2014 Fall - Biobehavioral Health

BBHNews
NEWS FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOBEHAVIORAL HEALTH
COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
DECEMBER 2014
bbh.hhd.psu.edu
Department of Biobehavioral Health • 219 Biobehavioral Health Building • University Park, PA 16802 • 814-863-7256
Global Health Minor
students offer glimpse
into field experiences
The Global Health Minor, offered by the Department of Biobehavioral
Health, is designed to give students exposure to issues affecting the health
of various populations in the world. Emphasis is placed on encouraging
students to more fully recognize the global interconnectedness of
current population health problems and to think critically about how
particular global health challenges might best be solved.
Here, five recent graduates were asked to reflect on their field
experiences as students in the Global Health Minor. They shared
where they went, what they did, and the most valuable lesson they
learned as part of their travel experiences.
Facilities at Evelyn Lekganyane Clinic in Polokwane,
South Africa.
Tess Pendery ’12 BBH
Operations Coordinator, Research and Development,
Health Leads
My summer fieldwork was in Polokwane, South Africa. I, along
with the other students in my cohort, worked with the University
of Limpopo’s Health Promotion unit on research focusing on
adolescent sexual health and possible interventions in the Limpopo
province of South Africa.
I think the most valuable lessons I learned were the ones you can’t
ever fully prepare for in the classroom and come from the experience.
For me, this was understanding the value of communication and
building relationships. After getting to know the community
and individuals we were working with our work together became
meaningful collaboration.
The minor really pushes you to extract every drop of learning out
of the experience. I have carried that with me in my current role at
Health Leads and it has proven to be a valuable skill to have and
to continue to develop. During the fieldwork, the importance of
building relationships became incredibly clear.
Rishi Agrawal and Michael Henry sit with a colleague
from Ifakara Health Institute during their fieldwork experience in Bagamoyo, Tanzania.
2 | Biobehavioral Health Newsletter
Natalie DiRocco ’12 BBH
Graduate Student, Boston University School of Public Health
The most impactful element of my Global Health Minor was the
six-week fieldwork immersion study that I fulfilled in Tanzania,
Africa. I engaged in direct observation and participation of maternal
and child health care in rural and urban settings. Stationed first in
Dodoma, Tanzania, I followed a group of nursing candidates who
were on site from Muhimbili University Health of Allied Sciences.
Each day I traveled to the rural village of Chamwino where I
spent time in the local health clinic dispensing family planning
information, observing live—often times caesarean—births,
and visiting traditional healers. I then spent four weeks in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, in the maternity ward at Muhimbili National
Hospital. Here, I accompanied various nurses and doctors during
their treatment and care for pregnant women in the facility.
One lesson I quickly learned while being on the ground in Tanzania
was that structured plans do not always unfold as intended. My peer
and I were unexpectedly shuffled between locations and told that
our placement at Muhimbili Hospital could not be fulfilled, as we
were not certified nurses. The most valuable lesson I learned during
this experience was that in the field of global health, you must be
flexible. Being willing to change in the face of new circumstances,
and navigating these new circumstances with resilience and
resourcefulness, is crucial in the field. I learned that having a flexible
attitude when approaching these changes is an attribute that will
result in goals being reached by using unexpected, yet constructive
and often innovative, methodologies.
The culmination of the Global Health Minor challenged me
to take what I learned in my classes and apply it in Tanzania,
ultimately enabling me to understand the essence of global
health. My enthusiasm for the global health field was palpable
upon my completion of the Global Health Minor and solidified
my decision to further my education in pursuit of a master of
public health (MPH) degree. I am currently enrolled as an MPH
candidate at Boston University School of Public Health, where I
am concentrating in global health. My international experience
and studies throughout the Global Health Minor have prompted
and compelled this undertaking.
Michael Henry ’13 BBH
Medical student, Columbia University
In Tanzania, for the Global Health Minor fieldwork, I stayed
with Tanzanian medical students from Muhimbili University
in Bagamoyo as they were on their community health rotation.
I accompanied them as we did surveys on child nutrition,
contraception use, and environmental health.
More than anything, I learned that doing global health work
properly requires significant time and patience, since we are
outsiders in a new context. It’s good that I learned this during the
fieldwork, or else I would have been frustrated during my Fulbright
in Tanzania as I waited hours for the car to be dug out of ditches,
weeks to get my work permit, and months to deal with logistical
issues in my project.
The minor inspired me to return to Tanzania for nine months to do
malaria research on a Fulbright grant, where I have made incredible
connections that I plan to use as I pursue my career in medicine. It also
gave me the non-“hard science” insights that have been so valuable in
adapting to African culture and understanding the reasons behind
many of the things I encounter outside of my laboratory.
Carly Comins ’12 BBH
National Consultant, National AIDS Secretariat
Thinking back to my Global Health Minor experience abroad,
it was definitely a turning point in my journey and in my global
health career. I was among the first cohort of Penn State students to
graduate with the Global Health Minor, and to this day, I value that
minor as one of the best aspects of my education. I was studying
abroad at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, during the
semester before the Global Health Minor’s six-week field placement
abroad. Therefore, I stayed in South Africa after the spring semester
and was arranged to work with a non-governmental organization
called HealthWise, based within the University of Western Cape,
for my field placement. I was the only one among my Global Health
Minor classmates to be placed in the southern part of South Africa,
but I thrived by myself and it enabled me to become fully integrated
among the organization and in the country. I worked both in the
field and in the office, conducting HIV and AIDS prevention,
intervention, educational work, and research.
Living and working in South Africa taught me a number of important
lessons that resonate with me today. I learned to better communicate
across cultural and language barriers. I absorbed the importance of
being persistent and determined in specific circumstances, because
many times the work was conducted with a different style and at a
different pace. Most importantly, I learned that when working with
an organization abroad, it is necessary to approach all situations with
an open mind. It is imperative to always keep an open mind and open
eyes and ears to be able to learn the reasons why and how to best
tackle different situations in different contexts.
It has been two years since I graduated from Penn State with a
bachelor’s degree in biobehavioral health and dual minors in global
health and psychology. Upon graduating, I took a position at the
Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine as a
research assistant to work on the Mini-Sentinel pilot of the FDA’s
Sentinel Initiative. We conducted active surveillance of new medical
products once they had reached the market through a claims-based
distributed data network. In October, I moved to Mauritius and
began working with the National AIDS Secretariat (NAS), under
the Prime Minister’s office. I was contracted by NAS to write the
2013 HIV and AIDS Integrated Biological and Behavioral Study
among People Who Inject Drugs, which was submitted to the
Global Fund.
After finishing the contract with NAS, I have begun working with
a non-governmental organization in Mauritius called PILS, which
was the first HIV/AIDS organization in the country and now the
biggest. I work with PILS on data analysis and the production of
reports and position papers to support new projects and advocacy
efforts. I am also currently in the field, working with street-based
female sex workers on a project to assess their access to health
care and HIV treatment. I will continue to draw upon the lessons
learned in the Global Health Minor today, tomorrow, and in my
future endeavors in the Global Health field.
Iris Guo ’13 BBH
Graduate Student, Columbia University
As a member of the Medical group in South Africa, we were tasked
with understanding the complexity of the health care system that was
occurring in rural South Africa (Limpopo Province). We shadowed
doctors who worked in the Public Health Clinic at the local hospital.
We participated in community outreach programs, but mostly
focused on the primary care units at the hospital. Because we were
merely undergraduate students, we asked a variety of questions and
developed a better understanding about the public sector worked as
opposed to the private sector of the health care system.
Leigh Ann Chominski, Michael Henry, Natalie DiRocco and
Rishi Agrawal go on a safari in northern Tanzania.
The most valuable lesson I have learned from my travels is the
ability to be flexible. Many times, especially in South Africa, certain
appointments or meetings were an hour to two hours late and
scheduled activities weren’t followed through. We learned that the
international development work is extremely messy at times, and
the best approach was to merely be patient.
Prior to the minor, I was medical school bound. I found fascination
in the socioeconomic and cultural determinants of health, which
led me to minor in African Studies upon my return from South
Africa. I will begin my master of public health program at Columbia
University in the fall. I hope to eventually project manage for a
governmental agency focusing on the impacts of rapid globalization
on disease patterns in the southern region of Africa. n
bbh.hhd.psu.edu | 3
BBH Faculty Updates
Idan Shalev
Helen Kamens
The “father” of the field of stress
research Hans Selye once said,
“every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays
for its survival after a stressful
situation by becoming a little older.”
Idan Shalev’s research aims to test this phenomenon. His
research is at the intersection of molecular biology and
psychology, combining strategies and methods from both
worlds. The focus of his research is to identify mechanisms
underpinning the biological embedding of stress, or “how
stress gets under the skin,” and its effect on health and aging. Specifically, he tests the dynamic and chronic effects of
stress from very early in life on change in telomere length,
the biological aging clocks at the end of the chromosomes
as well as other biomarkers of aging across the lifespan, and
the consequences of change in these biomarkers for physical
and mental health problems. His research aims to inform
new targets for intervention to reverse the damaging effects
of stress on our body and mind. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Ben-Gurion University, and master’s and doctorate
degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He joined
the department from Duke University where he was a postdoctoral fellow.
In her research, Helen Kamens
seeks to identify genetic mechanisms that contribute to complex
behaviors with a special emphasis
on alcohol and tobacco use. She
was an assistant research professor at
the University of Colorado from 2012 to 2013. She earned
a bachelor’s degree in biobehavioral health at Penn State
and a Ph.D. degree in behavioral neuroscience at Oregon
Health and Science University.
Christopher Engeland
Christopher Engeland’s research focuses on how factors
such as stress, age, gender, and
hormones affect immunity, inflammation, and health. He also
examines the feasibility of biomarkers for predicting health outcomes. Prior to joining the
faculty at Penn State, Engeland was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He earned
bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Carleton University
in Ontario and a Ph.D. degree at the University of
Western Ontario.
Sheºdra Amy Snipes
In her research, Shedra Amy
Snipes studies the intersections
between culture, biology, and
health disparities among Mexican immigrant farmworkers. In
particular, she travels with immigrant
farmworkers, sharing in their lives and labor and using
a unique blend of ethnography, community-based participatory research, and biomarker collection to conduct
studies. Her research, to date, provides new, first-hand
knowledge about pesticide exposure, occupational illness,
injuries, and access to health care among Mexican farmworkers. Snipes earned a Ph.D. degree at the University of
Washington, and she is an alumna of the W.K. Kellogg
Health Scholars Program.
4 | Biobehavioral Health Newsletter
Anne-Marie Chang
Anne-Marie Chang is a new assistant professor in our department as well as in nursing. Her
research investigates the genetic
factors that influence sleep and circadian rhythms, how sleep influences
cardio-metabolic function in humans, and how light
influences sleep and alertness. She is also an affiliated
Instructor at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
Turrisi Speaks at
MADD Conference
Orfeu Buxton
Orfeu Buxton’s research primarily focuses on the causes of sleep
deficiency in the workplace,
home, and society, and the health
consequences of sleep deficiency,
especially cardiometabolic outcomes
and the physiologic and social mechanisms by which these
outcomes arise. Successful aging is a central focus of this
work. Buxton will describe recent and ongoing interdisciplinary human studies involve sleep loss, aging, and insomnia, as well as health disparities. Recent research findings
span epidemiology, controlled laboratory studies, and field
experiments. After earning a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh and a stint as
a small business owner, Buxton earned a doctoral degree
in Neuroscience from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Buxton co-chairs the Steering Committee
of the Work, Family, and Health Network. He leads the
Biomarker and Actigraphy Data Coordinating Center
for the Work, Family, and Health Study, and the Fragile
Families study, among others. Buxton also serves on the
Internal Advisory Board of the Harvard School of Public
Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being.
Christine Heim
Christine Heim is a newly hired
full professor of biobehavioral
health who will work with us
part-time each spring and fall
to work with the Social Science
Research Institute and the Children,
Youth, and Families Consortium. She focuses her research on how childhood trauma can influence neurobiology over the long term. When she’s not at Penn
State, she is a professor and director of the Institute for
Medical Psychology in the Charité Medical School of
Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin.
Robert Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health and developer of the underage drinking prevention effort known
as the Power of Parents, was a featured speaker at the
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) news conference on “21 Days in Support of 21,” at the National Press
Club in Washington, D.C., in April.
MADD presented new data from a Nationwide Insurance-MADD survey on what keeps teens from engaging
in underage drinking. According to these data, three out
of four teens point to their parents as the biggest influence
on their decisions about alcohol.
“21 Days in Support of 21” was a 21-day national event.
From April 1 to 21, MADD showcased community and
online events designed to help parents keep teens safe during spring break, prom and graduation season. The series
culminated with MADD’s fourth annual Power Talk 21®
on April 21—the national date on which parents were
urged to begin talking with their teens about alcohol.
Other speakers at the press conference included MADD
national President Jan Withers; four mothers from California, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia whose teen
daughters died as a result of underage drinking; and Nationwide Insurance Associate Vice President of Consumer
Safety Bill Windsor.
Turrisi—who is also a faculty associate in the Bennett Pierce
Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human
Development, and the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium at Penn State—designed the intervention based on
his more than 20 years of research focusing on substance
abuse and parent-adolescent relationships.
Turrisi has authored hundreds of articles and co-authored
several books on topics that range from statistical analysis
to the role of parenting in preventing risky behavior in
children. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology
from Rhode Island University in 1983 and a doctorate in
social psychology from the University at Albany, the State
University of New York, in 1988. He has been a member
of the Penn State faculty since 2004.
bbh.hhd.psu.edu | 5
Herbs and spices enhance
heart health and flavor
Spices and herbs are rich in antioxidants, which may help improve
triglyceride concentrations and other blood lipids, according to reseachers in the College of Health and Human Development.
Triglyceride levels rise after eating a high-fat meal—which can lead
to an increased risk of heart disease. If a high-antioxidant spice blend
is incorporated into the meal, triglyceride levels may be reduced by
as much as 30 percent when compared to eating an identical meal
without the spice blend. The spiced meal included garlic powder,
rosemary, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, paprika, turmeric, ginger and
black pepper.
Sheila G. West, professor of biobehavioral health, and Ann C. Skulas-Ray, research associate in nutritional sciences, reviewed a variety
of research papers that focused on the effects that spices and herbs
have on cardiovascular disease risk. They published their findings
in a supplement to the current issue of the journal Nutrition Today.
West and Skulas-Ray looked at three categories of studies—spice
blends, cinnamon and garlic. They reviewed several cinnamon
studies that looked at the effect of the spice on both diabetics
and non-diabetics. Cinnamon was shown to help diabetics by
significantly reducing cholesterol and other blood lipids in the
study participants. However, cinnamon did not appear to have
any effect on non-diabetics.
The garlic studies reviewed were inconclusive, but this is likely because the trials had a wide range of garlic doses, from nine milligrams of garlic oil to 10 grams of raw garlic.
The McCormick Science Institute supported this work.
Student & Alumni Spotlight
Jill Steiner, M.D.
Anjana Sinha
Jill Steiner, BBH Class of 2005 and Milton S. Hershey School Class
of 2010, completed her internship and residency at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she is now
Chief Resident in Internal Medicine. Steiner volunteers at the student
outreach H.O.Y.A. Clinic and working with the Georgetown Medical School chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Her longterm goal is to teach residents and medical students while treating an
active patient population.
Anjana Sinha, who earned at bachelor’s of science degree in immunology and completed her honor’s thesis in biobehavioral health in
2011, has recently been awarded two grants as part of her graduate
work at Johns Hopkins University, including $100,000 for a tuberculosis diagnostic and $80,000 from the same foundation supporting a breast cancer diagnostic. Both awards are from the Wallace E.
Coulter Foundation.
6 | Biobehavioral Health Newsletter
BBH researchers’ study
featured in Brain, Behavior
and Immunity journal
Work focuses on daily positive events, inflammation
A study by researchers in the Department of Biobehavioral
Health has been published in the journal Brain, Behavior and
Immunity.
Biobehavioral Health student
receives predoctoral Ford
Foundation Fellowship
Francisco Alejandro ‘Alex’ Montiel-Ishino
awarded for his gene studies
Francisco Alejandro “Alex” Montiel-Ishino, a predoctoral
student in the Department of Biobehavioral Health, is a recipient of a 2014 Ford Fellowship by the Ford Foundation
Fellowship Program.
In 2014, the Ford Fellowship program has awarded approximately 60 predoctoral fellowships. The predoctoral fellowships provide three years of support for individuals engaged in
graduate study leading to a doctor of philosophy or doctor of
science degree.
Montiel-Ishino’s fellowship was awarded for his project, “PON1
gene expression feasibility study in Mexican migrant farmworker
children exposed to organophosphate pesticides: The embodiment
of environmental insults and social injustice.”
The study, titled, “Daily positive events and inflammation: Findings from the National Study of Daily Experiences,” suggests
that positive aspects of everyday life may accumulate over time to
protect against inflammation and promote long-term health. Researchers included Nancy Sin, postdoctoral fellow in the Center
for Healthy Aging and the department of biobehavioral health;
Jennifer Graham-Engeland, associate professor of biobehavioral
health; and David Almeida, professor of human development
and family studies.
The researchers used data that was collected as part of the Midlife
in the U.S. Study, a large national study of middle-aged and older
adults. The sample of 969 participants were interviewed by telephone every evening for eight days. During the daily interviews,
they were asked whether anything positive happened in each of
these five life domains: at home, at work, positive social interaction, “network” event or any other positive event. The participants
provided blood samples at a clinic visit, which were analyzed for
inflammatory markers.
On average, participants experienced positive events on 73 percent of the interview days. The highest levels of inflammation
were among people who had few positive events (less than 57
percent of days).
Erica Stagliano
Michelle Martin
Graduate student Erica Stagliano has earned the Pattishall Undergraduate Research Award and the Penn State Student Leadership
Scholarship, both in the fall of 2012; the Lamartine Hood Endowment Scholarship by the Penn State Alumni Association Bucks
County Chapter in spring of 2013; and Edith Pitt Chace Award
from the College of Health and Human Development.”
Michelle Martin, who is completing her Ph.D. in biobehavioral
health at Penn State, was featured in the Winter 2013 issue of the
Florida Gator Magazine published by the UF Alumni Association
and is considered to be one of 20 exceptional UF alumni under 30.
Martin is also a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Spencer Balkin
Spencer Balkin, a current BBH student, is an aspiring entrepreneur who
aims to bridge the gap between older and younger generations. Balkin
has since worked on his non-profit organization, eGenShare, to help facilitate ethical will programming and implement ethical will programming at health care facilities across the country. www.eGenShare.org
bbh.hhd.psu.edu | 7
Creating solutions together
Students in BBH and IST team up for this semester’s mHealth Challenge
Drawing on personal experiences with real-world problems,
students in the Department of Biobehavioral Health (BBH) and
the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) put
their heads together to create mobile technologies that advance
health and well-being.
As part of Penn State’s Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)
this semester, students in BBH and IST participated in
mHealth, a challenge that allows undergraduate students to
work in cross-discipline teams to mock-up a mobile health application that addresses a societal health need associated with a
specific targeted audience.
The PSU mHealth is modeled after a typical consulting scenario
in which a group of subject matter experts (in this case BBH) work
with technology experts (IST students) to create a prototype that
addresses a defined program or issue for a defined audience.
Students from JoAnn Foley-Defiore’s course in BBH and students from Jim Jansen’s IST course were the collaborators.
“The idea is to really take a behavioral theory…and enable it
through mobile technology,” said Meg Small, assistant director
for innovations and social change at the Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center.
Specifically, BBH students prepared a brief describing a target
population, health need and behavioral objectives designed to address the health need. Students in IST acted as technology consultants working with BBH students to create a mock-up of a mobile
app that addresses the defined need. Then, BBH and IST students
prepared idea pitches with faculty support. Participating teams
pitch their ideas to a panel of judges during GEW. The challenge
is held once per semester. Last year was its inaugural year.
There were five teams and each team was composed of two to three
BBH students and two to three IST students, Small said.
Last spring’s winning team was offered internships by a technology company in Silicon Valley, California.
This year’s students will have other opportunities within Penn
State and the local community to work on their ideas after
the competition. Lion Launchpad and New Leaf Initiative are
among the collaborators, Small said.
“The variety and breadth of ideas … it really is amazing,” she said.
One example of an application that was pitched at last year’s
competition was a system to track hospital patients. One of the
student participants had an experience where she had been unable to locate a friend who was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, Small said. She wanted to fix the problem by
developing technology to help visitors locate family and friends
admitted to the hospital.
8 | Biobehavioral Health Newsletter
“I personally learned a lot from working with the IST
students. Their field of study is completely different
than BBH, but health care and technology are extremely
connected. It is very important to experience how two
majors can coincide. In this case, our team was able to
use our knowledge towards promoting health.”
— Kele Powell, senior
“The students are amazing,” she said. “Boy, they come in polished.”
Another example from last year’s event was an application to offer long-distance technical assistance to farmers to improve their
tomato crops, Small said.
“The students really do love it,” she said. “It’s a very high-energy event.”
Senior BBH student Kele Powell and her team received second
place for their mobile mock-up application, “Beat-the-Betes,” in
the Spring 2014 mHealth Challenge.
“Our target audience was children with Type 2 Diabetes and
the aim of our interactive application was to help these children
manage their disease through an educational treasure board
game,” Powell said.
She said she believes her participation in the challenge helped
her understand the importance of two colleges working together.
“I personally learned a lot from working with the IST students,” she
said. “Their field of study is completely different than BBH, but
BBH students prepared briefs describing a target population, health need and behavioral objectives designed to address the health need. They were
paired with students in IST who acted as technology consultants to create a mock-up of a mobile app that addressed the defined need. Working in
project teams, the students prepared ideas and pitched them to a panel of judges during Penn State’s Global Entrepreneurship Week.
health care and technology are extremely connected. It is very important to experience how two majors can coincide. In this case,
our team was able to use our knowledge towards promoting health.”
Additionally, the IST students helped keep Powell and her fellow
BBH teammate on track, she said.
“BBH students are taught to have a comprehensive understanding of health,” she said. “We study several topics such as physiology, anatomy, psychology, sociology and biology. Therefore, our
minds can be all over the place when we talk about a certain
health issue. We think about all of the different factors that
come into play when examining a disease or disparity, which
can get complicated.”
Powell continued, “However, my IST teammates were very good
at keeping us focused on one thing at a time and pinpointing the
most important topics to pitch to the audience.”
This semester Powell said she was most looking forward to seeing
how the BBH students transform their initial ideas from their
project briefs, which she provided feedback on.
“I don’t want to give away any hints, but I am very excited to see
how they will incorporate all of these ideas into a mobile application with the IST students,” Powell said.
Powell said the mHealth Challenge is a great way to help students in their future careers because it teaches them time management and tests their ability to work in groups. Both of these
characteristics, she said, apply to any career.
“The challenge is definitely a lot of work in a small period of time,
so learning to manage your time wisely is important to successfully compete in the challenge,” Powell said. “The students also
learn how to work effectively in interdisciplinary groups which
is easy for some and difficult for others. Not to mention, you
pitch your mobile application (to) at least 150 people, if not more.
Therefore, public speaking also comes into play.”
Powell said another benefit to the challenge is that it gives students the opportunity to connect with professors, which is important at such a large university.
“It allows students to expand their networks and meet people that
they would never have met if they did not participate in the challenge,” she said. “Also, it gives PSU professors the chance to be
more involved with their students.”
Last fall, the mHealth Challenge was the top attended event
during Global Entrepreneurship Week, Small said.
“We’re going for the record again this year,” she said. “I think it’s
a good example of engaged scholarship.”
This semester’s judges included Mary Good, president of
Good Advice, LLC; Ed Marx, director of strategic analytics
at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and board member
of the Schreyer Honors College; and Jeffrey Goldberg, chief
operating officer of TIAG.
Penn State’s 2014 GEW was Nov. 16 to 21. For more information visit www.gewpennstate.org. n
bbh.hhd.psu.edu | 9
Biobehavioral Health, Penn State recognize
importance of, take lead on global health
Issues related to global health will be an everincreasing stressor on the world’s resources and
societal, environmental, and economic progress. According to the Consortium of Universities
for Global Health, global health is “improving the
economic, social, and environmental conditions
people live in, and eliminating avoidable disease,
disability, and death.”
2014, the first of many thematic GEN workshops to take place
throughout the world. Led by Collins Airhihenbuwa, professor
and head of BBH, and Robert Crane, professor of geography
and director of the Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering
and Development in Africa, the workshop was part of the University’s plan to support joint efforts to organize a global health
workshop involving several universities across the world.
The May 2014 workshop established two priorities to be the focus
of the network initially: Urbanization and Health and the Interaction and intersection of Infectious Diseases and Non-Communi-
“Global health is an important key to
global citizenship and the new network will provide opportunities for
students and faculty to learn from and
share with other students and scholars
around the world.”
Collins Airhihenbuwa
Professor and Head, Biobehavioral Health
Director of the Global Health Network
During the inagural Global Health Workshop, participants met in
small groups to determine focused priorities of the network.
The success of future generations will require broadened perspectives and an understanding of global health and its complex
implications. The Department of Biobehavioral Health (BBH)
and Penn State recognize this and are keeping global health as a
priority in learning and missions.
Global Health and Penn State
As part of Penn State’s previous five-year strategic plan, its University Office of Global Program rolled out a vision of globalizing
the University by creating a Global Engagement Network (GEN).
In the next five years, a goal is to strengthen Penn State’s GEN
partnerships and build a collaborative network through a thematic
foci. One of these key themes is global health.
Inagural Global Health Workshop at University Park
As a result of this goal, Penn State hosted the inaugural Global Health Workshop on its University Park campus in May
10 | Biobehavioral Health Newsletter
cable Diseases (NCDs). Additionally, specific recommendations
were made to guide follow up activities. These were:
• Formalize the network to focus on the two priorities for a new
Pan University Network for Global Health;
• Set up a steering committee, with a rotating chair, made up
of a few institutions with initial investment in the form of
commitment of funds to support a few seed grants undertaken by members of the network and focus on one of the
two priorities;
• Set up infrastructure at Penn State to house the network and build
on the momentum including the hiring of a program coordinator;
• Each participating institution should identify a champion/key
leader, particularly those who are key members with dedicated
funding; and
• Meet again in Freiburg, Germany in October 2014 to further
discuss and make decisions about the framework for the network management and institutional participation.
Second Global Health Workshop in Germany
At the University of Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany on Oct. 2 and
3, the second Global Health Workshop was held, during which discussions continued about the network priorities established at the
first meeting. In addition, a variety of the inaugural workshop’s recommendations were formally implemented.
The meeting brought together about 22 representatives from seven
of the original 15 partner institutions that participated in the inaugural workshop (Penn State, University of Freiburg, University of
Pune, University of Cape Town, University of Limpopo, University
of the West Indies and University of Minnesota).
Airhihenbuwa provided an recap from the inaugural meeting as
well outlined as a few key action items: formalize the network
to be housed at Penn State (a search is currently underway for
“The Global Health Network is
an excellent example of the
implementation of Penn State’s
global engagement strategy”
Michael Adewumi
Vice Provost, University Office of
Global Programs
Participants in the second Global Health Workshop held in October
2014 at the University of Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany.
a research associate to be hired to work with him to coordinate
activities of the network); and identifying a network champion/
leader at each of the partner institutions.
Additionally, Penn State has committed $50,000 per year for
two years to support pilot projects, Airhihenbuwa said. Other institutions were encouraged to contribute to this amount to make
it a true network collaboration.
Two working groups were formed to address how the network can
move forward on the two initial priority areas. Group A will focus
on the interaction of infectious and NCDs, and will develop a pilot for the funds available at Penn State; and Group B, will focus
on research priority for urbanization and health as well as capacity
building in the network.
The inagural Global Health Workshop at University Park
offered attendees from universities across the world many
networking opportunities.
The University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa was
mentioned as the tentative location for the next Global Health
Workshop meeting in 2015. n
bbh.hhd.psu.edu | 11
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Biobehavioral Health Alumni Survey –
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