News from the School of Public Health

Two experts in LGBTQ and young adult mental health, Dr. Jessica Fish (UMD SPH) and Dr. Stephen T. Russel (UT, Austin) describe the serious harms that LGBTQ youth experience from so-called “conversion therapy” efforts in a new editorial published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The School of Public Health is pleased to announce the members of the 2020-2021 Alumni Network Board.

With members spanning the spectrum of young professionals early their careers to experienced industry leaders, the board is comprised of greater Washington area alumni who are seeking to uphold the network’s mission to promote and support the school, encourage academic and professional excellence and facilitate career development for both current students and graduates while fostering and strengthening a lasting relationship between the school and its alumni.

Clara Richards wants young professionals to know that it’s okay to not have it all figured out. She’s experienced that herself and says it has made her stronger. She has dedicated herself to helping fellow millennials, who define themselves as creators and builders, to find community and create “expansive impact” through her social entrepreneurship project called The Community Cooperative. She feels this mission is even more important in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mia Smith Bynum, an associate professor in the Department of Family Science, and her son Malcolm have been dreaming of adding a dog to their family but the timing never seemed quite right between teaching schedules and after-school activities. When the COVID-19 pandemic led to shelter-in-place and remote work and school plans, it offered Mia and Malcolm the quality time needed to welcome and acclimate a new dog into their home and establish a routine and care network that can evolve as in-person work and school resume.

For many at the University of Maryland, Gymkana is not just a gymnastics troupe that showcases high-flying acrobatics and healthy, drug-free lifestyles, it is a second home. Tom Cockley, MA ’80, a former Gymkana assistant coach, helped make it so. Tom passed away on June 14, 2020, at age 69.  

A new publication in PLoS Pathogens by an international team of investigators shows that flu virus might spread via air rather than through contact and large droplet spray, as commonly thought. A large part of the evidence about how respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 are transmitted comes from research on influenza. These new data provide more support for the recommendation by scientists that we include precautions against airborne spread of Covid-19 to have an impact on slowing infection rates.