We are excited to announce that Eskira Kahsay’s article “The Association Between John Henryism and Depression and Suicidal Ideation Among African-American and Caribbean Black Adolescents in the United States” has been chosen as one of the “Distinguished Dozen: 2022 Journal of Adolescent Health Articles Making Distinguished Contributions to Adolescent and Young Adult Health”. This award is designed to amplify important contributions to the field of adolescent health published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Congratulations Eskira!

You can read more about Eskira’s article and the other articles selected here.

We’re happy to share that Alejandro Rodríguez-Putnam, a member of our staff, recently participated in the V International Conference for World Balance, in Havana, Cuba this January. Alejandro presented research co-authored by him, titled “Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Community Health Centers in Puerto Rico During 2020”. 

With 82 countries in attendance, the conference was a significant gathering of international experts, sponsored by organizations such as UNESCO, the José Martí World Solidarity Project, the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences, and many others. If you’d like to learn more about his experience or the conference itself, reach out to Alejandro at arputnam@umich.edu! 

This month GREMAP alumnus Josh Montgomery graduated from Shenandoah University with his degree as a Physician Assistant and received his “white coat”! Josh has been part of GREMAP since his post-bachelorette days with the PREP program at VCU and was integral to our partnership with the Richmond YMCA. We are so incredibly proud of his ongoing achievements!

We are very happy to announce that Dr. Mezuk was awarded the 2022 Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) Distinguished Clinical and Translational Research Mentor Award yesterday! It was great to celebrate Dr. Mezuk and her continued dedication to mentorship.

At the ceremony, Dr. Mezuk was introduced with words from Dr. Viktoryia Kalesnikava (pictured bottom center), who nominated her for this award along with Linh Dang and Eskira Kahsay. Dr. Mezuk then spoke and shared her thoughts on the value of being a mentor (pictured bottom right).

GREMAP student Kara Mannor has recently published an article in the School of Public Health’s blog The Pursuit. The blog, which is titled “How we follow through on our field’s commitment to disability communities”, discusses the historic stigma surrounding disabled people or persons with disabilities in the public health field and how we can address this stigma by promoting and using the social model of disability. You can read the full article here.

We are happy to announce that Dr. Mezuk will be giving a talk at the University of Colorado Denver this fall as a part of the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences Colloquium Series. The talk is titled “Investigating novel risk factors for suicide: Data, inferences, and the spaces between” and will discuss the work GREMAP has been doing on the use of machine learning tools to explore how major life transitions relate to suicide using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). The presentation will take place on October 7th from 2:30-4:00PM (MST)/4:30-6:00PM (EST) via Zoom. To RSVP, please email jimi.adams@ucdenver.edu.

Through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), GREMAP is seeking student researchers to support the upcoming Diabetes and Mental Health (DMH) Initiative.

The DMH Initiative aims to better understand the mental health needs and care experiences of people living with diabetes. This project is led by Dr. Mezuk and is supported by the UM Caswell Diabetes Institute. Overall, the initiative aims to contribute interdisciplinary, integrative research on the complex ways that mental health intersects with diabetes risk, self-management, and prognosis across the lifespan. GREMAP’s main role in this project is to conduct a needs-assessment of psychosocial characteristics and barriers/facilitators to accessing mental health care among patients with diabetes (including pre-diabetes, gestational diabetes, type 1 diabetes, and type 2 diabetes) treated at Michigan Medicine. This will include an initial quantitative survey, followed by targeted patient focus groups and key informant interviews with Michigan Medicine providers.

We are looking for students interested in gaining hands-on experience with health research to support all aspects of the DMH Initiative, especially in conducting the needs-assessment. Student tasks and responsibilities will include:
– Collecting study data, including conducting key informant interviews (via phone) and leading focus groups
– Record study data in REDCap, Qualtrics, and/or Excel
– Support study coordinator in project management & communications
– Attend weekly lab and workgroup meetings

Students that are eligible to participate in the UROP program can apply to work on the DMH Initiative through the UROP project portal starting in the fall!

We are so happy to announce that Viktoryia Kalesnikava successfully defended her dissertation! Her dissertation is titled Chronic Psychological Stress & Cardiometabolic Health: Measurement and Structural Determinants. Congratulations to Dr. Kalesnikava!