SBS Department Newsletter
Fall 2, 2022
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Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
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Thanks, And Happy Holidays
I would like to express hearty congratulations to all of the students, staff and faculty of the SBS department for all that you have done in the year 2022.
This year was a remarkable one for the SBS Department. We faced many challenges as we continued to emerge from the pandemic, and we had to find new ways to work and study. Special thanks to all of the staff who have worked tirelessly to keep the department running smoothly during these challenging times.
During this new year we embarked on multiple new initiatives focused on improving the experiences of our students here at the Chan school. Several of them are already yielding fruit. Special thanks to our students for all of your invaluable input and to our staff and faculty who have worked long and well on these initiatives.
Heartfelt thanks to all of our faculty and alumni for the impact that you continue to have through your research, publications and policymaking to make this world a better place. As we look to the next year, the health challenges that we face locally, nationally, and globally loom large but our commitment and determination remains strong. We along with our distinguished alumni will continue to do the research and advocate for the policies that will bend the arc of the universe towards justice.
It has been an enormous honor to work with each and every one of you this year. I want to wish you a relaxed, restful and refreshing holiday season and a productive and immensely successful 2023.
David R. Williams
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Lumas Joseph Helaire, PhD (he/him) joined the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in July 2021 as the assistant dean for population health management and health equity education where he assists the Dean’s Office in the identification, development, and promotion of health equity collaborative initiatives within and beyond the University. He is also a visiting lecturer at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
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Launched by you and an interdisciplinary team at Harvard, the HealthLab Accelerator will fund ventures by Harvard students and postdoctoral fellows that aim to solve a global health problem. What excites you the most about this entrepreneurship program?
I have to say I’m most excited about one day coming across some world changing device, app, program, or tool that was once pitched at Harvard Health Lab. It feels me with a special type of energy to know that someone put faith in themselves and a team and engaged process to make their dream a reality.
I just enjoy seeing someone in their place of happiness or purpose. At the pitch-to-match event we held earlier [in October] you could see passion dancing in the eyes of the presenters. It is like they were squarely in a moment of flow. The ideas were awe-inspiring, and students were impressed with one another’s pitches.
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Brianna Keefe-Oates, PhD ‘23 is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Population Health Sciences in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She studies how policies and community-based activism can influence inequities in access to reproductive health services and health outcomes, especially during the pregnancy and postpartum periods. She received the Rose Service Learning Fellowship this summer to develop a comprehensive plan to disseminate findings from a study she is conducting with the feminist collective, La Revuelta Colectiva Feminista in Neuquen, Argentina.
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Could you tell us more about your project working with La Revuelta Colectiva Feminista?
La Revuelta Colectiva Feminista is a feminist collective who supports and advocates for people seeking abortion care. Since 2012, they have provided emotional and informational support to people seeking abortions.
After the abortion law was passed in 2020 in Argentina, I partnered with La Revuelta and Ibis Reproductive Health to conduct a survey to understand people’s motivations for calling La Revuelta for support. With the support of the Rose Service Learning Fellowship, we created a dissemination plan to share the results with service providers, policymakers, and other activists, which we are in the process of doing now.
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SBS Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee Update
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The SBS Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee welcomed several new student members: Lilia Calleros, Yipeng Ge, Maryam Hermez, Arista Jhanjee, Jesse Osmar, Hoai An Pham, and Idongesit Sampson. The committee has been meeting regularly throughout the Fall semester and recently finalized the department’s 2022-23 action plan. Stay tuned for further outreach and engagement throughout the year! Please feel free to email and reach out to any committee members to learn more, ask questions, or provide your ideas to help achieve our collective goals and action plan!
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Anne-Josée Guimond has been promoted to Research Associate with the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness.
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Glorian Sorensen received the Total Worker Health Founders Award at the 3rd International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health, recognizing her many years of expanding the evidence supporting workplace policies and practices designed to promote and protect workers’ safety, health, and well-being.
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Cruz JL, Daly JG,..., Emmons KM, Ramanadhan S Identifying Intervention Points To Increase The Diversity Of A Research-Practice Network For Cancer Equity: A Social Network Analysis 15th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health Poster Presentation | Washington, DC | Dec 12, 2022
Rosenfeld L Opportunities For Action: Mental Health, Organizational Health Literacy, And Health Equity State of Connecticut, Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services Lecture | Online | Oct 13, 2022
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Bogee G, Sagoe-Moses I, Adongo E,..., Denckla CA Situational Analysis On The Impact Of Perinatal Deaths Among Bereaved Families In Ghana Omega (Westport) | In Press
Krieger N, Chen JT, Testa C,..., Waterman PD, Relton C Use Of Incorrect And Correct Methods To Account For Age In Studies On Epigenetic Accelerated Aging: Implications And Recommendations For Best Practices Ann Epidemiol | In Press
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