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by Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, Kristin Tully, PhD, Suzanne Woodward, Piia Hanson, MSPH, MBA, Alison Stuebe, MD

The preventable nature of maternal mortality and inequities by race in the U.S. call attention to the ways we have constructed health care and our society. Numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and others covered this new report with calls to action.

When considering causes of racial and other inequities in maternal mortality, it is essential to consider the health care system and acknowledge racism and other forms of bias within policies and interpersonal interactions. Innovative practices in public health and clinical care, pay structures and measurement are a part of identifying what is working well in maternal health and establishing accountability.

UNC is a hub of action to address maternal mortality with an explicit focus on health equity.

In response to worsening maternal health outcomes, the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC), housed at UNC-Chapel Hill with funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Health Resources and Services Administration, works with diverse stakeholders to promote evidence-informed approaches that center equity and value the perspectives of people with lived experience. In partnership with many organizations, the aim is to identify engagement and policy levers that accelerate the implementation of innovations. Many of these innovations are being launched or expanded in states and regions that are transforming their health systems to be more data driven, equitable and responsive to the needs of pregnant people and their families.

The COVID-19 pandemic and response unmasked persistent, multilevel problems, such as gaps in access to health care, lack of adequate care coordination, suboptimal health care working conditions, variation in nurse-to-patient ratios, and misalignment between women and their health care teams in terms of racial and language concordance. In addition, the evolving nature of COVID-19 science meant that messaging around key components of health decisions changed over time.

It is now known that pregnant people are a priority population to serve with COVID-19 vaccines, because they are at a higher risk of severe illness from the virus. Gillings Distinguished Scholar of Infant and Young Child Feeding Alison Stuebe, MD, was at the forefront of calling for new parents and their newborns to remain together during COVID-19 and establish exclusive and continued breast/chestfeeding, which is consistent with World Health Organization guidance.

"This virus unmasked the multiple ways that biomedical approaches fail to address the social contexts and structures that determine health and well-being."

— Alison Stuebe, MD

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“Early recommendations to separate birthing people from their infants illustrate the failure of reductionist approaches to the COVID crisis,” Stuebe says. “This virus unmasked the multiple ways that biomedical approaches fail to address the social contexts and structures that determine health and well-being.”

Stuebe and Kristin Tully, PhD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, lead a Patient Safety Learning Lab (PSLL), funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to evaluate journeys through care and reengineer systems to be more effective, just and enjoyable. The lab’s interdisciplinary team partners with parents, companions and health care team members to redefine what it means for mothers and birthing people* to be safe and well in this country.

Health and safety are positive concepts which mean much more than surviving a pregnancy. Care during this precious part of our lives should foster autonomy, provide timely access to relevant information, promote self-efficacy and belonging for new families to thrive, and be structured for clinicians to offer respectful, equitable and supportive care.

The research and capacity-strengthening work at UNC complements activism in maternal health to transform health care and public health in this country. Respectful, equitable care requires a diverse workforce, and Gillings has been at the forefront of efforts to advance this work.

The Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute at Gillings is providing technical assistance to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other organizations serving communities of color to develop internationally credentialed lactation consultant training programs. Educational grants to diversify the workforce are among the comprehensive strategies included in the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021, a set of policy proposals that is critical to advance birth equity and improve the quality of care for all. In addition, UNC’s Kathryn Menard, MD, MPH, is a member of the U.S. Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality which has proposed a set of recommendations to address the unacceptable disparities in infant and maternal outcomes.

This is an exciting time for the Gillings School and faculty, staff and students at other schools to be a part of real, sustained change for maternal, infant and family health. Unfortunately, there is an immense need to improve our society and the inclusivity and patient-centeredness of health care services.

Learn more about MHLIC, PSLL and colleagues’ work to make real, sustained change: maternalhealthlearning.org, postnatalsafety.com, newmomhealth.com, Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute.

*We use the term birthing people in addition to mothers to promote inclusive and affirming care for all who give birth.

Liz Chen, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of health behavior, serves as the design thinking lead at Innovate Carolina and co-leads the Carolina Graduate Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good. Unlike other problem-solving approaches that use empirical data to move forward and find a single solution, Chen says design thinking involves going backward, in a sense, to further understand a problem in context alongside people who are impacted by the challenge before trying to solve it.

“We rely on building empathy and letting end users lead,” Chen says. Design thinking practitioners work with those experiencing a public health challenge to design multiple potential solutions. Constant data collection, iteration and learning from failures are built into the process.

Design thinking goes hand in hand with approaches like community-based participatory research, Chen says, where communities have more power in generating solutions than other public health approaches. Design thinking also involves small-batch, cyclical testing similar to implementation science and continuous quality improvement processes.

“Our students look for ways to engage directly with audiences so they aren’t the ones holding all the power and making decisions about how interventions look,” she says.

— Liz Chen, PhD, MPH

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“Our students look for ways to engage directly with audiences so they aren’t the ones holding all the power and making decisions about how interventions look,” she says.

While a Master of Public Health (MPH) student in the health equity, social justice and human rights (EQUITY) concentration, Jared Bishop (’21) worked as one of Chen’s design thinking research assistants. He joined the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) team at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’s Food, Fitness and Opportunity Research Collaborative (FFORC) to help design educational opportunities for caregivers of young children. They partnered with Cooking Matters, a national program that teaches participants to use nutrition information to make healthier choices and cook delicious, affordable meals.

The FFORC team’s multi-stage, multilayered process was grounded in design thinking. Bishop and colleagues identified places where caregivers would prefer to access food skills education: health care settings, schools or early childhood education centers, and food retail environments — specifically, grocery stores. They conducted separate design thinking processes for each.

Inside grocery stores, they held caregiver-only sessions to identify “pain points” and “happy points” about the shopping experience and then held cocreation sessions with managers who implement SNAP-Ed in different states.

“We did design thinking with an equity focus,” Bishop says, “centering the voices of caregivers. Not only did we listen to their feedback — we made sure their voices were uplifted when we worked.”

The process made the caregivers feel seen and heard, Bishop says. “Hearing that other parents have the same concerns about navigating those areas was comforting for them, knowing they’re not alone.”

The FFORC team’s project resulted in a publicly available toolkit and roadmap to use design thinking to build SNAP-Ed plans.

Margaret Benson Nemitz, MPH, an alumna of the health behavior MPH program, and colleagues at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) implemented design thinking with local health departments to plan how they might reach their annual goals better.

“There are many similarities between what human-centered design teaches us and what strategic planning teaches us,” Benson Nemitz said.

They recruited six local health departments in N.C. to participate on a design team. They framed their challenge through a design thinking lens: “How might we design a support system for quality improvement for all local health departments while providing for differences among health departments?” The participants, all new to design thinking, met monthly from July to December 2021.

“No one knew what to expect. No one knew how to think in this way."

— Margaret Benson Nemitz, MPH, NCIPH community assessment coordinator

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“No one knew what to expect. No one knew how to think in this way,” she said. “It was fun to watch representatives get comfortable drawing their ideas, asking big questions and us all being confused together.”

They spent time with a literal drawing board, Benson Nemitz said, even adding things they later determined wouldn’t work in practice alongside the ideas they thought would work. But that openness, creativity and quick feedback are built into design thinking.

“It was interesting how foreign the process felt to the group,” she said, “and how much joy there was. How much freedom and fun and play.”

“He gets upset,” she says with a laugh, but for her, it’s a fun way to constantly remind him that he’s loved and supported.

As associate dean for student affairs, Sims Evans makes sure that students at Gillings know they’re supported, too. She goes out of her way to cultivate relationships with students, giving them her cell phone number and checking in with them proactively and frequently to see how they’re doing. That personal touch often leads to long-term friendships, reflected in the countless invitations Sims Evans receives to former students’ dissertation defenses, weddings and baby showers.

Health policy and management student Julia Nevison, who got to know Sims Evans through her service on the School’s Student Government Association, recalls a time last year when she was feeling busy and overwhelmed. Sims Evans reached out and took her to lunch. “That really meant a lot to me,” Nevison says. “At the end of the day she’s here to support us, 100 percent.”

"I recognized right away that Charletta was a unique, caring, and talented individual; a supportive leader and supervisor; and someone that I could work for, and with, for a long period of time."

— Greg Bocchino, EdD

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A Mount Olive, N.C., native, Sims Evans grew up in the nearby small town of Dudley, where her love for music was nurtured by strong family traditions. “I listen to all types of music. My family sings a lot, and I used to sing in church choirs growing up,” says Sims Evans, whose favorite musician is Patsy Cline. “When my family gets together for holidays, we sing.”

In keeping with another family tradition, Sims Evans went to Winston-Salem State University, where her mother, sister, cousins, aunt and uncle attended. After graduation she moved to Maryland, where she was a certified recreational therapist at a mental institution. She earned her master’s degree in counseling and was a public school guidance counselor in Maryland before returning to North Carolina to start her student affairs career in higher education, working at several universities and the N.C. Community College System before joining Gillings in 2011.

Greg Bocchino, EdD, senior executive director of academic advising and student affairs, works closely with Sims Evans to strategically plan events and services for students. When he first interviewed for his job at Gillings more than eight years ago, he knew she was a great leader who would also become a great friend. “I recognized right away that Charletta was a unique, caring, and talented individual; a supportive leader and supervisor; and someone that I could work for, and with, for a long period of time,” he says. “My parents ask me how she’s doing on a weekly basis – she is like family to me.”

In the Office of Student Affairs, Sims Evans leads a team of 22 professionals who offer academic and career counseling, handle student disputes and grievances, advise student organizations, and provide student outreach and recruitment. “She does so much for the School – her whole team does,” Nevison says. “With everything Student Affairs does, they emphasize a team approach. They are all about working together and collaboration.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Student Affairs created Wind Down Wednesdays, a virtual mental fitness series to help students build a toolkit to cope with the pandemic. Nutrition student Serena Hutchinson got to know Sims Evans through the monthly series and has worked with her on the School’s mental health task force and other initiatives. “With any issue that comes up at the School, Charletta’s answer is: ‘None of this matters unless the students’ voice is heard,’” Hutchinson says. “I can’t think of any person who cares more about students than she does.”

Angelica Figueroa’s eyes light up as she talks about Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., where she worked for a decade before joining the Dean’s Office at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Figueroa first got a job at the amusement park in high school and worked her way up from a gift-store cashier to senior supervisor for guest arrival, with more than 200 team members reporting to her during the peak summer months.

“Busch Gardens is where I learned many formative skills and foundational values, and a philosophy centered on leadership and customer service,” says Figueroa, who has relied on that philosophy as administrative support in the Dean’s Office for more than 11 years. “My theme park experience is one of the reasons I was hired at Gillings. It was a perfect fit. In both, my goal has been to deliver a quality, positive and memorable experience.”

First hired as a temporary administrative support specialist, Figueroa was promoted to serve as executive assistant to Barbara K. Rimer and promoted again to office manager. A highly skilled project manager, she leads a six-person team that works closely with the school’s senior leaders – planning and supporting events and projects, managing calendars, assisting with communications, and helping the school move forward in pursuit of its mission.

"Angelica does a ton of high-quality work herself, and she is highly gifted at teaching, encouraging and managing the people she supervises. She is an amazing problem solver who has a way of bringing out the best in people to benefit every situation."

— Lisa Warren

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“Staff members often work behind the scenes, and our impact isn’t always apparent. Still, we bring knowledge and diverse backgrounds that help support this complex organization and make Gillings the rich place that it is,” she says. “I love, love the people I work with. They are all trying to make the world a better place.”

One of those staff members, Lisa Warren, has worked with Figueroa in the Dean’s Office since 2015. “Angelica does a ton of high-quality work herself and she is highly gifted at teaching, encouraging and managing the people she supervises,” Warren says. “She is an amazing problem solver who has a way of bringing out the best in people to benefit every situation.”

Born in Puerto Rico as the oldest of three children, at age 9 Figueroa moved with her family to Newport News, Va. She met her future husband Matthew when they were both students at the College of William and Mary, where she earned her degree in international studies. They live in Chapel Hill with their 2-year-old son, David, who has Down Syndrome. “His diagnosis has really changed the way I look at the world. In other ways, it’s reinforced and expanded values that I hold dear—each of our contributions matter and have their own impacts,” she says. “I feel incredibly fortunate to have that perspective.”

Elizabeth French, MA, associate dean for strategic initiatives and Figueroa’s immediate supervisor, notes that Figueroa’s values, background, and appreciation for other people allows her to connect the dots across people, ideas and events in a way that elevates the dean’s office and the school as a whole. “Angelica has a way of setting people up for success – the fact that things go smoothly doesn’t just happen, and I can’t say how important that level of care is,” French says. “She is just a lovely human being who has a bedrock respect for people and their humanity.”

Rimer said Figueroa embodies all that is best about Gillings. “She is kindness, competent and fearlessness wrapped in a package of decency and a willingness and eagerness to learn new skills,” Rimer says. “Angelica makes everyone who enters the Dean’s Office feel welcome and wanted. Her knowledge of the school is vast, and she calls it up in the most seemingly effortless way. Angelica is the heart and soul of the school.”

“To this day, I get calls from family members asking for my help with diagnoses or advice around issues of public health, even before COVID-19,” Smith says. “As I look at the work that lies ahead of us to fulfill the Gillings School’s mission, it will be important to preserve our core while embracing our future. The world has changed so much in the past two years, but the response from Gillings has been amazing. I marvel at the life-changing research coming from our faculty, our brilliant and diverse students, and our committed staff who continue to work tirelessly in the face of so much change.”

Smith spent the last 10 years as associate chair for administration in the Department of Neurology at the UNC School of Medicine, where he focused on policy development and implementation, financial planning and management, strategic planning, human resources management, and information systems design and delivery. Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, Smith was the director of human resources consulting at the University of Virginia, where he previously was chief administrative officer in the departments of pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology.

Smith joins Gillings at a time when the pandemic has changed many assumptions about work and the role of public health in society. Old learning and operational habits are being examined, and Smith brings his experience with the “Future of Work” from his time at the School of Medicine. While Gillings has helped to usher in the most diverse class of students in the School’s history, there is still work to be done with enrollment and hiring.

“Good people stay in good places, and a big part of my job will be to continue to make Gillings a ‘good place.’”

— Robert Smith III, PhD

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“Good people stay in good places,” Smith says. “And a big part of my job will be to continue to make Gillings a ‘good place.’”

Smith began collaborating with Gillings in 2012, when he delivered his first guest lecture on ethics in the Department of Health Policy and Management. He has worked closely with second-year Master of Healthcare Administration students to place them in internships within the School of Medicine that allow them to gain practical experience in a hospital setting.

Outside of work, Smith has been an avid cyclist since his time as a member of the Piedmont Flyers cycling team.

“My love for Gillings goes back a long way, and there’s a reason why we’re the top public school of public health,” he says. “I want to help preserve all that makes us great while still looking toward the future.”

She was designing, implementing and evaluating injury prevention and behavioral health programs that focused mainly on diverse and underserved communities. She soon realized that program design could only go so far in solving public health challenges, especially where equity was concerned.

“I recognized that policy is such an important lever, and advocacy is such an important tool,” said Zachary, PhD, MPH, a 2008 MPH Gillings graduate in health behavior who earned her doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in her hometown of Baltimore.

That recognition prompted her to apply for a policy analyst position at the NC Justice Center, an advocacy organization for economic and social justice issues. Zachary got the job and moved to North Carolina, and where she became a respected policy analyst and effective advocate – first at the Justice Center and then as Health Program Director at the nonprofit organization NC Child, which works for better opportunities for all children in North Carolina.

"Her policy expertise, her passion for justice and her focus on keeping people at the center of what that work looks like is so impressive."

— Nicole Dozier, director of the N.C. Justice Center’s Health Advocacy Project

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“Her policy expertise, her passion for justice and her focus on keeping people at the center of what that work looks like is so impressive,” says Nicole Dozier, director of the North Carolina Justice Center’s Health Advocacy Project. “She interacts with people in a way that makes them feel comfortable and connected, and she has a way of inspiring them to action.”

In 2020 Zachary joined Gillings as assistant professor and leader of the health policy concentration in the Department of Health Policy and Management, where she focuses on teaching public health students about policy analysis, improving equity in health care access, and the importance of communities and coalitions in achieving change.

“She is one of a special group of faculty in our school with direct advocacy experience, and she has a commitment to and long history of working with and for low-income populations,” says Pam Silberman, JD, DrPH, health policy and management professor and longtime leader in state health policy. “She has a great understanding of Medicaid and health policy, along with that real-life experience as an advocate trying to shape policy and empowering people to have a voice in the process. She’s the real deal.”

For example, as legislators began discussing shifting the state’s Medicaid program to a managed-care model in 2015, Zachary and her NC Child colleagues formed the Parent Advisory Council (PAC), a diverse group of parents and caregivers who had children with various health needs. PAC members received training and resources that helped them learn to self-advocate, then became actively involved in the policy process – drafting their own Medicaid agenda, submitting it to the state, and meeting with leaders in the legislature and Department of Health and Human Services. The PAC continues to operate today, and many of its members serve in advisory roles for community groups and state programs.

“It’s important to invite people and communities to share their voices when you’re trying to determine whether policies work or don’t work for them,” Zachary says. “Policy and advocacy work is about being in communities and working with them to help them build capacity. Leaders in their own communities should be part of the process.”

Zachary applies this people-centered approach to her classroom – not just in how she teaches but also in how she treats her students. “She places a strong focus on underserved populations and assuring that they are centered in classroom conversations,” says Raquel Harati, who worked as Zachary’s teaching assistant after taking one of her courses. “She also truly cares about her students and their well-being outside of the classroom, and advocates for students directly to the school when any issues arises that we need assistance with. She is one of the most supportive supervisors and professors I have ever had.”

Dr. Rimer joined the UNC School of Public Health as an adjunct associate professor in 1992. She began her service as dean in 2005, launching a 17-year journey at the helm of what is now — through a transformative gift she helped secure — the internationally renowned Gillings School of Global Public Health.

When Dean Rimer steps down this summer, she will remain on faculty as Alumni Distinguished Professor in the Department of Health Behavior. In announcing that she was stepping down as dean, she made it clear that she still has work to do, students to mentor and untapped passion for making positive change.

That same irrepressible energy has colored Dr. Rimer’s entire service as dean. She reshaped the role from her first day in it — being both the first woman and first behavioral scientist to hold the position — and went on to become the School’s longest-serving dean. She led Gillings to what currently stands at five consecutive rankings periods as the top public school of public health in the United States and second overall according to U.S. News and World Report.

What most people think of first is her powerful fusion of insight, humility and generosity of spirit.

Under her leadership, the School has vaulted past peers in grant dollars, becoming the top public school of public health for funding from the National Institutes of Health and building a portfolio of more than $1 billion in research dollars since 2016. That funding has supported scientific inquiry, education and practice across all 100 North Carolina counties, 47 countries and five continents.

Over the course of her career, Dean Rimer has compiled a litany of national achievements. A notable cancer researcher in her own right, she chaired the National Cancer Institute’s Advisory Board, was elected to the Institute of Medicine, received the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor and was appointed to the President’s Cancer Panel, which she chaired from 2011 to 2019. She was vice chair of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she co-authored hundreds of scientific papers, and she earned more awards than can be named here — but none of this defines her.

At the Gillings School, Dean Rimer paired her innovative vision with a singular work ethic. She spearheaded the development of the Water Institute at UNC, created the School’s Practice Advisory Committee to engage community leaders across N.C., and fostered strong partnerships across the University and the state, positioning Gillings researchers to lead large-scale projects of critical importance in areas such as water quality, children’s environmental health, and COVID viral sequencing and surveillance.

She also marshalled Gillings leaders in revamping the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, launched the online MPH@UNC program, and developed a multi-partner public health program with UNC-Asheville and the Mountain Area Health Education Center. These accomplishments have altered the course of public health for the better — but, again, they do not define her.

Dean Rimer has championed inclusive excellence within the Gillings School — through an ambitious Inclusive Excellence Action Plan — and more broadly, as part of the N.C. Governor’s Commission on Inclusion. From candid town hall meetings with students to thoughtful blog posts about events like Nikole Hannah-Jones’ tenure application, she has offered an example of leadership not through buzzwords, but through action informed by collaboration. The School’s 2021 fall cohort was its most diverse yet, welcoming a record number of students from historically excluded groups. And still, this is not what defines our outgoing dean.

In the case of Dean Rimer — Barbara, to all who meet her — what most people think of first is her powerful fusion of insight, humility and generosity of spirit.

There are few staff and faculty at the Gillings School who have not received a hand-written note or email from Barbara congratulating them on a promotion, mourning the loss of a loved one or celebrating the birth of a child. Similarly, few in the Gillings community have not witnessed Barbara’s sincere redirection of any accolades given her to the people around her, whom she consistently credits for the School’s continued preeminence.

In one of her blog posts, Dean Rimer quoted Dr. Jane Goodall: “I think empathy is really important, and I think only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our full potential.”

For 17 years, Dean Barbara K. Rimer has offered a shining example of that philosophy in action. That example is her greatest legacy.

The solution may lie in storytelling, according to Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD, MPH, a Gillings Innovation Fellow and senior researcher at UNC’s Injury Prevention Research Center. In public health, narrative can shine a light on challenges faced by underserved communities and put a human face on commonly overlooked issues.

Dasgupta, a 2013 doctoral graduate of the Gilling School, has leveraged his background in epidemiology to tell public health stories through data visualization and empathy.

“I like to say epidemiology is the science of telling true stories about health with numbers,” he explains. “Visualizations are great for telling a story that sticks in people’s minds — if you do it right. More important than creating complex ways to slice and dice numbers is making sure we’re not overlooking who owns the data or where there might be gaps.”

"I like to say epidemiology is the science of telling true stories about health with numbers."

— Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD, MPH

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His expertise has helped agencies like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization track public health concerns. He co-founded Epidemico, a health analytics startup that uses machine algorithms to predict disease outbreaks. His knowledge of visual dashboard design has aided development of apps, websites and other tech for government agencies around the world.

His goal is to give the public concise understanding of health challenges and amplify patient voices.

Since 2002, Dasgupta has also worked to better understand the overdose crisis. In 2007, he co-founded Project Lazarus to address surging overdose deaths in Wilkes County, North Carolina. By working with local pastors, agencies and community health outlets, Project Lazarus took an approach to harm reduction that Dasgupta calls “radical empathy” by having difficult conversations about a stigmatized topic that affected many.

Project Lazarus brought the overdose death rate down 69% by helping doctors prescribe opioids more safely, developing support for pain patients and training people to use naloxone, a drug to reverse overdose. With support from the N.C. Medical Board, Project Lazarus was the first program to distribute naloxone kits directly to pain patients and people who use drugs, even though it required a doctor’s prescription at the time.

"What patients fear more than side effects is having information withheld. In our zeal to get people vaccinated, I feel like public health hasn’t been talking about side effects in an open way, and so some people aren’t going back for their second dose or boosters."

— Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD, MPH

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In 2012, Dasgupta co-founded the Remedy Alliance naloxone buyers club in response to a shortage of this life-saving drug. The team worked directly with Pfizer to acquire naloxone at a discounted price for distribution in harm reduction programs. Today, the buyers club facilitates nearly 150 such programs. It has been critical during the pandemic, when shortages have made costs skyrocket and limited the drug’s access from last mile programs that have difficulty meeting regulations necessary to acquire it.

“We are leaving behind our strongest allies in the current model of distributing and administrating naloxone,” Dasgupta says. “There are Super Savers in the community who have reversed dozens of overdoses, and they teach others how to use it. They’re the ones who drive most of that intervention. We’re not empowering this innovative first responder phenomenon to be even more effective. We need to focus on getting them naloxone with no limits from insurance companies or pharmacists.”

The overdose crisis has recently shifted away from prescription drugs to street drugs that are more difficult to track and may contain dangerous ingredients. In 2022, Dasgupta received funding from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts to develop laboratory methods to analyze street drugs in real time, along with systems to alert the public about potential dangers.

His recent work also centers untold stories by encouraging people to report side effects of drugs and vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, because adverse events reported by physicians and pharmacists are sometimes different from those that concern patents.

It’s hard for clinicians to be honest about side effects, Dasgupta says, but proactive conversations are necessary to establish trust in health care.

“What patients fear more than side effects is having information withheld. In our zeal to get people vaccinated, I feel like public health hasn’t been talking about side effects in an open way, and so some people aren’t going back for their second dose or boosters. That’s something we could have addressed and can serve as a lesson on how to improve future public health communication.”

STUDENTS

Three Gillings students are among 11 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students and recent graduate alumni who have received The Graduate School’s 2022 Impact Awards, in recognition of research that contributes to the educational, economic, physical, social or cultural well-being of North Carolina communities and citizens. They are:

• ‍Caitlin Biddell, a doctoral student in health policy and management, for her work in financial assistance processes in cancer care;‍
• Jeliyah Clark, a doctoral candidate in environmental sciences and engineering, for her research on drinking well water during pregnancy and the effects of dietary interventions on birth outcomes; and‍
• Lindsay Savelli, a master’s student in health equity, social justice and human rights, for her studies of environmental racism and asphalt plant pollution in Caswell County.

Master of Public Health (MPH) student Morgan Cooper, RD, received one of UNC-Chapel Hill’s 2021 Public Service Awards, the Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award, alongside preceptor Ryan Lavalley, PhD, assistant professor of occupational science and occupational therapy, for innovative work in partnership with the Orange County Partnerships for Home Preservation, the Orange County Department on Aging and the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, in support of home preservation and repair and aging-in-community.

Five master’s students from Gillings were in the most recent cohort of the E(I) Lab Program, an entrepreneurship and innovation lab that encourages UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students across various disciplines to collaborate to solve challenges in health care. Three teams participated:

• First place: Mental Health Matchmakers, which included Gillings students Kayla McKiski and Noah Hammes, designed a project to test the feasibility of matching mental health services with students coping with substance use disorders.
• Second place: Trashbusters, which included Shauna Fraser-Kim from Gillings, worked to resolve the increase of medical waste brought about by the current global pandemic.
• Third place: Jane Tandler and Victoria Tetteh from the Gillings were part of Tetteh Back Pocket, which created a platform with resources to help people manage their chronic back pain.

Two Gillings students were among 14 UNC undergraduates selected as Phillips Ambassadors for Summer, Fall and Academic Year 2021 study abroad programs in Asia. Caroline Le of Raleigh, a health policy and management major, and Skyler Noble of Chapel Hill, an applied mathematics and biostatistics double major, studied through the Yonsei University international summer school program. Ambassadors are selected twice a year and receive $6,000 each.

Takhona Hlatshwako, a senior from the Kingdom of Eswatini in Southern Africa (formerly Swaziland) studying health policy and management, has been named a Rhodes Scholar to pursue a fully funded postgraduate degree at the University of Oxford in Fall 2022. She plans to pursue a master’s in international health and tropical medicine through the Oxford Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health within the Nuffield Department of Medicine.

Gillings student Aneesha Tucker, a double major in health policy and management and women and gender studies, received the 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship from UNC-Chapel Hill. Amy Lo, a junior from Cleveland, Ohio, who studies public health nutrition with minors in chemistry and food studies, was one of two runners-up.

Three Gillings students received the inaugural Gillings School Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA) Award: Dane Emmerling, graduate teaching assistant and doctoral student in health behavior; Lee Doyle, graduate research assistant and MPH student in health behavior; and Hanna Huffstetler, graduate teaching assistant and doctoral student in health behavior.

EXAMPLES OF GRANTS & CONTRACTS

Audrey Pettifor, PhD, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, is co-leading a $15 million state-funded surveillance effort to facilitate and enhance genomic sequencing capabilities of the SARS-CoV-2 virus across N.C. The CORVASEQ (Coronavirus Variant Sequencing) Surveillance Network is a partnership between the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health and the N.C. Policy Collaboratory. CORVASEQ includes several academic institutions and health care systems. An online dashboard will be created as part of the information sharing and epidemiological tracking aspects of the program.

The Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative (READDI), a nonprofit drug research and development organization that was founded by the UNC School of Medicine, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, won RTI International’s Forethought Research Collaboration Challenge and received $5 million in seed funds to produce antiviral drugs that can block many viruses at once, in an effort to prevent future pandemics.

Jason Surratt, PhD, professor of environmental sciences and engineering, will be UNC’s principal investigator on a $12 million National Science Foundation project to determine the content of airborne particulate matter, which has significant effects on health and climate change. He will work with Georgia Institute of Technology Professor Nga Lee “Sally” Ng, PhD, the lead principal investigator. The project will establish a network of 12 sites around the United States outfitted with state-of-the-art instruments to characterize the properties of aerosols. Surratt will lead a group at the site in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park at Look Rock, Tenn. Surratt also received the 2021 Kenneth T. Whitby Award from the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) in recognition of outstanding technical contributions to aerosol science and technology by a young scientist.

The Improving Provider Announcement Communication Training (IMPACT) Program Project, led by Noel Brewer, PhD, Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health, has received $11.7 million in funding from the National Cancer Institute to study ways that health care providers can contribute to vaccine recommendations, what motivates providers to recommend human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, who should facilitate training and what kind of communication interventions are most cost-effective. IMPACT research project leads include Melissa Gilkey, PhD, associate professor of health behavior; Justin Trogdon, PhD, and Stephanie Wheeler, PhD, MPH, professors of health policy and management; and Sachiko Ozawa, PhD, associate professor from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and adjunct associate professor of maternal and child health. Nisha Gottfredson, PhD, assistant professor of health behavior, will co-lead the data core with Trogdon. One of the world’s top researchers in risk beliefs and communication, Brewer was named Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health in 2021 and was appointed to the Commission for Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance and Demand in the USA by The Lancet, one of the world’s foremost publications on health research, to design a plan for public policy to support high acceptance of safe and effective vaccines in the U.S.

UNC’s Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility (CEHS), led by Melissa Troester, PhD, Gillings professor of epidemiology, will work with North Carolina State University (NCSU) researchers on a multi-institutional project funded by a $17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Southeastern Liver Health Study will follow 16,000 people in N.C. and Georgia for up to five years to explore a potential link between environmental contaminants and liver cancer. Michael Sanderson, MPH, associate director of the CEHS, will work with NCSU on project administration and evaluation.

The UNC Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) has received a $5.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund another five years of support. This award is the fifth time the NIH has provided five-year funding for the center, allowing for continuous work in the field of nutritional sciences and obesity since the center’s establishment in 1999. Led by co-directors Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, RD, Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of nutrition and medicine and chair of the Department of Nutrition, and Raz Shaikh, PhD, associate professor and associate chair for research in the Department of Nutrition, NORC is one of 11 centers in the country funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) that is specifically designed to enhance the efficiency, productivity, effectiveness and multidisciplinary nature of nutrition and obesity-related research.

Gillings faculty will lead two new centers as part of the NIH study Nutrition for Precision Health, powered by the All of Us Research Program (NPH), a five-year effort that will develop predictive algorithms and generate new data to advance personalized nutrition and improve public health. Mayer-Davis is the principal investigator for the $13 million Clinical Center, which will enroll more than 2,000 study participants. Susan Sumner, PhD, professor of nutrition, is the principal investigator for the $19 million Metabolomics and Clinical Assay Center (MCAC), which will analyze metabolomics data to measure tens of thousands of compounds in biospecimens to provide a more comprehensive view of an individual’s health and wellness. Sumner is based at the Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) in Kannapolis. The NRI is home to the Eastern Regional Comprehensive Metabolomics Research Core, one of six U.S. centers that work together to establish national standards for metabolomics and increase national metabolomic capacity in clinical and translational research.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of N.C. has dedicated $3.2 million for a new, large clinical study to investigate how to best help people who are food insecure achieve better health through nutrition. Study co-leaders are Darren DeWalt, MD, MPH, director of the UNC Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement at the UNC School of Medicine and a 2004 MPH Gillings graduate; Alice Ammerman, DrPH, the Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor of nutrition at Gillings and director of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Seth Berkowitz, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine and member of the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

With a $2.8 million grant from the NIH, Gillings nutrition researchers are studying what types of personalized digital messages and guidance can best help people modify their behavior to meet their goals, such as eating more healthful foods, getting active and keeping tabs on their weight. Carmina Valle, PhD, assistant professor of nutrition; Deborah Tate, PhD, professor of nutrition and health behavior; assistant professors of nutrition Brooke Nezami, PhD, and Heather Wasser, PhD; and Nisha Gottfredson, PhD, associate professor of health behavior, are co-investigators.

The Department of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) has received a $1.97 million award from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, which will renew funding of the department’s National MCH Workforce Development Center led by Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, associate professor of maternal and child health, for another five years. The Center was established in 2014 as the national training hub for workforce development in maternal and child health.

GILLINGS NEWS

Andrew Olshan, PhD, Barbara S. Hulka Distinguished Professor of epidemiology, will serve as the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s interim associate dean for research. Olshan fills the position left by Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD, Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition, who served in the role since September 2018 and has been named interim Vice Chancellor for Research at UNC-Chapel Hill

For the third consecutive year, leadership at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health was honored with the Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine for outstanding commitment to and ongoing promotion of inclusive excellence. As the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the urgent need for racial justice, the Gillings community is dedicated to dismantling the systems of racism that create barriers to equitable health.

SELECTED FACULTY/STAFF HONORS

Ralph Baric, PhD, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, recently received several honors and recognitions for his coronavirus research:

• The 2021 Oliver Max Gardner Award, the highest honor the UNC System confers on faculty members. Established by the will of former N.C. Gov. O. Max Gardner, the award recognizes faculty who have “made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.”
• Induction into the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest distinctions for a scientist or engineer in the U.S., recognizing distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
• The North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor. Governor Roy Cooper presented Baric with the award, which was created by the General Assembly in 1961 to recognize significant contributions to the state and nation in the fields of fine arts, literature, public service and science.

Shelley Golden, PhD, associate professor and vice chair for academic affairs for the Gillings School’s Department of Health Behavior, received The Graduate School’s 2021 Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring. The annual award recognizes a faculty member who encourages students to establish their own record of scholarly activity, provides a supportive environment, and achieves a successful record of graduate degree completion among the students they have advised.

Sandra Greene, DrPH, professor of the practice in the Department of Health Policy and Management and senior research fellow and co-director of the program on health care economics and finance at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, was recently appointed as chair of the N.C. State Health Coordinating Council (SHCC) by Governor Roy Cooper’s office. The SHCC oversees health planning in the state and develops the annual State Medical Facilities Plan to guide expansion of health care services in this state.

Stephen Hursting, PhD, MPH, the American Institute for Cancer Research/World Cancer Research Fund Distinguished Professor at Gillings, has been named director of the UNC NRI, following the retirement of Steve Zeisel, MD, PhD, professor of nutrition Based in Kannapolis, N.C., the NRI advances precision nutrition by investigating how genetics, gut microbiota and environment affect an individual’s requirements for and responses to nutrients.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) named David Martinez, PhD, postdoctoral researcher at UNC Gillings, as part of a cohort of 21 early career researchers who were named 2020 Hanna H. Gray Fellows.

Benjamin Mason Meier, JD, LLM, PhD, professor of global health policy, received the 2021 Mid-Career Award in International Health from the American Public Health Association (APHA). This award recognizes an outstanding mid-career professional with demonstrated achievement and commitment to international health promotion and development.

Beth Moracco, PhD, associate professor of health behavior and associate director of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, received the University’s 2021 Edward Kidder Graham Award, which is given to those who fulfill Graham’s ambition “to make the campus co-extensive with the boundaries of the state” in the context of UNC’s mission to extend knowledge-based service around the world.

Aunchalee Palmquist, PhD, MA, IBCLC, assistant professor of maternal and child health, received the Gillings Faculty Award for Excellence in Health Equity Research, which recognizes faculty who demonstrate excellence in research that has made a substantial impact on improved equitable outcomes or sustained reduction in inequities in a pressing public health issue.

Susan M. Smith, PhD, has been named the inaugural holder of The Dickson Foundation-Harris Teeter Distinguished Professorship in nutrition. Smith, who joined the faculty in 2016, is a professor of nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and serves as deputy director for science at UNC’s NRI.

Courtney Woods, PhD, associate professor of environmental sciences and engineering, received a UNC-Chapel Hill Public Service Award for outstanding contributions to the campus and broader communities. She received the Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award in the category of research, recognizing her collaborative environmental justice research projects and establishment of the Environmental Justice Action Research Clinic.

Two researchers from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering were named to committees convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to tackle some of the country’s most pressing environmental health challenges. Barbara Turpin, PhD, professor and chair of environmental sciences and engineering, is part of the committee to study the chemistry of urban wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), the area where urban homes transition into undeveloped wildland. Glenn Morrison, PhD, professor of environmental sciences and engineering, has been named to the committee that will study the emerging science on indoor air chemistry, focusing on under-reported chemical science discoveries that show a link between chemical exposure, air quality and human health.

Nine Gillings faculty members were named to Clarivate’s 2021 Highly Cited Researchers list, which recognizes significant influence in their fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year. The faculty members are:

• ‍**Ralph S. Baric, PhD**, William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of epidemiology.‍
• Noel T. Brewer, PhD, Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health and professor of health behavior.‍
• Stephen R. Cole, PhD, professor of epidemiology.‍
• Kelly R. Evenson, PhD, professor of epidemiology.‍
• Hans W. Paerl, PhD, professor of marine and environmental sciences and engineering and William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences.‍
• Barry M. Popkin, PhD, William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition.‍
• Bryce Reeve, PhD, adjunct professor of health policy and management at Gillings, and professor of population health sciences and Pediatrics within the Duke University School of Medicine.‍
• Timothy Sheahan, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology.‍
• David J. Weber, MD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and epidemiology, and associate chief medical officer of UNC Health Care.

Five Gillings faculty members were recognized by Expertscape as some of the top experts in their fields, based on scientific publications since 2010 from the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed journal database:

• ‍**Adaora Adimora, MD**, professor of epidemiology at Gillings and the Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Medicine;‍
• Cynthia Bulik, PhD, FAED, professor of nutrition and the Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in UNC’s Department of Psychiatry;‍
• Myron Cohen, MD, professor of epidemiology and is the Yeargan-Bate Eminent Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine;‍
• Joseph Eron, MD, adjunct professor of epidemiology and the Herman and Louise Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine; and‍
• Ralph Baric, PhD, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Gillings School’s Department of Epidemiology and a professor of microbiology and immunology with UNC’s School of Medicine.

The student-nominated Teaching Excellence and Innovation Awards honor Gillings faculty members who inspire students; enhance student learning through creative, engaging and innovative teaching methods; and/or support student success in the classroom and student growth as public health professionals. The 2022 award winners are:

• ‍**Jamie Crandell, PhD**, associate professor of biostatistics and nursing;‍
• Brian Wells Pence, PhD, professor of epidemiology;‍
• Julia Rager, PhD, assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering;‍
• Patsy Polston, PhD, assistant professor of health behavior;‍
• Katie Meyer, ScD, assistant professor of nutrition; and‍
• Jennifer Medearis Costello, MS, adjunct faculty for academic affairs.

‍**Clare Barrington, PhD**, associate professor of health behavior and director of the doctoral program in health behavior, received one of the School’s most prestigious awards, the Bernard G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award for teaching, research and service.‍

Andrew Olshan, PhD, Barbara S. Hulka Distinguished Professor of epidemiology and interim associate dean for research, received the John E. Larsh Jr. Award for Mentorship, one of the School’s most prestigious awards, which recognizes the faculty member who best exemplifies the qualities of mentoring and commitment to students.

Daniel Westreich, PhD, professor of epidemiology, received the Edward G. McGavran Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognizes career-long excellence in teaching by a faculty member at the Gillings School.

ALUMNI

Dilshad Jaff, MD, MPH, Gillings Humanitarian Fellow, received the 2022 Harriet Hylton Barr Distinguished Alumni Award, which honors an alumnus or alumna for outstanding achievements and contributions to public health.

Celette Sugg Skinner, PhD — alumna, adjunct professor of health behavior at Gillings and member of the Gillings School’s Public Health Foundation board — has been selected as the first dean of a new school of public health to be launched at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern in Dallas, on an interim basis. The UT System Board of Regents approved plans for the new school in February 2021.

M. Katherine Banks, PhD, was chosen by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents as president of the system’s flagship institution, Texas A&M University. A member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, she earned a Master of Science degree in environmental sciences and engineering from Gillings in 1986, followed by a doctoral degree from Duke University. Banks had previously served as Texas A&M Engineering Vice Chancellor and Dean, and as Vice Chancellor of Engineering and National Laboratories and College of Engineering dean.

Ronald Aubert, PhD, was appointed interim dean of the Brown University School of Public Health while the dean is on short-term leave for a temporary special assignment as the White House coronavirus response coordinator. Aubert, who received his doctoral degree in epidemiology from Gillings, had been serving as interim associate dean for diversity and inclusion at Brown’s School of Public Health and faculty director of the university’s Presidential Scholars Program.

Michael “Trey” Crabb III, MHA ‘01, MBA, was named senior vice president and chief business development officer at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, which operates health care facilities across the Mid-South region. Crabb earned a Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) degree in health policy and management and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kenan-Flagler Business School. For nine years, Crabb served on the Public Health Foundation Board.

Alex Gertner, PhD, a 2020 doctoral alumnus in health policy and management, has received two honors for his dissertation for research into the use of effective treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) in Medicaid beneficiaries: The Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award from The Graduate School at UNC in the field of social sciences, and the Annual Outstanding Dissertation Award from AcademyHealth, a professional organization for health services researchers, health policy analysts and health practitioners. Gertner’s dissertation research was published in a June 2020 study in Health Services Research and an August 2020 study in Health Affairs.

Jessica Melton, MHA, was named president and chief operating officer of Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. Suburban is nationally recognized for excellence and is a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Melton graduated with an MHA degree from Gillings in 2007 and serves on the Public Health Foundation Board.

Jennifer Mundt, MSPH, was named the N.C. Department of Commerce’s first assistant secretary of clean energy economic development and will lead the state’s efforts to develop opportunities in the clean energy industry. Mundt earned a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degree from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in 2007.

Sharon Phares, PhD, MPH, was named the chief scientific officer for the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC), where she directs NPC’s research strategy and oversees research related to policy that affects the pharmaceutical industry. She received an MPH from the Gillings School’s Public Health Leadership Program in 2010.

William Ray, MPH, was appointed as North Carolina’s director of emergency management and the deputy homeland security advisor at the N.C. Department of Public Safety. Ray earned an MPH from the Gillings Public Health Leadership Program in 2010 and a graduate certificate in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management from the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Sara Roszak, DrPH, has been named senior vice president, health and wellness strategy and policy for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), and president of the NCADS Foundation, which seeks to improve patient health through research, education and philanthropy. An adjunct professor of clinical education at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, she earned a Doctor of Public Health degree from Gillings’ executive program in health leadership in 2019.

Vilma S. Santana, MD, PhD, was inducted into the Academia de Medicine da Bahia (Bahia Academy of Medicine). This honor recognizes her dedication to a career of education, research and forming partnerships to advance public health globally. She earned a doctoral degree from the UNC Gillings Department of Epidemiology in 1994.

Kevin Tate, MHA, was named UNC Family Medicine’s new vice chair for administration. An alumnus of the UNC Gillings School for Global Public Health, he earned a MHA degree from the School’s Department of Health Policy and Management in 2005.

The following Gillings alumni have received appointments in the Biden-Harris administration:

• ‍Mayra Alvarez, MHA ’05, serves on the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.‍
• Chip Hughes, MPH ‘82, was named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Emergency and Pandemic Response in the U.S. Department of Labor.‍
• Anne Reid, MPH ’08, was appointed deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Paula Brown Stafford, MPH, was named Triangle Business Journal’s 2022 Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award winner. A biopharmaceutical executive and leadership consultant with more than 35 years of industry experience, she is currently the president, chief executive officer and chairperson of the board of directors of Novan, Inc., a clinical development-stage biotechnology company. She is an adjunct professor in the Gillings Public Health Leadership Program.

Five Gillings alumni were named in the Triangle Business Journal’s 2021 40 under 40 list, which highlights the Triangle’s best and brightest business and community leaders younger than 40 years. The 40 under 40 list highlights people who will shape the Triangle for years to come. The list includes three alumnae of the Department of Health Policy and Management — Morgan Jones, MSPH ‘07, Randi Towns, BSPH ‘15, and Dharmi Tailor, JD, BSPH ‘10; and alumna of the Department of Health Behavior, Rachel Page, MPH ‘11; and Andrew Herrera, MPH ‘17, MBA, an alumnus from the Public Health Leadership Program.

IN MEMORIAM

Frederic Karl Pfaender, PhD, emeritus professor of environmental sciences and engineering at Gillings, passed away in March 2022 at age 78. After earning his doctoral degree at Cornell University in 1971, Pfaender taught environmental sciences and microbiology at the Gillings School for more than four decades. A loyal member of the American Society for Microbiology for 56 years, he travelled internationally in service of his chosen science and proudly mentored graduate and doctoral students. In addition to being a dedicated educator and mentor, Pfaender also contributed to the building and renovation plans for Rosenau Hall and Michael Hooker Research Center. When he and his wife Sheila, former assistant director for program and resource development at the N.C. Institute for Public Health, retired to Alleghany County in the late 2000s, Fred refocused his passion and energy on several community-oriented committees and initiatives.

David Steffen, DrPH, who was a clinical assistant professor in the Public Health Leadership Program (PHLP) until 2017, passed away in July 2021. Steffen, who worked as district public health director for the State of New Mexico Department of Public Health, earned his Doctor of Public Health degree in 2000 and, in 2001, was recruited by the N.C. Institute for Public Health to run the National Public Health Leadership Institute, which trained senior leaders in governmental agencies, academia, health care, associations, nonprofit organizations, foundations and other partner organizations. His influence in health leadership extended into the UNC School of Medicine, where he co-directed the Academic Career Leadership Academy in Medicine program, which provides leadership education to junior faculty members at the School, with an emphasis on those underrepresented in medicine. The Steffen family has established the David Steffen and Jill Kerr Family Scholarship to support PHLP students who demonstrate a commitment to improving public health practice.

William T. “Bill” Small Jr., MSPH, former associate dean and senior advisor for multicultural affairs, passed away in April 2021 at age 82. He earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry from North Carolina Central University and a MSPH degree from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Gillings. After working as an occupational health chemist for the state, Small joined Gillings in 1971 as coordinator of minority affairs. During his tenure moved into the roles of assistant dean for students, associate dean for students, and associate dean and senior advisor for multicultural affairs. Small helped shape the Minority Student Caucus and supported the foundation of the Minority Health Conference, which features the “Annual William T. Small Jr. Keynote Lecture.” In 2010, he and his wife, Rosa, endowed the William Thomas Small Jr. and Rosa Williamson Small Scholarship, which focuses on enhancing the social, economic and cultural diversity of the student body.