News from the School of Public Health

Dr. Catherine Maybury, a 2018 Rudd Health Literacy Fellow and a research assistant in the Horowitz Center for Health Literacy, successfully defended her dissertation on March 24, 2020.

Laura Koo, a University of Maryland School of Public Health PhD candidate in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health, has been selected as a Rima E. Rudd Fellow. The fellowship will provide up to $30,000 to support Koo’s dissertation research in health literacy.

Laura Koo, a University of Maryland School of Public Health PhD candidate in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health, has been selected as a Rima E. Rudd Fellow. The fellowship will provide up to $30,000 to support Koo’s dissertation research in health literacy. 

Leyla Merlo graduated in May 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in public health science and a minor in sustainability studies. While at the University of Maryland, Leyla was the president of ROOTS Africa, a student organization that works to promote sustainable agricultural practices in developing countries. She traveled to Liberia with the program and received an award from the Do Good Institute for her work.

A new report, “Improving America’s Oral Health Literacy,” published by the Delta Dental Institute and co-authored by Alice Horowitz, a research associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Public Health, calls on the need for health literacy to address oral health in the United States.  

Devlon Jackson, assistant research professor of behavioral and community health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, received an Investigator Diversity Research Supplement grant to explore how Health Information Technology (HIT) can improve health for African Americans and Hispanics living with mental health issues and chronic diseases.