The coronavirus pandemic has brought a number of challenges to schools, which were forced to close in the spring to help slow the spread of infection. One major challenge for schools was ensuring that students’ nutritional supplementation needs were met when they were not attending school in person. As schools across the country begin to […]
The Brown School is pleased to present our Foundations of Pandemic Preparedness & Response program. This five-part, 20-hour program provides a self-paced, online tool kit to help public health and social service professionals respond, mitigate, and prevent infectious disease outbreaks, focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic. The course is a foundational experience designed to build basic understanding and skills in: Epidemiology Surveillance […]
A significant proportion of mothers are unaware of their children’s height and weight—which has implications for early detection of childhood obesity. Researchers utilized data from 230 mothers in the St. Louis area of containing baseline self-reported and measured heights and weights of mothers and children who were enrolled in ‘Healthy Eating and Active Living Taught […]
Hometown: Soweto, Namibia Undergraduate school and degree: St. Olaf College, Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Brown School program: MPH/MSW Anticipated graduation: December 2020 Three things you have with you at all times: Nailclipper, floss, and driver’s license What are your hobbies or activities when you aren’t studying or working? Taking long walks and running in […]
Five of our students at the PRC graduated this May!
Food insecurity is a public health issue that affects 12% of Americans. Individuals living in food insecure households are more likely to suffer from conditions such as undernutrition, obesity and chronic diseases. Food insecurity has been linked to limited geographic access to food; however, past studies have used limited measures of access which do not […]
Healthy eating and activity are important to prevent obesity and chronic diseases, yet those who are most likely to bear a disproportionate burden have limited access to resources that promote healthy eating and activity, especially in the workplace. Thus, there is a need for workplace programs that promote healthy eating and activity that reach low-wage […]
Dissemination and implementation science aims to address the research-to-practice gap by 1) identifying and understanding barriers and facilitators that influence evidence based interventions and 2) developing strategies to enhance adoption of evidence-based interventions. D&I is an important consideration in enhancing the uptake of evidence-based practices and, as such, so is strengthening researcher’s understanding and proficiency […]
Implementation science seeks to close the gap between what we do and what we know by identifying and addressing the barriers that prevent uptake of evidence-based practices. An intervention that is guided by evidence-based implementation strategies is more likely to produce desired results because proper implementation is a key component of an intervention’s success. These […]
“The smoldering disparities that we’ve allowed to persist for decades are bursting into flames. If the human toll of those disparities isn’t enough to motivate us, remember that this is an infectious disease, so that fire will spread.” In episode 1 of a 5 part series on Medium, PRC’s Karishma Furtado and Alex Morshed discuss […]
Staff Spotlight: Linda Dix Shortly after you walk in the door to the PRC, you might notice a whiteboard with a written question above an answer hidden by a flap of paper. “Why don’t you iron 4-leaf clovers?” it says. You peek under the flap and see the answer (spoiler alert!): “You don’t want to […]
Angeline is a 1st year MPH student currently on sabbatical from the program for 2020 while she completes a Fulbright Fellowship in Malaysia. She will be teaching English and learning about their local public health initiatives. Hometown: Cleveland, OH Undergraduate Program: Villanova University: majored in Global Interdisciplinary studies Three things you have with you at all times: […]
The nameplate on Mary Adams’ desk proclaims her to be the “Chief Deliciousness Officer,” and few would contest that title. Adams plies the PRC with candy, cakes cookies, and the other tasty products of her longtime hobby as a baker extraordinaire. “I try to give everyone a little bit of happiness,” she says. When she’s […]
Maura Kepper’s research focuses in part on the connections between urban planning and public health, especially when it comes to parental decisions about letting their kids go out to play. What she learned in years of research gained new meaning about two years ago, when her first child was born. “It definitely brought a new […]
When she was growing up in North Carolina, Stephanie Mazzucca discovered an interest in food based on family. “We always cooked a lot,” she recalled. “I was often left to fend for myself and started watching the Food Network and mastering the family red sauce,” a legacy from her Italian heritage. So it wasn’t a […]
Ross Brownson is a huge baseball fan, so it’s not surprising to find birthday wishes to him written on outlines of baseball caps lining a wall in his office. “Make America Healthy Again,” said one. “Amazing Mentor,” said another. Both are fitting sentiments for the nationally renowned professor, author and director of the Prevention Research […]
Kate Curoe MPH 2019 Hometown: Cincinnati, OH Undergraduate College & Major/ Minor: Saint Louis University; Majored in Public Health; Minored in Biology, Urban Poverty Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies Three things you have with you at all times: My phone, water bottle, and headphones What are your hobbies or activities when you are not studying or working? I […]
Mackenzie Robinson MPH, 2019 Hometown: Eustis, FL Undergraduate College & Major/ Minor: University of Florida, Major in Anthropology and Minor in African Studies Three things you have with you at all times: chewing gum, perfume, and my phone What are your hobbies or activities when you aren’t studying or working? I love listening to music, especially Afrobeat, Reggae, Soca, […]
“I hate driving!” Deborah Salvo, the newest faculty addition to the PRC, rides her street bike to work from her University City home. Growing up in Mexico City, she became accustomed to the social interaction that biking or public transportation can provide. The car culture of many American cities, including St. Louis, doesn’t lend itself […]
Who’s that guy zipping through the PRC on a scooter? That would be Rodrigo Reis Reis lives just a few blocks from the Brown School and often walks, bikes or scoots to his job as as a professor and researcher. Physical activity is an integral part of his work as well, as he looks for […]
Katie Bass, MPH, MSW Graduating 2020 Hometown: Sioux City, IA Undergraduate College & Major/ Minor: Concordia College. Major in Psychology with Neuroscience Minor Three things you have with you at all times: Gum, Chap stick and my college class ring What would people be surprised to know about you? I have been composing music on multiple instruments for the past […]
MPH Graduating May 2018Hometown: Omaha, NEUndergraduate Major: B.S. in Biology, Minor in Chemistry Three things you have with you at all times:A really nice pen, a really nice notebook and mailing stamps What are your hobbies or activities when you aren’t studying or working?Cooking and baking, working out and reading What would people be surprised to know […]
Peg Allen worked initially as a nurse before deciding she wanted to become involved in preventing disease rather than just treating it. “Working as a visiting nurse and seeing the tremendous suffering from the complications of diabetes in particular — people were suffering so much, from blindness, amputations …emphysema and had a poor quality of […]
Rachel Tabak’s research is focused on helping families become healthier through better eating and physical activity, with a central goal of preventing obesity. One barrier that she and other experts sometimes face is the perception that they’re more like nannies than nutritionists. In fact, Tabak said, savvy nutritionists know that blaming the individual isn’t just […]
Melissa Franco, MPH student (graduating Summer 2018) Hometown: Pasadena, CA Undergraduate school and major/minor: University of California, Davis; Chemistry Three things you have with you at all times…I have my headphones, laptop, and my keys, which I constantly misplace! What are your hobbies or activities when you aren’t studying or working?Growing up in California, I never had […]
Program Master of Public Health Expected Graduation Date May 2017 Where did you grown up? Queens, New York What made you interested in public health? I’ve always been concerned with the well-being of those around me. It started with me being concerned about my family’s well-being, and then grew from there. What was your favorite […]
Samuel Yang, MPH student (graduating Spring 2018)Hometown: Gainesville, FLUndergraduate school and major/minor: University of Alabama (ROLL TIDE), Environmental Science/Public Policy Three things you have with you at all times…Headphones, a water bottle, and a navigation tool!This makes me sound much more athletic and adventurous than I am. Really, I’m terrible with directions and easily dehydrated, which would […]
A majority of deaths in the US are attributable to chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes and public health systems across the world have been tasked with intervening at the population level to reduce this burden. State health departments are increasingly utilizing evidence-based public health (EBPH) as an important tool to meet population health […]
Today’s parents are restricting their children’s outdoor play, but children in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods face more restrictions, our new research finds. “Being physically active and playing outdoors is essential for adolescent development,” writes the study’s lead author, Dr. Maura Kepper, research assistant professor at the PRC. “Policy and environment change that improves neighborhood conditions may […]
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $838,500 to Washington University in St. Louis to train researchers to find ways improve the adoption of evidence-based practices to reduce chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The annual, five-day training and ongoing mentoring for post-doctoral researchers aims to shorten the gap between research results […]
Public health experts find their passion for the field in different places. For Amy Eyler, it was a Discount Drug Mart in Independence, Ohio. Eyler went to college intending to be a physical therapist but found the one-on-one work wasn’t what she had imagined. “I hated it,” she said. “I became almost lost.” She dropped […]
The Prevention Research Center in St. Louis with guidance from experts at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, and Brigham Young University School of Social Work have developed a website that will aid in policy implementation evaluation. This publicly available website is intended to help policy researchers, evaluators, […]
Understanding the contribution of public- and restricted-access places to overall and domain-specific physical activity among Mexican adults: A cross-sectional study. Understanding the contribution of public- and restricted-access places to overall and domain-specific physical activity among Mexican adults: A cross-sectional study.Jáuregui A, Salvo D, Medina C, Barquera S, Hammond D.PLoS One. 2020 Feb 7;15(2):e0228491. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228491. […]
The Healthcare Innovation Lab and the Institute for Informatics hosted a “Shark Tank-style” pitch session on February 28, 2020. Ten project teams requesting up to $50,000 in funds at BJC HealthCare (BJC) and Washington University School of Medicine’s (WUSM) competed in the second Big Ideas Competition. Our own PRC faculty, Maura Kepper, presented with her […]
Erwin PC, Parks RG, Mazzucca S, Allen P, Baker EA, Hu H, Davis-Joyce J, Brownson RC. Evidence-Based Public Health Provided Through Local Health Departments: Importance of Academic-Practice Partnerships. Am J Public Health. 2019 May;109(5):739-747. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.304958. Epub 2019 Mar 21. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30896995
Serrano N, Diem G, Grabauskas V, Shatchkute A, Stachenko S, Deshpande A, Gillespie KN, Baker EA, Vartinaien E, Brownson RC. Building the capacity -examining the impact of evidence-based public health trainings in Europe: a mixed methods approach. Glob Health Promot. 2019 Apr 3:1757975918811102. doi: 10.1177/1757975918811102. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed [citation] PMID: 30943109
Jia P, Stein A, James P, Brownson RC, Wu T, Xiao Q, Wang L, Sabel CE, Wang Y. Earth Observation: Investigating Noncommunicable Diseases from Space. Annu RevPublic Health. 2019 Apr 1;40:85-104. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043807. Epub 2019 Jan 11. PubMed [citation]PMID: 30633713
Eyler AA, Valko CA, Macchi M, Fershteyn Z, Mazzucca SL, Brownson CA, Lau A, Brownson RC. Adjusting the Equity Lens: Gaps in Addressing Health Equity in State Chronic Disease Prevention. Health Equity. 2019 Mar 29;3(1):86-91. doi: 10.1089/heq.2018.0075. eCollection 2019. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30944889, PMCID: PMC6445208
Ellis SD, Geana M, Mackay CB, Moon DJ, Gills J, Zganjar A, Brekke G, Thrasher JB, Griebling TL. Science in the Heartland: Exploring determinants of offering cancer clinical trials in rural-serving community urology practices. Urol Oncol. 2019 Mar 29. pii: S1078-1439(19)30097-3. doi: 10.1016/j.urolonc.2019.03.004. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed [citation] PMID: 30935846
Furtado KS, Budd EL, Armstrong R, Pettman T, Reis R, Sung-Chan P, Wang Z, Brownson RC. A cross-country study of mis-implementation in public health practice. BMC Public Health. 2019 Mar 6;19(1):270. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6591-x. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30841888, PMCID: PMC6404329
Franco M, Mazzucca S, Padek M, Brownson RC. Going beyond the individual: how state-level characteristics relate to HPV vaccine rates in the United States. BMC Public Health. 2019 Feb 28;19(1):246. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6566-y. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30819149, PMCID: PMC6393974
Bailey RR, Phad A, McGrath R, Tabak R, Haire-Joshu D. Prevalence of 3 Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Among US Adults With and Without History of Stroke. Prev Chronic Dis. 2019 Feb 21;16:E23. doi: 10.5888/pcd16.180409. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30789819, PMCID: PMC6395084
Patel RR, Nunn AS, Mayer KH, McBride T, Brownson RC, Oliver C, Perez MM, Harrison LC, Salter A, Crane JS, Chan PA. Successful Linkage to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention Using a Multicomponent Implementation Strategy Among the Uninsured/Underinsured. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2019 Feb;33(2):45-48. doi: 10.1089/apc.2018.0165. Epub 2019 Jan 16. No abstract available. PubMed [citation] […]
Beck AM, Eyler AA, Aaron Hipp J, King AC, Tabak RG, Yan Y, Reis RS, Duncan DD, Gilbert AS, Serrano NH, Brownson RC. A multilevel approach for promoting physical activity in rural communities: a cluster randomized controlled trial. BMC Public Health. 2019 Jan 30;19(1):126. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6443-8. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30700262, PMCID: PMC6354358
Mazzucca S, Parks RG, Tabak RG, Allen P, Dobbins M, Stamatakis KA, Brownson RC. Assessing Organizational Supports for Evidence-Based Decision Making in Local Public Health Departments in the United States: Development and Psychometric Properties of a New Measure. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2019 Jan 8. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000000952. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed [citation] PMID: […]
Erwin PC, Brownson RC. The Academic Health Department: Aging Gracefully? J Public Health Manag Pract. 2019 Jan/Feb;25(1):32-33. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000000924. No abstract available. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30507803
Zwald ML, Eyler AA, Haire-Joshu D, Handy SL, Harris JK, Moreland-Russell S, Brownson RC. Network influences on the development and implementation of active transportation policies in six U.S. cities. Prev Med. 2019 Jan;118:176-183. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2018.10.026. Epub 2018 Oct 29. PubMed [citation] PMID: 30385154
Kate Curoe MPH 2019 Hometown: Cincinnati, OH Undergraduate College & Major/ Minor: Saint Louis University; Majored in Public Health; Minored in Biology, Urban Poverty Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies Three things you have with you at all times: My phone, water bottle, and headphones What are your hobbies or activities when you are not […]
Furtado KS, Budd EL, Ying X, deRuyter AJ, Armstrong RL, Pettman TL, Reis RS, Sung-Chan P, Wang Z, Saunders T, Becker LA, Shi J, Mui LST, Brownson RC. Exploring political influences on evidence-based non-communicable disease prevention across four countries. Health Educ Res. 2018 Apr 1;33(2):89-103. doi: 10.1093/her/cyy005. PubMed [citation] PMID: 29547975
Budd EL, deRuyter AJ, Wang Z, Sung-Chan P, Ying X, Furtado KS, Pettman T, Armstrong R, Reis RS, Shi J, Mui T, Saunders T, Becker L, Brownson RC. A qualitative exploration of contextual factors that influence dissemination and implementation of evidence-based chronic disease prevention across four countries. BMC Health Serv Res. 2018 Apr 2;18(1):233. doi: […]