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Alumni Newsletter Public Health Alumni Association Newsletter Dalla Lana School of Public Health Winter 2011/2012 This newsletter is also available as a PDF file Upcoming Event: March 7th, 2012
President’s Message, Public Health Alumni Association Welcome to the Public Health Alumni Association Newsletter. Before we reflect on events of the past year, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed their time, energy, and/or financial support to our Public Health Alumni Association (PHAA) and to the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH). We welcome new faces to the Public Health Alumni Association Executive. Julie Foisy joined the School on a full time basis this past summer as Practicum Placement and External Relations Officer. Julie will be a key support for the PHAA and alumni engagement. On behalf of the Executive, past and present, I’d like to warmly thank Ellen Sokoloff for providing invaluable support to the alumni in her role as both Development Officer and Treasurer to 2008. I also would like to welcome Monica Bienefeld, our newest Executive member. One of our key mandates is to strengthen the relationship between DLSPH students and alumni and to provide support to current students. As alumni, we all can appreciate the importance of conference attendance; particularly as it provides a venue for the exchange of ideas and for building relationships with those working in the field. I am pleased that over the past four years the Student Travel Award initiative has evolved into a sustainable source of student funding, as well as a formal award. This award recognizes the contributions of students to the field of public health. As in past years, once again we received more applications than we were able to fund. From this large pool, we were able to fund four students. With your continued support, we look forward to increasing the number of awards. I’d like to highlight that Travel Award applications are judged twice annually by a selection committee composed of members from the PHAA Executive as well as members drawn from the alumni community. If you would like to participate on this committee, please contact any member of your Executive. Many of you may remember Research Day. This year, in response to a student group application for funding, we were pleased to contribute PHAA sponsored prizes for 1st place PhD and 1st place Masters posters. At this student organized event, faculty, students, and alumni participated in judging posters. We continue to encourage interested alumni to volunteer for next year’s judging. The day’s highlights are included in this issue. For the fourth year in a row, we were very pleased to provide funding for the annual student-led conference. This year’s theme was “Public Health 2.0: Exploring Innovative and Participatory Technologies”. For those not familiar with this exciting and innovative student-led conference series, I encourage you to visit their conference website. (www.publichealth2point0.ca/) To take advantage of the presence of out-of-town alumni attending the 2010 CPHA conference, the annual alumni breakfast was replaced with an after work reception at the conference venue. The reception was well attended by alumni and faculty. We gratefully acknowledge the support from the DLSPH and we hope you enjoy the highlights included in this issue. Mark March 7th in your calendars and join us for the next alumni and student networking event. This after work social will be held at Screen Lounge, 20 College Street at Yonge, and will be a great opportunity to reconnect with fellow alumni and to meet current students. Learn more about your alumni association and ways to become involved. We look forward to seeing you! We are glad to announce that one of Julie Foisy’s roles will be to provide continued support for the Mentorship Program intake and matching process. Keep an eye out for our call for alumni mentors this coming summer, as the student intake relaunches in the fall. The mentorship program provides an excellent opportunity for students and alumni to build relationships based on shared areas of interest and for alumni to share their insights and experiences. Alumni mentors work in all areas of public health, including government, research institutions, hospitals, private sector, and NGO’s. Mentors are not required to reside in Toronto. Please visit our website and view the brochure for more information. We look forward to your participation. If you have any questions, comments, or if you wish to become more involved with the PHAA, please drop me a line (r.chaudhry@utoronto.ca) or contact Julie Foisy (julie.foisy@utoronto.ca) or any member of your Executive. Look for us on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4140831&mostPopular=&trk=tyah), ‘Like’ us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Public-Health-Alumni-Dalla-Lana-School-of-Public-Health/303415706340193), and keep your contact information up to date via the links on our website (http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/phaa.asp). We look forward to hearing from you and wish you a productive and prosperous year. - Ruhee Chaudhry Message from the Director, Dalla Lana School of Public Health Dear colleagues, Four years ago, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH) took the major step of becoming a School of Public Health. As we continue to build our future together, we are making significant progress in key areas that will allow us to realize our full potential as a leader in public health. These include:
· Welcoming a new Director: Dr. Howard Hu will join us on July 1, 2012. A physician specializing in internal medicine and occupational/environmental medicine, Dr. Hu also holds a doctoral degree in epidemiology. Since 2006, he has been at the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health & Medicine, where he is the NSF International Department Chair, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology and Internal Medicine. We look forward to his leadership and his presence in our community. Dr. Hu has met with the Division Heads and the Strategic Planning Committee and provided his views on the School’s future.
· Completing self-study and external review: To ensure the continued quality of our programs, we completed an extensive self-study in 2010 with input from the school’s faculty, students and administrative staff. This was followed in 2011 by an external review. Both have provided valuable insights to guide us as we move forward. The final reports, including the Dean’s response to the external review, can be found on our website ( http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/SelfStudy2010.asp).
· Developing a strategic plan: To ensure that the DLSPH maintains its position as a leader in public health and continues to innovate, the School has been engaged in a strategic planning process to define our mission, values and strategic directions and to provide a planning framework for our future. The plan has been completed and several working groups will be struck to address the identified actions.
· Renewing our MPH curriculum: At the same time, we are engaged in a curriculum renewal process for our Masters of Public Health program – a priority identified in both our self-study and external review. The process will identify the needs of our public health institutions, students and prospective students and tie the curriculum to those findings. This process will be competed by mid-2012. We have recently circulated the DLSPH Alumni Survey to alumni who graduated in the past seven years and hope you have had a chance to complete it!
· Staying connected with alumni: Our LinkedIn group for current students and alumni provides a space where students and alumni can connect, and upcoming events and job opportunities can be shared. Please join us by searching for the group “Dalla Lana School of Public Health Students and Alumni” and indicate the year in which you graduated in your request to join. If you have questions, please contact Julie Foisy, (Julie.foisy@utoronto.ca).
· C. P. Shah Alumni Award of Excellence in Public Health: Please visit our website in March for a call for nominations for the C.P. Shah Alumni Award of Excellence in Public Health. It will be awarded to a graduate who has advanced the field of public/population health in Canada or its provinces/territories by his/her contribution and/or sustained efforts in any one of the following fields: Practice of Public Health, Teaching and Research. http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/About.asp
As the DLSPH continues to enhance its leadership in public health in Canada and beyond, we hope you will keep in touch with us and let us know about your accomplishments. We are proud of our alumni and are committed to enhancing our connection with you.
-Louise Lemieux-Charles
Message From the Student Association Students at the DLSPH have been very active, not just with their studies, but as health promoters, advocates, activists and coalition-builders. The PHSA strives to bring students with different disciplinary backgrounds and skills together to enhance the quality of our experience as students and to contribute to the growth of the field of public health. Since our last update, the PHSA has been supporting numerous school-wide student activities. Research and Practice Day was held November 4th 2011. This event provided students within the DLSPH the opportunity to present their work to peers, faculty and community members, as well as gain skills in oral presentations. We had a great turnout, with approximately 35 poster submissions and 15 student judges participating. Thank you to all of those who came out and supported this great student initiative! The PHSA Social Committee put on a “Holiday Potluck” to provide students a break from final papers and exams in December, and had great attendance at the PubStumpers Trivia Night in January. Considering Public Health students were up against some pretty tough veteran pub stumpers, we did pretty well! Throughout January and February 2012, the PHSA has held town hall meetings for the different streams within the School. The purpose of these meetings has been to provide students, faculty and administration with the opportunity to discuss current issues and future direction of their specific programs. The PHSA plans to wrap up the school year by hosting a school-wide town hall in March that is open to all students and faculty, date TBD. Similarly, we are excited to have student representatives on many different committees within the school including the Curriculum Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, and the Space Committee, which provides a range of students with the opportunity and space to advocate for student needs. Finally, thanks to our student alumni representative, Joanna Kirton, who has kept the students up to date on alumni events and grant opportunities, for which we are most grateful. To find out more about the PHSA and current events, please see our website: http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/phssa/index.html Erica Downes and Jackie Quirk Co-Presidents, PHSA
Congratulations to last year’s Conference Travel Award Recipients:
Diego Silva, PhD Health & Behavioural Sciences Abstract Title: “Smoking and Persons with Schizophrenia: A Public Health Ethics Challenge”
Rebecca Hasdell, MPH Health Promotion Abstract Title: “Environment as Risk: The Greening of the Self in Neo-liberalism”
Erica Sutton, PhD Collaborative Program in Bioethics Abstract Title: “A Cross-Cultural Ethical Analysis of International Voices on Expanded Newborn Screening Programs”
Fatimah Jackson, PhD Social Sciences and Health Abstract Title: “Understanding the Everyday Occurrence of Violence in the Cultural Life of the Caribbean: Where do we go from here?”
For a list of past Award recipients, please visit our website (http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/chaa/index.html )
Division of Biostatistics Research Day The inaugural Biostatistics Research Day (BRD) was held on April 29th, 2011, at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH). This annual event is intended to bring the biostatistics community together, and to serve as a spring reunion for graduates from the School’s various biostatistics-related programs.
The academic program of the BRD consisted of presentations by a very distinguished group of speakers : Rob Tibshirani (keynote speaker, Stanford University) and Michael LeBlanc (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) are former professors of the Biostatistics program at DLSPH; Sharon-Lise Normand (Harvard University) and Penny Brasher (University of British Columbia), graduates of the Biostatistics doctoral program; Shelley Bull (Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute) and Mike Escobar (University of Toronto) are current faculty members at DLSPH.
The BRD also included poster presentations by faculty, students and post-docs, as well as dinner in the Great Hall, Hart House. This year’s BRD was held in honour of Paul Corey’s continuing contributions to the biostatistics community, and the dinner menu included a special “Toast & Roast” to celebrate his 70th birthday!
This one-day event was attended by over a hundred participants. Alumni, family and friends as well as current members of the Biostatistics Division joined the celebration at the Gala Dinner for music and entertainment.
Photo 1, BRD speakers (left to right): Shelley Bull, Michael LeBlanc, Mike Escobar, Sharon-Lise Normand, Paul Corey, Penny Brasher, Rob Tibshirani
Photo 2, Happy Birthday to Paul and Mary Corey
- Wendy Lou
PHAA Alumni and Friends Networking Event On June 14, 2010, the Public Health Alumni Association (PHAA), with generous support from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH), held a reception at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Toronto, coinciding with the Canadian Public Health Association Conference. This much anticipated networking event was an opportunity for alumni, faculty and friends to reconnect and catch up on news happening at the School. Over 45 alumni attended the reception, some turning out from as far as British Columbia and Nova Scotia. A number of faculty members were also present, as was historian and author James FitzGerald, the grandson of Dr. John G. FitzGerald, founding Director of the University of Toronto's School of Hygiene in 1927.
PHAA President, Ruhee Chaudhry welcomed attendees and presented updates on various alumni initiatives organized throughout the year. Updates on the School were then given by Amy Baier, Executive Assistant to former Director Jack Mandel. Among these were the recent endowment and developments in the School to provide top quality public health education. The reception was also an occasion for Professor Emeritus Dr. Chandrakant Shah to touch on the importance of public health in today's ever-changing global environment. Following the speakers, the floor was opened up for a dynamic discussion on how to increase alumni engagement and information sharing. The discussion allowed attendees to exchange insights into where the School has been and what they would like to see in the future. Building on the success and positive feedback received at this reception, the PHAA looks forward to planning more networking events to bring together students, alumni, faculty and friends in order share experiences and ideas and to support the School as a leading public health institution. - Sadia Mahmood
MPH Health Promotion Networking Event November 17th , 2011 saw a number of health promotion alumni, current health promotion students and faculty join together for a networking event. The event, held at DLSPH, provided health promotion students with the opportunity to hear from graduates of the program about how they got to where they are, and gain valuable advice, while the alumni were able to reconnect with old friends and meet future colleagues. The networking event was a great success and the organizers, current health promotion students, Jenny Diep and Bernice Yanful, would like to thank everyone who attended and supported the event.
DLSPH Research and Practice Day The third annual Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH) Research and Practice Day was held on the afternoon of Friday November 4th, 2011 in the 7th floor student lounge of the Health Science Building. This event was an opportunity to showcase public health research and practice conducted by DLSPH students. An organizing committee led by DLSPH students, assisted by DLSPH staff, and advised by DLSPH faculty ran the event using operating funds from the DLSPH.
Over forty master’s and doctoral students from the divisions of Biostatistics, Community Nutrition, Epidemiology, Health Promotion, Occupational and Environmental Health, and Social Behavioural Health Science submitted abstracts and created scientific posters describing their work.
Thanks are due to the students who presented posters, the students, alumni, and faculty who judged, to the local businesses, faculty members and PHAA for donating awards and to the members of the Research and Practice Day organization committee for organizing the event. The organizing committee would also like to thank the Dalla Lana School of Public Health for funding for food, poster boards and poster printing. - The Research & Practice Day Planning Committee
Congratulations to all the winners! Best Masters Presentation 1st place : Manisha Pahwa, (MPH Occupational and Environmental Health) Pesticide use, immunologic conditions, and risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma in Canadian men in six provinces. 2nd place : Binny Jandu (MPH Health Promotion) Factors associated with health care workers’ decision to receive H1N1 vaccination.
Best doctoral presentation 1st place : Kevin Black (PhD Health and Behavioural Science) Navigate this! Youth Contest: A case study of social advertising and social media marketing in action. 2nd place : Tim Guismond (PhD Biostatistics), Anky Lai (MSc Biostatistics), Josh Murray (MSc Biostatistics) and Kristen O’Brien (MSc Biostatistics). Sample weights in Bayesian Regression.
Best poster award Garthika Navaranjan (MPH Epidemiology) Multiple pesticide exposure and the risk of Jodgkin Lymphoma in Canadian men. People’s choice award Rebecca Penn (PhD Social and Behavioural Health Science) The imperative to “LIVE RIGHT NOW”: A Foucauldian and Neo-Marxian Analysis of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Healthy Living Initiative.
In Memoriam
Dr. Robin Badgley The DLSPH sadly learned of Dr. Robin Badgley's passing on October 5, 2011 at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. In a career spanning close to five decades, Dr. Robin Badgley focused his teaching and research in the areas of the social sciences and medical education, equity and health, the structure and dynamics of the Canadian health system, and issues relating to gender, health and violence. In these areas, he frequently served as a consultant for the World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Milbank Memorial Fund. On issues relating to gender, health and violence, he chaired two national fact-finding inquiries for the Government of Canada, on the Operation of the Abortion Law (1975-77) and Sexual Offences Against Children (1980-1984). He received an Order of Ontario acknowledging these achievements.
It was an honour to have Dr. Badgley as a Professor Emeritus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and his legacy will be remembered by continuing the Robin Badgley Awards for Teaching Excellence. A Celebration of Life will be held for family, friends and colleagues Saturday May 5 2012 at 11am at St. Judes Anglican Church, 160 William Street, Oakville, Ontario. A light lunch in the Parish Hall will follow the service. Please RSVP to RFBadgleyCelebration@gmail.com. Remembrances may be made to the Salvation Army.
Upcoming Alumni and Student Networking Event. Save the Date!
Date: Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 Time: 6:00-8:30pm Venue: Screen Lounge, 20 College Street (2nd floor) Toronto, Ontario RSVP: dlsph.alumni@gmail.com (acceptances only) Join us for a casual networking event at Screen Lounge at College and Yonge. Reconnect with colleagues and your fellow alumni. Meet current students. Learn more about ways to become involved with your alumni association and catch up on news from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. If you know of alumni who will be in Toronto and who may wish to attend, please forward the invitation. The event is free. We hope to see you there!
Public Health Alumni Association
President - Ruhee Chaudhry, MSc Vice-President – Joanne Thanos, MHSc Secretary – Monica Bienefeld, PhD Treasurer – Jeffrey Aguinaldo, PhD Student Representative – Joanna Kirton, MPH candidate Faculty Representative – Wendy Lou, PhD College of Electors Rep – Sadia Mahmood, MPH Members-at-Large - Saira Bahl, MSc Members-at-Large - Natalia Diaz Granados, MSc Members-at-Large - Manuela Ferrari, PhD candidate
Public Health Alumni Association: http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/phaa.asp Dalla Lana School of Public Health: http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/About.asp
Keep your U of T contact information up to date: https://secureca.imodules.com/s/731/index_clean.aspx?sid=731&gid=1&pgid=1363
Join your DLSPH & Alumni Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Public-Health-Alumni-Dalla-Lana-School-of-Public-Health/303415706340193
Join us on LinkedIn (Dalla Lana School of Public Health Students and Alumni goup): (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4140831&mostPopular=&trk=tyah),
Email us at dlsph.alumni@gmail.com
If you would like to share news or events with your fellow alumni, please contact Julie Foisy or any member of your Executive.
If you would like to make a donation to the Public Health Alumni Association, please go online https://donate.utoronto.ca/medicine . To ensure your gift is directed correctly, please select Dalla Lana School of Public Health. A tax reciept will be sent to you immediately by email. We thank you for your support.
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| Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto Copyright © 2008 |
Last Update 2/27/2012 |