SPH Stories Archive

Featured stories about SPH people, research and impact.

Read new stories on the SPH Blog 

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Lianne Sheppard from the University of Washington School of Public Health was selected to chair a 17-member committee that advises the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen. Sheppard is a professor of biostatistics and environmental and occupational health sciences.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

The University of Washington School of Public Health and collaborating institutions have developed a method for measuring socioeconomic status and connecting it to measures of diet quality.

By linking residential property values with dietary data from the Seattle Obesity Study, researchers have been able to simulate the geographic distribution of diet quality across Seattle-King County down to the census-block level.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Marian Neuhouser, a nutritional epidemiologist, who studies the role of dietary factors in cancer prevention, took office as president of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) on June 1.

Neuhouser is a core faculty member in the Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences and an affiliate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health. She is also a full member of the Cancer Prevention Program in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Severe malaria is responsible for at least 400,000 deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization. The University of Washington teamed up with the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Goa Medical College in India to find out what causes severity in the life-threatening disease.

The research team, which included affiliates of the department of global health in the School of Public Health, discovered that specific parasite proteins strongly predict severe malaria disease in adults.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Linda Ko, assistant professor of health services at the University of Washington School of Public Health, has received a $2.5 million grant to help prevent obesity among Hispanic/Latino youth.

In the Lower Yakima Valley of eastern Washington, 34 percent of youth are obese and a large portion of these children are of Hispanic/Latino descent. Ko and her colleagues in the Fred Hutch Center for Community Health Promotion plan to launch a study of 900 Hispanic/Latino children from eight elementary schools in the area.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Chronic low-back pain can be alleviated by mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), according to a recent study.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was led by Daniel Cherkin, a senior scientific investigator at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle and affiliate professor of health services at the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Bullying is a serious public health problem that occurs in both school settings and digital social spaces, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Committee chair Frederick Rivara, adjunct professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health, cautioned that bullying has lasting negative consequences not only on victims, but also on bullies and innocent bystanders.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Serosorting may have contributed to overall declines in HIV incidence in Seattle, according to a study from the University of Washington School of Public Health. Research findings highlighted how the practice, while not ideal from a public health standpoint, represented a significant step toward safer sexual behaviors for some men.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Patrick Heagerty, chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health, has been approved for a $1 million funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the evaluation methods needed to ensure that reproducible learning occurs within health care delivery systems.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The University of Washington received a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop low-cost air pollution sensors to help Native American and Latino communities in the Yakima Valley reduce their exposure to wood smoke.

Funds from the EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program will help researchers use next-generation air particle sensors that are portable and battery powered. Researchers will work with local students over the next three years to both understand and help reduce the community’s exposure to wood smoke.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Researchers at the University of Washington Department of Global Health and Kenya Medical Research Institute are working to determine if antibiotics could help save thousands of children from dying of diarrheal disease thanks to a four-year $2.5 million grant from the World Health Organization.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Anirban Basu and Ruth Etzioni from the University of Washington School of Public Health were named fellows of the American Statistical Association (ASA). They were officially recognized for their professional contributions to the field of statistical science at an August 2 awards ceremony during the ASA Joint Statistical Meeting in Chicago.

Friday, July 29, 2016

University of Washington School of Public Health alumna Patricia García (MPH 1998, Epidemiology), an affiliate professor in the School’s Department of Global Health and dean of the School of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University, was named Minister of Health for Peru. She was appointed by newly elected President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and was sworn in on July 28.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Jonathan Fintzi, a PhD student in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health, won the oral competition for the 2016 Western North American Region of The International Biometric Society Student Paper Competition. Joshua Keller, also a PhD student in biostatistics at the School, was runner-up for the competition’s written category.

Friday, July 22, 2016

The HIHIM undergraduate program, administered by the Department of Health Services, has a diverse student population in ethnicity, gender and age. Eighty-five percent of students are non-white, while the number of international students has doubled in the last two years.

“I attribute the diverse student population to the job outlook for a career in the health care industry and the global need for professionals trained in health informatics and information management,” says Kathleen Peterson, lead lecturer and director of the HIHIM program.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Alexandria Marie Mann, BA 2016, Public Health, is an EMT for American Medical Response.

Paul Nevin, MPH 2015, Global Health, was national winner for feature photography, large school division, in the Society of Professional Journalists' Mark of Excellence Awards for his photos documenting maternal health issues in Kenya.

Leah Dodge, MPH 2015, Global Health, was recently hired as an epidemiologist at the Urban Indian Health Institute, a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board.

Friday, July 22, 2016

When she was a child, Mahlet Takele wanted to be a doctor or scientist. She collected a variety of leaves and roots from her neighborhood, which she imagined were possible cures for HIV/AIDS.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Consistent use of a monthly vaginal ring can significantly reduce the spread of HIV, according to new data analyses led by a researcher from the University of Washington School of Public Health. Findings were presented this week at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Dean Howard Frumkin announced he is stepping down after “six wonderful and rewarding years” at the helm of the University of Washington School of Public Health. He plans to resume his research, teaching and writing in his home department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, effective Sept. 23.

Dean Frumkin joined the School in 2010, in the middle of the Great Recession. “He has led [the School] during one of the most difficult periods in higher education with style, grace and true vision,” said UW President Ana Mari Cauce.

Monday, July 18, 2016

SEATTLE – The UW School of Public Health issued a statement calling for the University of Washington to disengage from the prison industry, citing mass incarceration as a public health and moral crisis.