Public health professionals gathered for the 2023 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta, November 12-15. This year’s program focused on building public health capacity and addressing the social and ethical challenges that threaten our nation’s health. Faculty, staff, and students from the UGA College of Public Health joined to “engage, collaborate, and grow” the field and as professionals.

FACULTY PRESENTERS

Grace Bagwell Adams is giving two poster presentations:

• Innovation in addressing ACEs and social determinants of health in a school based health center: Evidence from athens, Georgia
• Changes in postpartum prescribing for anxiety and depression during the COVID19 pandemic: Evidence of racial disparity in diagnosis and prescribing

Adam Chen is giving an oral presentation, “Local health department leadership and COVID-19 prevention and control in the U.S.”

Kerstin Emerson is participating in a roundtable, “Talking about Death: Findings from Community Death Cafes.”

Ishtiaque Fazlul is giving an oral presentation, “Role of spousal age difference on adolescent childbearing among women married as children in South Asia.”

Jennifer Gay is giving an oral presentation, “Leveraging outdoor physical activity for active pro-environmental behaviors: Prevalence and future intentions of coastal US residents.”

Rifat Haider is giving two oral presentations, as part of sessions he co-organized with Nate Hansen:

• HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP): Familiarity, Attitude, Use, Disparities, and Trends in the US
• Gender disparities in association between sexual trauma, depressive symptoms, and sex under the influence of drugs and alcohol among people with HIV

He is also presenting two posters:

• Child marriage and cardiovascular risk: An application of the non-laboratory framingham risk score
• Association between child marriage and overweight/obesity among young women: A cross-sectional analysis of Bangladesh adolescent health and wellbeing survey

Lucy Ingram is giving a poster presentation, ““We’re going to make sure you’re not going to die. You’re gonna see your kids.”: A qualitative review of protective factors to near-miss experiences among Black U.S. women.”

Chrissy Proctor is the first-author on two poster presentations, which also include CPH students:

• Needs and norms: An examination of college student’s sexual behaviors and sexual education needs
• Diversity in sex ed curriculum: Developing representative content to engage students

Rebecca Wells is presenting a poster, “Lessons learned from a service-learning partnership between a public health social work class and a rural community.”

STUDENT PRESENTERS

Rachel Baugh, an epidemiology and biostatistics PhD student, is presenting a poster, “Assessing the quality of information about emergency contraception provided by crisis pregnancy centers and publicly funded planning clinics in Georgia.”

Rachel is also leading a roundtable discussion: “A statewide analysis comparing quality of information about emergency contraception provided by crisis pregnancy centers and publicly-funded family planning clinics in Georgia.”

Adrian Bozocea, an undergraduate researcher working with the Institute of Gerontology, is presenting a poster, “Investigating Environmental PFAs Contamination and its Effects on Child Neurodevelopment and Reproductive Health Through a Machine Learning Approach”

Megan Bramlett, an epidemiology and biostatistics PhD student, is giving an oral presentation, “WIC utilization among head start families: Trends and factors related to high and low enrollment.”

MPH student Kayla DiPrima is giving a poster presentation, “Does sex education change sexual wants and needs? Investigating the impact of education on sexual health knowledge and attitudes.”

Health promotion and behavior undergraduate student Sritha Donepudi is giving a poster presentation, “Breastfeeding Policies and Resources for Postpartum Employees are Lacking Across a University System.”

DrPH student Fiona Douglas is presenting a poster, “Accessing Certified Nursing Assistants’ Interest in Self-Care Built into Continuing Education to Improve Job Sustainability and Progression.”

Kendra Driver is giving a poster presentation, “Teen pregnancy prevention for undocumented LatinX youth: Strategies to improve access to healthcare education.”

Sony Gurung, an MPH student in health policy and management, is giving an oral presentation, “Gender identity disparities in association between and adverse childhood experiences and psychological distress with HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) familiarity and willingness to use in a nationally representative U.S.. data.”

Noah Hopkins, a PhD student in health promotion and behavior, is presenting two posters:

• Healthcare utilization and attitudes towards mental health in the farming community.
• Perceived stress and alcohol consumption in the farming community.

Hannah Huff, a health promotion and behavior PhD student, is presenting a poster, “Development of Physician Focus Group Questions to Understand Barriers to Dementia Diagnosis in Various Rural Counties in Georgia.”

PhD students Kandyce Hylick (health promotion & behavior) and Kenya Murray (epidemiology & biostatistics) organized a town hall,  Maternal and Child Health Town Hall: Black Maternal Mortality and Morbidity-the Untold Story

Corey Ingram, a PhD student in health promotion and behavior, is giving an oral presentation, “Gentlemen respecting & interacting in truth (G.R.I.T.): Healthy BLACK Masculinity.”

Second-year MPH student Jacob Matta is giving an oral presentation, “Low COVID-19 risk perception despite exposure among participants of a federally funded vaccine hesitancy program in Albany, GA.”

Karen Raymond, is presenting a poster co-authored with Juliet Sekandi, “Evaluating the role of artificial intelligence in medicine and public health: A scoping review.”

Alex Ruano, a second-year MPH students, is presenting a poster, “Poor sources of information: Examining the impact of sexual health information sources on college students’ sexual behavior and knowledge.”

DrPH student Ashley Suker is presenting two posters:

• Designing and Implementing Online Learning Methods to Address Self-Care and Career Sustainability Among Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) in Georgia.
• The Impact of Community Education Programs on Dementia Knowledge and Confidence in Behavior Change in Rural Georgia

Biplav Tiwari, a first-year epidemiology & biostatistics PhD student working in the Economic Evaluation and Research Group, is giving an oral presentation, “School Climate-related Determinants of Gender Gap in Physical Activity among Middle and High School Students.”

Health promotion and behavior student Rose Tran is giving a poster presentation, “Overcoming social barriers to health in rural communities.”

Jemema Zaman, an MPH student in health policy and management, is presenting a poster, “From awareness to action: Enhancing clinician preparedness and public health policy development for managing monkeypox (Mpox) outbreaks,” with co-author Ehsan Suez, a PhD student in the Institute of Bioinformatics.

STAFF PRESENTERS

Lauren Baggett, CPH communications director, is participating in an oral presentation, “Communicating public health in the post-pandemic era: Countering misinformation and disinformation.”

Lydia Burton, CARE Center special events coordinator and recent MPH graduate, is presenting a poster, “Meet Me at the Gardens.”

Lydia is also receiving an Honorable Mention for Master’s Student Research Award for this work. Annaleesa Rogers, CARE Center Practice and Lab Manager, is presenting a poster, “Lessons Learned: Development of a Memory Education and Assessment Clinic in an Academic Public Health.”

Posted November 10, 2023.