Over the past year, Temple’s College of Public Health has continued to redefine the boundaries of public health education, research and practice. Our faculty stand at the forefront of a shifting health landscape, making innovative connections across disciplines and reimagining clinical education.
Our digital Year In Review magazine includes top stories from across the Temple University College of Public Health in 2018:
More than 1,600 service members from the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have experienced devastating battle injuries—the loss of a face, for instance, or limbs, hands or feet—according to a 2015 report from the Congressional Research Service. While some veterans are treated through a combination of prosthetics and physical therapy, a new form of transplantation could help provide a new face or hands for those who experience particularly catastrophic blast injuries.
For a child, a visit to the dentist is a routine affair: Playing with toys or coloring in the waiting area, a gentle call back to see the dentist, growing anxiety as the tools are prepared, and a series of questions: “Have you been brushing? Have you been flossing?” Then, the dentist asks about the child’s diet and has them step on the scale.
Megan Urbanski, a doctoral student pursuing her PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the college, received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, a two-year pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study the treatment decision-making preferences of people diagnosed with kidney failure, or end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
In a study published in the April issue of Childhood Obesity, Gina Tripicchio, assistant professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and a team of researchers evaluated a program that enrolled 46 children aged 2-16 years (most of whom are Hispanic) with overweight or obesity (BMI greater than the 85th percentile) into a family-based behavioral group (FBBG) treatment program.
The College of Public Health is pleased to announce the appointment of Heather Gardiner, associate professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, as director of the newly established Office of Community Engaged Research and Practice. Gardiner will lead growth of the college’s interdisciplinary, community-engaged research activity and work to identify new opportunities for collaboration between members of the college and Philadelphia’s communities.
The College of Public Health brings together top scholars from around the world—teaching in our classrooms, leading our research, and forging partnerships across the community. We extend a warm welcome to our 21 new full-time faculty members to the college this year*:
Laura A. Siminoff, Dean of the College of Public Health and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Public Health, was quoted in The New York Times for a story on New York City’s surprisingly low organ donation rates. From the story:
Sarah Bauerle Bass, associate professor of social and behavioral sciences and director of the risk communication laboratory, received a 3-year R34 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to develop and pilot test a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) communication intervention for female IV drug-using clients of a needle exchange.
David Sarwer, associate dean of research and director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE), was quoted in WHYY’s The Pulse, a weekly health and science radio show and podcast. In the story, which looked at the impact of the City of Philadelphia’s decision to tax 1.5 cents per ounce on sweetened drinks, Sarwer comments on the promising public health impact of the controversial soda tax.