SBS Department Newsletter
Fall 1, 2022
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| Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
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Welcome To A New Year!
I want to say a very, very special welcome to all of our new MPH-45, MPH-65, and PhD students! This is an exciting time to enter the field of public health as major challenges, globally and domestically, expose the limitations of inadequate understanding of the problems we face and reliance on myopic solutions! And to our returning students, faculty and staff, I say, welcome back! I hope that you had some opportunity for rest and refreshment over the summer, and that you are now eagerly looking forward to new opportunities for engagement.
And to our alumni we also want to welcome you to a new academic year at your alma matter. Please stay in touch. We are very interested in featuring you and your work in our SBS newsletter. We want stories about successes that you have experienced in your career, obstacles you have overcome, and innovations that you have been able to develop the field of public health.
The field of Public Health and the SBS department offers unique and powerful perspectives to confront contemporary challenges with distinctive foci, methods and tools that can enable us to effectively address them. This expertise has never been more important and urgently needed than now.
I hope to see many SBS students, faculty and staff at our next department seminar, featuring Justin White, a health economist from UC San Francisco, on Monday, October 31 from 1-1:50pm in Kresge G2. Our monthly seminars serve as consistent way to gather, eat lunch together, and listen to an engaging speaker.
David R. Williams
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Jonathan Lee, MUP/MPH ’23 (he/him/his) is currently an MPH-65 student in SBS, also working on a dual degree in Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is particularly interested in investigating the built environment as a determinant of health and how we can improve population health by incorporating tools from urban planning and design. Lee was awarded the Rose Service Learning Fellowship this past summer to pursue a practicum experience on this topic.
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This past summer, you worked with the Allston Brighton Health Collaborative. Could you tell us more about your project “Transportation Planning for Healthy Allston-Brighton”?
This project focused on engaging with the residents of Allston-Brighton to plan for a healthy and equitable neighborhood development, particularly around transportation and mobility. Many times, community voices are requested in the development process during community meetings where the developers, planners and architects present their ideas in an open forum. These forums are often filled with technical jargon and can be very inaccessible for many. Through my summer project, I’ve been able develop a toolkit that can guide residents through this complicated process. Using this toolkit, anyone will be able to participate in the public review of development projects and ask for what they want to see in their neighborhood with more ease.
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Memories Of Malavika Subramanyam
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We are deeply saddened to report the unexpected passing of our colleague and alumna of the Department, Malavika Subramanyam, after a period of illness in India. Her warmth, humanity, patience, and kindness – above all her infectious ability to spread cheer — touched us all. Mala’s innately cheerful and kind personality was something that not only she was endowed with, but she always found ways to spread it.
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Starting in October 2022, Anne-Josee Guimond will be promoted to Research Associate at the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness.
Kelsey Hunt, MPH, has been promoted to Senior Program and Research Coordinator with the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness.
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- Lumas Joseph Helaire, Community Engagement Award.
- Bethany Kotlar, Teaching Assistant Award
- Jessica Liu, Teaching Assistant Award
- Jaime Mchunu, The Sarah K. Wood Award
Susan Peters received a Harvard Chan Research Scientist Association Award, recognizing her accomplishments and supporting the dissemination of her work related to the development and validation of the Thriving from Work Questionnaire.
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Denckla CA, Espinosa Dice AL, Slopen N, Koenen K, Tiemeier H
Mental Health, Socioeconomic Status, And Cognitive Ability Among Bereaved Children In The ALSPAC Birth Cohort
Life History Research Society Conference
Poster Presentation | Oxford, UK | Jul 13, 2022
Krieger N
Place, Power, & Health: Using Geocoding & Area-Based Social Metrics To Advance Work For Health Equity
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Equity Workgroup Meeting
Invited Presentation | Online | Aug 8, 2022
Peters S, Pronk N, Jetha A, Sorensen G
Protecting Workers In The Post-Pandemic World
3rd International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health
Panel Presentation | Bethesda, MD | October 14, 2022
Rosenfeld L, Litt J
Follow Through For Everyone
Vermont Oxford Network, 2022 Annual Quality Congress: Inspiring Change
Plenary Presentation | Chicago, IL | Sep 10, 2022
Sorensen G, Dennerlein J, Peters S
Approaches And Challenges To Improving Conditions Of Work Across Industries
3rd International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health
Panel Presentation | Bethesda, MD | October 14, 2022
Williams DR
Racism And Its Health Consequences For People Of African Descent
World Health Organization, Celebration of the International Day for People of African Descent
Panel Discussion | Online | Aug 31, 2022
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Denckla CA, Averkamp N, Slopen N, Espinosa Dice AL, Shear MK, Williams DR, Koenen KC
Social Determinants Of Exposure To Childhood Parental Bereavement And Subsequent Risk For Psychiatric Disorders
JAMA Netw Open | In Press
Plummer RS, Alter Z, Lee RM,..., Reiner J, Topping K, Kenney EL
"It's Not The Stereotypical 80s Movie Bullying": A Qualitative Study On The High School Environment, Body Image, And Weight Stigma
J Sch Health | Jun 15, 2022, online ahead of print
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Center for Population and Development Studies
September 27 / 4:00–5:00 pm
Center for Health and Happiness
September 28 / 1:00–2:00 pm
September 29 / 12:00–1:15 pm
September 30 / 1:00–6:30 pm
October 12 / 1:00–1:50 pm
October 25 / 1:00–1:50 pm
Center for Health and HappinessOctober 26 / 1:00–2:00 pm
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
October 31 / 1:00–1:50 pm
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