This week, the University of Maryland School of Public Health virtually inducted 21 members into the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health. Inductees included students, faculty, alumni and this year's honorary inductee, Maryland Senator Brian Feldman, who represents District 15 in Montgomery County. Feldman has been one of Maryland’s elected leaders delivering innovative, first-in-the-nation measures to increase health care access.
He, along with the 2019 honorary Delta Omega inductee, Delegate Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk of District 21, has led efforts, including forming the largest state reinsurance program in the nation and creating the Easy Enrollment Health Insurance Program, which allows people without health insurance to simply check a box on their state income tax return to start the process of enrolling in a health plan.
In addition, as states throughout the nation brace for potential challenges to the Affordable Care Act, Senator Feldman and others have led the effort to codify the consumer protection measures of the ACA into Maryland law. These protections include that Maryland insurance companies must allow children to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans up to age 26, are required to keep costs down for preventive care services and cannot deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
The Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health was founded in 1924 at Johns Hopkins University within the School of Hygiene and Public Health and currently has more than 100 chapters at CEPH-accredited schools, with more than 20,000 members nationwide. The mission of the Society is to encourage and recognize excellence in practice, research, education and academic achievement in the field of public health.
Induction into the organization allows for professional growth through leadership development opportunities, networking and discounted resources (CPH study guides and APHA membership fees). New inductees are nominated by current chapter members each year.
The UMD School of Public Health’s chapter, Gamma Zeta, was established in 2011 to honor our distinguished students, alumni, faculty and honorary members.
View the 2020 SPH Delta Omega Induction Ceremony and Awards Reception program »
We are honored to welcome the following 2020 inductees:
Student Inductees:
Ellesee-Roselee Akre, PhD ’20 (Health Policy and Management)
Stephanie Bryant, MPH (Health Policy and Management)
Andrea Dragan, MPH ’20 (Behavioral and Community Health)
Rosemary Ezeugoh, PhD (Applied Environmental Health)
Jenifer O. Fahey, PhD (Family Science)
Samantha Guarneri, MPH ’20 (Health Policy and Management)
Quinshay Hall, MPH ’20 (Health Policy and Management)
Lauren Kauffman, MPH ’20 (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) Lucy Kavi, PhD (Applied Environmental Health)
Azieb Kidanu, PhD ’20 (Behavioral and Community Health)
Yuki Lama, PhD ’20 (Family Science)
Ana Pena-Molina, MPH ’20 (Epidemiology and Biostatistics)
Dana Reiss, PhD ’20 (Behavioral and Community Health)
Faculty Inductees:
Melvin Seale, PhD (Health Policy and Management)
Natalie Slopen, PhD (Epidemiology and Biostatistics)
Julia Steinberg, PhD (Family Science)
Tracy Zeeger, MPH ’06, PhD ’20 (Behavioral and Community Health)
Alumni Inductees:
Maria Demarco, MPH ’11, PhD ’17 (Epidemiology and Biostatistics)
Kimberly Mitchell, PhD ’14 (Behavioral and Community Health)
Priscilla Novak, PhD ’19 (Health Policy and Management)
Honorary Inductee:
Brian J. Feldman represents the 15th Legislative District in the Maryland State Senate. He is the Vice-Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and chairs its Energy and Public Utilities Subcommittee. Additionally, Feldman is the Senate Chair of the Maryland Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission and is a member of the Executive Nominations Committee and the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics. He also serves as a member of the Maryland Economic Development Commission.
We are also proud to recognize the following students who participated in the 2020 Delta Omega Student Research Poster Competition:
Ellesee-Roselee Akré (PhD, Health Policy and Management): Disparities in Healthcare Access and Utilization at the Intersections of Sexual Identity, Gender and Income
Daniel Callow (PhD, Kinesiology): 2020 National Delta Omega Student Research Poster Competition Nominee, Hippocampal Plasticity After Acute Exercise in Older Adults: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study
Lauren Kauffman (MPH, Biostatistics): Home Neighborhood Walkability and its Associations With After-school and Weekend Physical Activity Among Elementary and Middle School Students
John P. Salerno (PhD, Behavioral and Community Health): 2020 National Delta Omega Student Research Competition Awardee, Feeling Unsafe and Threatened: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Sexual Health Needs of Lesbian and Bisexual Girls in Foster Care
For more information about Delta Omega, visit the National Chapter’s website at www.deltaomega.org.
View a video of the 2020 UMD School of Public Health Delta Omega Induction Ceremony.