Faculty Spotlights
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Julia M. Gohlke wins NASA grant to study health damages of extreme weather events , redirectJulia M. Gohlke, associate professor of environmental health in the department of population sciences at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She will work alongside co-PIs Ryan Calder, assistant professor of environmental health and policy at the college; Samarth Swarup of the University of Virginia; and Benjamin Zaitchik of Johns Hopkins University.
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Researchers to examine Virginia's food system and antimicrobial resistance in sheep and goat populations, a possible surveillance blind spot , redirectThe National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)/USDA has granted $150,000 for a three-year study of antimicrobial resistance in small ruminant agrosystems. Patrick Pithua, associate professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and Eunice Ndegwa, assistant professor of Agriculture Research at Virginia State University, will lead the research.
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Audrey Ruple highlights canine translational cancer research at National Academies workshop , redirectAudrey Ruple, associate professor of quantitative epidemiology in the program, delivered a talk at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine as part of their workshop titled “The Role of Companion Animals as Sentinels for Predicting Environmental Exposure Effects on Aging and Cancer Susceptibility in Humans.”
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Dr. Natalie Cook named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Equity Scholar for ActionDr. Natalie E. Cook was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Equity Scholar for Action (RWJF HES4A) and was awarded $250,000 to conduct a formative evaluation of her community-based perinatal equity intervention, Birth Equity Action & Research to Transform Health (BEARTH) Village.
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Kathy Hosig: Creating Community Connections , redirectKathy Hosig, associate professor of population health sciences and director of the Virginia Tech Center for Public Health Practice and Research, a Virginia Tech Institute for Society, Culture and Environment center, has an infectious smile, boundless energy and a passion for working in communities. As director of the CPHPR for the past ten years, she has been a prolific grant writer, playing a role in securing over $12 million to support numerous community-based projects focused on public health concerns including nutrition, physical activity, obesity, opioid use and substance misuse.
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During COVID-19, VT Engage Faculty Fellows create new community connections , redirectDr. Natalie Cook was selected as a 2020-21 VT Engage Faculty Fellow. Cook has used the fellowship program to redesign the PHS 5644: Program Evaluation course, so that it now has a critical, community-engaged focus. Students in the course partner with community organizations on a specific assessment project that assesses the process, outcomes, or impact of an organization’s program or project.
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Lisa M. Lee appointed to the Education Board of the American Public Health Association , redirectLisa M. Lee, associate vice president for research and innovation in the Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance and faculty member in our program, has been appointed to the Education Board of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Her term began March 2021. The purpose of the APHA Education Board is to assure a better educated public health workforce and an informed public. Appointed members review, advise, guide, and advocate for policies and programs to advance public health education and practice. Lee, a public health expert specializing in infectious disease epidemiology and public health ethics, has mentored graduate students and public health professionals and developed and taught numerous courses in public health ethics over her 30-year career.
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2021 CALS Global Opportunity Initiative Fellows , redirectDr. Natalie Cook was selected as a 2021 CALS Global Opportunity Initiative Fellow. This cohort-based faculty development program is geared towards capacity building, network development, and building teams to pursue global initiatives. Each of the Fellows will contribute their unique skills to address the 2021 GOI theme of strengthening food systems for food security, health, and community vitality. During this intensive all-virtual experience for 2021, Fellows will build their skills to simplify complex research challenges, refine their research pitch, build collaboration and networking skills, and work with partners in the East Africa region, including the African Center for Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management at Egerton University in Kenya, and colleagues from Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
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Diversity Incentive Fund recipients aim to reduce food insecurity , redirectDr. Natalie Cook and Dr. Sarah Misyak, research assistant professor and program manager for research and evaluation for Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Family Nutrition Program, were awarded the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Diversity Incentive Fund to tackle food insecurity issues in the commonwealth. Misyak and Cook’s findings will provide baseline data to inform potential new racial equity initiatives by identifying areas for improvement and will also serve as an example of how to conduct such an assessment for other groups in the college.
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Dr. Patrick Pithua awarded a fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to travel to Uganda to work with Makerere UniversityDr. Patrick Pithua was awarded a fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to travel to Uganda to work with Makerere University and Dr. Lawrence Mugisha on Collaborative Research in Strengthening Research in Infectious Diseases. The long-term goal of this collaboration is to better understand the factors leading to emergence and persistence of zoonotic pathogens under contemporary epidemiologic conditions in Uganda and to develop novel intervention for reducing the negative public and animal health impact of these diseases.
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Natalie Cook accepted into the Advancing Culturally-responsive and Equitable Evaluation Network
Dr. Natalie Cook was accepted into the Advancing Culturally-responsive and Equitable (ACE) Evaluation Network. The ACE Evaluation Network is a community of racially and ethnically diverse evaluators who have experience in and a strong commitment to the practice of culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE).
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Multi-agency team awarded $1 million grant to expand implementation of evidence-based substance misuse prevention curricula in public schools and support community coalitionsDr. Kathy Hosig is leading a multi-agency team this will carry out this project that seeks to build upon two current USDA-funded Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) projects and a SAMHSA-funded VCE project to reduce misuse of opioids and stimulants in rural Virginia. Training and technical assistance through implementation of evidenced-based universal prevention curricula will be expanded to target students in third to ninth grades and their families in 13 additional rural counties across Virginia. Five regional Extension project coordinators will facilitate implementation of project activities and will support local community groups and coalitions that focus on substance use disorder.
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Program faculty present research and practice at the virtual APHA 2020 Annual MeetingThe American Public Health Association (APHA) 2020 Annual Meeting and Expo was held virtually from October 24 to 28. Program faculty presented their research and practice through online live presentations and recorded poster presentations. Presentation topics included: developing public health ethics education, analyzing acute sickle cell disease complications and emergency department utilization, analyzing violence-related behaviors among 7-12th grade students and developing strategies to reduce violence, implementing a team-based, practice-based MPH integrative learning experience, and evaluating a neighborhood approach to reducing violence and improving health.
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Long-distance transmission of Canadian hydropower is a cost-effective complement to U.S. renewable energy transitions , redirectDr. Ryan Calder, and colleagues at Duke University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, released a policy report evaluating economic and environmental costs and benefits of diverse scenarios for renewable energy transitions for the New York City Area. The report found that a proposed long-distance transmission line, the Champlain-Hudson Power Express, would likely pay for itself in terms of avoided direct and environmental costs.
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Virtual summer internship provides students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to develop research skills and introduces paths for graduate and professional educationFor undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds interested in graduate education in the future, the Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program provides opportunities for them to engage in summer research through the Undergraduate Summer Research Internship (SRI) program. This past summer, two SRI students worked with Department of Population Health Sciences faculty members, Dr. Cassidy Rist and Dr. Charlotte Baker, on a research project. The completed research projects showcased our department’s emphasis on One Health and aligned with our mission to prepare future leaders through learning, discovery, and engagement in public health.
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Researchers collaborate to address water and health issues in rural China and Appalachia , redirectOn Oct. 4, the first-ever Water & Health in Rural China & Appalachia Conference kicked off at Virginia Tech on the Blacksburg campus. This event also marked the formal inclusion of Virginia Tech in a collaborative research program with researchers from UC Berkeley and China. Inadequate access to safe drinking water remains a substantial problem for low-income rural communities around the world. From central Appalachia to rural China, the causes and consequences of water contamination and unreliable access to safe water overlap considerably.
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New style of partnership is next step in fighting opioid addiction , redirectWSLS 10 coverage of the Virginia Higher Education Opioid Consortium, or VHEOC, which is a collaboration of five Virginia public universities (George Mason University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, Virginia State University and Virginia Tech) working together to support local Community Services Boards (CSBs) to prevent and treat opioid and other substance use disorders with cutting edge academic resources.
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Virginia Tech researchers join global effort to develop a new vector control strategy to prevent malaria , redirectA multidisciplinary team of Virginia Tech researchers has been awarded a $1.4 million grant from Unitaid to undertake the economic and environmental impact assessments for BOHEMIA (Broad One Health Endectocide-based Malaria Intervention in Africa), a four-year project that will conduct two clinical trials in different eco-epidemiological settings in eastern and southern Africa: Tanzania and Mozambique. For two consecutive years, ivermectin will be distributed in mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns to humans and livestock in order to kill the mosquitoes that transmit malaria, an effort that ultimately seeks to reduce the disease’s transmission.
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National Institutes of Health provides $23 million for statewide translational research institute , redirectThe integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV) has been awarded a five-year grant of nearly $23 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance innovative ideas from the point of discovery to implementation in clinical practice and population health. ITHRIV includes the University of Virginia, Inova Health System, Virginia Tech, and Carilion Clinic as partners, with the Center for Open Science and UVA’s Licensing & Ventures Group as affiliates. The focus of iTHRIV is “using data to improve health” and leverages the data science expertise across the state.
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Veterinary college researcher awarded grant to study herpes simplex virus , redirectThe National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health has awarded Andrea Bertke $1.7 million to study the neuron-specific regulation of herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 (HSV1 and HSV2).
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Virginia Cooperative Extension forms key partnerships to tackle the state’s opioid epidemic , redirectVirginia Cooperative Extension was awarded a $1.28 million grant for collaborative opioid work through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The grant was one of only six conferred nationally for addressing community needs. “The rates of death as a result of opioid overdose are climbing, and they are over 50 percent greater in rural Southwest Virginia than for the state,” said Kathy Hosig, “There is a clear role for Virginia Tech and Virginia Cooperative Extension to provide safety education and training at the community level to help stop the cycle of abuse.”
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Virginia Tech research team calls for examination of connection between human health and environment in Central Appalachia , redirectAn interdisciplinary research team, including faculty from the program, is examining how the unique topography and industries of the Central Appalachian region, including coal and natural gas, impact the health of people living in the region.
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Award-winning app reveals where resources are most needed in weather emergencies , redirectPIE Viz, a new tool developed by the Population Health Sciences Department and the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech, could help disaster planners address extreme weather risks before they happen. The web-delivered PIE Viz application connects national, local, and regional data about excessive heat, power outages, and environmental pollution to their impacts on populations. By providing detailed estimates of the number of socially isolated people per county, it allows public health officials to tailor their response plans to conditions on the ground.