Dear Friends of the College,
The fall semester is in full swing, and I wish all our students and faculty a productive and rewarding fall term! I also want to send my Congratulations! to all our Summer 2022 graduates, many of them from our Online MPH program.
We have many college events taking place this September and I encourage everyone in our MEZCOPH community to join us at these events, to discover and connect as we continue our progress to improve public health in Arizona and beyond.
Hispanic Heritage Month also begins on September 15 and runs through October 15. The University of Arizona is a Hispanic Serving Institution. I want to thank and celebrate all the students, staff, and faculty in our college who do so much to support education, research, and public health services that benefit our Hispanic and Latinx communities! We will share more stories about programs and projects that connect with Hispanic Heritage Month in the weeks ahead.
This Friday, September 9, we will host our first Delta Omega Speaker Series event in Phoenix from 4-6pm. Both students and alumni are encouraged to attend for networking and discussion. The event will feature two of our alumnae, Anna Carolina Ortiz, MPH ’17, and Zeida Dedolf Piecoro, MPH ’17, who will speak about current issues in child and maternal health. We hope you will join us for this free event. Registration required, and refreshments will be served.
On Saturday, September 10, the college will host the Feast for Your Brain healthy aging engagement event in the Health Sciences Innovation Building (HSIB) on the Health Sciences campus from 10am to 3pm. Everyone is invited to attend, families and students are welcome, for a fun day of presentations, music and dance performances, food, raffles, and games to raise awareness about healthy aging and brain health. The event is being organized by our own Dr. Zhao Chen in support of the Precision Aging Network (PAN) programs at the University of Arizona.
On Wednesday, September 28 we are very pleased to welcome Daniel Dawes, JD, a national leader in health equity and health policy, who will present about his widely acclaimed book The Political Determinants of Health in HSIB room 305, 10 to 11:30am. I want to express our thanks to Martha Moore-Monroy for initiating and coordinating Dawes’ visit in collaboration with the Health Sciences Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, we are very proud to be hosting him!
Global Partners
Our Global Health Institute (GHI) has continued to be active throughout the summer, building our partnerships and initiating new international collaboration. Several of our students went abroad to conduct research as part of our GHI Scholars program, and we look forward to hearing about their experiences. At the start of the summer we hosted our annual Young Global Leaders program for high school students.
This summer we signed an International Memorandum of Agreement with University of Limerick in Ireland, and the announcement will come soon. Last month, we hosted a group of medical students from Universidad del Valle de Mexico (UVM), one of our newer partners, and they learned about many of our public health programs in Arizona. You can see the story in Spanish about the UVM visit.
Also in August, we were pleased to have a very productive visit from Dr. Jon Adams, a representative from the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. During his three-day visit, Dr. Adams met with many of our faculty to discuss opportunities for education and research collaboration between the two universities.
This fall, we will also have a Global Health Speaker Series featuring many of our graduate students who have worked on programs and research abroad. The series begins on Monday, September 29, at 12noon with a presentation by Priyanka Ravi about her research in India. Watch our calendar and social media for more information on this series!
Fall Alumni Events
I welcome all our alumni to attend several upcoming events this fall. Registration will be live next week. Mark your calendars!
We will be hosting a panel discussion event in collaboration with Arizona Town Hall on Friday, October 7 from 11:30am-2:00pm at the Walkway of Wellness. Hear from a panel of experts about the challenges associated with homelessness, mental health, and substance use. After the panel, guests will have the opportunity to work together on solutions for our diverse Arizona communities. Those solutions will feed into and build towards the Statewide Town Hall and final recommendations report.
Also, I encourage all our alumni, community partners, and supporters to join us for the MEZCOPH Homecoming celebration on Thursday, October 27 from 5-7pm at the Skybox Lounge located at Sands Club, Arizona Stadium! Join faculty, alumni, staff and students at our Homecoming Celebration overlooking the Arizona stadium and downtown. We will honor our 2022 Alumni and MEZCOPH Community Leaders Award Recipients and celebrate these community advocates for their outstanding service and leadership in the field of public health. Registration will be live soon.
Faculty, Staff, and Students: Honors, Profiles, and Awards
We are very proud of all that our students, staff, and faculty accomplish and appreciate the recognition that comes their way.
Please join me in congratulating the following:
Purnima Madhivanan, MD, PhD, MPH, will be awarded the NAACP Tucson’s Health Gamechanger Award for her commitment to health equity for all and her work with the Black community throughout the pandemic to end racially disparate health outcomes.
A publication on municipal drinking water treatments co-authored by Amanda Wilson, PhD, Emily Cooksey, MSPH, and Marc Verhougstraete, PhD, was selected as the Editor’s Choice article in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management.
Our recent alumna Loren Halili, MPH, now works for the Center for Rural Health (CRH) and this profile of Loren in Health Sciences Connect focuses on her webinar for CRH “Identifying and Addressing Health Misinformation.
Undergraduate public health student Sohail Daulat was the Public Health Education and Health Promotion (PHEHP) student award winner from the American Public Health Association (APHA) for his development of educational materials about COVID for low literate populations and he will present his poster at the APHA conference in November.
Gratitude for Our Community
I thank all of you for your ongoing support of the College and our public health mission. I look forward to working with you this fall to support our diverse communities, both locally and globally, with the best public health education, service, and research.
Best Wishes for your Health and Safety,
Iman
September Highlights
Western Region Public Health Training Center Awarded $4M to Continue Serving Western Region Public Health Professionals
The new round of funding will enable the Western Region Public Health Training Center team to continue to provide courses for public health professionals. These trainings help expand the public health workforce, and build skills and services to meet community needs and emerging threats at local, state and national levels.
Tribal Area Health Education Center Will Train Workforce to Meet Tribal Health Care Needs
The Arizona Area Health Education Center Program partnered with the Arizona Advisory Council on Indian Health Care to develop the new center that will guide the development of the health care workforce to benefit tribal communities.
One Health Symposium Brings National Leader in One Health Toxicology Research to Deliver Keynote Address
This fall’s UArizona One Health Symposium, led by professor Frank von Hippel, PhD, will feature Linda Birnbaum, PhD, DABT, ATS, a national leader in the use of One Health approaches in toxicology, as the keynote speaker.
High School Students in Young Global Leaders Program Explore Public Health Approach to Mental Health
This summer, high school students in the Young Global Leaders Program explored mental health from a public health perspective, toured college facilities and programs, and met with COPH faculty, staff, students, and alumni to explore career opportunities in public health.
Study: What Older Adults Do While They Sit Affects Dementia Risk
Adults ages 60 and older who sit for long periods watching TV or engaging in other passive, sedentary behaviors may be at increased risk of developing dementia, according to a new study. Study co-author Yann Klimentidis, PhD, MS, comments.
Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee Planning Expansion
Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee is in the planning stages of a $10 million project to expand its surgical department, a move in contrast to the national trend of rural hospital closure, and Dan Derksen, MD, director of the Center for Rural Health, provides context.
Navajo Farmers Wait for Justice Years After EPA Disaster
Karletta Chief, PhD, comments on the contamination caused when the EPA accidentally released 3m gallons of acid mine water into the San Juan River seven years ago, poisoning waterways that carry water to the fields of Navajo farmers who are still waiting for compensation.
Join us for a hybrid in-person and virtual presentation: Holistic care and well-being from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and teachings.
American College of Epidemiology Annual Conference
The American College of Epidemiology (ACE) will host its 2022 Annual Meeting in a in-person and virtually on September 8-11, 2022, in Phoenix, AZ. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Pandemic of Misinformation: Building Trust in Epidemiology.”
Our own Dr. Pamela Garcia-Filion is helping to organize this year’s ACE conference and she’ll be a speaker in addition to Dr. Felina Cordova-Marks.
We are excited to partner with the college's Delta Omega Honorary Society to host a speaker series starting on Friday, September 9. The Kickoff Event will focus on current challenges in maternal and child health, and we'll recognize our new alumni members of the honorary society.
September 9, 2022. 4:00pm to 6:00pm at Culinary Dropout in Downtown Phoenix, AZ
Feast for Your Brain – Healthy Aging Engagement Event
Learn more about healthy aging and the MindCrowd research project, the first of its kind to study millions of individuals, that will help us discover how to reduce cognitive decline and disease as we age.
Enjoy a variety of activities including music, dance performances, Tai-Chi and Qigong, health screenings and raffles for prizes. Entry is free, bring your friends and family!
September 10, 2022. 10:00am to 3:00pm at HSIB
Visit mindcrowd.org/tucson to learn more about the MindCrowd project and join the study.
SEP 15
Peace Corps Prep Welcome Event
Join us as we welcome students and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) back to campus. Students will learn about opportunities with the Peace Corps and Peace Corps Prep Program, meet RPCVs, and discover what it's like to be a Peace Corps volunteer.
September 15, 2022. 4:00pm to 5:00pm at the Forbes Building
Daniel Dawes – National Health Equity Leader, Presentation and Book Signing
Daniel Dawes, JD, a national leader in health equity and health policy, will give a presentation based on his widely acclaimed recent book, The Political Determinants of Health. The in-person presentation will include a book-signing.
September 28, 2022. 10:00am to 11:30am in HSIB, room 305
Students are especially encouraged to attend. Faculty, staff, alumni, and community members welcome.
Please join us for the second One Health Symposium as faculty from across the university share their research and insights. The One Health approach recognizes that the health and wellness of people, animals, and the environment are deeply interconnected. Frank von Hippel, PhD, leads the Symposium for MEZCOPH.
Visiting keynote speaker Linda Birnbaum, PhD, DABT, ATS, a national leader in One Health approaches to toxicology and former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, will share her insights on One Health research.
September 28, 2022. 9:00am to 4:00pm in the HSIB Forum
At #AzHEC22, we will prioritize how we—as citizens, activists, health professionals and organizations — can connect communities through advancements in research, practice, prevention, & policy. We hope that you can join us to share in the newest innovations in state-wide efforts promoting health equity!
Global Health Speaker Series: 2022 GHI Scholars - Indian Research Experience
Priyanka Ravi, MD, a PhD candidate in Health Behavior Health Promotion, will share her summer research experience building a research network in India.
September 29, 2022. 12noon to 12:50pm
Registration coming soon.
OCT 07
Exploring Solutions: Homelessness, Mental Health, and Substance Use – A Panel Discussion
Free event presented by MEZCOPH in collaboration with Arizona Town Hall outside Drachman Hall in Tucson – Walkway of Wellness. October 7, 2022. 11:30am-2pm. Refreshments will be served.
Hear from a panel of experts about the challenges associated with mental health, substance use, and homelessness. After the panel, guests will have the opportunity to work together on solutions that work for our diverse Arizona communities. Those solutions will feed into and build towards the Statewide Town Hall and final recommendations report.
Registration will be live next week. Mark your calendars!
OCT 27
MEZCOPH Homecoming Celebration: Honoring Our Public Health Alumni and Community Leaders
Join us in the Sands Club Skybox, Arizona Stadium, October 27, 2022. 5-7pm.
Connect with faculty, alumni, staff and students at our Homecoming Celebration overlooking the UA football stadium and downtown. During this event, we will highlight updates at the college and honor our 2022 Alumni and MEZCOPH Community Leaders Award Recipients. Join us to celebrate these community advocates for their outstanding service and leadership in the field of public health during this past year.
Registration and more information are coming soon, save the date!
WAYS TO GIVE
Support Our COVID-19 Research and Shape the Future
All the funds raised for the “Dean’s Fund for Excellence” go to COVID-19 research. You can support this targeted fund by going to our UA Foundation page and making a contribution.
We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.
