SPH News Sept. 17, 2007SPH News is a school-wide electronic newsletter distributed to SPH faculty and staff every other week during the school year. Please send news items to SPHNews@umn.edu. The deadline for submission for the Oct. 1 issue is 9 a.m. on Sept. 26. From the DeanEach year the School of Public Health benefits from significant philanthropic support from alumni, friends, faculty members, foundations, and local corporations. I am pleased to tell you that the past fiscal year was one of the best the school has ever experienced. Donors have stepped forward in major ways, contributing more than $1.1 million for student scholarships, not even including the significant support for our research and outreach efforts. Donors have responded generously to the University's matching programs that double the awards of all newly endowed scholarships. This scholarship support is immense. For instance, Ruth Stief, founder of our public health nutrition program, donated more than $700,000 from her estate. This generosity is in addition to the many significant gifts that Ruth made during her lifetime to bolster the program. The new Ruth E. Stief Scholarship will provide full support for five students each year. We also received a new scholarship gift from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation to create a nearly half-million dollar endowment to support graduate education for underrepresented students in public health. This gift is a follow-up to the foundation's original gift in 2002, and our Hearst scholars have proven to be individuals with the capacity to make massive contributions to public health. The new gift will allow us to provide increased support to three Hearst Scholars every year. Finally, friends and former students of Professor Robert Veninga celebrated his career and retirement by endowing the Robert and Karen Veninga Scholarship to support international students pursuing a M.P.H. degree. We know that international students face severe barriers to education and do not have access to the same financial aid available to domestic students. This scholarship honors a commitment to students that was a hallmark of Bob's career. All of these scholarships receive University matching support--a huge plus for the school. I am committed to building on this success and will work in the coming year to garner even greater resources for our students. The school is not alone in this effort, as we work closely with the Minnesota Medical Foundation to conduct a comprehensive development program. However, much of the credit for this success rests with those of you reading today, especially those who make gifts to the school. Your support is greatly appreciated. --John R. Finnegan, Jr., Ph.D. Faculty NewsDavid Parker and Lisa Brosseau were funded by NIOSH for a five-year study to work with health and safety in the auto collision repair industry. The University will collaborate with the Park Nicollet Institute to develop and implement grant-related programs. The program is funded for approximately 2.5 million dollars over five years. William Riley and Robert Harmon are serving on the National Board of Public Health Examiners in an effort to create a nationally recognized credentialing exam for public health professionals. Incorporatedin 2005, the charge to the NBPHE is to develop, prepare, administer and evaluate certification examinations for graduates from Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) -accredited schools and programs of public health. Judy Garrard is the SPH liaison to the NBPHE Board. American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant applications are due Oct. 15. Grants up to $30,000 support assistant professors who have no independent national funding and are engaged in cancer-related research, including genetic mechanisms of cancer, molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis, development of novel therapeutic models and translational research, and cancer immunology and immunotherapy. Request an application by contacting micek003@umn.edu or 6-1926. Faculty are invited to participate in two webinars focused on distance education and public health on Monday Sept. 24 and Monday Oct. 1. The first is "Distance Education Beyond Public Health: Lessons For Our Field" from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. During the webinar, presenters and participants will discuss how lessons, tools and resources from these programs might be of use in graduate public health education. The second webinar is "State of the Field in Public Health Online Education," scheduled from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Mon. Oct. 1. This webinar will focus on current online learning practices within schools of public health such as online pedagogy, policies and infrastructure, faculty and staff training, or assessment, evaluation and research. Please contact Gillian Silver at gsilver@asph.org with questions. School NewsDisparities: Unequal Opportunities, Unequal Outcomes is an initiative to make small grants and provide technical assistance to seed or support small projects that promote or examine ways to effectively address disparities among Minnesota's children, youth, and families. Funding is from the President's Initiative on Children, Youth, and Families. The Children, Youth, and Family Consortium requests proposals by Friday, Oct. 5. Project Homeless Connect is seeking volunteers to assist the homeless population in Hennepin County. The next event will be held again at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Monday, Oct. 1. Project Homeless Connect is a one-stop-shop of services to help people living in shelters or on the streets. A one-hour volunteer orientation is required, volunteers may pick from several dates on and between Sept. 17-24. Web site offers searchable database of low-cost or free cervical cancer screening programs. The Minnesota Women's Cervical Cancer Screening Resources Database is up and running. This database allows women to search by zip code or city for clinics and programs offering free or low cost pap smears and other services. Call for abstracts. The Minnesota Health Services Research Conference planned for March of 2008 is calling for abstracts. The deadline is Monday Nov. 5 Abstract writers will be notified by Dec. 3. For information and questions contact Jane Raasch at 5-0955 or via e-mail raasc001@umn.edu SPH Events & CoursesWhich community members have you worked with this past academic year, who helped enrich the SPH student experience? The SPH will honor these individuals at the annual Community Partners events on Thursday, Sept. 20. For more information, contact Michelle Lian-Anderson at liana001@umn.edu. The Elephants in the Room: Social Justice, Public Health, and Health Inequities will be presented by Nancy Krieger, Harvard School of Public Health, onFriday, Sept. 28 at Coffman Union Theater, reception at 9 a.m., lecture at 9:30-10:30 a.m. Krieger will discuss three questions researchers must confront: what are health disparities?; what are their causes?; and who is responsible for health inequities? And she will draw attention to the "elephants" must we confront if our work is to make a dent in eliminating health inequities. This event is part of the Carl J. Martinson, MD, Lectureship in Preventive Medicine, presented by the SPH's Division of Epidemiology and Community Health. A biostatistics seminar, "Analysis of Time-to-event Data with Incomplete Event Adjudication" will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19. Tom Cook from the division of biostatistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the keynote speaker. The seminar will be held in MoosT 1-450G. A social tea will be held at 3 p.m. in A434 Mayo. All are welcome. Biostatistics seminar, part II. Identifying Protein Markers from Mass Spectrometry Data with Ordinal Outsome will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26 in MoosT 1-450G. Deukwoo Kwon, a postdoctoral visiting fellow from the National Cancer Institute, is the keynote speaker. A social tea will be held at 3 p.m. in A434 Mayo. All are welcome. Xenobiotics and Human Health Seminar Series: The Divisions of Epidemiology and Community Health and Environmental Health Sciences are holding a series of joint seminars. The goal is to exchange information and ideas about persistent organic pollutants and health, seen from several perspectives. Place and Time: Mayo 1155, Mondays, 10:30-noon. This schedule is subject to change. Please call Carol Raichert at 5-1836 to confirm.
Learn about an exciting and easy method to reach students in online courses. Please join online faculty in a presentation by Kristin Anderson and Paul Bernhardt on an innovative way to reach students in online courses. Learn how easy it is to produce a quick "talking head" segment in WebCT from 4-5 p.m. on Friday Sept. 21 in Mayo A301. For more information, contact Sarah Harper at 6-3740. The School of Public Health Roundtable Series on Environmental Influences on Human Development and Disease Risk will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Friday, Oct. 12 in Cowles Auditorium at the Humphrey Center. The keynote speaker is Philip J. Landrigan. The Roundtable Series is free but registration is requested. Toxic Hazards in your Community: Free Community Workshops - These two-hour community workshops are for community members who are interested in understanding more about the toxic substances in their homes and neighborhoods. Participants will find out what might be dangerous where they live and how to protect their family and friends from those substances. Maternal Nutrition Intensive Course (Video Streaming), Aug. 15-Oct. 15. The National Maternal Nutrition Intensive Course offers online video streaming over the Internet to allow distance learners an opportunity to view sessions of the course. The streaming video sessions will be 8-9 hours. CPHEO COURSES Register for the listed courses athttp://ustar.ahc.umn.edu/register_event.cfm Annual UMS-AIHA Professional Development Conference: Emerging and Re-Emerging Diseases and Their Impact on Occupational Health will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Town and Country Club in St. Paul. Disaster in Franklin County -- A Public Health Simulation (Online). The University of Minnesota Center for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP) at the School of Public Health, Centers for Public Health Education and Outreach (CPHEO) is pleased to announce the release of Disaster in Franklin County: A Public Health Simulation. What is Public Health? Looking for an overview of basic public health concepts?The Midwest Center for Life-Long-Learning in Public Health offers a free 2.5 hour online training titled What is Public Health that will provide just that. A certificate awarding 2.5 contact hours of continuing education credit will be awarded upon completion.Also available is an undergraduate course, PubH 3202: What is Public Health, which explores the concepts in greater depth. Looking for more distance education? The Midwest Center for Life-Long-Learning in Public Health is part of the national network of Public Health Training Centers (PHTC). To accommodate the public health training needs of the public health workforce, approximately 60% of the training and training tools offered by the PHTCs are distance-based. These trainings are compiled in a database that is searchable by competency, subject area and by keyword. UPCOMING CPHEO COURSES * 24- and 40- Hour Hazardous Waste Site Worker Training, Sept. 17-21 * Evacuation Coordination: Train the Trainer, Sept. 27 * Occupational Hearing Conservation Refresher Training, Oct. 2 Other EventsThe Academic Health Center will hold a campus-wide blood drive. Please schedule your appointment in advance at American Red Cross (ARC) and search by ZIP code 55455. Donors must be at least 17, weigh at least 110 pounds, and present a photo ID at check-in. If you have traveled outside the United States in the past year or have other questions about eligibility to donate, call the ARC nurse at 651-291-3885 before scheduling. The blood drive is on Tuesday Sept. 25 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the McNamara Alumni Center. For other information, contact Jenny Meslow at meslo001@umn.edu or 800-448-3543. Get current on issues in clinical research - The Academic Health Center, the Office of Clinical Research, and Mayo Clinical Trial Services are jointly sponsoring the conference Current Issues in Clinical Research, Sept. 18-19, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. This conference will focus on emerging trends and provide a comprehensive review of the responsibilities and process of clinical research performance. Regular registration is $550, but University faculty, research staff, and AHC students and trainees may attend for free. The next Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series in Health Disparities lecture will be held on Friday, Sept. 21, 12-1 p.m., in 1-450G Moos Tower. Speaker: Margarita Alegria, Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance. She will present a talk entitled, "Changing the Mindset to Reduce Mental Health and Substance Abuse Service Disparities." Also as apart of her visit, Alegria will be giving a less formal session at one of our community partners, West Side Community Health Services (153 Cesar Chavez Street, Saint Paul, MN 55107), on Thursday, Sept. 20, from noon to 2 p.m. She will be speaking on "Psychological Health Impacts of Social Injustice." Space is limited for this meeting, so please RSVP to PHDR@umn.edu. Minnesota Public Health Association's Centennial Celebration Gala - Join the MPHA as it celebrates 100 years as a contributor to the health of Minnesotans. Will Steger, polar explorer, will be the keynote speaker at the event scheduled for Thursday Oct. 25 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the McNamara Alumni Center. To sign up to receive SPH News, send your name and e-mail address to SPHNews@umn.edu. |