2007 Faculty Excellence Awards
The Deans Oversight Council of the Oregon Master of Public Health Program is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2007 OMPH Faculty Excellence Awards. Two awards were made this year to distinguished faculty in our program.
The awardees have made substantial contributions to the excellence of our program and are recognized for their outstanding achievements.
The award recipients are:
The Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes exceptional organizational leadership in providing public health education at the master degree level. For more information on Dr. Chi please click here.
Thank you to all who submitted nominations for the awards, and congratulations to Professors Chi and Kaplan. This honor and recognition are well earned and well deserved. Their steadfast support of the OMPH program is most appreciated and is an important aspect of our success.
The OMPH Program would also like to congratulate the 2007 Outstanding Student Award Nominees, whose excellence is also recognized by the OMPH Program faculty leadership:
OMPH Recipients of Awards and
Honors
Please join us in congratulating the 2007 OMPH Program Outstanding Student Award winners! Each of the winners will receive a framed certificate and $500 award in acknowledgment of her achievements.
Kelly Volkman,
International Health
Kelly has served as the 2007 OSU OMPH Program Campus Representative, participating both in student governance and in planning and coordinating events including the 2007 OMPH Student Symposium, and the OMPH and OSU-MPH New Student Orientations. As member of the International Health Club at OSU, Kelly assisted with the coordination and organization of “Malaria Awareness Week,” an event attracting not only campus interest but also news media attention. Kelly is member of the Linn-Benton Latino Health Coalition, part of the larger Linn-Benton Hispanic Advisory Committee, coordinator for the Lions Club Mobile Health Screening Unit’s (MHSU) participation in the Corvallis Latino Community Soccer Tournament, and the liaison between the MidValley Lions Club and the Benton County Health Department. Kelly has volunteered as an interpreter for the Pacific Northwest Dental Van as well as for several local dentists, and has also taught bilingual hygiene classes for the Migrant Education program centered in Salem, Oregon.
Kapuaolaokalaniakea Shannon Gellert,
Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Kapuaola has a long history of community service, including through her 2002 participation in the OHSU Native Researchers’ Cancer Control Training Program during which she developed and was awarded a grant for the ‘Ohana Day Cancer Screening Pilot Feasibility Study. She organized all aspects of this program, implementing the study on Moloka’i in 2003. Following this effort, Kapuaola organized similar programs in two other Native Hawaiian communities. With an interest in lung cancer, Kapuaola also wrote and was awarded an NIH grant to study lung/bronchial cilia function in Native Hawaiians. This past summer, she and another student funded their own travel to Yap to work with the local health care system in meeting reproductive health needs. Kapuaola also managed a hearing health survey among American Indians, and volunteered to analyze BRFSS data for the tribe. In addition, Kapuaola has volunteered to tutor Native trainees enrolled in an OHSU summer training program in the subject of epidemiology.
Outstanding Student Award, Research
Erin McGregor, Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Erin’s research has focused on collecting measures of the built environment (neighborhoods), assessing the built environment’s role in maintaining physical activity in older adults. Her MPH thesis entitled “Validation of a Senior Walking Environmental Assessment Tool” used secondary data analysis to validate an instrument for measuring built environment features hypothesized to be important for pedestrian activity. Erin is a Research Assistant in the Public Health & Preventive Medicine Department, assisting Professor Yvonne Michael in starting a new study of the role of the built environment. While a student in the OMPH Program, Erin was selected to serve as Teaching Assistant for the Epidemiology Core Course series, and also taught sections on her own. Erin helped design a novel method to aggregate existing neighborhood built environment data, and presented an oral presentation on her research as part of the 2007 OMPH Student Symposium. Erin has accepted a position as Project Manager for a novel project exploring the possibility that monitoring travel behaviors of older adults provides clues about their health, in particular those that will facilitate earlier diagnosis and treatment of cognitive diseases.
Sara Chang
Brad Driefuss
Tracey Hampton
Alli Pribnow
Hon Ho
Aron Stephens
Doug Ritenour
2007 OMPH Program Outstanding Presentation and Poster Awards!
Thank you to all the OMPH students who participated in the 2007 OMPH Symposium. Congratulations to the recipients of the Outstanding Presentation and Poster Awards:
Kelly Kirkbride, outstanding presentation award for "Rural health disparities and the role of rural health clinics for Oregon 's Medicaid beneficiaries
Helena Wolfe, outstanding presentation award for " Columbia Plateau Native Nutrition Wheel: Traditional Diet - Contemporary Foods"
Alli Pribnow, outstanding poster award for " Culturally Congruent Approaches to Chagas Disease in Bolivia"
Tracey Hampton, outstanding poster award for " Dietary protein intake and serum cholesterol levels in Puerto Rican men"