Population and Development Studies
Dec 6 | 1–1:50 pm | SBS
Dec 9 | 1–1:50 pm | Women, Gender, and Health
Dec 15 | 1–1:50 pm | Center for Health and Happiness
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Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
677 Huntington Avenue | Kresge Building
Boston, MA 02115
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Phone: 617.432.1135 | Fax: 617.432.3123
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