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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Labor unions, whose numbers are at historic lows in the United States, help to build a culture of health in the workplace and beyond, according to a report from the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Labor unions not only advocate for healthy and safe work environments, but they also improve the lives and promote the health of workers, their families, the community and public health, researchers found after analyzing the contract-protected benefits and working conditions of union members from employers across the Pacific Northwest.
 

Parents born in certain countries are less likely than others to vaccinate their children, according to a study by the University of Washington School of Public Health.

The study, published online June 29 in Pediatrics, analyzed data on about 277,000 children living in Washington state. Almost a quarter of those studied had at least one parent born in Somalia, Ukraine, Russia, Mexico, or India.