Faculty/Staff Newsletter

Social science researcher Iulia Fratlia and social work student Bryce Neuman will implement an action plan to increase walkability with funding from the Virginia Walkability Action Institute.

This partnership with FCHD is an example of George Mason’s commitment to improving health and well-being, not just for community members, but for the workers who serve the community. Since the partnership began in 2019, 46 students have enrolled to earn their certificates. Of the cohorts that have completed the certificate, 57% have gone on to earn their MPH from George Mason. 

Last week, Rebecca Winthrop, a leading global authority on education, the director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, gave a great presentation about "A New Direction for Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, and Protect." View the recording here and download the slides here. View a copy of her presentation here.

February 16 | 1-2 pm | Multipurpose Room | In-person and Zoom

As part of the Dean Reappointment Review process, deans are asked to prepare a written statement highlighting their accomplishments and outlining their vision for the future. Dean Perry will hold a public Dean’s Town Hall to discuss her statement, which will be publicly available, and respond to questions.

Save the date! The 2026 CPH Degree Celebration will be on Thursday, May 14 at 2 pm at Eagle Bank Arena. Details about the celebration and reception are TBD.

Jeah Jung has been awarded a 5-year NIH R01 to study the impact of Medicare Advantage’s non-medical supplemental benefits on health care utilization and patient outcomes for elderly in the US. 

Denise Hines and Holly Matto's proposal for virtual reality simulation training program to improve domestic violence responses and prevention was signed into legislation.

Congratulations!

Wearables, Agentic AI, and Living Labs: The Future of Health Innovation

April 20 | 12 - 1 pm with lunch provided | RSVP Here

Presenter: Amir M. Rahmani, PhD, MBA, Samueli Endowed Chair Professor,, Integrative Health, Nursing, Computer Science, and EECS, UCI Institute for Future Health

Traditional controlled studies often fall short in capturing the complexity and diversity of real-world health care settings. In this talk, we explore how Living Labs—community-embedded, user-centered innovation environments—can bridge this gap by integrating research directly into everyday life. We highlight the role of advanced methodologies like SMART trial design and a suite of digital health platforms including Centralive, ZotCare, and Personicle.

These tools enable personalized, data-driven interventions by leveraging mobile and wearable technologies, multimedia inputs, and real-time analytics. Building on this foundation, we introduce openCHA, a new open-source platform for agentic conversational health agents powered by large language models (LLMs) and multimodal data fusion.

March 24 | 10-11 am | Zoom

The Provost’s Office will host this forum on Reappointment and Promotion for Term Faculty. This provides a university perspective on the processes.

(A similar session for Tenure-line faculty is held each fall.  View Slides from the Fall 2025 Info Session.)

March 18 | 11:30 am - 1 pm | Zoom

Are you working to figure out how to convey the impact and effectiveness of your teaching and mentoring for renewal, tenure, and/or promotion? This workshop, provided by the Provost’s Faculty Affairs and Development Office is appropriate for faculty in any discipline. You will outline your teaching, learning, and mentoring strategies for developing and present it to peer and reviewer audiences.

Registration is required.

The George Mason University faculty, staff, and graduate students are invited to mark their calendars for the 18th Annual Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference, hosted by the Stearns Center. This year’s theme is Relevant Teaching. The conference is hybrid on September 24, virtual, and September 25, in person.

Proposals are due March 20. Learn more

See last week's newsletter for a recap for more detail about the CPH response rate and next steps.

HOW TO DIVE DEEPER INTO THE DATA

We invite all faculty to explore the available data. Thank you to Terri Ann for creating this brief video to help guide us in navigating the COACHE data. You can access the data here on the OEIP website.

About halfway down the page, click Access the Summary Reports and Survey Results. You will be prompted to complete two-factor authentication (use your Mason password and Duo).

Once logged in, you will see two PDF files at the top under 2025 Summary Reports: (1) Mason COACHE Leadership Team: 2025 Executive Summary and (2) Harvard COACHE 2025 Faculty Satisfaction Preview Report.

Learn more about the George Mason COACHE partnership here.

February 23 | 1:30 - 3 pm | Zoom in calendar invite

For a CPH wage staff, classified staff, and AP faculty. This meeting is a great opportunity to stay informed, share your voice, and connect with colleagues.  

Have topics, ideas, or questions you'd like addressed? We encourage you to submit them in advance using this Microsoft form. We're pleased to share that Dean Perry will be joining us for a portion of the meeting and will be available to answer questions as well. Contact Allie McKay (amckay4@gmu.edu) with questions.

Nominate your colleagues (and self-nominate) for the CPH faculty and staff awards:

Staff Awards -  due February 20, 2026  

Faculty Teaching Awards -  due March 16, 2026 

Faculty Community Service Impact Award – due March 16, 2026

Research Awards -  due March 16, 2026

Note: these are Word documents and might not automatically open in a window. Check your Downloads folder

CPH Marketing and Communications is planning a spring photoshoot to capture action shots of students, faculty, and staff in the following environments: research and lab settings, clinical settings, using novel equipment, and classroom engagement. If you have great ideas for photos - contact, Sarah Supsiri at ssupsiri@gmu.edu.

Share with your students! Long Nguyen and Kimmy Duong Scholarships support students in nursing computing, engineering, journalism, and education. Up to 50 scholarships of $2,500 will be awarded. Our goal is to increase awareness and drive applications from eligible students. Learn more here.

HAP is in the lead with Dean's Office following close behind. This past week, Gilbert Gimm had the most steps for an individual.

All CPH employees can join in—this includes adjuncts, GRAs, and wage staff. Participants may walk anywhere, anytime, within each weekly time frame, counting their steps, and then report the steps they’ve walked by midnight the immediately following Monday. 

Report your steps no later than 11:29 pm on the Monday after each Monday-through-Sunday challenge week. The first week of walking is February 9-15. Report steps on February 16. Report your preceding week’s steps here.

OSA publishes a Weekly Student Newsletter for both Undergraduate and Graduate students. We invite you to submit announcements to this newsletter via our submission form. Announcements can include events, internships, research opportunities, academic deadlines, jobs, etc.

The newsletter is sent to students each Thursday, and submissions are due by Tuesday at 5 pm to ensure they are included in that week’s edition. Any questions, please contact cph@gmu.edu.

PUBLICHEALTH.GMU.EDU

Access the CPH brand toolkit, including new CPH logos here.

View the newsletter archives here.