Dr. Heather Platter, the Horowitz Center’s 2018-2019 Rudd Health Literacy Fellow and a Center Research Assistant, successfully defended her dissertation in May 2019. Her dissertation explored health literacy and informed decision-making about lung cancer screening among older adults with long-term smoking, which resulted in a health literacy theoretical model on informed decision-making about lung cancer screening.

Social media presents a promising opportunity for promoting public health, but as bots and trolls become an increasingly large part of the online landscape, public health researchers, practitioners and communicators need to have the right knowledge and tools to combat the spread of misinformation by these malicious actors online.

The University of Maryland School of Public Health hosted its fifth Symposium on Environmental Justice and Health Disparities on May 11, bringing together policy makers, legal advocates, community organizers and researchers from more than 10 states to promote environmental health, elevate community voices and enact change.

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.

On Tuesday, April 2, 2018, the seventh annual Public Health Research @ Maryland day was held at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, and headlined with a keynote by US Surgeon General Jerome Adams.

Human-induced climate change is disrupting nature’s calendar, including when plants bloom and the spring season starts, and new research from the University of School of Public Health suggests we’re increasingly paying the price for it in the form of seasonal allergies.

After psychiatric hospitalization, follow-up appointments are key for helping patients re-acclimate to normal life, manage their medications and avoid readmission. But not all hospitals are successful at getting their patients to engage in follow-up treatment.

Associate Professor Jie Chen and doctoral student Ivy Benjenk examined two factors that can affect hospitals’ follow-up rates: the hospitals’ organizational structures and the neighborhoods they serve.

New research by University of Maryland School of Public Health Assistant Professor Jessica N. Fish is the first to explore disparities in high-intensity binge drinking by people of different sexual orientations. The research, published in LGBT Health, found that sexual minority women were two to three times more likely than sexual majority women to engage in high-intensity binge drinking, and sexual minority men were equally as likely or less likely than sexual majority men to engage in high-intensity binge drinking.

University of Maryland Professor Emeritus Robin Sawyer died on Jan. 21 in Charleston, S.C., following a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. The UMD community will celebrate his life and legacy at a memorial service Friday, Feb. 1 at 1 pm in the Memorial Chapel on the College Park campus.

Dr. Sawyer, who taught tens of thousands of students in his popular human sexuality course over the years, was known for his quick wit and compassion. UMD alumni from several generations recognize him as one of their most important mentors and favorite professors.