Ariel Hoadley, a third-year PhD student in social and behavioral sciences, has won the 2022 APHA Student Membership Award sponsored by the organization’s applied public health statistics section. This marks the second straight year a College of Public Health student has won this award; master of public health in applied biostatistics student Di Zhu claimed the honor in 2021. Only 10 students nationwide are selected annually for the award, which recognizes education and work experience, interest in health statistics, and future in public health practice or research. It also i...

Some healthcare studies produce not just new research—but also new researchers. For a study of healthcare patients that began in 2020, Yaara Zisman-Ilani, assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, enlisted the aid of two College of Public Health undergraduate students. Both students have graduated and now work in municipal health research roles, putting their training on that study to work as they begin their careers.  The study examined shared decision making perceptions among patients with depression in minority populations, as well as the a...

Sherief Ibrahim, who graduated with his master of public health this May, has compiled research on firearm suicides that he hopes will persuade legislators who oppose gun regulation that, in some cases, it is justified and life-saving. The focus of his research is Extreme Risk Protection Orders, which allow family members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from someone at risk of suicide. Gun suicide attempts are almost always fatal; in states that allow them, ERPOs have been shown to cut suicides by up to 13%.  But firearm control in any fo...

Two College of Public Health graduate student teams won honors in recent national case competitions, contests that asked university teams from around the country to solve specific healthcare management challenges within a short period of time.  In February, a team of master of public health in health policy and management students won second place in the 3rd annual Big Data Health Science Case Competition, part of the University of South Carolina National Big Data Health Science Conference.   Competing separately in the 9th annual Cleveland Clinic Case Competition, another...