The Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health will be sponsoring its 12^th Annual Student Poster Session through the Academic Public Health Caucus during the 137^th American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA. Local chapters of Delta Omega from accredited schools and programs of public health submitted many excellent nominations. Nineteen students were selected to present at the poster session, which will be held 10:30-11:30 a.m. (Eastern) on Monday, November 9 in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The 2009 poster session will showcase the excellent scholarship and research of students in accredited schools and programs of public health. This opportunity was created by Delta Omega to encourage and recognize the public health leaders of tomorrow.

"Thank you to the chapters—faculty, advisors and especially the students—who participated in our poster competition. We reviewed many quality abstracts and were impressed at the wonderful projects and research in which the students are engaged," said Dr. Amy Lee, national president of Delta Omega. "Because of the chapters’ efforts and support, I am confident that this event will continue to grow and foster excellence in public health academics and research."

The students selected to present at the 2009 Poster Session, listed by chapter, are:

Mr. Brandon Brown
Nominated by the Alpha Chapter, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
"Acceptability Survey of HPV Vaccine Among Female Sex Workers in Lima, Peru"

Mr. Thomas Albani
Nominated by the Alpha Chi Chapter, Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health Program
"Healthcare and Ohio's Public Schools: Trends in Personnel Service Delivery Systems"
Mr. Albani is completing his first year of the MPH program and plans to receive his degree in spring 2010. He earned a bachelor of science degree in biology in 2007 from John Carroll University. Students from across Ohio presented public health projects and research at a statewide conference in Columbus in May, and Mr. Albani’s research poster placed first. He worked with Dr. Nancy Mosca, Youngstown State University’s MPH program coordinator and professor of nursing, on a statewide survey of school nurses in public schools. Mr. Albani entered data and assisted with data analysis, and examined the relationship between the number of health care workers in schools and the poverty level of those schools. Please click here to view the full article.

Ms. Abby Harper
Nominated by the Alpha Phi Chapter, University of Iowa College of Public Health
"Swine workers: An emerging risk group for community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)"
Ms. Harper is an MPH student in occupational and environmental health. Her research, also presented during the University of Iowa’s Research Week, was to identify the prevalence of MRSA carriage in specific swine herds within Iowa and Illinois and to analyze MRSA carriage in workers on the same farms. Another goal of the research was to evaluate which MRSA strains were found by genotypic sub typing methods. Please see the press release on Ms. Harper here.

Ms. Nicole Spencer
Nominated by the Alpha Gamma Chapter, University at Albany School of Public Health
"Temporal and Geographic Trends in Babesiosis and Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis (HGA) in New York State: 1986-2007"

Ms. Katandria Johnson
Nominated by the Alpha Sigma Chapter, University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health
"Acculturation and Self-Reported Health Among Hispanics Using a Socio-Behavioral Model: The North Texas Healthy Heart Study"

Ms. Michelle Steck
Nominated by the Alpha Tau Chapter, Texas A&M Health Sciences Center School of Rural Public Health
"The association between periconceptional maternal fish consumption and birth defects"
Ms. Steck presented her poster, which evaluates the association between pregnant women consuming fish with various birth defects in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), during the school’s National Public Health Week activities April 6-9, 2009. Utilizing NBDPS data, she assessed the relationship between pregnant women consuming fish and the occurrence of birth defects. After adjusting for socio-demographic, dietary and health status indicators, she found that, compared with mothers who ate fish less than once a month, mothers who ate three to five ounces of fish one to three times per month were significantly protected from various birth defects. In addition to being selected to present at APHA, Ms. Steck also received the Dean’s Research Award during her School’s graduation ceremonies. Please see the full press release here.

Mr. William Willis
Nominated by the Beta Pi Chapter, University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences
"Obtaining Miner and Mine Operator Participation in a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Survey of Kentucky Coal Miners"

Mr. Robert Cruz
Nominated by the Beta Rho Chapter, University of Connecticut Master of Public Health Program
"Type 2 Diabetes Peer Counseling Intervention Improves Knowledge and Self-Management Skills"
The University of Connecticut Graduate Program in Public Health published an announcement about Mr. Cruz’s selection in their Public Health Happenings newsletter. Please click here to view the newsletter. The announcement is under "Student News."

Ms. Denise Nelson
Nominated by the Gamma Chapter, University of Hawaii at Manoa Office of Public Health Studies
"Molecular Epidemiology of Influenza A (H1N1) in Hawaii"

Ms. Uchechi Acholonu
Nominated by the Iota Chapter, University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health
"The Influence of Active-Coping on Medication Adherence in a Low-Income Hypertensive African-American Community: A New Application of John Henryism"

Dr. Ronni Brown-Kimbrew
Nominated by the Iota Chapter, University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health
"Meth Mouth": The Effect of Drug Use Patterns, Behavior and Knowledge on Caries Status between Methamphetamine Users and Non-Users"

Mr. Philip Cavicchia
Nominated by the Mu Chapter, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health
"Development and Validation of an Inflammatory Index"

Ms. Rachel Bailey
Nominated by the Omicron Chapter, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
"Modeling of Cost Effectiveness of Facility-wide Active Surveillance for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Acute Care Hospitals"

Ms. Vanessa Short
Nominated by the Omicron Chapter, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
"Neither Mycoplasma genitalium nor Chlamydia trachomatis in early pregnancy are associated with spontaneous abortion among young women recruited from an urban emergency department"

Ms. Tran Hyunh
Nominated by the Pi Chapter, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
"Duck husbandry practices and farmers? Beliefs about avian influenza in South Vietnam"
Ms. Tran was one of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health Student Research Day Winners.  The event took place on April 6, and kicked off the School’s National Public Health Week celebration. The photo to the right depicts the student winners in all the categories at the Research Day with Dean John Finnegan (back, right). Ms. Tran is the third from the left in the front row.

Mr. John Li
Nominated by the Pi Chapter, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
"Evaluation of a Statewide Foodborne Illness Complaint System"
Mr. Li was also one of the poster winners at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health’s Student Research Day. Mr. Li is pictured in the back row (second from right), holding two ribbons.

Dr. Meville Bradley
Nominated by the Tau Chapter, University of South Florida College of Public Health
"2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (TNT) Air Concentrations, Hemoglobin Changes, and Anemia Cases in Respirator Protected TNT Munitions Demilitarization Workers"
Dr. Bradley is a May 2009 graduate of the University of South Florida College of Public Health's (COPH) NIOSH funded  Occupational Medicine/MSPH Program, and he will complete all requirements for his Occupational/Preventive Medicine Residency program this June.  Dr. Bradley will enter fellowship training in patient safety at the Veterans Administration’s Patient Safety Center of Inquiry in Tampa, FL starting in July. His poster was selected as one of the top five COPH posters during the College's  Student Research and Practice Poster Display and Competition during National Public Health Week 2009 and was based on  a retrospective study of bio-surveillance and industrial hygiene data from a munitions plant where he served as an occupational medicine physician.  He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, as well as the Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Medical Honor Society.

Ms. Michelle Sonia
Nominated by the Theta Chapter, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health
"The Cost-Effectiveness of Testing High-Risk Women for Mutations in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 Genes: Does Early Detection Lead to Better Health and Economic Outcomes?"

Ms. Shirley James
Nominated by the Xi Chapter, University of Oklahoma College of Public Health
"Second Hand Smoke in Oklahoma: What People Know, What People do to Prevent Harm"

For more information about Delta Omega and the Student Poster Session, please visit www.deltaomega.org.