We at ASPH wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday! If you would like some tips on how to safely handle and cook your Thanksgiving turkey and other foods, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service’s web site here for a variety of fact sheets on Thanksgiving and other seasonal food safety.

Mr. Abdul El-Sayed, a University of Michigan medical and doctoral student, has been named a Rhodes Scholar. Mr. El-Sayed is currently pursuing both a medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and a doctoral degree in epidemiology from the School of Public Health, as a student in the prestigious dual degree Medical Scientist Training Program. He plans to become a neurosurgeon so he may "mend with my hands some of the defects I cannot avert through my research."

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has been selected as one of two cancer research sites by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to help set the cancer care national research agenda and carry out accelerated practical studies examining the comparative effectiveness of cancer treatments. Dr. William Carpenter, research assistant professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health's department of health policy and management, will lead an initial study.

Three University of Michigan School of Public Health faculty members have recently been named Collegiate Professors at the University of Michigan. Dr. Paula Lantz, chair of the department of health management and policy at the School of Public Health, will be the S.J. Axelrod Collegiate Professor of Health Management and Policy. Dr. Goncalo Abecasis of the biostatistics department and Dr. Neal Krause of health behavior and health education department will also be honored as Collegiate Professors for their exceptional contributions to research, teaching and service. 

Two programs in Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health’s department of health policy and management have been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). CAHME is the organization that accredits individual academic programs that offer a major course of study in healthcare management and that lead to a professional master's degree. The newly accredited programs are the full-time Management Track and the Executive MPH Program. The current accreditation runs through 2011.

Two University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine faculty—Dr. Scott Barnhart, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and associate dean in the School of Medicine; and Dr. Amy Hagopian, acting assistant professor of health services, have penned an op-ed for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which discusses the impact of the debt crisis on the public’s health.

The U.S. Administration on Aging in the Department of Health and Human Services recently awarded Dr. Marcia Ory, Regents Professor in the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, a $900,000 grant to develop a nationwide evaluation of evidence-based programs for seniors. The three-year evaluation will provide the Administration on Aging with a recommended plan to use in collaboration with the National Association of State Units on Aging, National Association of Area Agencies on Aging and aging services provider organizations throughout the country.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is creating a new inter-disciplinary research network to help America prepare for the challenges and opportunities posed by our aging society, and named Dr. John W. Rowe (Jack), professor of health policy and management at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and former chairman and CEO of Aetna, as chair.

Dr. Richard Palmer and colleagues at the Florida International University’s Robert Stempel School of Public Health have been awarded the opportunity to evaluate the implementation and assess the impact of the Health Foundation of South Florida’s five-year $7.5 million Healthy Aging Initiative.

University of Michigan School of Public Health assistant professor of health behavior and health education Dr. Mark Padilla is a co-winner of the 2008 Ruth Benedict Prize for outstanding scholarship on a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender topic (single-author book category). The award was presented for his ethnography Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality and AIDS in the Dominican Republic (University of Chicago Press, 2007) at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGAS) on Saturday, November 22.

Telephone counseling may be just as successful as face-to-face counseling in helping people maintain weight loss, according to a report by University of Florida researchers.  The study is the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of telephone counseling for long-term management of obesity in rural communities. Dean Michael G. Perri of the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions was the lead investigator. The findings appeared in the November 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) suggests text messaging via cell phones could be used to reduce children's chances of becoming overweight or obese later in life by helping them monitor and modify their own behaviors now. Study co-authors from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health include Drs. Robert M. Hamer, Dianne Ward and Cynthia M. Bulik.

Two recent studies supported by The Commonwealth Fund provide additional evidence that racial disparities in health care continue to be a serious concern. The findings suggest that any comprehensive health reform effort seeking to improve both access and quality will need to address the problem head-on.

ASPH will regularly provide members and Friday Letter readers with links to other electronic newsletters that may be of interest to the public health community. Links to E-newsletters will be added to a web page found at www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=924. This week’s additions include:

Global Health Council Weekly Updates: Global Health Council
www.globalhealth.org/

Harvard Public Health Now: Harvard School of Public Health, November 21, 2008
www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/index.html

Impact: The North Carolina Institute for Public Health, November 2008
http://nciph.sph.unc.edu/news/impact/november08.htm

Legacy e-News: American Legacy Foundations, November 2008
www.reviewsite.net/legacy_e-news/nov_2008

Washington Health Policy Week in Review: The Commonwealth Fund
www.commonwealthfund.org/healthpolicyweek

A new web site, which can be found at www.phsj.org or www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org, contains articles, slide shows, syllabi and other documents relevant to topics in public health and social justice. References for most of the information contained in the slide shows can be found in the accompanying articles.

The Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response (COTPER) has been working to put information, such as fact sheets and basic program information, on the internet.  As part of this process, COTPER is revising and enhancing the format of its web pages, which are expected to go live very shortly as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's redesign of the www.emergencycdc.gov page. 

The Community-Campus Partnerships for Health is inviting applications for its Faculty for the Engaged Campus project. The project aims to strengthen community-engaged career paths in the academy and is supported by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education.

The New Investigators in Global Health (NIGH) program is a competitive abstract submission and selection program designed to highlight exemplary research, policy and advocacy initiatives of new and future leaders in global health, and empower participants with global health advocacy skills. The program also provides the selected participants with the opportunity to make a presentation at a major international conference.

The Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) invites proposals for concurrent sessions at the 2009 AUPHA Leaders Conference, which will be held March 24, 2009 at the Hilton Chicago/Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, IL. The deadline to submit proposals is Friday, December 5.

The American Legacy Foundation is accepting nominations for two awards that recognize uses of tobacco industry documents to benefit the public. The Sybil G. Jacobs Adult Award for Outstanding Use of Tobacco Industry Documents and the Christine O. Gregoire Youth/Young Adult for Outstanding Use of Tobacco Industry Documents recognize research, policy and advocacy contributions that result in tangible, positive actions from traditional or innovative use of tobacco industry documents.

Information about Campus Compact's 2009 Thomas Ehrlich Engaged Faculty Award (previously known as the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning) is now available at www.compact.org/awards/ehrlich.  The application deadline is March 20, 2009, and materials may be submitted online starting in early January.  Eligibility guidelines, selection criteria and application requirements are currently available.

The 4^th International Conference on Birth Defects and Disabilities in the Developing World, titled "Translating Research into Cost-effective Services for the Care and Prevention of Birth Defects, Preterm Birth and Consequent Disabilities," will be held October 4-7, 2009 in New Delhi, India. The conference will be organized around five central themes, which focus on the presentation of successful models of care and prevention around the world. Abstract submissions are currently being accepted.

To honor World AIDS Day 2008, the Pitt Men’s Study at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health is sponsoring a multi-faith service at 7:30 p.m. (Eastern) on Monday, December 1 at Heinz Chapel in Oakland, PA. Spiritual leaders from various religious traditions working on behalf of people living with HIV will lead the remembrance of lost family and friends, and celebrate those living with HIV/AIDS.

On Monday, December 8 from 1-2:30 p.m. (Eastern), the National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) will present a webcast on "Attacking the #1 Cause of Preventable Death and Disease: Using CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs."

A memorial service in honor of Dr. Allan Rosenfield, dean emeritus of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, will be held on Wednesday, December 10 in Alumni Auditorium, 650 West 168^th Street, New York City, NY beginning at 12 p.m. (Eastern). The service will allow people to come together to pay tribute to Dr. Rosenfield who, over the course of his 22 years as dean of the Mailman School, transformed a small school of public health into the leading academic institution that it is today. Dr. Rosenfield will occupy a singular place in the school’s history as a pioneer in public health at the Mailman School, as well as in both the domestic and global public health arenas.  

The 14^th Annual Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology (MCH Epi) Conference will be held December 10-12 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Atlanta-Ravinia in Atlanta, GA. The conference will present an opportunity for attendees to share experiences, enhance knowledge and generate new ideas for improved MCH data use and informed policymaking. To register for the conference, please click here.

On Friday, February 27, 2009 from 2-3:30 p.m. (Eastern), there will be an Internet and satellite broadcast of the 11^th Annual William T. Small, Jr. Keynote Lecture by Dr. Barbara Wallace, professor of health education at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, titled "Our World, Our Community: Building Bridges for Health Equality." The lecture is the highlight of the 30^th Annual University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health Minority Health Conference, presented by the school's Minority Student Caucus.

In last week’s Friday Letter, the feature story titled "ASPH Statement of Support for Appointment of Senator Daschle as HHS Secretary" failed to attribute a quote from Dean Linda Rosenstock (UCLA). The article should have read:

The Association of Schools of Public Health strongly supports the appointment of Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Dean Linda Rosenstock (UCLA), chair of the ASPH Board, said, "This appointment reaffirms President-elect Obama’s commitment to make health care reform a top priority. Senator Daschle is an experienced leader with a keen awareness needed for meaningful health care reform, not only to address access to quality and affordable care, but also to incorporate effective disease prevention and health promotion measures if we are to achieve improved health for all Americans."

New!
Volume 123
Issue 6
November/December 2008

Public Health Reports (PHR) is an informative and accessible resource for practitioners, teachers and students of public health. The Journal provides important research and key discussions on the major issues confronting the public health community. Subscribe Today!

New!
Volume 123
Supplement 3
November/December 2008 

Volume 123, Supplement 3 is titled "New Strategies in the Delivery of HIV Testing Services in the United States." Public Health Reports (PHR) is an informative and accessible resource for practitioners, teachers and students of public health. The Journal provides important research and key discussions on the major issues confronting the public health community. Subscribe Today!