News

May 15, 2013: Congratulations Ann Cuccia! MPH student Ann Cuccia, along with physicians in Stony Brook's Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, were published in the Journal of Aerosal Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery. The title of the article is "In Vitro Delivery of Aerosolized Treprostinil via Modern Mechanical Ventilation" and can be read here. Congratulations to all of the collaborators!

May 7, 2013: Congratulations Carrie Shandra! GPPH core faculty member Dr. Carrie Shandra has received the Disability Policy Research Emerging Investigator Award. Carrie's project is titled, "Productivity Among Working-Age Disability Beneficiaries" and uses the American Time Use Survey to examine how people receiving Social Security Disability Income or Supplemental Security Income spend their time in behaviors that might link them to the labor market, increase their human capital, or facilitate social inclusion.

May 3, 2013: Congratulations Krishna Satish! MPH student Krishna Satish will receive the New York State College Health Association Outstanding Student of the Year Award for her efforts leading the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) as the Graduate Chair for 2012-2013. Krishna has had successful outreach efforts linked to her role in planning the recent Dental Screening in partnership with the School of Dental Medicine. Great work Krishna!

May 3, 2013: MPH Student Published in Newsday! Congratulations to Tracy Trypuc for her recent Letter to the Editor being published in Newsday on April 29, 2013. Her letter is titled "Energy drinks are a danger to kids" and can be read here. The letter stemmed from an ongoing fight from the Suffolk County Board of Health to introduce legislation that protects minors from the caffeine in popular energy drinks. A detailed account of the ongoing story can be found here.

April 12, 2013: Congratulations Ariba Hashmi! Congratulations goes out to MPH student Ariba Hashmi for passing the CPH exam in February. We wish you the best of luck in your future in public health.

February 21, 2013: Grant Proposal Accepted! GPPH students Michael Yen, Kyle Urbanczyk, and Jorge Sanchez, have received a $10,000 grant from the Allstate Foundation. The grant was applied for during the Capstone Seminar course, supervised by Dr. Lauren Hale and Dr. Lucy Weinstein. The grant will be used to promote advocacy and awareness for safe driving in Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau, and Suffolk County areas. This is one great example of how GPPH integrates competencies and connects to practical needs and opportunities in public health. Great job to all involved and congratulations!

February 7, 2013: Congratulations Lauren Hale! Dr. Lauren Hale, core faculty member in the Graduate Program in Public Health, has had her paper selected as Women's Health Iniative's publication of the month. The paper, Fibrinogen may mediate the assosication between long sleep duration and coronary heart disease, is featured on WHI's homepage. Great job Lauren!

January 21, 2013: Congratulations Carrie Shandra! Carrie Shandra, Assistant Professor of Sociology and core faculty member for GPPH, was invited to speak about her research at a policy forum next month. The forum, titled "Growing Pains: How Disability, Risky Behaviors, and Expectations During Youth Influence Early Adult Outcomes," will take place in Washington, DC on February 21st. Dr. Shandra is going to be one of five expert panelists speaking at the event. For more information about the forum and details on how to register to attend, please click here.

January 14, 2013: Congratulations Rebecca Monastero! Mentee of Jaymie Meliker, Rebecca Monastero was recently named Semifinalist in the 2013 Intel Science Competition for her research on mercury and fatty acid interactions in seafood consumers. Rebecca is one of 34 semifinalists that was mentored by a Stony Brook faculty member, which is nearly fifty percent of all Long Island semifinalists. To read the university press release, please click here. Great work Rebecca!

October 17, 2012: Congratulations Fabio Lima! Fabio Vasconcelos Lima, GPPH alumnus, has received the Henry I. Russek Award from the American College of Cardiology (ACC). This award was created to help educate and inspire medical students at a crucial time in their career training, and is granted to only five medical students from the New York Area each year. As a recipient, Fabio will have the opportunity to attend the Annual New York Cardiovascular Symposium in December, 2012, as a Henry I. Russek Student Fellow and will have the chance to meet the ACC Executive Staff. Fabio earned his Bachelors in Pharmacology in 2010, Masters in Public Health in 2012, and is currently pursuing his Medical Doctorate (expected in 2016), all at Stony Brook University. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful student in our community. Congratulations!

October 17, 2012: Project Funded! Professor Lauren Hale is working with Dr. Michael Grandner and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania on a NIH-funded R21 project to study Sleep and Health in the Social Environment.  The proposal seeks to better understand the relative contributions of behavioral, social, and environmental factors on sleep, with the eventual goal of developing interventions to address sleep deficiency in the population. Keep up the great work Lauren!

September 20, 2012: Congratulations Amy Hammock and Team! Amy Hammock, Assistant Professor of Prev Med for GPPH, and her team have recently been offered a very sizable grant from the Department of Justice: Office on Violence Against Women. GPPH will collaborate with Stony Brook University’s Center for Prevention and Outreach (CPO), using the funds to: continue outreach and education on sexual violence, establish a comprehensive bystander intervention program, increase the availability of specialized counseling to survivors of sexual violence, and initiate many other helpful programs. The grant will involve coordination with other departments on campus, as well as with external partner agencies such as the Suffolk County Police Department. For the detailed press release from the offices of Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand and Congressman Bishop, please click here. We are very proud of Amy and everyone involved, and are looking forward to the great programs that this grant will fund. 

September 12, 2012: Research Cited! Congratulations goes out to Dr. Lauren Hale, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine for GPPH, whose research was cited in the Huffington Post article “Sleep Problems and Poverty: How Socioeconomics Impact Our Sleep and Health.” The article discusses Dr. Hale’s research on how living environments can affect sleep patterns and quality. A link to the article can be found here, with her research mentioned in the fourth paragraph.

Dr. Hale was also interviewed on Southern California Public Radio (KPCC, an NPR affiliate) a few weeks ago regarding her press in the New York Times. The NY Times article can be found here. To listen to Dr. Hale’s interview with KPCC, please click here.

September 5, 2012: Round of Applause for Kayla Lacci! A big congratulation goes out to Kayla Lacci, current MPH student, who is just starting the Physician Assistant program at Stony Brook University. Kayla is our first MPH student to also be in this highly selective, highly ranked PA program. Stony Brook’s PA program was ranked 13th in the 2011 US News and World Report issue titled America’s Best Graduate Schools/Programs, and Kayla is one of the 44 students accepted out of nearly 1850 applicants. Above this, Kayla was also awarded the TYLENOL Future Care Scholarship for this academic year. This award was given to 40 students out of a nationwide applicant pool who exhibited academic excellence, leadership, and community involvement. Kayla’s future plans are to work clinically as a Physician Assistant while doing public health research in her specialty field. She also plans to continue to go on Public Health and Medical Mission trips to under-served communities. She wants to get involved in PA professional associations to help change the health care system to be more effective and helpful. Lastly, she would like to work in educating future providers and public health practitioners. We cannot express how proud we are of Kayla, and how thrilled we are that she is continuing the MPH program part-time while enrolled in this great PA program. We wish her the best of luck and know that she will be very successful!

August 30, 2012: Congratulations Giuseppina Licata! Giuseppina Licata, recent GPPH graduate with a concentration in Community Health, has been granted a great job opportunity! She will be employed through the Brownsville Multi-Service Community Health Center in Brooklyn, NY, and will serve as the youth programming and internships coordinator for World Academy for Total Community Health High School. Giuseppina will be working with students to train them as peer health educators, as well as developing programs both to serve the students and for the students to implement themselves with other local middle schools. She will also be connecting students with internship opportunities and programs in the health care field. We wish Giuseppina the best of luck in her new position and know she will make a great difference in her students’ lives!

August 29, 2012: Congratulations Laura Chiu! Laura Chiu, GPPH alumnus and first year medical student, was awarded the Vicki Chang Scholarship for her studies at Albany Medical College. This prestigious scholarship was awarded by the Chinatown Health Clinic Foundation, which is affiliated with the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in New York, NY. Laura was affiliated with CBWCHC through her employment as a pediatric medical assistant and through an independent research study done for her MPH practicum project. The scholarship was awarded on the basis of academic merit, interest in serving the Asian American community, and the demonstration of compassion and professionalism in health care.  We wish Laura the best in her medical studies and congratulate her on this significant award!

August 29, 2012: Abstract Accepted! The presentation titled “Regional Variations in Processes of Care and Vascular Morbidity in Diabetic Adults in the United States” was accepted for a presentation at the American Heart Association’s annual Scientific Sessions conference this coming November in Los Angeles, California. The abstract was co-authored by Puja Parikh, MPH alumus, Fabio Vasconcelos Lima, MPH alumnus, Dr. Raymond Goldsteen, GPPH affiliated faculty member, and a faculty cardiologist at Stony Brook University Medical Center. The presentation abstract can be found here.

August 29, 2012: Congratulations Lauren Hale! Dr. Lauren Hale, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine for GPPH, was quoted in the New York Times article “How Well You Sleep May Hinge on Race.” The article discusses Dr. Hale’s research on social and racial differences in sleep patterns. A link to the article can be found here, with her quotes on the second page.

August 15, 2012: Congratulations Kunchok Dorjee! Kunchock Dorrjee, GPPH alumnus, has had much success and made several contributions to public health in India.  He has had two abstracts accepted for presentation at the World Lung Conference organized by International Union Against TB and Lung Disease, to be held in November 2012 in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia.  His first abstract, in which he is the first author, is titled “Drug Resistant TB in the Tibetan Population in India: Risk factors, Resistance Profile and Treatment Outcomes.”  The second abstract he co-authored with Dr. Kerry Dierberg from John Hopkins University.  That abstract is titled “Improved TB case-finding and MDR-TB detection among Tibetan refugees in India.”  Kunchok has also had a case study accepted for publication in International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, titled “Xpert MTB/Rif Diagnosed Disseminated Smear Negative MDR TB in a Sub-District Hospital in India.” 

August 1, 2012: Smoking banned on campus! Starting January 1, 2014 smoking will be banned not only at Stony Brook University but on all SUNY campuses.  SUNY will be joining the almost 800 other somke-free campuses when this policy is set in place. 

To read the press release, click here.

To read more about other smoke-free campuses, click here.

July 18, 2012: Is Seafood A Good Or Bad Thing? Choosing which types of seafood to eat is not simple. In addition to balancing cost and quality, as we do for all foods, the educated consumer might also consider sustainability of the fish species, and human health risks and benefits. Seafood provides important nutrients, most notably n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which have been shown to confer benefits to brain and visual system development, and reduce risk of heart disease. However, seafood can also be a source of contaminants, perhaps most importantly, methylmercury, a known neurotoxicant.  Dr. Meliker is leading the Long Island Study of Seafood Consumption, an ongoing study at Stony Brook University, to assess risks and benefits among avid fish consumers. This study is funded by The Gelfond Fund for Mercury Research & Outreach, which supports research at Stony Brook that aims to improve the understanding of how mercury cycles in our environment and the health effects of methylmercury from fish consumption.  Dr. Meliker recently spoke at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences giving a presentation titled: Public Health Implications of Seafood Consumption.  He discussed the risks, benefits, sustainability, and cost as they relate to different species of seafood; gaps in the scientific literature; and the Long Island Study of Seafood Consumption. 

To read more on the Gelfond Fund for Mercury Research and Outreach, click here. 

July 3, 2012: Congratulations Margaret Pichardo! Margaret Pichardo, current MPH student, has had an article selected for publication in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.  The article titled Dietary Acculturation in U.S. Hispanic Communities was co-authored with N. Davis, MD and E. Chambers, PhD. It discusses how traditional diets and dietary acculturation influence cardiovascular health among Hispanics as well as examines the relationships between dietary acculturation and obesity.  Understanding how dietary acculturation influences health status of these individuals is vital in order to develop effective health interventions. The article is currently in press. 

June 20, 2012: Congratulations Robbye Kinkade! Robbye Kinkade, MPH alumni, has been accepted to SUNY Downstate, School of Public Health’s DrPH in Community Health Sciences program! We wish Robbye every success in her doctoral training and beyond!

June 20, 2012: Congratulations Giuseppina Licata! Giuseppina Licata, MPH alumni, has passed the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) Exam.  The CHES examination is a competency-based tool used to measure possession, application and interpretation of knowledge in the Seven Areas of Responsibility; a comprehensive set of Competencies and Sub-competencies defining the role of an entry-level health education specialist.  

For more information on the exam, visit: http://www.nchec.org/exam/overview/

June 20, 2012: Congratulations Susanne Mendelson! Susanne A. Mendelson, a member of the GPPH affiliated faculty, was honored with the Friends of Education Award presented by the Phi Delta Kappa International Stony Brook Chapter to recognize the commitment and effectiveness of outstanding educators, staff members, and citizens throughout Nassau and Suffolk County.

June 20, 2012: Abstract Accepted! Congratulations to GPPH's Director, Dr. Lisa Benz Scott, and her colleagues, for having an abstract accepted for presentation by the Canadian Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation at the Annual Meeting and Symposium in Toronto, October 26 - 28, 2012. The paper is entitled, "A PATIENT NAVIGATION INTERVENTION IMPROVED ENROLLMENT IN OUTPATIENT CARDIAC REHABILITATION: RESULTS FROM A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL.” The abstract also will be published in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation & Prevention (JCRP) online version in the September/October 2012 issue. Co-authors include Co-Principal Investigator Dr. David L Brown (School of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine), Co-investigator Dr. Thomas Sexton (College of Business), and research assistants Dr. Sabrina Brzostek (School of Medicine) and Ceylan Cizmeli (Department of Psychology). The paper will be presented as a poster by Dr. Shannon Gravely (post-doc, School of Medicine and Graduate Program in Public Health) who also is a scientist with the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre & Women's Health Program, Toronto General Hospital University Health Network, in Toronto, Canada.

May 24, 2012: Congratulations Giuseppina Licata! Giuseppina Licata, MPH alumni, has landed a job as Project Coordinator at the Citizens Committee for New York City.  This is a small non-profit in the city that awards grants to grassroots community groups.  To read more about Citizens Committee for New York City you can view their website at: http://www.citizensnyc.org/

May 24, 2012: Sleep Disparities Symposium! On March 14, 2012, Professor Lauren Hale participated in a Symposium at Harvard University entitled Sleep Health Disparities:  Opportunities to Improve the Health of the Community.  Her talk addressed her research on differences in sleep disorder and sleep traits across the population, and the possible implications for contributing to health disparities.

May 11, 2012: Congratulations Trinley Palmo! Trinley Palmo, current MPH student, had a paper accepted for oral presentation at the 9^th Annual Global Health and Innovation Conference sponsored by Unite for Sight, at Yale University in New Havens on 22 April, 2012. The presentation is titled “Sontsa: a Project for Tibetan Youth.” Her presentation described a program to promote positive emotional development among a group of Tibetan children in India through Theater, Storytelling and Art mediums. Sontsa metaphorically means “children” in Tibetan language. Trinley also is to be congratulated for being accepted to the prestigious HELP program (Health Emergencies in Large Populations) at the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, the John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health this summer.

May 7, 2012: Congratulations Lisa Benz Scott! Lisa Benz Scott, GPPH Program Director, is the recipient of the 2011-2012 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service at Stony Brook University.  The Chancellor's Awards for Excellence are System-level honors conferred to acknowledge and provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence.

May 3, 2012: Congratulations Muath Bishawi! Muath Bishawi, MPH alumni and current MD student, received the AMA Seed Grant.  This is a $2,500 award that is given to outstanding junior investigators for their basic science or clinical research projects. Only 43 individuals nationwide received the grant, which includes medical students, residents, and fellows. Muath is researching health-related quality of life as a predictor of long-term survival of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
 
Muath’s study is a follow-up and expansion of his summer 2011 research project, where he investigated quality of life and long-term survival of CABG patients.  The follow-up for this clinical trial is evaluating longer term outcomes of veterans undergoing non-emergent CABG procedures. Muath’s AMA research project will evaluate how a CABG patient’s perception of their quality of life before CABG surgery, at three months after, and at one year post-CABG might predict their longer term survival (up to 10 years).

To read more about Muath’s research, click here.

May 3, 2012: Congratulations Aleef Rahman! Aleef Rahman, MPH alumni, has passed the Certification in Public Health (CPH) exam.  The exam is rooted in the five basic core competencies of public health to reflect the nature of the field and the way one area of knowledge blends into another. The certification exam is administered to graduates of CEPH-accredited schools and programs of public health.

Becoming a Certified Public Health Professional Has Multiple Benefits:

• Sets a standard of knowledge and skills in public health
• Encourages life-long learning
• Adds credibility to public health profession
• Increasing public health awareness
• Fosters environment of a professional community

For more information on the exam visit: www.publichealthexam.org

April 24, 2012: Think Again Campaign! In response to the overall safety of members of the campus community, Stony Brook University has launched “Serious About Safety” which is a wide-ranging campaign to promote and cultivate a safe and responsible environment for personal, traffic, and pedestrian safety.  As part of the toxic drinking initiative Stony Brook University has joined the National College Health Improvement Project (NCHIP).  This is a nationwide learning collaborative that seeks to combat high-risk drinking behavior on college campuses through data-driven, community-wide efforts involving several areas of the University.  

One way in which this is beneficial, is that it enables members to come up with ways to help better reach out to their campus community.  Aleef Rahman, MPH alumni, did just that.  Rahman created a campaign “Think Again” which is designed to encourage students to reflect on common misperceptions about the prevalence of alcohol use as part of the college experience.  Stony Brook University students overestimate the percentage of their peers who engage in heavy or high-risk drinking.  This campaign is completely student-generated, and seeks to inform the Stony Brook University community of alcohol use on campus.  One major way that the campaign does this is through the use of photographic portraiture of student ambassadors.  Rahman says, “Public health photography is a significant and effective method of involving people in activities that promote health.  Photography can mediate between everyday life experiences and scientifically based knowledge of what affects health so that people are moved rather than indoctrinated by health messages.”

For more information or to join the campaign, visit: http://thinkagain.carbonmade.com/

April 9, 2012: Natasha’s Justice Project Film Screening! On March 21, 2012, the Graduate Program in Public Health (GPPH) organized a screening of HBO’s award-winning documentary Sex Crimes Unit: True Convictions. The event included a Q&A Session with a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) from Suffolk County VIBS and a talk by Natasha Alexenko, a survivor who was featured in the film. Ms. Alexenko is the founder of Natasha’s Justice Project, a Long Island-based non-profit created to empower survivors of sexual assault by getting their rape kits off the shelves and tested so that their perpetrators are brought to justice. Other co-sponsors of the event included VIBS, Center for Prevention and Outreach (CPO), Dept. of Preventive Medicine, Dept. of Cultural Analysis and Theory, School of Nursing, School of Social Welfare, The Family Violence Education and Research Center, and Voices for Planned Parenthood (VOX).  The event helped raise awareness about the frequency with which sexual assaults occur, where survivors can seek help at Stony Brook Hospital, and the issue of the backlog of rape kits that exists across the United States.

To view photos from the event, click here.

March 29, 2012: Abstract Accepted for Presentation! The presentation titled "QR Codes and Google Analytics: A Novel Approach In The Process Evaluation Of A Multifocal Campaign To Reduce Normalized High Risk Behaviors" was accepted for a presentation at the global 'Medicine 2.0' annual conference at Harvard Medical School, taking place this September 15, 2012 – September 16, 2012 in Boston. The abstract was co-authored by Aleef Rahman, MPH alumni, and Dr. Amy Hammock, GPPH core faculty member. The work was done in collaboration with the Stony Brook University's Center for Prevention and Outreach, the National College Health Improvement Program (NCHIP) collaboration, and Dr. Hammock.

The abstract can be found here: http://www.medicine20congress.com/ocs/index.php/med/med2012/paper/view/1117.

March 29, 2012: Congratulations Brian Jonat! Brian Jonat, a current MPH student, has been accepted to present at the American Burn Association annual meeting in Seattle, WA on April 24, 2012.  He also won the very competitive ABA Student Scholarship, funded by the American Burn Association, to cover his expenses to the conference. The presentation is co –authored by Jonat B, Wat K, Taira BR, Thode HC, Sandoval S, Soroff H, Singer AJ., and is titled Comparison of Scald and Flame Burns: a 17 year study.  This presentation is a comparison of severity of injury and utilization of resources by mechanism of injury comparing flame burns to scald burns in patients hospitalized in the Stony Brook University Medical Center. 

March 27, 2012: Congratulations Aleef Rahman! Aleef Rahman, MPH alumni, has been working on lab research over the past 4 years with Dr. Srinivas Pentyala and the Dept. of Anesthesiology at Stony Brook University. He recently co-authored a journal article titled “Effect of Lidocaine on Bone Matrix Formation by Osteoblasts” on his findings.  The article was published in the Journal of Anesthesiology and Clinical Research.  He has also co-authored a book chapter “Polychlorinated Biphenyls: In Situ Bioremediation From the Environment" which was published in the textbook Environmental Pollution: Ecology and Human Health. 

To read the article, visit http://www.hoajonline.com/journals/jacs/content/pdf/1.pdf.

To read the chapter, click here.

March 8, 2012: GPPH Welcomes New Core Faculty Member, Dr. David Graham! Dr. Graham recently joined the faculty at Stony Brook Medicine, School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Fall of 2011. He is the new Director of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the Medical Director of Employee Health Service at Stony Brook University Hospital. He is board certified in his specialty, and practices in the Clinical Practice Management Plan of Stony Brook University Physicians. 

Prior to Dr. Graham’s appointment to Stony Brook Medicine, he held key positions in the Suffolk County Department of Health Services for most of his 32 years as a physician. Dr. Graham has acted in the capacity as Health Commissioner, Chief Deputy Health Commissioner, and Director of Public Health in Suffolk County. Immediately prior to joining the Department of Preventive Medicine full time, he was the Physician-in-Charge of the Employee Medical Bureau of the Police Department of Suffolk County. In that capacity he supervised, practiced and directed a Division of Occupational and Clinical Preventive Services for ~2,500 police officers and 1,000 civilians. Dr. Graham has been directly involved in health professional personnel decisions, strategic planning, program development, operational efficiency, professional leadership, clinical practice and health and medical education. He has taught a wide variety of courses in the medical school and graduate school at Stony Brook, and graduate and undergraduate courses at many of the universities and colleges in the region for over 30 years. 

We are delighted to have Dr. Graham as core faculty in the Public Health Practice Concentration. Please extend a warm welcome to Dr. Graham.

January 4, 2012: Congratulations, Carolyn Gallagher and Jaymie Meliker! Carolyn, a MPH alum and PhD candidate, has recently published two articles with Dr. Jaymie Meliker, a member of the GPPH Core Faculty. Please click to the respective titles to view their publications.

C. Gallagher and J. Meliker
“Mercury and thyroid autoantibodies in U.S. women”

C. Gallagher, D. Smith, and J. Meliker
“Total blood mercury and serum measles antibodies in US children”

December 27, 2011: Congratulations, Evonne Kaplan-Liss, Joan Broderick, Dennis Dorf, and Elizabeth Bass! Dr. Kaplan-Liss, Research Assistant Professor in the GPPH, Dr. Joan Broderick, Affiliated Public Health Faculty member, Dennis Dorf, MPH Alumnus, and Elizabeth Bass, MPH alumni, have recently had their article titled “A challenging empirical question: What are the effects of media on psychogenic illness during a community crisis?” accepted for publication in the Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education. To view the article, click here.

December 6, 2011: Health Communication Certificate Students Create A Social Norms Campaign! Tiffany Clemmings, Maria Nardiello, Trinley Palmo and Christine Vargas created “8 in 10, A Social Norms Campaign” to promote responsible drinking among students at Stony Brook University.  They reached out to students during Wolfstock 2011, the Homecoming game, and the Red Watch Band Graduation ceremony to help inform students about responsible drinking, as well as the support services offered on campus regarding drinking.  To view the PowerPoint of the Campaign, click here.

November 8, 2011: Certified in Public Health Exam! Registration is now open for the February 2012 Certified in Public Health (CPH) exam. The CPH exam will be administered across the world between February 3 and February 27, 2012. It is recommended that you register early for the best price and earliest scheduling permits to book your choice of exam date, time, and location. Graduates of and students at public health schools or programs accredited by CEPH are eligible for the February 2012 exam. To learn more about the CPH exam please visit www.publichealthexam.org. 

November 4, 2011: Free HIV Testing! The Long Island Association for AIDS Care, Inc. (LIAAC) is supporting Stony Brook University Campus Testing. Free confidential HIV testing via Rapid Test, offers testing and results in one appointment. When you call to book your appointment, the campus location will be identified. To book your appointment, call the LIAAC hotline at 866-236-3448.

November 4, 2011: No Charge Tobacco Cessation Support Groups! Stony Brook University students with student identification are able to participate in free cessation classes as well as receive a free nicotine replacement product.  Pre-registration is required and can be done by visiting http://co.suffolk.ny.us/departments/healthservices/healtheducation.aspx.

October 21, 2011: Congratulations, Ramneet Kalra!  Ramneet, a current MPH student, has recently been accepted as poster presentation at Stony Brook University's inaugural Converging Science Summit on Monday October 24, 2011.  The title of the poster presentation is "Establishing Accountability in the Dental Health Care Industry to Promote Overall Health and Drive". 

September 20, 2011: Congratulations, Raymond Goldsteen!  Dr. Goldsteen is the CoPI of the new HRSA-funded New York City-Long Island-Lower Tri-County Public Health Training Center, one of only 37 such centers in the country. It is a collaborative project of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the State University of New York, Stony Brook’s Graduate Program in Public Health, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Health, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH), and the five county health departments of Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties.  

The NYC-LI-LTC PHTC offers flexible, web-based training programs for current public health workers as well as face-to-face training programs in the five boroughs of New York City and the five target counties.  There is no charge for web-based or face-to-face training programs and many offer continuing education credits.  The Center also supports a limited number of MPH student field placements and faculty/student collaborative projects for future public health workers to gain experience at participating local partner health departments and public health agencies.

September 9, 2011: Feminist Campus Colloquium Fall 2011! Dr. Tia Palermo, faculty member in the Graduate Program in Public Health will be presenting on the topic of “Sexual Violence Against Women in the DRC: Population-Based Estimates and Determinants” at this year’s Colloquium.  Th event will take place on Wedensday, Septemeber 21^st at 4pm in Humanities 1008 and is sponsored by the Women's and Gender Studies, Department of Cultural Analysis and Theory.

For more details, please click here.

To read more about Stories of Substance, please click here.

For more information about the book visit: Amazon.com (ISBN: 978-81-7708-279-1)

For more information about the scholarship, please visit: http://my.americanheart.org/professional/Councils/AwardsandLectures/Scho...

July 12, 2011: Congratulations, Evonne Kaplan-Liss!  Dr. Kaplan-Liss, Assistant Research Professor in the GPPH, was invited to speak at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Partnerships in Environmental Public Health Conference in Washington, DC about how to work with the media to increase communication about environmental health projects and practical issues relevant to environmental health communication.

July 12, 2011: Congratulations, Lauren Hale! Dr. Hale, Associate Professor in the GPPH, in collaboration with Eric Reither (Utah State University) and Patrick Krueger (University of Colorado), was awarded an R21 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, entitled "Sleep, Obesity, and the Wellbeing of US Adolescents."  The proposed research will utilize data from multiple waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate the role that sleep may play in contributing to disparities in obesity among adolescents, and also potential interaction effects between sleep and obesity on physical and psychosocial well-being.  

June 21, 2011: Congratulations, Ramneet Kalra and Farzana Ali! Ramneet Kalra, current MBA/MPH student, will present at a poster session during the 139th APHA Annual Meeting on October 29 - November 2, 2011 in Washington, DC. The title of her presentation is “Establishing Accountability in the Dental Healthcare Industry to Promote Oral Health and Drive Utilization". In addition, Farzana Ali, MPH alum, will also present at a poster session during the 139th APHA Annual Meeting titled “Does obesity worsen asthma-related outcomes in US children?."

June 14, 2011: Congratulations, Alan S. Cooper! Dr. Cooper, a MPH alum, is currently teaching a course in Health Care Delivery Systems in the School of Health Technology and Management at Stony Brook. Also, Dr. Cooper is part of a group of faculty selected to teach Medicine in the Community and Society to second year medical students at Stony Brook University.

June 14, 2011: Congratulations, Aleef Rahman! Aleef, current MPH student, co-authored a research paper titled "An Unusual Case of Neurogenic Sexual Dysfunction Due to Lead Exposure" that was published in the Open Andrology Journal. He was working with faculty from the Departments of Urology and Anesthesiology at Stony Brook University. The online version of the paper (Volume 3, 2011) is available at the following link: http://www.benthamscience.com/open/toandroj/openaccess2.htm

June 14, 2011: Congratulations, Jennifer Haase! Jennifer, a MPH Alum, has recently passed the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam. She was in the Community Health Concentration and she is the first student to take the CHES exam. For more information about the CHES certification please visit: http://www.nchec.org/

May 16, 2011: Congratulations, Tia Palermo! Dr. Palermo’s research titled “Estimates and Determinants of Sexual Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo” has been published in the American Journal of Public Health. This new study, based on examination of government-collected and nationally representative data from the Democratic Republic of Congo shows that levels of rape and sexual violence against women in the country are 26 times higher than official United Nations estimates. The story has been widely publicized in both print and on radio including but not limited to the NY Times, Reuters, Daily Beast, ABC News, World News-Sky Broadcasting (UK), and BBC News.

Information was recently published in the American Journal of Public Health visit: http://www.stonybrookmedicalcenter.org/medicalcenter/DRC

May 10, 2011: Congratulations to Farzana Ali for successfully passing the Certified Public Health exam.

Public health professionals daily face the challenges of confronting complex health issues, such as controlling infectious diseases, reducing environmental hazards, public health preparedness and substance abuse.

With all of these serious challenges, public health professionals need to be dedicated to staying at the forefront of their field by understanding the interaction between the different specialized areas of public health, learning new strategies to cope with disasters, and constantly working to stay two steps ahead of any threat in order to be effective with the proactive and preventative approach that characterizes the public health field.

Becoming a Certified Public Health Professional Has Multiple Benefits:

• Sets a standard of knowledge and skills in public health
• Encourages life-long learning
• Adds credibility to public health profession
• Increasing public health awareness
• Fosters environment of a professional community

The exam is rooted in the five basic core competencies of public health to reflect the nature of the field and the way one area of knowledge blends into another. The certification exam is administered to graduates of CEPH-accredited schools and programs of public health.

Information modified from www.publichealthexam.org.

May 3, 2011: Congratulations, Carolyn Gallagher and Jaymie Meliker! Carolyn, a MPH alum and PhD Candidate, has recently had two articles published. One of them was co-authored with Dr. Jamie Meliker, GPPH Faculty. Please click to the respective titles to view her publications.

Co-Authored: C. Gallagher and J. Meliker
“Total blood mercury, plasma homocysteine, methylmalonic acid and folate in US children aged 3–5 years, NHANES 1999–200"

Co-Authored: C. Gallagher, J.Chen, and J. Kovach
“The relationship between body iron stores and blood and urine cadmium concentrations in US never-smoking, non-pregnant women aged 20–49 years"

April 27, 2011: Congratulations, Dilruba Khanam! Dilruba, current MPH student, will receive a NYSCHA Certificate of Recognition for her outstanding work with SHAC - Student Health Advisory Committee and the Health Education program. The award is a recognition for her efforts in promoting health and wellness in our campus community during the Public Health Month 2011. Her activities include campus HIV testing events (and training events, including HIV Awareness training & HIPPA Certification/training of event student volunteers) and campus flu vaccine events.

April 20, 2011: Congratulations, Amy Hammock! Dr. Hammock has been asked to serve on SBU's Change Improvement Team -- a group of 5-7 people from the university who will be charged with developing prevention programs to improve health on campus. This is a national project initiated by Jim Kim - President of Dartmouth - called the National College Health Improvement Project. About 25 institutions have been asked to participate and will share their plans and experiences over the next several years.

April 1, 2011: Communications Scholarship! Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council Inc. is offering $2,000 Cash Award/Optional Internship to College Juniors, Seniors or Post Graduates studying Journalism, Communications Arts or Healthcare Administration.
Applicant must be a resident of Nassau or Suffolk County (need not be attending a Long Island College).
Application Deadline: May 20, 2011.

For an application and qualification requirements contact:
Janine Logan
Ann Marie Brown Memorial Scholarship Coordinator
Nassau Suffolk Hospital Council
1383 Veterans Memorial Highway, Suite 26
Hauppauge, NY 11788
631-963-4156
jlogan@nshc.org or visit www.nshc.org

Recipient is expected to attend award luncheon, June.

March 28, 2011: Congratulations, Jaymie Meliker! Dr. Meliker is Principal Investigator of a 4-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to investigate the epidemiologic relationship between cadmium and breast cancer. His collaborators include colleagues at the Danish Cancer Society, RTI International, University of Missouri, and Stony Brook faculty Jack Kovach and Hongshik Ahn.

March 24, 2011: Congratulations, Aleef Rahman! Aleef, current MPH student,co-authored a research paper titled "Pharmacokinetic drug interactions of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors mediated by cytochrome P450 3A4 isoform" that was published in the International Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences. He was working with researchers from the Departments of Anesthesiology and Urology at Stony Brook. Online version is available in the following link.
http://www.academicjournals.org/ijmms/contents/2011cont/February.htm

March 23, 2011: Congratulations, Evonne Kaplan-Liss! Dr. Kaplan-Liss was awarded a Presidential Diversity Mini-Grant supporting the development of the communicating science curriculum in the School of Medicine.

March 10, 2011: Public Health Month 2011, March 21 – April 15! Each year, the Graduate Program in Public Health coordinates events around National Public Health Week through development of a variety of programs and activities for students, faculty, and staff. Since public health is a broad and multi-disciplinary field, we collaborate with many departments and organizations on campus to demonstrate the connectiveness of this profession.
For more information about events and programs visit:
http://www.stonybrookmedicalcenter.org/publichealthmonth

March 10, 2011: Scholarship opportunity! $500 APHA Scholarship for all high schoolers, college and graduate students! To raise awareness about emergency preparedness, APHA is offering its third annual Get Ready Scholarship. Six scholarships of $500 each will be awarded to two high school students, two college undergraduate students and two graduate students who write the best essays on preparedness. Winning students will also receive a one-year membership in APHA. To learn more, visit the scholarship website or contact Pooja Bhandari at pooja.bhandari@apha.org. The deadline is March 28, or when each submission level has received 300 essays.

March 10, 2011: Congratulations, Evonne Kaplan-Liss and Elizabeth Bass! Dr. Kaplan-Liss and Elizabeth Bass (MPH alum) wrote an article titled, Experimental Induction of Psychogenic Illness in the Context of a Medical Event and Media Exposure, which was recently accepted in for publication in the American Journal of Disaster Medicine.

March 8, 2011: Congratulations, Lauren Hale! Dr. Hale, faculty member in the Graduate Program in Public Health, has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor because of her outstanding research, teaching, and service contributions to the profession, the Program, the School of Medicine, and the University.

February 17, 2011: Graduate Salute! The Graduate Salute is a one time / two day opportunity that provides all the information and services needed for graduation. Click here to know more.

February 16, 2011: Join the OPHSA Executive Board! At OPHSA, we advocate for public health initiatives, the social and academic aspects of our program, and have fun doing it!

Nominations for the 2011-2012 academic year for the following positions will be held next Wednesday, February 23rd at 3pm at the GPPH conference room:

Elections will take place on Wednesday, March 9th at 3pm at the GPPH conference room.  If you have any questions about these positions, please contact the current E-Board:
President - Dennis Dorf - Dorf87@gmail.com
Vice President - Shamuel Yagudayev - samyagud@gmail.com
Secretary - Zarmina Javed - zarminajaved@gmail.com
Treasurer - Ramneet Kalra - rkalra323@gmail.com

December 17, 2010: Congratulations, Jaymie Meliker! Dr. Meliker has been elected to the Board of the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) as Councilor-Academic. ISES is committed to creating a safer and healthier world by advancing exposure science and promoting the use of exposure science in the fields of public, occupational, and environmental health. Exposure scientists -- a community known for its interdisciplinary, creative,and pragmatic approach to problem solving -- are leaders in improving and expanding exposure science: the bridge between environment and health. See the ISES website for more information:
http://www.isesweb.org/

December 3, 2010: Public Health Symposium Videos Ready! The Graduate Program in Public Health, along with the School of Medicine, School of Journalism, Master of Arts in Public Policy Program, and Department of Preventive Medicine, sponsored “Communicating Health Care Reform: Why Don’t People Get It?” The Symposium featured a keynote address by Dr. Karen Davis, President of The Commonwealth Fund, and an expert panel discussion.
Please visit the Symposium web page to view the videos.

December 3, 2010: MPH Alumni Profile for Samia Omar! Samia, MPH ’08, shared with the Graduate Program in Public Health her activities since graduation. Please visit our Alumni Profile page to learn about her work and her advice for current MPH students.

November 29, 2010: Congratulations, Shamuel Yagudayev, MPH student, and Breena Taira, MPH alumna! Their abstract, Effect of Insurance Status on Burn Injury Outcomes, has been accepted for oral presentation at the 43rd Annual Meeting in Chicago, March 29-April 1, 2011. Please click here to download the abstract.

November 29, 2010: Congratulations, Carolyn Gallagher, MPH alumna, and Jaymie Meliker and Melody Goodman, MPH faculty members! The following articles have been accepted for publication:

Carolyn and Jaymie’s work “Blood and Urine Cadmium, Blood Pressure, and Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” is published in EHP (http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov), a monthly journal of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. Please click here to download the paper.

Carolyn and Melody’s work “Hepatitis B Vaccination of Male Neonates and Autism Diagnosis, NHIS 1997-2002” is published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Please click here to download the article. To read it online, visit: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713667303

Carolyn, along with co-authors John Chen and John Kovach, authored “Environmental Cadmium and Breast Cancer Risk,” which is published in Aging, an open access impact journal. Please click here to download the paper.

November 11, 2010: Congratulations, Dr. Steven Jonas! The Graduate Program in Public Health is very pleased to announce that Dr. Jonas is listed in Health Hawk's "Top 10 Most Influential Public Health Professors." The article and complete list can be found at the following page:
http://masterofpublichealth.org/2010/top-10-most-influential-public-heal...

Click here to visit Faculty page of Dr. Jonas.

November 8, 2010: Congratulations, Alan Cooper! Alan, MPH student, recently published articles about Health Care Reform, which are featured in several newspapers and online venues. To read the articles, please click the links below:
http://www.northshoreoflongisland.com/Articles-i-2010-11-04-85926.112114...

Article1 PDF

Article2 PDF

Article3 PDF

Article4 PDF

Symposium PDF

Goldsteen Article by Cooper

November 1, 2010: Congratulations to Elizabeth Bass, Alan Cooper, and Daniel Forsberg for successfully passing the Certified Public Health exam.

Public health professionals daily face the challenges of confronting complex health issues, such as controlling infectious diseases, reducing environmental hazards, public health preparedness and substance abuse.

With all of these serious challenges, public health professionals need to be dedicated to staying at the forefront of their field by understanding the interaction between the different specialized areas of public health, learning new strategies to cope with disasters, and constantly working to stay two steps ahead of any threat in order to be effective with the proactive and preventative approach that characterizes the public health field.

Becoming a Certified Public Health Professional Has Multiple Benefits: