In addition to conferences, presentations, and other research-related accomplishments, we have also had the opportunity to connect with each other and celebrate the personal wins and accomplishments of our staff and students.
First, we are excited to share that Chris Okine, who is a medical student at Michigan Medicine collaborating with GREMAP, matched into Family Medicine at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago (his top choice!!). Congratulations to Chris for this amazing accomplishment!
Chris at Match Day with his family celebrating his match into Lawndale in Chicago.
In March, we were fortunate to have Alejandro, who is based in San Juan, visit Ann Arbor for the few weeks that coincided with the IFIP and IPC conferences. During his visit, we were able to take some time away from work to connect, de-stress, and have some fun:)
Notably, we held a lab social event at Decode Ann Arbor, where we successfully completed a puzzle game room “Around the World in 80 Days”!
Above [left]: The team before we headed into the puzzle room; Above [right]: Everyone trying to solve a word association puzzle before time ran out; Right: The team after we finished and successfully traveled around the world in 80 days!
Alejandro also caught up with everyone in Ann Arbor over dinner or coffee.
Alejandro out to dinner with Bella and ChrisAlejandro and Silas catching up over coffee The team out to dinner after solving the puzzle room
It’s been a busy winter semester here at GREMAP! The last few months have been packed with conferences, grant submissions, exams, and other deadlines, on top of our ongoing work on different research projects and papers. However, we also have many wins, accomplishments, and milestones achieved by our students and staff to celebrate!
Left: Stella and Viktoryia next to Stella’s poster at IFIP.
Dr. Eskira Kahsay, who is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in ISR, presented her dissertation work at the IPC Symposium poster session, for which she was awarded the IPC Excellence in Research Award!
Left: Eskira receiving the research award for her poster; Right: Eskira pictured with her award and poster at IPC.
Lastly, Omar and first-year PhD student Chuwen (Cullen) Zhong co-presented their work on the relationship between social connection, depression, and fall risk at the IPC poster session (pictured on the left).
UMAging. Many of our team members attended the UMAging Symposium, which was a great opportunity to connect with our colleagues and collaborators from different research centers and departments and hear about the work they are doing. As a MCUAAAR faculty member, Dr. Mezuk gave a research talk on “Sense-making in the Acute Aftermath of Older Adult Suicide Deaths: An Application of Large Language Models”, which highlights key findings from our analysis exploring meaning-making in NVDRS data, which is led by Dr. Kalesnikava.
Viktoryia (left) with Research Staff members Lily Johns (center) and Linh Dang (right) at the the UMAging symposium lunch.
Omar and Cullen presenting their poster at the UMAging poster session.
NSAL 25-year follow up
We have also been busy with the NSAL project! The team is gearing up to go into the field later this year and are focusing on finalizing the questionnaire, building relationships with community partners, and working on recruitment and outreach.
Earlier this semester, we had the opportunity to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with an event focused on the NSAL follow-up survey, entitled “Extending the Legacy: Innovations of the 25-Year Follow-up of the National Survey of American Life”. This MLK-day event featured presentations by NSAL project leadership including Dr. Mezuk, Project Director Dr. Deborah Robinson, Expert Advisory Board member Dr. Belinda Tucker, and Stephanie Chardoul, who is the Director of Survey Research Operations at ISR. We were also very fortunate to be joined by interviewers who conducted fieldwork in the original NSAL survey (fielded in 2001), who led a panel discussion drawing from their experiences and expertise.
Above [left]: NSAL interviewers and Stephanie Chardoul during the panel discussion; Above [right]: Dr. Robinson presenting at the event; Below: Project leadership posing in the James S. Jackson atrium at ISR at the reception.
This event was also featured in an article for The Michigan Daily, which you can read here.
We have had a busy last few weeks here at GREMAP! In November, folks from the research group had the opportunity to attend various meetings and conferences to present their work and connect with collaborators, both old and new.
In early November, Dr. Mezuk and her co-PI Toni Antounucci held a day-long working meeting focused on their recent grant from the NIA, which will reinterview the cohort from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) to assess key cognitive and psychosocial outcomes. The event was hosted at Harvard University and was an amazing opportunity for study leadership, staff, and collaborators to get together, connect, and work collaboratively to prepare for going into the field.
The NSAL ‘2.0’ team pictured in the medical library at Harvard.
In addition, many GREMAP members and collaborators attended the the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting, which took place from November 12th-15th (also in Boston!). At the meeting, folks presented their work on a variety of topics related to aging and health, including contextual/neighborhood factors, mental health and suicidality, and expectations related to work and aging.
GREMAP presentations included:
“Association between Residential Segregation and Suicide across the Lifecourse among Black Americans”, presented by Dr. Eskira Kahsay
“Spousal Work Expectations and Psychological Distress: Insights from the United States and South Korea”, presented by Dr. Linh Dang
“Feeling Younger Every Day? Daily Activities and Subjective Age in the Health and Retirement Study”, presented by Dr. Briana Mezuk, alongside co-presenter Dr. Wassim Tarraf
“The Structure of Major Life Transitions among Older Suicide Decedents: An Application of Large Language Models”, presented by Dr. Briana Mezuk
GREMAP members [left to right] Briana Mezuk, Kallisse Dent, Linh Dang, Eskira Kahsay, and Cullen Zhong at the GSA conference.
Lastly, doctoral student Aparna Ananthasubramaniam, who is pursuing a dual degree in Social Work and Information, presented her work on the intersection between state policies, housing transitions, and suicidality at the 2025 Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) meeting. The talk was titled “State Housing Policy Environments and Suicide Risk among Households Experiencing Eviction and Foreclosure” and highlights her work using data from multiple sources to examine the effect of state-level policies (e.g., resident protections, eviction moratoria) on suicide deaths related to eviction and foreclosure. You can read the full abstract here.
We are excited to share that GREMAP PhD student Cullen Zhong participated in last week’s Nerd Nite Ann Arbor! Nerd Nite is monthly speaker series organized by the Ann Arbor district library that brings together the community to engage in science and research in a fun and informal setting. The events usually feature 3 speakers, who each give a brief talk (between 15-20 minutes) on a topic on which they are either expert or (at least) over-informed. Cullen spoke about her research on social connection and loneliness among older adults with a talk entitled “Loneliness Hurts—and let’s talk about it”.
This talk was developed as a part of the RELATE summer workshop, which Cullen participated in this summer. RELATE, which stands for “Researcher Expanding Lay-Audience Teaching and Engagement”, is an 8-week long workshop organized by UM graduate students that is designed to prepare early-career researchers to effectively communicate their research to a broader audience. As a final deliverable, Cullen gave a talk at Nerd Nite as a way to engage her research with a general audience and practice the science communication skills developed over the course of the workshop. Great work, Cullen!
Cullen presenting an introduction to social connection and its importance in our daily lives at Nerd Nite!
The Diabetes and Mental Health (DMH) Initiative was featured in a news release published last month by the team at the Caswell Diabetes Institute (CDI). The news article highlighted the work of the CDI Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC), which engages a diverse group of community members who have lived experience with diabetes in the work of the CDI. This past year, the PFAC has contributed their expertise to a variety of research projects and initiatives that focus on the psychosocial aspects of diabetes care and management, including stigma, emotional distress, diabetes education, and caregiving.
As the article highlights, we have collaborated with the PFAC to inform our work on the DMH Study, which aims to generate novel data and actionable insights to address stigma, diabetes-related distress, and the emotional or psychological burden of diabetes management. Over the course of the project, we brought our works-in-progress and questions to the PFAC, who shared their personal experiences of diabetes-related stigma and made concrete recommendations that guided our research focus. Overall, the input of the PFAC and their lived experience of the emotional aspects of living or caring for someone with diabetes has been invaluable to our development of this project. You can read the full news article here.
In the article, Dr. Mezuk reflects on what it means to ‘invest’ in science and health research within the context of the current administation’s push to reduce “government waste” and reconsider federal funding for the health sciences. The article draws from the investment advice of Warren Buffet to outline concrete ways in which we can improve our approach to federal and societal investment in health, calling into question what role investment has in population health research and the pursuit of health equity (who benefits from advancements in health research?).
You can read the full blog entitled “Investment Advice for America’s Health: How Words From the “Oracle of Omaha” Apply to Government Funding of Research” here.
We are very excited to announce that GREMAP PhD student Eskira Kahsay has successfully defended her dissertation! Her dissertation was titled “Residential Segregation and Psychiatric Disorders in Suicide-Related Outcomes and Mortality Among Black Americans”. This work leveraged two key datasets — the National Survey of American Life and the National Violent Death Reporting System— to provide a valuable contribution to our understanding of how structural and spatial determinants of health impact mental health and suicide risk within the Black population. Congratulations to Dr. Kahsay!
Last week, medical student and GREMAP collaborator Chris Okine presented at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual conference, which took place in Chicago, IL. Chris presented his poster entitled “‘Feeling secure is important to me… but I just don’t… most of the time’: Patient Definitions of Success in Diabetes Management”, which analyzed qualitative data from Diabetes, Distress, and Disparities (3D) Study to explore how people with diabaetes (PWD) define ‘success’ in the management of their diabetes. For example, PWD in the 3D study sample defined success in a broader sense, including the impact of managing their diabetes on their relationships, their sense of balance and quality of life, and their mental and emotional health, in addition to clinical markers (e.g., A1c) often used in a healthcare setting.
Overall, the ADA conference was a great opportunity to connect with other researchers and clinicians and to share our work with a broader audience focused on diabetes. Chris shared that many people were interested in the quotes and specifics about patient experiences with defining success as it relates to their diabetes management. Attendees were also interested in learning more about how definitions of success varied by diabetes type. In addition to the poster session, Chris connected with other presenters as well as faculty from UM who study diabetes. Great work, Chris!
Left: Chris presenting his poster at the poster session; Right: Chris at the ADA conference entrance.
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