ATLANTA—School of Public Health faculty are partnering with colleagues across campus to create new learning opportunities for students while also advancing interdisciplinary research.
“One of the key advantages of a large, research-intensive university is the opportunities it creates for faculty with complementary areas of expertise to work together to better understand and address complex challenges,” said SPH Dean and Professor Rodney Lyn. “Public health is a field that touches nearly every aspect of modern life, and I am excited about the range of projects that our extraordinary faculty members are leading and supporting.”
Workshops, Conferences and Task Forces
Associate Professor Susan R. Snyder is partnering with faculty in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies to develop a workshop on Translating Good Research Into Good Policy. The event, which is open to faculty and graduate students from across campus, will be held from 9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. on Friday, March 29. The workshop includes sessions on data visualization, writing, combatting misinformation and communicating with journalists. It will conclude with a panel discussion featuring Ambassador Andrew Young and guests from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the office of Mayor Andre Dickens and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Associate Professor Claire Spears partnered with Associate Professor Elizabeth Tighe in the Department of Psychology to organize the inaugural mini-conference of the Adult Literacy Research Center on February 9. The event included welcoming remarks from Spears and Dean Rodney Lyn, as well as lightning talks by Prevention Research Center Deputy Director Mary Helen O’Connor, Post Doctoral Associate George Bakhturidze, and Kaitlyn Koontz, Project Coordinator in the Mark Chaffin Center for Healthy Development.
Associate Professor Jalayne Arias served on the planning committee for the 2024 Aging Research Conference and delivered a keynote address titled “When Systems Aren’t Equipped to Support Persons Living with Dementia” on February 9. The event, which was hosted by the Gerontology Institute and the College of Law, drew 50 faculty, staff and students.
The School of Public Health is also well-represented on institutional task forces that are shaping GSU’s future. Carlos Pavao, Associate Clinical Professor and Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, serves on the Identity, Belonging and Placemaking Task Force of GSU’s Blueprint to 2023 Strategic Plan. Professor and Dean Rodney Lyn is a Task Force Champion of the Innovating Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Task Force.
Pavão is also an internal evaluator for the National Science Foundation-funded ADVANCE-IMPACT project. The project is working to adapt and implement practices at the university aimed at increasing the number of women, particularly women from underrepresented minority backgrounds, who are recruited, promoted and retained in STEM tenure-track positions and in Georgia State leadership.
Research Collaborations
SPH faculty are also collaborating on several interdisciplinary research projects with colleagues across campus. Summary information is listed below, followed by additional details.
Associate Professor Jalayne Arias is working on an R01 that includes Professor Leslie Wolf from the College of Law that focuses on policy, ethical, and legal issues related to Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, aging and neuroscience.
Associate Professor Jalayne Arias delivered the keynote address for GSU’s 2024 Aging Research Conference.
Regents’ Professor Michael Eriksen is the principal investigator of the CDC-funded Prevention Research Center, whose mission is to develop, implement and evaluate culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions to address the disparities and determinants of health for residents of the Clarkston community. Collaborators include faculty in GSU’s Clarkston Campus, Perimeter College, the Adult Literacy Research Center, College of Education and Human Development, and the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, among others.
Associate Professor Roby Greenwald is collaborating with Assistant Professor Fei Lei in GSU’s Urban Studies Institute on a project exploring the impact of infrastructure improvements on public health outcomes.
Matt Hayat, Professor and Chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences, is collaborating with faculty in the Department of Kinesiology on a study assessing microvascular and sensory nerve function while also collaborating and advising faculty in the Lewis College on several additional projects.
Assistant Professor Alexander Kirpich is assisting Professor Anita Nucci in the Lewis College with the analysis of data and is a co-investigator on an NIH R01 grant with Professor Laura Shannonhouse in the College of Education and Human Development faculty.
Associate Professor Lucy Popova and her SPH colleagues in the GSU RISE-funded SURGE project are working with faculty in the Lewis College, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and Perimeter College on two publications on health concerns affecting underserved Atlanta communities. She is also working with Associate Professor and MCCHD Director Kathleen Baggett and Hue Duong, a former postdoctoral student who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Communication, on several projects related to messages to Black parents to reduce corporal punishment.
Assistant Professor Karen Nielsen is collaborating with faculty in the Lewis College, CEHD and Department of Sociology on several projects ranging from oral contraceptive use to the use of wearable technology to assess trait-level drives for movement and rest. Research Associate Professor Susie Ramisetty-Mikler is the co-principal investigator on two studies, one with Assistant Professor Daniel Gebregiorgis in the Department of Geosciences on locust outbreak mitigation strategies in eastern Africa and beyond and another project with Professor Anu Bourgeois in the Department of Computer Science that is working to identify areas of risk for lack of exposure to computer science education and to prioritize locations for interventions.
Carlos Pavao, Associate Clinical Professor and Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, is working with faculty in the Georgia Health Policy Center on a project that is exploring LGBTQ substance abuse prevention and treatment.
Shannon Self-Brown, Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences, is working on an NIH R01 grant with Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Associate Provost for Graduate Programs Lisa Armistead on an implementation study of SafeCare, an evidence-based behavioral parenting program, in Kenya.
Christine Stauber is participating in an NSF-funded project known as the Center for Urban Transformations, which includes faculty from Urban Studies Institute, Department of Geosciences, Department of Neuroscience and College of Law. The project aims to foster interdisciplinary research that advances sustainability. In addition, she is collaborating with faculty from the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Computer Sciences.
Associate Professor Scott Weaver is collaborating with Professor Gabriel Kuperminc in the Department of Psychology to evaluate the impact of community collaboration through the Georgia Family Connection Partnership on public health outcomes such as low-infant birth weight, teenage pregnancy, high school graduation and child abuse/neglect.
Several SPH faculty members are involved in the interdisciplinary Center for Research on Interpersonal Violence, which works to promote the development of more powerful theories and more effective approaches to violence prevention and intervention. Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Katherine Masyn delivered the center’s February seminar, and Assistant Professor Ruschelle Leone will deliver the April seminar.
Research Collaborations – Detailed Information
Please note that this list is not comprehensive. If you have a project you’d like to add, please email Director of Communications Sam Fahmy at [email protected].
Roby Greenwald
- Collaborating with Fei Li in the Urban Studies Institute, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, on a project exploring the impact of infrastructure improvements on several important public health outcomes. Specifically, looking at a few neighborhoods in Southwest Atlanta that the city has targeted to receive improvements to street infrastructure to enhance safety and walkability.
Matt Hayat
- Collaborating with Brett Wong in the Department of Kinesiology and Health, College of Education and Human Development. We are in year 5 of our NIH R01 study to assess microvascular and sensory nerve function in non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites.
- Collaborating and advising Katherine Hsieh in the Department of Nutrition, Byrdine Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, on her K01 career development award to conduct a feasibility study of dual-task training on fall risk in older adults with multiple sclerosis.
- Collaborating with Jiwon Lee as Co-I on a recently submitted NIH R01 application focused on “Sleep disturbances in maternal caregivers of school-aged children with developmental disabilities: contributions of child sleep problems and maternal stress to maternal health.
- Collaborating with Veronica Rowe in Department of Occupational Therapy, Lewis College. We just submitted an NIH R01 focused on “Understanding action observation and the mechanisms behind the action with varying levels of stroke severity.”
- Collaborating with Laura Shannonhouse in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, College of Education and Human Development. We are developing a group NIH R34 proposal focused on “A Feasibility Trial of a Technology-Based Tool to Support Suicide Interventions within Schools.”
- Collaborating with Regena Spratling in the Lewis College on research following our NIH R15 grant completion related to caregiver use of medical technology for children with special needs and her COPE-STAR intervention.
Alexander Kirpich
- Collaborating with Anita Nucci in the Department of Nutrition, Lewis College. Assisting with the analysis of data on children with intestinal failure (IF) and parenteral nutrition (PN). Submitted manuscript. The manuscript has been submitted for publication.
- Collaborating with Laura Shannonhouse in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, College of Education and Human Development. Assisting with Project Hopeful for elderly people. Assisting with the analysis and design of HRH trial. Statistical methodology expert on the project. Co-I on their NIH R01.
Karen Nielsen
- Collaborating with Brett Wong and Jeff Otis in the Department of Kinesiology and Health, College of Education and Human Development, and Rafaela Gonclaves Feresin, Department of Nutrition, Lewis College. The group has published multiple papers concerning the effects of oral contraceptive pill use on microvascular endothelial function and currently have an NIH R01 proposal in this area under review.
- Collaborating with Jacqueline Laures-Gore, Department of Communication Science and Disorders, College of Education and Human Development. Served as a Co-I on Laures-Gore (PI)’s R21 submission concerning identification of modifiable factors contributing to the language variability of persons with aphasia, including sleep and perceived stress.
- Collaborating with Kathryn Wilson in the Department of Kinesiology and Health, Vonetta Dotson in Department of Psychology, and Ken Rice, Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, College of Education and Human Development. The group submitted a recent 2024 Brains and Behavior proposal using wearable technology and ecological momentary assessment towards validation of a scale to assess trait-level drives for movement and rest.
- Collaborated with Matthew Gayman, Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences and Holley Wilkin, Department of Communication, College of Arts and Sciences. The group is publishing together, including a recent acceptance on Physical Limitations, Health Rumination/Worry and Depressive Symptoms: Gender Differences among African Americans.
- Collaboration with Matthew Gayman, Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences. Working with external collaborators including at the Department of Corrections in Atlanta on data analysis using secondary, administrative data pertaining to persons on probation supervision to explore whether further jail exposure after a re-arrest (jail versus community sanction) is linked to subsequent recidivism (re-arrest and time to re-arrest).
Carlos Pavão
- Project is entitled “A Transformative Training Initiative: Advancing Behavioral Health Equity in Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery for Georgia's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and more (LGBTQ+) Adolescent Community.” The project works with the Georgia Health Policy Center PI is Ann DiGirolamo from the Georgia Health Policy Center, and other key personnel at GSU include Jeniece Cordova, Astrid Prudent, Colleen Smith, Kaleb Solberg, Brittany Taylor, and Andre Vasi.
Susie Ramisetty-Mikler
- Co-PI on a study with Daniel Gebregiorgis in the Department of Geosciences with funding from NSF focused on “A multi-disciplinary framework to combat climate-induced desert locust upsurges, outbreaks, and plagues in East Africa.” The project aims to develop innovative locust outbreak mitigation strategies in eastern Africa and beyond, leveraging technology and interdisciplinary collaborations to address the pressing challenges climate change poses on vulnerable populations.
- Co-PI on a study with Anu Bourgeois in the Department of Computer Science focused on: “A Spatial Approach to Reduce Inequities in Early Access to CS Education.” The project goal is to identify areas of risk for lack of exposure to computer science education and to prioritize locations for interventions.
Scott Weaver
- Collaborating with Gabe Kuperminc in the Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, on a contract from the Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) to evaluate the community-level impact of community collaboration through the Georgia Family Connection Partnership on select public health outcomes (e.g., low-infant birth weight, teenage pregnancy, high-school graduation, child abuse/neglect).