APHA 2020 conference news

November 10, 2020 • Uncategorized

By Sally Crocker

Apha LogoSPH students, faculty and staff were active in this year’s Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Public Health Association (APHA), with PhD student Anna Galvin (PhD in Public Health Sciences, Health Behavior Research) winning the Public Health Education and Health Promotion student award contest. Galvin was one of 15 students selected nationally for this honor and was invited to provide an oral presentation of her research on “Assessing Cervical Cancer Screening Adherence Using a Multidimensional Health Literacy Framework.”

Epidemiology PhD student Ashvita Garg received the Lyndon Haviland Student Assembly Annual Meeting Scholarship, presenting a poster for her research on “Predictors of Pap-HPV Co-Testing and Pap Testing Among Women in the United States: Results from the National Health Interview Survey.”

PhD candidate Jonathan Moore, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, shared a poster presentation on “Racial Differences in Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Baby Boomers Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).”

HSC TESSA Program Manager Jessica Grace, LMSW, presented with a panel of Dallas-Fort Worth area speakers on the efforts of healthcare entities in screening for Intimate Partner Violence, in a conference session titled “Is technology the answer? Examining the successes and challenges of tablet based IPV screening in primary care settings.” Grace shared information about TESSA and the program’s screenings in primary care clinics. She was joined by speakers from JPS Health System, Parkland Health & Hospital System, UT Southwestern Medical Center Dallas and Texas Health Resources. TESSA (Technology Enhanced Screening and Supportive Assistance) is a program of the HSC School of Public Health that collaborates with local health providers, community resources, agencies and advocate services to help screen for, identify and address the needs of interpersonal violence victims. TESSA is designed to give a voice to victims of interpersonal violence and help these individuals feel physically and emotionally safe, noticed and listened to.

SPH Assistant Professor Stacey Griner, PhD, MPH, also presented at this year’s conference, sharing her research on self-sampling methods for sexually transmitted screening. Her presentation focused on the use of these innovative methods for women who are survivors of sexual assault.

The SPH’s collaborative efforts with community partners were also highlighted at the conference.

Assistant Professor and MPH Maternal and Child Health Program Director Erika Thompson, PhD, MPH, presented a poster on “Navigating the system for families experiencing homelessness,” as part of a collaborative effort with local partners Carol Klocek and Heather Lowe at the Center for Transforming Lives and HSC colleagues Anna Galvin, Danielle Rohr and Dr. Emily Spence.

Dr. Thompson also presented at a roundtable on “Validation of a child physical and sexual abuse prevention scale for a school-based prevention program,” which was a collaborative effort with partners Katharine Collier-Esser and Deborah Caddy at the Women’s Center of Tarrant County and HSC colleagues Ashvita Garg, alumna Sarah Matthes, Danielle Rohr and Dr. Emily Spence.