The University of Maryland School of Public Health hosted a teach-in and national research summit focused on strategies to eliminate gun violence as a leading cause of injury and death, from April 24-26. The events were led by Professor of the Practice Woodie Kessel and Dean Boris Lushniak with input from SPH faculty and staff and a national steering committee.

An online platform to support LGBTQ youth and a chatbot app addressing vaccine misinformation both won yesterday’s 2019 (second annual) Gold Public Health Innovation Award competition hosted by the School of Public Health.

The teams behind Q Chat Space and ChatHealth each took home half of the $5,000 in prize money at the event, established with a gift from SPH founding Dean Robert Gold and his wife, Barbara, to spark public health innovation, design thinking and solutions to the world’s most complex public health issues.

Edward Grant received his Master of Public Health degree in 2013 with a concentration in biostatistics. Originally from Buffalo, New York, Edward earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematical Biology from the University of Michigan. Edward serves as the Assistant Director of Biostatistics for DP Clinical Inc.

Three new Maryland laws passed this year will strengthen the ability of law enforcement to prosecute the perpetrators of human trafficking and increase protections and enhance human services that support the victims of sex and labor trafficking. The UMD Support, Advocacy, Freedom and Empowerment (SAFE) Center for Human Trafficking Survivors supported and advocated for the three anti-trafficking bills passed by the Maryland General Assembly during the 2019 legislative session and signed into law by Governor Larry Hogan in May.

"Using Google Street View Images to Examine Links Between the Built Environment and Health" was delivered by Quynh Nguyen, assistant professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, as the first lecture in the 2020 National Library of Medicine (NLM) Informatics and Data Science Lecture Series.

Anti-vaccination discourse on Facebook increased in volume over the last decade, coalescing around the argument that refusing to vaccinate is a civil right, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Public Health.

In this year of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions—like every other segment of society—have been forced to make critical decisions about when to reopen that could have significant health and financial implications. And because of the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, these decisions are being made with limited information, constrained resources and no reliable road map.

As we enter Pride month, we feel anguish, grief, and anger at the slaying of Black lives and the police brutality against them. We condemn these racially-motivated acts of violence, the systems that allow violence to persist with impunity and the ongoing legacy of racial injustice in America. Perpetrators of anti-Black violence must be held accountable and justice must be served. 

Washington, DC is full of talented and ambitious young people, and the organization DC Inno recognizes a select group through their annual list of top innovators in the Washington region who are all under 25 years old. DC Inno, which calls itself, “your source for local innovation,” features local news about innovation in technology, startups, higher education and more.

Two faculty members from the School of Public Health, Shannon Jette and Elizabeth Aparicio, received Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year awards from the University of Maryland Graduate School.