National Public Health Week 2021

Dean Ashish Jha was joined by medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer, the co-founder and Chief Strategist of Partners In Health for the 2021 Barnes Lecture. Dr. Farmer, who has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world’s poorest people, discussed strategies for improving delivery of high-quality care in resource-poor settings. The lecture is supported by The Dr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Barnes, Jr. Lectureship in Public Health, through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Zisson ’74, in memory of Norma and Miles Zisson ’38.

The School of Public Health’s annual conference highlights the research accomplishments of our students, trainees, and partners. For this year’s virtual session, participants presented their posters live via Zoom to guests and judges who were able to visit poster presentations virtually as they would at an in-person conference.

Taylor-Marie Vasil: Evaluating Housing Characteristics Associated with Childhood Lead Poisoning in Providence, Rhode Island

Langa Bakhuluma-Ncube (MPH): Longitudinal Effects of Home-Based Self-HIV Testing on Attitudes, Norms, and Motivation among Men who have Sex with Men in the United States

Alexander Li (ScM Biostatistics): Simulating Virus Detection with Nanopore Sequencing, BLAST, and the Hypergeometric Distribution

Alexandria Macmadu (Ph.D. Epidemiology): Crack Cocaine Use Frequency Is Associated with HIV Disease Severity Independent of Antiretroviral Therapy Exposure

The School of Public Health’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion hosted an alumni panel highlighting the transformative work of three MPH alumni focused on advancing racial equity in public health. Panelists included Monique J. Brown Ph.D., MPH ’09, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina; Shane Lloyd MPH ’11, Inclusion and Engagement Leader, Worldwide Consumer at Amazon; and Catherine Nwachukwu MPH ’17, Manager for Strategy and Research at the Center for Health Information and Analysis.

Host Megan Hall MPH’15, spoke with five experts from across the School for a special Humans in Public Health podcast series. The five-part series covers topics ranging from household toxins and homelessness, to anxiety, race, public outreach, and more. The series includes interviews with Amy Nunn, professor of behavioral and social sciences and of medicine, director of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute; Joseph Braun, associate professor of epidemiology, director of the Center for Children’s Environmental Health; Sara Caniglia, second year MPH student; Dr. Jud Brewer, associate professor of behavioral and social sciences and of psychiatry and human behavior, director of Research and Innovation at the Brown Mindfulness Center; and Lorin Crawford, RGSS Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and senior researcher at Microsoft Research New England.