Graduating Students Shine with Final Project Presentations
Twenty-one UAMS COPH Master of Public Health students marked the conclusion of their degree program with a presentation on their Culminating Experience projects earlier this month. Their topics spanned a broad range of public health concerns – tuberculosis, infant deaths, health literacy, obesity and diabetes, to name a few. With their projects, students demonstrated competency across public health disciplines and produced findings that in many cases will be valuable to Arkansas health practitioners.
| Student | Presentation | MPH Specialty | CE Committee(chair name underlined) |
| Charles Bedell | Utility of Genotyping in Evaluation of TB Program in Arkansas | Epidemiology | Leonard Mukasa, Ruth Eudy, Barbara Fuhrman |
| Latonya Bynum | The Role of Depression in Effective Chronic Disease Management: Application of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Findings | Health Policy and Management | Ruth Eudy, Appathurai Balamurugan, Leanne Whiteside-Mansell |
| Ashley Clark | Sugar Sweetened Beverages and High-fat Food Consumption Among College Students at a Historically Black College | Health Behavior and Health Education | Nickolas Zaller, Elaine Prewitt, Taren Swindle |
| Leanna Delhey | Perinatal Factors Associated with Attention Deficits in the Offspring | Epidemiology | Martha Phillips, Brooke Montogomery |
| Kathleen Fletcher | Assessing Patient Education Information: A Field of Study on Health Literacy | Health Policy and Management | Kevin Ryan, Krisite Hadden |
| Breanna Harris | Health Literacy in a Medically Undeserved Population | Health Behavior and Health Education | Alexandra Marshall, James Selig |
| Katherine Leath | A Case Study of Reducing Student BMI in Rural Arkansas Schools | MACS/MPH | Kevin Ryan, Martha Phillps |
| Tezel Lightbourne | Using Pre- and Post-event Surveys to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Health Message Conveyance in AA & Hispanic Barbershops & Beauty Salons: An Evaluation of the AR Minority & Beauty Shop Health Initiative | Epidemiology | Victor Cardenas, Tiffany Haynes |
| Elena Magrans | Evaluation of the Relationship between Low Health Literacy and Hospital Admission Rates from the UAMS Emergency Department | M.D./MPH | Keith Williams, Kristie Hadden |
| Patricia Minor | The Impact of the Patient Centered Medical Home Model on Patient Satisfaction | Health Behavior and Health Education | Carol Cornell, Elaine Prewitt, Laura Rule |
| Yusuf Nawawi | Identification and Utilization of Potential Genetic Biomarker of Breast Cancer | Epidemiology | Mohammed Orloff, Rosalind Penney |
| Racheal Odom | Comparison of Lyme Disease Diagnosis in Neighboring States, and Areas of Different Prevalence | Epidemiology | Mohammed Orloff, Dirk Haselow, Rosalind Penney, Marisha DiCarlo |
| Alicia Phillips | Implementation of Office Policies to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates in Free Clinics | Health Behavior and Health Education | Paul Greene, Holly Felix |
| Anuradha Policherla | Assessment of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SIDS) Related Training Policies in the U.S. | Health Policy and Management | Holly Felix, Karen Yeary |
| Vinay Raj | Trends and Projections in Hospital Stays of Patients with Diabetes Melitis in Arkansas and U.S. | Biostatistics | Keith Williams, Becky Adams, Ruth Eudy |
| Deborah Randolph | Reducing Vitamin D Deficiency In At Risk Populations | Health Policy and Management | Holly Felix, Karen Yeary |
| Signe Rebolledo | Elucidating the Relationship Between Health Literacy and CT Scans in the UAMS Emergency Department | M.D./MPH | Keith Williams, Holly Felix |
| Asa Shnaekel | Association of Health Literacy with Clinical Outcomes After Total Joint Arthroplasty | M.D./MPH | Keith Williams, Kristie Hadden, C. Lowery Barnes |
| Tamier Wells | Increasing Knowledge of Healthy Eating Habits of Children through Parent Education | Health Behavior and Health Education | Nickolas Zaller, Victor Cardenas |
| Shaquina White | Automation of the Aggregate Report for Tuberculosis Program Evaluation | Biostatistics | Page Moore, Leonard Mukasa |
| Catherine Williams | Automation of the Aggregate Report for Tuberculosis Program Evaluation | Biostatistics | Keith Williams, Morris Cranmer |
MHA Grad Fellowships and Awards
Five 2016 graduates of the UAMS COPH Master of Health Administration degree program have accepted administrative fellowships this year. This is the largest number of fellowships the program has placed in a single year. The recipients:
Chris Meyer Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, Ark.
Margaret Downs Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas
Rizan Mohsin American College of Healthcare Executives, Chicago, Ill.
Jeanne Rabalais UAMS, Little Rock, Ark.
C.J. Uzick Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Pine Bluff, Ark.
Three 2016 graduates received MHA program awards, which were presented at COPH Convocation on May 21:
Margaret Downs and Chris Meyer – joint recipients of the Outstanding Student Award.
Susan Parham – recipient of the Jeanne D. Weiss Award, which is presented each year to the outstanding part-time student graduate.
HPM Doctoral Student to Present at Pharmacy Conference
Xiaocong Li, who is a student in the UAMS COPH Health Systems and Services Research Ph.D. Program, will present on the findings from her study, “Quality of Life in Post-myocardial Infarction Patients and Caregivers,” at the Southern Pharmacy Administration Conference June 25 at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.
MHA Alumni Promoted to New Leadership Position at Baptist
John Bowen, MHSA, who graduated from COPH in 2010, has been named assistant vice president of Patient Services at Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock. Effective May 30, Mr. Bowen will be responsible for the on-site management of support services and Baptist Health integration, supporting efficiency in the delivery of healthcare services.
Bowen began at Baptist Health in 2012 and served as assistant vice president and night administrator at the Little Rock facility. Since May 2013, Bowen has been the assistant vice president and administrator for Baptist Health Medical Center-Arkadelphia.
“While at Arkadelphia, John has been successful in opening three rural health clinics and coordinated several collaborative initiatives among the Baptist Health regional hospitals,” said Steven Webb, vice president and administrator for Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock. “We’re exciting to have him on our team.”