2003 Accolades

ARCHIVES: 2004, 2003, 2002

Fall 2003

The Health Behavior and Health Education Students Association thanks all faculty, staff, and students who contributed to their successful recent Winter Coat/Sweater Drive. HBHESA transported more than 20 bags of coats and sweaters to the Ann Arbor Community Center and Father Patrick's Home for Teenage Parents. The group had similar success with the December "Project Serve Adopt a Family" effort, donating several hundred dollars worth of holiday gifts to an area family in need.

Wolfe and Raghunathan at American Statistical Association meeting

At its 2003 meeting in San Francisco, the American Statistical Association awarded the honorary rank of "Fellow" to two University of Michigan School of Public Health faculty members: Robert A. Wolfe, professor of biostatistics, and Trivellore Raghunathan, professor of biostatistics and senior research scientist.

Hunein "John" Maassab, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, received the 2003 Career Achievement Award from the UM Office of Technology Transfer. It was presented at the Oct. 1 "Celebrate Invention" annual reception, in recognition of over 40 years of research in public health to fulfill the promise of the FluMist technology. The award was presented by Noreen Clark, dean of the UM School of Public Health. Text of her remarks.

Siobán Harlow, associate professor of epidemiology, has been appointed to a three-year term on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization.

Catherine McLaughlin, UM SPH professor of Health Management & Policy and director of the Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured, recently received two major honors: She has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and she is listed among Modern Healthcare magazine's "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare" (see article and list). Listed at #65, McLaughlin joins a prestigious group that includes, among the top 10: Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and U.S. senators Bill Frist and Edward Kennedy.

Also on Modern Healthcare magazine's list of the "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare" is UM SPH alumnus and visiting professor Gail Warden, president and CEO emeritus of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

UM SPH alumnus Jules Schwartz received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from his undergraduate university, the University of Toledo. He currently works at Merck Research Laboratories, where he has helped in the development of VIOXX, SINGULAIR, ZOCOR, and PEPCID. After receiving his PharmD from Wayne State, Dr. Schwartz graduated from the UM SPH OJ/OC program with an MPH in health management in 1986.

UM SPH alumnus D. Scott Navarro recently received the Israel Shulman Award for Meritorious Service from the American Association of Dental Consultants (AADC), an organization of dentists who serve as consultants to dental insurance carriers. Dr. Navarro, vice-president of professional services and dental director for Delta Dental Plan of New Jersey, holds a master's degree in health services administration from UM SPH.

Nancy Allee, director of UM SPH Public Health Informatics Services & Access, has been named to the National Library of Medicine/Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries Leadership Fellows program. The program is designed to prepare emerging leaders in health sciences information who have a demonstrated record of leadership initiative and potential.

The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice presented its 2003 "Linkages Award" to the University of Michigan School of Public Health Academic Center for Public Health Preparedness (A-CPHP). The award recognizes the exemplary partnership between the University of Michigan and Michigan's public health agencies for joint planning of statewide preparedness training activities. A-CPHP is part of a national network of centers established to support the bioterrorism preparedness efforts of state and local health departments.

Summer 2003

On August 4 in Helsinki, Kenneth Warner received a 2003 Luther L. Terry Award for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control. Supported by the American Cancer Society, the Terry Awards are conferred every three years at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health. The awards commemorate the work of Dr. Terry, the U.S. Surgeon General responsible for the first Surgeon General’s report on smoking, in 1964. Warner and Dr. Prakash Gupta of India received the Terry Awards in the category of Outstanding Research Contribution. A member of the UM faculty since 1972, Warner is the Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health and director of the UM Tobacco Research Network. He is in the department of Health Management and Policy.

Professor of Epidemiology and director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health George Kaplan, has become the president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) for 2003-2004. The SER was established in 1968 as a forum for sharing new research; it is the premier organization solely devoted to fostering and presenting innovative work in epidemiological science. Dr. Kaplan was also recently elected as a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

UM SPH student Zeamma Walker received a 2003 Albert W. Dent award from the Foundation of the American College of Healthcare Executives Scholarship Committee. Walker is scheduled to receive a master's degree in Health Services Administration in 2004.

The June 2003 supplement to the journal Tobacco Control contains proceedings from the "Innovative Approaches to Youth Tobacco Control" conference held in July 2002 in Santa Fe. Peter Jacobson and Kenneth Warner, professors of Health Management and Policy at UM SPH, were two of the three organizers of the conference, and they co-author the introduction to the supplement. Paula Lantz, an associate professor of Health Management and Policy, contributed an article entitled "Smoking on the Rise Among Young Adults: Implications for Research and Policy."

Victor Roth, adjunct clinical assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences, has been named co-editor of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Report (OEM) Report. This leading occupational health publication delivers concise summaries of cutting edge developments in occupational and environmental safety on a monthly basis.

Jillian Henderson, alumna of the UM SPH department of Health Management and Policy, received the first- place Excellence in Research Award for Students from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation. Her award-winning paper, "Physician Gender Effects on Preventive Screening and Counseling: An Analysis of Male and Female Patients' Health Care Experiences," appeared in Medical Care.

Spring 2003

At the annual American Thoracic Society meeting in Seattle in May, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Noreen M. Clark, UM SPH dean and Marshall H. Becker Professor of Public Health. The new award was given by the Behavioral Science Assembly to honor Clark's contributions to control of respiratory disease, and it recognizes her extensive research and service in the field.

Hillel Shuval, an international pioneer in the science of water quality, received an honorary degree at the UM school-wide Spring Commencement on April 26. Shuval is currently the Lunenfeld-Kunen Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A University Record article from May 5 details the unique story behind Shuval's decades of collaborative work with UM Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Khalil Mancy, who nominated Shuval for the honorary degree.

Alexis Handal, doctoral student in Epidemiology, has been awarded a Fulbright student grant for the 2003-2004 academic year. She will be working with Dr. Jaime Breilh and his research center, CEAS (Centro de Estudios y Asesoria en Salud), in Quito, Ecuador. She will study pesticides used in the cut-flower industry and their adverse effects on child development. She is in interested in the effects of the chemicals on neurobehavioral development in early infancy and childhood, and in the adverse effects of pesticide exposure to working mothers, as regards fetal development and future development in the child.

The 2003 School of Public Health "Recognizing Excellence in Staff Service" award recipients are:

Jaclyn Cormany, HBHE Student Services Assistant
Anne Jackson, Biostatistics Research Associate
Sandra Wiley, Center for Population Planning Project Associate
Nancy Francis, Epidemiology Coordinator of Professional Education Programs

The awards will be presented at a May 6 reception. More information about the award recipients and a list of people being recognized for 10 and 30 years of service can be found at the Recognizing Excellence in Staff Service 2003 web page.

Rudy Richardson, EHS professor of toxicology, and colleagues recently received the Society of Toxicology Board of Publications award for best paper appearing in the society's journals in the past year. As senior author, Richardson coordinated collaboration at three institutions to lay the groundwork for development of molecular biomarkers of exposure to environmental chemicals and chemical warfare agents. "The paper used proteomics technologies to solve a mechanistic problem of how organophosphorus compounds interact with a blood enzyme," Richardson explained. Lead author of the paper was Jonathan Doorn, a recent UM SPH alumnus with a PhD in toxicology who did his thesis work in Richardson's lab. The paper appeared in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology volume 176.

Matthew Boulton, professor of Epidemiology and director of the Preventive Medicine Residency, is recipient of the Michigan Public Health Association's annual Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes Boulton's work over the past few years in building key links between public health practice and the academic community. The award was presented at the association's annual meeting on March 14.

Harold W. Neighbors, associate professor of Health Behavior & Health Education and director of the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health (CRECH) , contributed to American Journal of Public Health issue on "Racism and Health" (February 2003), co-authoring "Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Health: Findings From Community Studies." UM SPH alumnus Linda Rae Murray, with the Cook County Bureau of Health Services in Chicago, contributed "Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Scientific Evidence, Methods, and Research Implications for Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Occupational Health."

Mary N. Haan, associate professor of epidemiology, has accepted an invitation from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) to serve as a member of the Center for Scientific Review's Epidemiology and Disease Control 3 Study Section. Haan will contribute to national biomedical research efforts by reviewing grant applications submitted to the NIH, making recommendations, and surveying the status of research in her field. Her term ends in June 2005.

Department of Health Management & Policy professors John R. Griffith and Jeffrey A. Alexander are the winners of the American College of Healthcare Executives 2003 Edgar C. Hayhow Award for their article “Measuring Comparative Hospital Performance” from the January/February 2002 issue of the Journal of Healthcare Management. The award is given annually for the article judged the best from among those published in the journal. Griffith and Alexander describe a study that evaluates the effectiveness of the “balanced scorecard” method of performance measurement now used by many healthcare providers. They conclude that a Medicare-based measurement set can help most hospitals achieve their organizational goals by suggesting realistic improvement opportunities.

Winter 2003

Xihong Lin, professor of biostatistics, in January begins a three-year term as the editor of the international journal Biometrics. Lin is also the recipient of a pair of 2002 awards: the American Statistical Association’s Noether Young Scholar Award and the American Public Health Association’s Mortimer Spiegelman Award.

Epidemiology doctoral student Lynda Lisabeth has received a 2002 New Investigator Award from the North American Menopause Society, the leading nonprofit scientific organization devoted to promoting the health of women at midlife and beyond through an understanding of menopause.

Biostatistics doctoral student Shibao Feng has received the John Van Ryzin Award and Travel Prize from the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometrics Society. His paper "Analysis of Frailty Models Using Poisson Variance Structures" was judged the best paper submitted to ENAR's highly competitive Student Awards Program.