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."

ASPH is partnering with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to offer a national traveling version of the exhibit "Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health." The exhibit looks at several stories of those who take up the challenges to prevent disease and improve health care from multiple destinations around the world. It is available for display at schools of public health through summer 2009.

The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center at Vanderbilt University is offering a one-year clinical research training experience for graduate-level U.S. students in the health professions. This is an opportunity for highly motivated individuals to experience mentored research training at top-ranked National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research centers in developing countries. The program is administered by Vanderbilt University, the Association of American Medical Colleges and ASPH.

ASPH has identified seven founding members of the peer review committee for Public Health Reports’ Student Column. The new column is one of several managed by ASPH. While the other columns (On Academics and On Linkages) are for faculty members, the Student Column provides a unique opportunity for current students, fellows, and working professionals up to two years post-graduation to submit abstracts for review.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) introduced legislation on Wednesday, November 19 that would reauthorize Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. The proposed legislation, entitled Health Professions and Primary Care Reinvestment Act, takes a vital step in providing support to the health care delivery system, health care and health professionals.

This is a significant legislative victory for ASPH, which worked closely with Senator Clinton's office to establish partnerships between accredited Schools of Public Health and state or local public health departments. ASPH also appreciates Senator Clinton’s support of the existing Public Health and Preventive Medicine Program, which offers vital support to train health professionals.

Senator Clinton's legislation also seeks to establish an Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Information, Evaluation and Assessment to "make recommendations regarding standardized methodology and procedures to enumerate the health care workforce, and update these recommendations at least every 5 years."

In response to ASPH's request, Senator Clinton's bill includes a representative from public health on the Advisory Committee.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 1, Office of Ecosystem Protection, Water Quality Branch, is soliciting proposals from eligible agencies/organizations for the coordination and acceleration of research, studies, experiments, investigations and demonstration projects to improve the capacity of New England States to effectively and efficiently assess total maximum daily loading capacities (TMDL) for impaired water bodies throughout the region, and to develop state water quality standards (WQS) (including nutrient criteria) for New England water bodies.

Two new payment options, Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, are now available for federal student loan borrowers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) recently announced four two-year post-doctoral research fellowships—the 2009-2011 DHAP/ORISE Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships for HIV Prevention in Communities of Color.  The mission of this fellowship program is to recruit, mentor and train recently graduated doctoral-level researchers (with doctorates earned no earlier than May 2004 and no later than May 2009) in conducting research leading to the prevention of HIV infection in communities of color in the United States.

The department of health policy and management at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s (UNC) Gillings School of Global Public Health is seeking top pre- and post-doctoral researchers for a new cancer care quality training program. The training program offers researchers a specialized curriculum, training experiences with multidisciplinary teams that focus on cancer care quality and career development opportunities, including a mentored research experience.

Two University of Michigan Center for Statistical Genetics trainees, Ms. Yun Li and Dr. Karen Coneely, were honored Saturday, November 15 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG). Ms. Li is a University of Michigan School of Public Health (UM-SPH) biostatistics student and Dr. Conneely is a 2008 biostatistics alumna.

Ms. Bonnie Pedersen Joubert and Ms. Susan Marshall Mason, doctoral students in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Gillings School of Global Public Health’s department of epidemiology, have received Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dissertation research awards for their projects on mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the relationship of residential segregation to preterm birth.

Ms. Joubert received the CDC award to work on her dissertation project, "Genetic Susceptibility to Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV." Ms. Mason was recognized for research about "Residential Segregation, Neighborhood Social Environment and Preterm Birth Among 14 Ethnic Groups in New York City." Each will receive a stipend this year of around $35,000, with the possibility of renewal in subsequent years.

"I am extremely grateful for and encouraged by this funding," Ms. Joubert said. "It supports research in a very low-income population of mothers and their infants who are struggling with a high infectious disease burden. As the field of genetic epidemiology expands in methodology and applications to health care, it is pertinent to include populations from the developing world in our research efforts, in particular for HIV."

Dr. Steve Meshnick, professor of epidemiology and Ms. Joubert's research adviser, said, "Bonnie is ambitious, hard-working and very smart - a computer whiz when it comes to genomic analyses. She is one of very few individuals with solid understanding of, and experience with, both biological and epidemiological research methodologies. I think she will produce extremely important publications in the next year or two."

Ms. Mason's research explores the associations of neighborhood ethnic density with preterm birth, a major cause of infant mortality, in several ethnic and immigrant groups.

"Because residential segregation has been used to exclude ethnic minorities from resources and opportunities, segregation may contribute to ethnic health disparities," Mason said. "At the same time, some forms of segregation or ethnic clustering may be protective of health if they provide social support networks, prevent stressful inter-racial interactions, or, for immigrants, support the maintenance of healthful traditional food cultures."

Dr. Jay Kaufman, associate professor of epidemiology, is Ms. Mason's academic adviser and dissertation committee chair.

"Susan's research proposal is an exciting and innovative approach to studying population disparities in reproductive health outcomes, with novel applications of demographic techniques for defining and measuring residential segregation," he said. "Her formal preparation in demography, epidemiology, biostatistics and maternal and child health gives Susan a unique perspective on questions about social inequality in birth outcomes, a question that is inherently interdisciplinary."

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.  

Dean Elizabeth T. H. Fontham, of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, became the first non-physician elected national president of the American Cancer Society when she was inducted at a special ceremony during the Society’s National Assembly Meeting on Thursday, November 20 in New York City. She is also the first epidemiologist and the third female to serve as president in the organization’s 96-year history.

Adventure Cycling Association’s nationally acclaimed Underground Railroad Bicycle Route has won the American Trails National Partnership Award. Announced on Monday, November 17 at the 19^th National Trails Symposium in Little Rock, AK, this award recognizes the unique partnership forged between Adventure Cycling Association and the Center for Minority Health (CMH) at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. The two organizations created a 2,028-mile bicycle route memorializing the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses by which freedom seekers attempted to escape slavery before and during the Civil War.

Drs. Erin Bell and Charlotte Druschel, assistant professors in the department of epidemiology and statistics at the University at Albany School of Public Health have been awarded a $3.4 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health to analyze birth records and questionnaire results to identify factors that increase the risk for developmental delays and other problems.  Called the Upstate New York Infant Development Screening Program (Upstate KIDS), the study will enroll about 6,500 families who recently gave birth or will give birth in New York State, between 2008 and 2009. 

Nearly one third of all women in the United States ages 19–64 have accumulated debt, due to out-of- pocket costs associated with inadequate health care coverage, according to Dr. Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund. Dr. Davis was on hand before a standing room only crowd in the George Washington Hospital Auditorium to present the third installment of The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services’ (SPHHS) Public Health Grand Rounds lecture series. The event, co-sponsored by The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, also served as the Inaugural Edward N. Brandt Jr. Memorial Lecture in Women’s Health.

Dr. Sandro Galea will be appointed as founding director of the University of Michigan (UM) Center for Global Health, effective on January 1, 2009, University of Michigan Provost Teresa A. Sullivan recently announced. Dr. Galea is professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health and research professor in the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. 

The Center for Global Health, created through a University-wide strategic visioning process that began in 2006, is one of the University’s most exciting initiatives and will build upon an already large portfolio of cross-disciplinary work of UM faculty to create synergy and develop innovative ideas and applications for global health.

Dr. Galea received his MD in 1994 from the University of Toronto, his MPH in epidemiology in 2000 from Harvard University and his DrPH in epidemiology in 2003 from Columbia University.  Prior to joining the UM School of Public Health faculty in September 2005, Dr. Galea was an assistant professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.  He was also the associate director of the Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies in New York City.

Dr. Galea’s research is fundamentally concerned with the social and economic determinants of population health in the global context. His specific areas of research focus are the health of urban populations, particularly marginalized groups, and the influence of conflict and trauma on the mental health of populations.  He has substantial work and research experience in medicine and public health worldwide.  He has practiced medicine for various lengths of time in Northern Canada, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Somalia.  He has conducted research projects in Israel/Palestine, Spain, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Tanzania and in Liberia.  In these primarily survey-based etiological studies, Dr. Galea has been concerned with the influence of forces such as urbanization, war, and trauma on behavioral health, well-being, and the use of health services.

From a disciplinary perspective, most of Dr. Galea’s work is published in the public health and behavioral health literature.  He has authored more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals in medicine, public health, and epidemiology, as well as 50 commentaries and chapters.  He has edited four books, two of which are about urban health and one about the macrosocial determinants of population health, including how factors such as globalization, urbanization, and political and economic systems influence the health of populations.  He has authored or co-authored more than 300 academic conference presentations.  Most of his work is supported through federal funding sources including his current role as principal investigator on five active NIH R01s, co-Principal Investigator of a multi-site NIH P60 center grant, a Department of Defense grant, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant.  Dr. Galea serves as an elected executive member of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the International Society for Trauma Stress Studies.

The Center for Global Health is promoted by the School of Public Health, in partnership with the Medical School, the Ross School of Business, the School of Dentistry, the School of Education, the College of Engineering, the Law School, the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, the School of Natural Resources and Environment, the School of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the Ford School of Public Policy, the Rackham Graduate School, the School of Social Work and the Division of Kinesiology. 

With faculty and financial support from schools across the University and support from central administration, Dr. Galea will work with faculty and staff to build on the University of Michigan’s extensive global health initiatives and international partnerships to develop a center that will play a leading role in improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities in diverse regions of the world.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has awarded CNN anchor and special correspondent Ms. Soledad O’Brien the Goodermote Humanitarian Award for her efforts while reporting on the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Asian Tsunami. Ms. O’Brien was presented with the award at a ceremony at the Bloomberg School of Public Health on Tuesday, November 18.

"Ms. O’Brien has shown the world tragedies of human conflict, natural disasters, chronic and infectious diseases," said Dean Michael J. Klag of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. "In addition to focusing attention on the people impacted, she has shed a light on how humanitarian efforts can help alleviate suffering and where current efforts have fallen short. Ms. O’Brien has challenged all of us to think and act in ways that offer humanitarian answers to the problems of the moment and the problems of the century, including public health issues."

Since joining CNN in 2003, Ms. O’Brien is most recognized for her work with CNN’s "Special Investigations Unit" as well as the "Best Political Team on Television." During her tenure, Ms. O’Brien has produced in-depth reports on the plight of people coping with disaster including "Children of the Storm," which provided video cameras to young Katrina survivors so they could tell their stories in their own words and images. In addition, Ms. O’Brien’s reporting included a news making interview with former FEMA chief Michael Brown on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and she actively covered the effects of the 2004 tsunami on the people of Phuket, Thailand. As part of the "Best Political Team on Television," Ms. O’Brien was a key player in CNN’s coverage of the 2008 presidential election. Most recently, her series "Black in America" explored the current state of Black America 40 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ms. O’Brien came to CNN from NBC News in 2003. A graduate of Harvard University, she has earned numerous awards and critical acclaim for humanitarian efforts as well as for excellence in journalism. Ms. O’Brien is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

The Goodermote Humanitarian award was established by Dean Goodermote and the Goodermote family to support the Bloomberg School’s training and education mission and to honor the commitment of the School’s alumni to advancing public health worldwide. Dean Goodermote, chief executive officer of Double-Take Software, chairs the advisory committee of the Bloomberg School’s Center for Refugee and Disaster Response. The Goodermote award is the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s first humanitarian honor. In addition to the award, the Goodermote family has established a scholarship for students studying international health who are committed to addressing the needs of displaced people and to furthering the mission of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response.

Florida International University (FIU) recently announced the formation of the College of Public Health and Social Work. Dean Fernando M. Treviño will serve as dean of the College of Public Health and Social Work, which will oversee the operations of the Robert Stempel School of Public Health and the FIU School of Social Work.  Dean Treviño will continue to serve as the dean of the Robert Stempel School of Public Health.  Dr. Paul Stuart will continue to serve as the director of the School of Social Work. 

The College of Public Health and Social Work at FIU is the nation’s first college to integrate the professional schools of public health and social work along with the department of dietetics and nutrition. 

By combining the resources and expertise in the five core areas of public health with scholars in the area of social work and human nutrition, the College of Public Health and Social Work will take the lead in investigating and integrating the social, environmental, nutritional, behavioral and epidemiological determinants of health in a culturally diverse environment.  The educational programs of the new college will prepare the graduates to function at full capacity in today’s multidisciplinary environment.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) has selected Emory University for a $2.5 million, five-year award aimed at training new biomedical scientists whose expertise in research and teaching will bridge laboratory and population sciences. The Emory program is one of three new BWF programs funded nationally within the Institutional Program Unifying Population and Laboratory Based Sciences. The other two programs will be located at the University of California, Los Angeles (metabolic diseases) and the University of Texas, Houston Health Science Center (gene-environment interaction).

The training awards, focused on understanding and improving human health, were created to connect population and computational sciences with laboratory-based biological sciences. The goal is to establish training programs that partner researchers in schools of medicine with those in schools of public health, as well as with a diverse range of other partners.

Emory's program, housed within the Emory University Graduate School, will create a new doctoral pathway called "Human Health: Molecules to Mankind (M2M)," with the theme of "Understanding human health: integrating biology, behaviors, environments and populations." Each doctoral student will train within two existing PhD programs, one in a laboratory science and one in a population science.

Dr. Kenneth Brigham, director of the Emory/Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute, will direct the M2M program with Dr. Michele Marcus, director of graduate studies and professor in the department of epidemiology at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health.

"The M2M program will create a bridge between these two areas of laboratory and population sciences, with the goal of creating a new kind of biomedical scientist," said Dr. Brigham. "With Emory's emphasis on cross-disciplinary education and research, and with a strategic plan that includes predictive health, global health, and computational and life sciences, our university is ideally positioned to become fully engaged in this pioneering program with our students and faculty."

Students will enroll in the Emory Graduate School and will align with existing PhD programs or with a new proposed PhD program in predictive health in Emory School of Medicine and the Rollins School of Public Health. Emory College will be a key participant, along with collaborators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Institute of Technology. A collaboration with the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute also involves the Morehouse School of Medicine, Kaiser Permanente of Georgia and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Dr. Lisa A. Tedesco, dean of the Graduate School, is excited about the project. "The M2M program brings together faculty and resources from many areas to train a new generation of scientists who can approach biomedical research with a new level of comprehensive and interconnected skill and expertise," she says. "It is an excellent example of reconfiguring graduate education to address difficult problems at a new level, and we are pleased to be a part of it."

Emory and partner institutions will provide an extensive background of related research projects, partnerships, and research and educational infrastructure that will enrich the new M2M training program. These include, among others, the Emory/Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute, Emory Global Health Institute, the Hubert Department of Global Health and the Department of Epidemiology in the Rollins School of Public Health, the Emory Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, the joint Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, and the Emory-led Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI).

The program initially will include four tracks, although others could be included as the program develops:

• Predictive Health, led by Dr. Kenneth Brigham, associate vice president of predictive health and professor of medicine, Emory School of Medicine; and Dr. Michelle Lampl, professor of anthropology, Emory College.
• Population Processes and Dynamics of Infectious Diseases, led by Dr. Bruce Levin, professor of biology, Emory College; and Dr. David Stephens, vice president for research, Woodruff Health Sciences Center and director, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory School of Medicine.
• Biomarkers and the Development of Acute and Chronic Diseases, led by Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, , Hubert professor of global health, Rollins School of Public Health; and Dr. Peter Wilson, professor of medicine, Emory School of Medicine.
• Public Health Genomics: Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Health, led by Dr. Michele Marcus, professor of epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health; and Dr. Stephanie Sherman, professor of human genetics, Emory School of Medicine.

The M2M program also will offer an elective global science experience through the Emory Global Health Institute, the CDC and existing Emory collaborative programs in a variety of countries.

According to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, trainees of its new programs may bring "new approaches to combining genomics with phenomics, addressing questions of population genetics, understanding molecular and environmental epidemiology, and a range of other issues important to understanding human health and its disruptors."

The second clinical trials methodology course for physician researchers in Malawi was taught by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) researchers in Blantyre, Malawi, from October 13-17. Dr. Steven Meshnick, professor of epidemiology, designed and oversaw the program, which helps health care professionals in Malawi gain expertise in conducting successful clinical trials.

Funding for the program was provided by the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation, which in January 2006 jointly awarded Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a three-year, $1.65 million grant to address urgent health issues, including four initiatives: quality of care and patient safety, health disparities, mental health and global health (with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS).

Dr. Meshnick and Dr. Peggy Bentley, direct the global health initiative, which is administered by the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health's Office of Global Health. Bentley is professor of nutrition and associate dean for global health at the School.This year's five-day course drew on the research and teaching expertise of Dr. Charles M. van der Horst and Dr. Shrikant I. Bangdiwala.

Dr. Van der Horst is professor of medicine and infectious diseases at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and visiting professor at University College, Dublin, and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has designed and conducted large clinical trials for 26 years, including those studying the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), treatment of HIV, hepatitis C, cryptococcal meningitis, cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis, pneumocystis pneumonia and infectious mononucleosis.

Dr. Bangdiwala, research professor of biostatistics in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, is senior statistician of the biostatistical cores of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, UNC's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, and the UNC Center for Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders, and is an investigator at the UNC Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center.

Although the students were physicians well trained in research procedure, the course provided them with an opportunity to obtain a wide range of information in a comprehensive format. Participants were empowered to design and conduct clinical trials that will yield well-founded research about HIV/AIDS in Malawi and were provided a chance to practice the clear statement of project goals when writing a funding proposal.

"Without exception," Dr. Bangdiwala said, "the course participants were motivated and engaged in learning about clinical trials procedures. Of particular interest was an exercise in which participants acted as the data and safety monitoring board of a trial and had to decide - based on information presented to them - whether a trial should continue or be terminated."

Drs. Michele Issel and Kathleen Baldwin, both from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) received the Lillian Wald Award for Public Health Service by the Public Health Nursing section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). The award was presented at the 2008 Annual Conference of the American Public Health Association held in San Diego, CA on Tuesday, October 28. Dr. Issel is a clinical associate professor in the community health sciences division of the UIC School of Public Health (SPH), adjunct in the College of Nursing; and Dr. Baldwin is a clinical associate professor in the UIC College of Nursing, adjunct in epidemiology at the SPH.

Drs. Issel and Baldwin were recognized for their work related to advancing the education of public health nurses in Illinois over the past eight years, including their leadership in the project, "Advancing Public Health Nursing Education (APHNE) in Illinois," which has helped strengthen public health nursing education, practice and recruitment of registered nurses into public health.

"Improving the public health nursing workforce is one of my passions," Dr. Issel said. "Like much of public health, public health nurses are mostly invisible, although they comprise the single largest professional group in public health. To improve the education and competency of the public health nurse workforce of Illinois, we sought, obtained and leveraged multiple grant opportunities. Receiving this award confirms that following your passion can be a wise choice."

APHNE is comprised of public health nurses from academia and practice in the state of Illinois. As co-investigators on the project, Drs. Issel and Baldwin helped secure federal funding, and with the support of three state public health nursing organizations, developed a State Advisory Board with health department administrators, nursing directors and faculty from college nursing degree programs, to create a strategic plan to strengthen public health nursing education. APHNE has helped enhance the number and competency of public health nurses serving Illinois citizens and reenergize the Illinois Public Health Association’s nursing section. APHNE has also developed marketing materials to brand public health, recruited rural and minority students into public health nursing and fostered collaboration between clinical sites and baccalaureate nursing programs.

The Lillian Wald Service Award winners are chosen annually by the Public Health Nursing Section of APHA to individuals, agencies, or media for depicting exemplary public health nursing practice to the public through political, legislative, professional or interdisciplinary activism. The award recognizes public health nurses whose careers exemplify Lillian Wald's pioneering work in public health nursing and direct influence in city, state and national politics.

Dr. Howard Koh, associate dean for public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health, has been named the chair of a new Institute of Medicine committee called "Public Health Priorities to Reduce and Control Hypertension in the U.S. Population." Dr. Walter Willett, also of the Harvard School of Public Health, is a member. The committee's purpose is to review public health strategies for reducing and controlling hypertension in the U.S. including both science-based and practice-based knowledge.

Dr. Arthur L. Frank, chair of the department of environmental and occupational health at the Drexel University School of Public Health, was recently appointed by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services to serve on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through 2012.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) serves the public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and diseases related to toxic substances.

ATSDR is charged with "performing assessments, surveillance and maintaining registries, research, information dissemination and education concerning the effect on public health of hazardous substances in the environment."

Dr. Frank’s major research activities have included the study of occupational lung diseases such as asbestosis and silicosis, occupational cancers, especially those related to asbestos exposure, and he has worked in the area of agricultural safety and health. As a commissioned officer in the Public Health Service, he conducted research at the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Frank received his MD degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and his PhD in biomedical sciences from the City University of New York. He was trained in both internal medicine and occupational medicine and holds board certification in both fields.

Emory University will host an 800-panel display of The AIDS Memorial Quilt on World AIDS Day, Monday, December 1. Sponsored by Emory Hillel, the fourth annual "Quilt on the Quad" will take place on the Emory quadrangle from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (Eastern), and will be the largest collegiate display and the second largest in the world that day.

Two scientists from the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health have received national awards for research on physical activity and health. Dr. Steven Blair, professor in the departments of exercise science and biostatistics and epidemiology, received the American Heart Association’s Population Research Prize for leading major studies that established the benefits of aerobic exercise in achieving cardio-respiratory fitness to reduce illness and death from cardiovascular disease. Dr. Russell Pate, professor of exercise science and vice provost for health sciences, received honorary membership in the American Dietetic Association for his contributions in shaping physical activity and nutrition recommendations and policies.

The American Heart Association lauded Dr. Blair’s research with the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study because it was one of the first to show the importance of cardio-respiratory fitness to health among adult men and women. The study showed that physically fit individuals have about a 50 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and death than their sedentary peers. Dr. Blair, director of epidemiology and clinical applications at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas from 1980 – 2002, also conducted a study that found that lower fitness levels increase the risk of high blood pressure.

"Over the past 25 years, clinical trials and observational studies led by Dr. Blair have provided the world with solid scientific evidence of the efficacy of physical activity as a weapon against disease," said Dr. Timothy J. Gardner, president of the American Heart Association.

The American Dietetic Association cited Pate for his "professional knowledge, technical expertise and compassionate service, which have shaped physical activity and nutrition recommendations and policies at the local, state, national and international levels."

In addition to Dr. Pate’s impressive research record, the American Dietetic Association highlighted several key achievements in Dr. Pate’s career: his contributions to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines; the Institute of Medicine’s Panel on Prevention of Obesity in Children and Panel on the Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee.

Drs. Blair and Pate are past presidents of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Tulane University cardiologist Dr. Gerald S. Berenson is one of 13 researchers from throughout the country to be selected as a 2008 Distinguished Scientist by the American Heart Association. This distinction is bestowed upon prominent members of the association whose work has advanced the understanding and management of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Dr. Berenson is clinical professor of cardiology and pediatric cardiology in the Tulane School of Medicine and research professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Dr. Berenson received the Distinguished Scientist award during the association’s annual meeting in New Orleans on Sunday, November 9.

The director of the Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health, Dr. Berenson has led the Bogalusa Heart Study for the past 34 years. This long-term study involving thousands of children in rural Louisiana has provided encyclopedic data on the early natural history of arteriosclerosis and hypertension, and has developed strategies to aggressively address modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Investigations led by Dr. Berenson in Bogalusa, LA, began elucidating racial and gender differences in cardiovascular risk and pointing to the critical influence of long-term lifestyle trends, such as obesity and smoking. These distributing trends brought into focus and clarified the complex interactions of genetics and environment in disease development. The American Heart Association’s national emphasis on healthier children’s diets and lifestyles is to a large extent predicated on the lessons learned from a lifetime of robust research by this clinician-scientist.

Dr. Berenson began his academic career at the Tulane School of Medicine in 1948, as an assistant in the department of medicine. He had received his medical degree at Tulane in 1945 and joined his alma mater after service in the U.S. Navy. After four years of clinical and research training with renowned cardiologist Dr. George Burch and a two-year fellowship at the University of Chicago, Dr. Berenson moved to the faculty of Louisiana State University School of Medicine in 1954. He served with distinction there until 1991, when he rejoined Tulane.

He has published more than 850 journal articles and four books documenting his research.

Tulane honored the cardiologist with an Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1999 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In 2005 he received the Meritorious Achievement Award from the American Heart Association for his contributions to understanding the early origins of atherosclerosis in childhood, and in 2006 he was the recipient of the association’s Population Research Prize.

A widely sought visiting scholar, lecturer and conference leader, Dr. Berenson has served many professional organizations, including the American Society of Hypertension, the American College of Cardiology and American Society for Preventive Cardiology. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

After Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Berenson, his wife and labrador retriever evacuated out of the city in aluminum boats to Baton Rouge, LA. He spent the next four days helping triage patients on the campus of Louisiana State University and the next six weeks at Charity Hospital in Baton Rouge. Though some of his prized laboratory samples were lost and facilities damaged by wind and rain in Bogalusa, Dr. Berenson and his team are back at work, adding further to research that fundamentally has changed the direction of preventive medicine.

The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (UNT-HSC) has named Dr. Elena B. Bastida and Dr. Christine A. Moranetz as associate deans for the School of Public Health. Dr. Bastida serves as associate dean for research and professor and interim chair of social and behavioral sciences; and Dr. Moranetz serves as associate dean for curricular enhancement and associate professor of social and behavioral sciences.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome such outstanding leaders in education and research," said Dean Richard S. Kurz of the School of Public Health. "As our school continues to grow through enhanced degree offerings in public health and new research programs, their strategic vision and experience will be key in building on the already strong academic and research initiatives in place at the University of North Texas Health Science Center."

Dr. Bastida is currently funded by the National Institute of Aging to study the relationship between religion and health among older Mexican-Americans. Her other research studies focus on the prevention, reduction, and management of obesity and diabetes along the US-Mexico border, conducted by community-based participatory methods.

One of Dr. Bastida’s many works, which has already received spotlight recognition by the American Public Health Association, is the November 2008 American Journal of Public Health article "Persistent Disparities in the Use of Health Care Along the US-Mexico Border: An Ecological Perspective," authored with Drs. H. Shelton Brown, III and José A. Pagán.

Prior to joining the UNT-HSC School of Public Health, Dr. Bastida was professor and chair of sociology at the University of Texas Pan American at Edinburg, Texas, where she led its National Institutes of Health SCORE program and its Center on Aging and Health. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Kansas at Lawrence.

Dr. Moranetz, a leader in health promotion and disease prevention education, joins the UNTHSC School of Public Health from Kansas, where she served on faculty in the Schools of Medicine at The University of Kansas Medical Center (KU) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). An award-winning educator, she developed innovative curriculum in HIV-prevention and was co-creator of the Dramatic AIDS Education Project (DAEP) – a collaborative project among KU, UMKC and The Coterie Theatre – a nationally acclaimed youth theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. At KU, Dr. Moranetz was also interim director of the MPH Program and director of the Community Health Project (CHP), a service-learning program for MPH, MHSA and medical students.

Dr. Moranetz served as president for the Association for Worksite Health Promotion (AWHP), formerly the Association for Fitness in Business, and has served on the Editorial Board of AWHP’s international publication, Worksite Health. She actively contributed to the development of the Health Fitness Director certification for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and was an Advisor/Liaison to the Missouri Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Health. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM) and was President of the ATPM Foundation. In 2002, Dr. Moranetz was selected as one of the Secretary’s Primary Health Care Policy Fellows, US Department of Health and Human Services, under Tommy G. Thompson. For five years, Dr. Moranetz served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Center for Living at Duke University.

Dr. Moranetz received her PhD in education: exercise physiology/nutrition from the University of Kansas. She earned certification by the ACSM as a Health/Fitness Director and was awarded the rank of Fellow in the AWHP.

Dr. Alan M. Jette, professor of health policy and management at the Boston University (BU) School of Public Health and director of BU's Health and Disabilities Research Institute, has been awarded the Darrel J. Mase Leadership Award from the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions. The award, established in 1985 to honor the college's founding dean, is given to individuals who have made substantial contributions to health care through their professional accomplishments, leadership and personal experience.

Past recipients include Mr. Max Cleland, former U.S. Senator from Georgia, and Ms. Gail Wilensky, former administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration.

Dr. Jette, whose research interests include late-life exercise and the measurement and epidemiology of functional limitations and disability, is delivering a lecture at the Florida school on Saturday, November 21 titled, "The Future of Disability in America." Dr. Jette chaired the Institute of Medicine (IOM)'s 2007 study of the same title, which cited advances in health and medicine, but found that too little progress had been made in adopting public policy and practice recommendations contained in earlier IOM reports.

Dr. Jette has been involved in developing several measures of function and disability, and has published a number of studies on those topics. He is a former dean and professor of BU's Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences.

Dr. M. Ilyas Kamboh has been appointed chair of the department of human genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Kamboh, who has been serving as the interim chair since January 2005, holds a secondary position as a professor of psychiatry in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is a molecular geneticist/genetic epidemiologist and the director of a human genetics molecular laboratory, with more than 20 years of experience working on the genetics of common diseases of public heath importance, including coronary artery disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and lupus.

Dr. Kamboh’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1991 and thus far he has received grant awards worth more than $20 million. He has published more than 230 scientific articles about his research in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Recently, he was awarded an unprecedented 1.0 score on his NIH grant proposal on the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Kamboh has supervised the thesis/dissertation work of more than two dozen master’s and doctoral students and also mentored several postdoctoral fellows in his lab.

Dr. Kamboh received his bachelor’s and master of science degrees from Government College, Lahore, Pakistan, with high distinction, and his doctorate in human genetics from the Australian National University. He began his academic career at the University of Pittsburgh in 1985 as a post-doctoral fellow in the department of human henetics, and then rapidly rose through the academic ranks in the department to become tenured professor in 1997.

Dr. Kamboh is a fellow of the American Heart Association and a founding member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Alzheimer’s CURE Foundation. He is also a member of the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society, Omicron Chapter. He has served on and led a number of National Institutes of Health Study Sections, including serving as a charter member on the Cardiovascular and Sleep Epidemiology (formerly Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases) Study Section. He has served on the editorial boards of Ethnicity and Disease and Human Biology journals and is currently Associate Editor of the Annals of Human Genetics.

"I am delighted that the department and the school will permanently benefit from his outstanding leadership, research, teaching and mentoring," said Dean Donald S. Burke of the Graduate School of Public Health.

The following is a message from Dr. Nils Daulaire to members of the Global Health Council's community in response to his observations of the global community’s reaction to the U.S. presidential election:

Dr. Nils Daulaire, President and CEO, Global Health Council" 

An infant has to work for nourishment at its mother’s breast, and the exercise helps build healthier lungs, according to research led by University of South Carolina (USC) Arnold School of Public Health scientists. Dr. Ikechukwu U. Ogbuanu and Dr. Wilfried Karmaus reported that children who were breastfed for at least four months have a significantly larger lung capacity at age 10 years compared with a similar group that had not been breastfed.

The study involved a group of 1,033 children on the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Dr. Karmaus has conducted respiratory and allergy research on the cohort for several years.

The results of the study are reported in the November 10, 2008 online-first issue of Thorax, an international journal of respiratory medicine.

Drs. Ogbuanu and Karmaus are researchers in the Arnold School’s department of epidemiology and biostatistics. Both have medical degrees and Dr. Ogbuanu is a doctoral candidate in epidemiology.

The researchers found that the lung volume of ten-year-olds who nursed for at least four months was 54 milliliters greater than in those who had not been breastfed at all.

Breastfed infants get about an hour of exercise daily for the first four months, with six to eight feedings lasting about eight minutes each. That is nearly twice the length of individual bottle feedings, which average about 4.4 minutes and require less efforts.

The USC scientists found that children who had been breastfed for less than four months had improved lung capacity but it wasn't significantly different from the lung function of children who weren't breastfed at all.

Dr. Karmaus said that based on the study, researchers are in the process of developing a feeding bottle that will mimic the exercise involved in suckling at the breast. The bottle may be useful in women who are not able to directly breastfeed.

Dr. Karmaus said that many infants in the United States miss the benefits of breastfeeding because so many women pump milk from their breasts and then feed using a bottle. He suggested that the absence of adequate maternal leave probably encourages the practice. Dr. Karmaus noted that in Canada and Europe maternity leave policies make it possible for women to directly breastfeed their infants for several months.

A Congressionally-mandated advisory panel based at the Boston University School of Public Health has issued a report finding that at least one in four U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffers from Gulf War illness, a condition caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas. No effective treatments have yet been found. Dr. Roberta White, associate dean for research at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), is the scientific director of the panel.

Community-based physical activity interventions designed to promote more active lifestyles among adults are cost-effective in reducing heart disease, stroke, colorectal and breast cancers and type 2 diabetes, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A new trench-to-bench guide to wild primate infectious diseases, published Friday, November 17 in the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, offers answers and possible solutions to why infectious diseases jump from animals to humans and why there is little capacity to predict and avoid epidemics.

The dietary supplement ginkgo, long promoted as an aid to memory, did not help prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease in the longest and largest test of the extract in older Americans. The study was led by Dr. Steven DeKosky of the University of Virginia Medical School. Drs. Annette Fitzpatrick and Richard Kronmal, faculty at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, also worked on the study.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is dedicated to improving health and quality of life for all people, and is offering resources for the Great American Smokeout on Friday, November 20. NIDA has many free resources to assist in spreading the message about the dangers of tobacco and nicotine.

Health Promotion Practice is an official quarterly journal of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) devoted to the practical application of health promotion and health education. Applicants are being sought to edit the journal. The editor’s responsibilities include refining the journal’s mission; soliciting articles, overseeing the peer review process, and editing submissions in a timely manner; managing an effective editorial board; and collaborating with the publisher to increase the journal’s visibility and readership. The deadline to apply is Monday, December 1.

The National Heart Foundation of Australia is holding its' second biannual conference, "Hearts in Focus: Celebration, Collaboration and Challenges," from May 14-16, 2009 in Brisbane, Australia.  This conference combines public health, research and clinical issues in one world class forum. Abstracts are currently being accepted for the conference and the deadline is Monday, December 3.

The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health will host its first annual Minority Health in the Midwest Conference on February 27, 2009. The conference, "Minority Health in a Global Community: Midwestern Perspectives on Health, Poverty and the Environment," will be held in conjunction with the 30^th Annual Minority Health Conference at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Abstracts are currently being accepted.

The Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU) has issued a Call for Papers for a supplemental issue to be published in November 2009, sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and co-edited by Drs. Camara Jones (CDC) and Gillian Barclay (PAHO/WHO). The supplement will focus on global perspectives on the social determinants of health and equity, with an emphasis on children's health and well-being.

The National Association of Local Boards of Health’s (NALBOH) annual conference program committee seeks proposals for workshop or concurrent session presentations at the 17^th Annual Conference. The conference, "Improving Public Health though Leadership and Knowledge," will be held from July 1-3, 2009 in Philadelphia, PA.

Public Health Reports is inviting papers for a special issue on improving the state of the public health laboratory system. Dr. Frances Downes, director of the Michigan Public Health Laboratory at Michigan Department of Community Health, will serve as the guest editor for this supplement.

The West Virginia University department of community medicine will be sponsoring a Grand Rounds presentation, titled "Public Health Goals for the Second 50 Years," on Wednesday, December 3 from 12-1 p.m. (Eastern). Dr. Steven M. Albert, professor and associate chair for research science in the department of behavioral and community health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, will be presenting.

The Office of Public Health Practice at the University of Michigan School of Public Health will host a Public Health Grand Rounds presentation titled "Youth Violence: It’s a Public Health Issue" on Friday, December 5 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. (Eastern).

The 6^th Annual One Medicine Symposium, "Earth, Wind and Fire: A One Medicine Approach to Climate Change," will be held from December 10-11 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center in Durham, NC. The conference is geared towards physicians, nurses, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, public health professionals, agriculture professionals, wildlife professionals, and federal, military, state and local disaster responders.

The faculty of the South Central Center for Public Health Preparedness will host a satellite conference and web cast on Thursday, December 11 from 12-1:30 p.m. (Central) on "Strengthening Public Health Capacity to Serve the Community: Applying Accreditation and Quality Improvement Tools."

The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), with the support of its National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institute/Center partners, will host a research summit on "The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities" from December 16-18 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, National Harbor, MD.

Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and the School of Medicine’s Office of Post-Doctoral Education will host the 2009 Public Health and Biosciences Career Fair on Friday, February 6, 2009 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (Eastern) at the Emory Conference Center and Hotel, 1615 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA.

The fair will provide guests with convenient free on-site parking, pre-reserved comfortable accommodations for those traveling to Atlanta and access to professional staff and facilities. All exhibitors will be served a full breakfast and lunch.

Attendees will include 500+ public health students and alumni with experience and education in a variety of public health disciplines, as well as PhD and MD postdoctoral fellows with research training in diverse bioscientific areas.

Registration for the fair will open in late November, and more details will follow.