MPH student Joshua Montgomery and Jana Smith, Association Director of Community Health at the YMCA of Greater Richmond, co-presented at the 2017 American Public Health Association annual meeting as part of a panel on “Participatory Approaches to Address Social Disparities and Social Determinants of Health.” Their talk was titled “Leveraging community strengths to address social disparities in diabetes care” and discussed on ongoing collaboration around the YMCA’s Diabetes Control Program. Congrats team!

The Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina has written an article featuring new faculty member (and GREMAP alumnus) Dr. Matt Lohman. Dr. Lohman is joining the Arnold School of Public Health as an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. The article features Dr. Lohman’s work on mental health in older adults.

An interdisciplinary team, lead by Dr. Nao Hagiwara at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been awarded a 1.7 million dollar grant to study interactions between doctors and black patients with diabetes. The team has members with expertise in many different fields, including GREMAP’s own Dr. Briana Mezuk. This will allow them to study this subject with a variety of methods and approaches to reach a deeper understanding. The team hopes that this research will produce findings that can help to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health.

GREMAP was well-represented at the International Association of Geriatrics and Gerontology (https://www.iagg2017.org/) scientific meeting in San Francisco (July 22-26, 2017). Drs. Briana Mezuk, Monique Brown (alumni), Liming Dong (new GREMAPer) and Moon Choi (alumni) all presented posters at the conference.

GREMAP was proud to present at the 2017 American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions in sunny (and still classy) San Diego, California.

Dr. Briana Mezuk, MPH-student Josh Montgomery, and Mr. William Thornton, Wellness Director at the YMCA of Greater Richmond, all presented on our ongoing research collaboration to improve diabetes self-management in the Richmond area. We were joined by GREMAP alum Dr. Jeannie Concha, who is now leading her own community-engaged diabetes research at UTEP in El Paso, Texas.

Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson has been selected to serve a three-year term on the Awards Committee of the Society for Epidemiologic Research. The Awards Committee manages the nomination and selection process for awards for career achievements, service, education, early career investigators, postdocs, and students.

GREMAP faculty member Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson has been awarded the Award of Excellence for Best Teacher in the PhD program for 2016-2017, from the Division of Epidemiology. This award is in recognition of her outstanding work teaching and mentoring students in the PhD program.

Congratulations Shawnita!!!

GREMAP alumnus Dr. Monique Brown has been featured in a profile at ConnectTheAges. This profile features her work as a research assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, and the path she took to her career in researching sexual health in older adults.

Keep up the great work Monique!