News

We warmly invite the UTMB community to the School of Public and Population Health (SPPH) and Access Care of Coastal Texas (ACCT) Client Luncheon. This enriching event offers students, faculty, and staff the unique opportunity to serve and dine with ACCT clients, fostering fellowship and building lasting relationships with those in need within our community. Join us every fourth Thursday of the month from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM at ACCT, located at 707 23rd St., Galveston, TX 77550.

Join our exclusive session with colleagues from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia to explore our institutional partnership. Discover groundbreaking initiatives and diverse opportunities for UTMB students in global health in Lima, Peru. To register, scan the QR code on the flyer or email Sadie Odem at smodem@utmb.edu

Please save the date for the 2024 UTMB Global Health Symposium: Building Bridges in Turbulent Times: Interprofessional Collaboration in Action. The UTMB Global Health Symposium features abstracts from all fields involved in global health work and domestic work with underserved populations. We are excited to announce that our keynote speaker will be Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health and a renowned global health leader. His work on the social determinants of health has made him a leading voice in epidemiology and global health policy.

In response to Peru's alarming rates of food insecurity and child malnutrition, Dr. Theresa Ochoa spearheaded the creation of El Comedor, a community-based project providing nutritious meals and educational workshops for children under three in Ermitaño Alto, Lima.

SPPH and GSBS Commencement date

On November 13th, 2024, the UTMB Department of Global Health attended the Symposium on Equitable Collaborative Research at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

The goal of this joint pilot project program is to catalyze enduring, collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects across several UTMB Center programs and the School of Public and Population Health (SPPH) by funding seed projects of up to $ 25,000 for data acquisition and/or secondary data analysis; and up to $ 40,000 for other seed projects.

Global health is dedicated to improving health. Academic institutions like UTMB can have an impact on these laudable goals by developing long-term, sustainable global collaborations in education, training, policy, and clinical as well as public health practice.

A look at Public Health Accomplishments for Delta Omega's 100th Anniversary 1924-2024

On October 30th, 2023, the UTMB Department of Global Health and Emerging Diseases welcomed Justus Marete, Chief Executive Officer of Maua Methodist Hospital (MMH), to discuss collaborative efforts in improving community health and increasing access to healthcare in Maua, Kenya.

Dr. Bhavnani (UTMB) and Dr. Hunter (Texas Southern University) have been awarded a $1-Million grant from the National Institutes of Health to use human-centered artificial intelligence to tackle the social and cultural barriers that hinder timely cancer diagnoses and effective treatments in the United States.

Anne Hudson Jones, PhD is the Hobby Family Professor in Medical Humanities at the Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities at UTMB-Galveston.

Xiaoying Yu, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). Before coming to UTMB, Dr. Yu worked as a biostatistician at Northwestern University and Baylor College of Medicine.

STAT, Sept. 14, 2023 “Part of the story about the Hispanic Paradox,” said Kyriakos S. Markides, a professor of aging at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, “is that the non-Hispanic white population is not doing as well as it should.” Markides coined the term “Hispanic Epidemiological Paradox” in a 1986 paper showing Hispanics in the American Southwest lived as long, or longer, than white people.

Dr. Kyriakos Markides, the Annie and John Gnitzinger Distinguished Professor of Aging and Professor in SPPH’s Dept. of Population Health & Health Disparities, was recently a guest on The Skin You’re In podcast talking about his work to study aging and health issues among the Mexican American population through the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (Hispanic EPESE) and the development of the “Hispanic Epidemiological Paradox”

On July 28, 2023, a UTMB interprofessional research team received the 5-year, multi-PI R01 award notification ($2.8 million over five years) from the National Institute on Aging for their project “Annual wellness visit policy: Impact on disparities in early dementia diagnosis and quality of healthcare for Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s Disease and Its Related Dementias.”

Are you ready to enhance your skills in the field of biostatistics and data science? Look no further! Join us for an exclusive online short course series through Zoom designed to empower you with essential knowledge and practical expertise. Register now to secure your spot for the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 sessions!

Education, Research, Partnerships, Strategic Focus Areas

Effectiveness and Consequences led by Pepper Center Scholar: Huiwen Xu, PhD

For the closing of AAPI Heritage Month, SPPH would like to highlight some of the faculty, students, and an honorary member. These individuals work across many different areas of public health, including education, patient care, research, and practice.