Scholars in Health Policy Research
Damon Centola, Ph.D., (’06) published his study, “The Spread of Behavior in an Online Social Network Experiment,” in the September 3, 2010, issue of Science. The study has received the 2011 Outstanding Article Publication Award from the Mathematical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association; the award was presented at their national conference in August 2011. This is the first time that this award has been given to a project in public health.

Read More Achievements & Accolades

• Clinical Scholars
• Community Health Leaders
• Executive Nurse Fellows
• Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program
• Health & Society Scholars
• Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research
• Nurse Faculty Scholars
• Physician Faculty Scholars
• Scholars in Health Policy Research

Clinical Scholars
Clinical Scholars alumnus Robert Dittus, M.D., M.P.H., (’82) was named associate vice chancellor for public health and health care and senior associate dean for population health sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He will retain his roles as director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health; the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center; and the Quality Scholars Fellowship Program. Dittus will also remain chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health. Read the announcement.

Clinical Scholars alumna Carole Jenny, M.D., M.B.A., (’74) a pediatrician and child-abuse expert at Brown Medical School, testified during a House Human Resources subcommittee hearing about a recent Government Accountability Office report to Congress revealing that America uses flawed methods to tally and analyze the deaths of children who have been maltreated. Jenny urged federal support for training more doctors in child abuse pediatrics. She argued that “when a child does die from abuse or neglect, these pediatricians can help police, forensic, and social service agencies make the correct diagnosis by doing the appropriate medical workup in the hospital and by ruling out conditions that mimic abuse or neglect.” Jenny’s testimony was mentioned in an Associated Press story about the report and hearing.

Mark S. Johnson, M.D., M.P.H., (’82) was named the new dean of the Howard University College of Medicine. Johnson is the founding chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–New Jersey Medical School. He succeeds Robert E. Taylor, M.D., who announced his retirement as dean last summer. Johnson is a representative to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Council of Academic Societies from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Read Howard University’s announcement.

Christoph Lee, M.D., (’10) was awarded the 2011–2012 E. Stephen Amis, Jr., M.D., Fellowship in Quality and Safety by the American College of Radiology (ACR). The fellowship, sponsored by the Commission on Quality and Safety, provides the opportunity for one radiology fellow to obtain direct exposure to the functions of the Department of Quality and Safety at the ACR. The department manages programs that accredit facilities in mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, breast ultrasound, MRI, CT, nuclear medicine, PET, radiation oncology and ultrasound. The department is also responsible for the ACR Appropriateness Criteria(r), Practice Guidelines and Technical Standards, BI-RADS(r), RADPEERTM, radiation safety, quality improvement, Pay-for-Performance initiatives and the National Radiology Data Registry. Lee will be spending two weeks during his second year of the Clinical Scholars program (one week each in September 2011 and May 2012) in Washington, D.C., getting a glimpse into how the ACR Commission on Quality and Safety manages these programs. Afterwards, he will have the opportunity to submit an article to the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR) on his topic of interest.

Russell Rothman, M.D., M.P.P., (’00) was named director of the Vanderbilt Center for Health Services Research. He is associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and chief of the section of internal medicine and pediatrics. Rothman also currently serves as the director of the Effective Health Communication Program, assistant director of the Quality Scholars Fellowship Program and co-director of the Community Engaged Research Core of the Vanderbilt Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). Read the announcement.

Community Health Leaders
Stephen Black, J.D., (’08) heads a nonprofit group, Impact Alabama, which is dedicated to performing vision screening to children in Alabama, and is celebrating a record year. The organization performed more than 30,000 vision screens, according to a June 22 article in the Birmingham News. Launched in 2004, Impact Alabama has provided vision screening for 120,948 children, and of the children screened, 11 percent failed the vision tests. “We’ve been able to grow, but it’s hard to raise money,” Black, president and founder of Impact Alabama, told the newspaper. “Fortunately we have a lean but dedicated staff.”

The SaludToday blog featured a post written by RWJF Human Capital Team Director and Senior Program Officer David Krol, M.D., M.P.H., about the efforts of Christina Rodriguez, daughter of 2010 Community Health Leader Susan Rodriguez, to reduce the spread of HIV among teens and young adults. Teaming with her mother in 2005, Christina co-founded SMART Youth, a development and leadership program for young people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. Through weekly meetings, the organization provides information and teaches skills in order to “change the world one youth at a time.” Together, Susan and Christina Rodriguez have developed successful initiatives to enable other families to stay healthy and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Executive Nurse Fellows
Susan Bakewell-Sachs, Ph.D, R.N., P.N.P.-B.C., (’07) Carol Kuser Loser Dean and professor of nursing at the School of Nursing, Health and Exercise Science at the College of New Jersey and program director for the RWJF New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI), was appointed interim provost at the College of New Jersey for the 2011–2012 academic year, effective July 1, 2011. Additionally, Bakewell-Sachs was part of a special series on nursing for the public affairs television series Caucus: New Jersey with Steve Adubato that was broadcast in New Jersey and Pennsylvania May 28 through June 1, 2011.

Lorraine Frazier, Ph.D., R.N., M.S., F.A.H.A., F.A.A.N., (’09) Nancy B. Willerson Distinguished Professor In Nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, has been named dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing. She will begin her new post in October 2011.

Keela Ann Herr, Ph.D., R.N., A.G.S.F., F.A.A.N., (’07) professor and chair of adult and gerontology nursing at the College of Nursing at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, was appointed associate dean for faculty at the college of nursing and co-director of the Iowa John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence.

Kate Driscoll Malliarakis, M.S.M., R.N., M.A.C., (’99) president of Kam Associates, a health care consulting firm specializing in substance abuse and leadership issues, and assistant professor at the George Washington University Department of Nursing Education, was appointed to the board of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.

Susan McCutcheon, Ed.D., R.N., (’01) director of family services, women’s mental health and military sexual trauma for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., was featured in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on July 11. In the article, she discussed screening for military sexual trauma.

Wanda Montalvo, R.N., M.S.N., A.N.P., (’04) clinical director for the New York State Diabetes Campaign sponsored by the New York State Health Foundation, joined the National Diabetes Education Program’s (NDEP) new Operations Committee for a two-year term from June 2011 through May 2013. The Operations Committee will play a key role in shaping NDEP efforts.

Cynthia Armstrong Persily, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., Executive Nurse Fellows national advisory committee (NAC) member, associate dean of academic affairs, southern region programs, and chairperson and professor at West Virginia University School of Nursing, was appointed to the 2011 review panel for Affordable Care Act: Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration projects, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity.

Joy Forsyth Reed, Ed.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., Executive Nurse Fellows NAC member and head of public health nursing and professional development at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, was appointed to the American Red Cross National Nursing Committee.

On June 29, the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s nursing college announced that Juliann Sebastian, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., (’98) will be the new dean of the college. Her appointment was recently featured in the Omaha World-Herald.

Tener Goodwin Veenema, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.S., C.P.N.P., (’04) president and chief executive officer at the Tener Consulting Group, LLC, was interviewed on CNN American Morning on May 26, about the needs of children in disaster. Dr. Veenema represented the American Red Cross in the interview. She volunteers for the Red Cross both locally and nationally, and serves on the Greater Rochester Board of Directors and the American Red Cross National Scientific Advisory Board. She has been instrumental in many important initiatives in the areas of disaster preparedness, response, nursing and children in disasters.

Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program
James Gavin III, M.D., PH.D., national program director of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, was quoted in an eMedicinehealth article on research findings that indicate that diabetics are reluctant to change their lifestyles to better manage the disease. “The results contradict the widely held notion that [diabetes patients] who are well informed about their disease and have good access to health care are likely to favorably alter their lifestyles per their doctors’ recommendations,” said Gavin, who is also chair of the Partnership for a Healthier America, an initiative to fight childhood obesity. The research was conducted by Andrew Green, M.D., director of Midwestern Endocrinology in Overland Park, Kan., and presented at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association.

Health & Society Scholars
Cleopatra Abdou, Ph.D., (’08) was quoted in an article in Heart & Soul magazine (April/May 2011 issue) that examines the effects of racism on black women’s health care decisions. “We found overwhelming evidence that being African-American and having repeated exposure to overt and subtle discrimination left these women with very negative expectations about dealing with the health care system,” Abdou said.

Carolyn Cannuscio, Sc.D., Sc.M., (’05) a University of Pennsylvania public health professor, was quoted in a Newsworks.org article on efforts to help youth with insecure housing in a West Philadelphia neighborhood. “In Philadelphia, if you want to look at extremes, in 2009, 3,500 children 17 years old and younger did not have a home at some point during the year,” Cannuscio said. “But when we want to look at poverty more broadly, 40 percent of families in north central Philadelphia are living at or near the poverty level.”

Steven A. Haas, Ph.D., M.S., (’04) a social demographer at Arizona State University, co-authored an opinion piece, “Heavy in School, Burdened for Life,” in the June 2 New York Times. “Obesity affects not only health but also economic outcomes: overweight people have less success in the job market and make less money over the course of their careers than slimmer people. The problem is particularly acute for overweight women, because they are significantly less likely to complete college,”the authors note.

The efforts of David Van Sickle, Ph.D., M.A., (’06) to help asthma sufferers manage their conditions were highlighted on a Madison, Wis., television station, 15 WMTV. Van Sickle says his device—an asthma inhaler that includes GPS technology to track the location and times where patients use their inhalers—alerts physicians and health care providers to patients who might need more attention.

Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research
Sandro Galea, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., (’06) Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor of Epidemiology and chair of the epidemiology department at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, co-authored an editorial in the June 2011 issue of The Lancet about the global burden of disease in 10- to 24-year-olds. In the editorial, Galea and co-author John Santelli, M.D., M.P.H., chair of the Population and Family Health Department at the Mailman School, praised a World Health Organization study published in the same issue. The study found that young people between the ages of 10 and 24 years bear more than 15 percent of the world’s global disease burden because of nonfatal mental health disorders.

The New York Times published, “A Perfect Doctor, But Behind the Times,” an essay by Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.P., (’07) professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan. In the essay, Markel reflects on the main character of the ABC TV Show, “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” which aired from 1969 to 1976. The fictional Dr. Welby embodied the ideal family doctor—warm, compassionate, and all-knowing, yet he was behind the times when it came to homosexuality.

Nurse Faculty Scholars
Six Nurse Faculty Scholars were recently inducted as American Academy of Nursing (AAN) fellows. They are: Betty Bekemeier, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N., F.A.A.N., (’10) assistant professor at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing and adjunct assistant professor at the UW School of Public Health; Kathleen Hickey, Ed.D., C.-A.N.P., C.-F.N.P., (’09) assistant professor of nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing and family and adult nurse practitioner in the Division of Cardiology; Kathryn Laughon, Ph.D., R.N., (’08) associate professor of nursing at the University of Virginia School of Nursing; AkkeNeel Talsma, Ph.D., R.N., (’08) assistant professor of nursing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Jacquelyn Taylor, Ph.D., PNP-BC, R.N., (’08) assistant professor at the Yale University School of Nursing; Kynna Wright-Volel, Ph.D., R.N., (’08) assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Nursing and a board certified pediatric nurse practitioner. The six new inductees join three Nurse Faculty Scholars who are already AAN fellows, inducted last year: Angela Amar, R.N., Ph.D., (’08) associate professor of psychiatric/mental health at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College; Cynthia Anderson, Ph.D., W.H.N.P., (’08) associate dean for research and assistant professor for the Family and Community Nursing Department at the College of Nursing at the University of North Dakota; and Nancy Hanrahan, R.N., Ph.D., (’08) Dr. Lenore H. Kurlowicz Term Chair and associate professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Jacquelyn (Jackie) Campbell, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., Nurse Faculty Scholars program director and the Anna D. Wolf Chair and professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing with a joint appointment at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, received the Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame award on July 14, 2011. She was one of 15 esteemed nurse researchers selected for the honor. The International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame recognizes STTI members who are nurse researchers; who have achieved long-term, broad, national and/or international recognition for their work; and whose research has impacted the profession and the people it serves. The induction ceremony and reception took place at STTI’s 22nd International Nursing Research Congress in Cancun, Mexico.

Physician Faculty Scholars
Ray Dorsey, M.D., M.B.A., (’08) was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition on June 27, 2011, for his work with telemedicine. By connecting with patients through video conference calls, Dorsey has been able to provide remote access to specialty care. Dorsey said, “We’re at the point where we can remove geographical barriers to care. Our hope is that the vast majority of [Americans living with chronic conditions] can receive the care that they need from the specialists that are most qualified to provide them care.”

Scholars in Health Policy Research
Hilary Levey Friedman, Ph.D., (’09) spoke during New Hampshire Public Radio’s June 22, 2011 Word of Mouth program, talking about defying beauty-pageant stereotypes. During the program, Friedman described why our perceptions of “pageant girls” might change if we look beyond aspects of their physical appearances. Friedman also discussed her research on the topic in the June 19, 2011, Boston Globe Magazine, discussing the past 25 years of the Miss Massachusetts Pageant.