News

PRC Faculty Beth Dodson is one of 16 members on the Report Card Research Advisory Committee: US earns D- on latest youth physical activity report card — again (Links to an external site)

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Beth Dodson, PRC faculty, emphasizes the urgent need to improve physical activity among children. As a member of the 2024 Report Card Research Advisory Committee, she advocates for evidence-based policies, such as safe biking routes and increased physical education, to combat declining activity levels nationwide.

Potential of mindfulness to enhance cognitive health in Latinx older adults (Links to an external site)

The Source •

Washington University in St. Louis researchers are exploring mindfulness to enhance cognitive health in Latinx older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s. Backed by an NIH grant, the project adapts mindfulness to cultural contexts, fostering community and addressing stress. This study aims to evaluate mindfulness as a potential protective factor against dementia.

NSF grant boosts faculty equity and mindfulness initiatives (Links to an external site)

The Source •

Washington University in St. Louis has received a $3 million NSF ADVANCE grant to promote equity among STEM faculty. The AIM for Equity initiative leverages civic mindfulness to address systemic barriers, focusing on intersectional gender and racial equity. Programs will support inclusive policies, leadership training, and faculty well-being institution-wide.

REACH project selected for the 2024 APHA TV Thought Leadership Film Series

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PRC Faculty, Diana Parra’s REACH project and its precursor, BRIC, was selected as one of the few National projects to be featured during the 2024 APHA TV Thought Leadership Film Series, which is being showcased and premiered at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo in Minneapolis. The film will be broadcast on […]

The PRC has a big presence at the annual Public Health at WashU Conference, held October 22, 2024

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Loni Parrish, PhD Poster Title: Adaptation of a digital health intervention for rural adults: an equity-focused approach using the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications-Enhanced (FRAME) Amanda Gilbert, MPH Poster Title: Conducting community health worker training to implement a digital health tool (the PREVENT tool) in rural southeast Missouri clinics Angeline Gacad, MPH Poster Title: […]

Maryse Rios-Hernandez receives Brown School Outstanding Staff award

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Maryse Rios-Hernandez recently joined the PRC as the Research Manager of the People, Health, and Place Unit. Prior to this position, she worked in the Brown School Dean’s office. In Dean Dorian’s October video newsletter, she highlighted Maryse’s award and thanked her for all she does to encourage and support the Brown School. Maryse holds […]

New Faces at the PRC

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Welcome to the newest members of the PRC. Yi Wang, Maryse Rios-Hernandez and Alexandre Silva are working with Rodrigo Reis as part of the People, Health and Place Unit. Dennis Tsagli is working with Amy Eyler. Shai Patel is working with Cheryl Valko and the CAD Core on PRC Communications. Nicola Creagh is a visiting doctoral student and will be splitting time between the PRC and Graham Colditz’s team. 

Welcome Nicola Creagh, visiting doctoral student, to the PRC

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Nicola Creagh, MPH, is a PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at the Centre for Health Policy, University of Melbourne. Nicola’s research applies qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluation and implementation science disciplines to evaluate the implementation of policy and program changes, particularly within Australia’s National Cervical Screening Programs, focusing on self-collection of HPV-based cervical screening […]

Staff Spotlight: Shelly Kannuthurai

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Shelly Kannuthurai loves cooking and she loves science, so a career that began with training as a registered dietician (RD) wasn’t too surprising. “It felt like a pretty good fit, it was a nice mix between the two,” she recalled. After completing her MPH and dietetic internship at the University of Washington, she became an […]

Local Collaboration Key to Effective Evidence-Based Training, Study Finds

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Collaborating with public health departments and other agencies to deliver training in evidence-based public health can offset the effects of high staff turnover, strengthen academic-practice relationships, and promote population-wide health and health equity, found a new study led by Stephanie Mazzucca-Ragan, assistant professor at the Brown School. Training in evidence-based public health (EBPH) has been […]

PRC Spotlight on Washington University in St. Louis and the University of South Carolina (Links to an external site)

The Prevention Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis (PRC at WashU): Adoption & Implementation of Evidence to Mobilize Local Health (AIM-Local Health) Project In public health, evidence-based decision-making (EBDM) stands as a cornerstone for effective strategies in addressing chronic diseases. Recognizing the pivotal role of local health departments (LHDs) in this area, the Prevention Research […]

Faculty Spotlight: Sarah Moreland-Russell

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Celebrating her 15th year at the Brown School, Sarah Moreland-Russell is at her upbeat and energetic best as she enjoys the most recent leg of a career expedition that has taken her to Kansas City, California, and St. Louis with a single professional goal: Making policy changes to improve public health. An associate professor of […]

Celebrating Tim Poor’s Retirement

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Tim Poor is retiring after working at WashU for the last 15 years. Tim has been a fantastic part of the communications team at the PRC and has written stories on our center faculty and staff, as well as many of our projects. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Tim for all […]

Baby Boom: Our PRC team has grown!

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Charlie Nickname: Sometimes we call him Chuck PRC Affiliation: Amanda Gilbert (mom) Birthdate: August 29, 2023 Age: 11 months Favorite thing to do right now: Story time, dance to music, eat banana, sleep Anything else you want to share: He just got his first tooth! Ethan PRC Affiliation: Amanda Gilbert (mom) Birthdate: August 29, 2023 […]

Supporting Teams with Designing for Dissemination and Sustainability: the Design, Development, and Usability of a Digital Interactive Platform (Links to an external site)

Abstract Background: The use of Designing for Dissemination and Sustainability (D4DS) principles and methods can support the development of research products (interventions, tools, findings) to match well with the needs and context of the intended audience and setting. D4DS principles and methods are not well-known or used during clinical and public health research; research teams would […]

Ross Brownson, PRC Director, Honored with Outstanding Faculty Award (Links to an external site)

For Ross Brownson, one of the joys of working at Washington University is teaching and mentoring graduate students.

On April 10, Brownson, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor at the Brown School, was honored with an Outstanding Faculty Award at the 25th Annual Outstanding Faculty and Staff Awards ceremony, hosted by the Graduate Student Senate (GSS). He was one of eight faculty members commended for their remarkable contributions to the PhD student community.

Brownson expressed gratitude for the recognition. “Our students are the best and the brightest who constantly remind me that our future is in good hands,” he remarked.

New PRC Members

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Welcome to our new PRC members: Madisen Brewer and Oreoluwa Oginni! Madisen is a full-time Research Assistant on the AHD Partnership Study with Principal Investigator, Stephanie Mazzucca-Ragan, and Project Manager, Jess Gannon. Oreoluwa is an MPH student specializing in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He will be working in collaboration with Diana Perez on a project that aims to explore the linkages between implementation strategy mechanisms and evidence-based physical activity and nutrition programs for cancer prevention in Latin America.

Renee Parks has been named the WashU 2024 Emerging Leader Recipient!

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This award recognizes an employee who positively influences and leads others at the university, in their community and their profession. This award acknowledges someone who listens to the feedback, concerns of employees, displays a growth mindset, and empowers their colleagues to develop and utilize their leadership skills and capabilities to better the university and St. […]

Southeast Missouri is Still “Moving” After PRC Intervention Ends

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Written by Tim Poor Heartland Moves, an intervention to promote physical activity in Southeast Missouri, has ended, but the project’s local manager, Dixie Duncan, is still “Moving.”  She’s working with communities to expand and develop walking trails, and she’s continuing to promote groups of walkers in conjunction with the wellness council in Poplar Bluff and […]

Staff Spotlight: Ronni Byrth

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When her daughter Kyrah was a toddler, Ronni Byrth discovered Parents as Teachers (PAT), a home visitation program that provides parents with child development knowledge, parenting support, and social support for families with children from birth until age 5. She liked the program so much she went to work for PAT for 14 years. Now, […]

Breaking Barriers: An Innovative Tool to Assess the National and City-Level Physical Activity Policy Development to Practice Disconnect

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The study “Breaking Barriers: An Innovative Tool to Assess the National and City-Level Physical Activity Policy Development to Practice Disconnect” introduces a novel tool, INTEGRATE PA-Pol, designed to assess how national and subnational governments collaborate on physical activity promotion policies. This research focuses on understanding the development, implementation, and alignment of these policies between different […]

Student Spotlight: Masoomeh Faghankhani

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Hometown: Tehran, IranUndergraduate school and major/minor: Tehran University of Medical Sciences/MedicineProgram at Brown: MPHAnticipated graduation date: May 2024Three things you have with you at all times: My smartphone, black tea bag, and antiseptic hygienic stuff What are your hobbies or activities when you aren’t studying or working?Trail jogging, Watching a wide array of films including […]

Welcome to our new PRC members

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Drew Crenshaw (he/him) is a doctoral student working as a Research Assistant with Peg Allen on the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) Accreditation Success Stories project. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Master of Public Health with a concentration in Environmental Health from the […]

The D4DS Planner has Officially Launched

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The PRC’s Maura Kepper, Allison L’Hotta, Thembie Shato, and Ross Brownson, along with other collaborators, officially launched the new D4DS Planner at the 16th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health, held in Arlington Virginia December 10-13, 2023. The planner was a collaboration between researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, […]

Shaping Policy and Practice: Analyzing the Reach of Highly Cited and High Altmetrics Publications for Broader Impact on Physical Activity (Links to an external site)

Abstract Background: A significant gap remains between the availability of physical activity (PA) evidence-based interventions and their application in real-world settings in policy and practice areas. This study aims to describe highly cited and high altmetrics publications in PA research and explore their impact on PA policy and practice. Methods: Mixed-methods sequential explanatory study including the identification […]

Integrating a focus on health equity in implementation science: Case examples from the national cancer institute’s implementation science in cancer control centers (ISC3) network (Links to an external site)

Abstract Background: A Health Equity Task Force (HETF) of members from seven Centers funded by the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Implementation Science in Cancer Control Centers (ISC3) network sought to identify case examples of how Centers were applying a focus on health equity in implementation science to inform future research and capacity-building efforts. Methods: HETF members at […]

Advancing the Science and Application of Implementation Science to Promote Health Equity: Commentary on the Symposium (Links to an external site)

Abstract There has been an increasing focus on making health equity a more explicit and foundational aspect of the research being conducted in public health and implementation science. This commentary provides an overview of five reviews in this Annual Review of Public Health symposium on Implementation Science and Health Equity. These articles reflect on and advance the […]

PRC Faculty, Peg Allen and Maura Kepper receive new grants

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Peg Allen recently received a new grant funded through the Public Health Accreditation Board, titled “Small Health Department Accreditation Success Stories.” The purpose of this short-term project (October 2023 through May 2024) is to develop public health department success stories for the Public Health Accreditation Board that describe facilitators of successful preparations for national accreditation […]

Staff Spotlight: Dixie Duncan

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Dixie Duncan grew up in the town of Van Buren, MO, population 800, a dot on the map adjacent to the scenic Current River in Southeast Missouri.  Now, she’s promoting public health coalitions in the rural region, where the PRC has been working to eliminate health disparities there and other rural regions.. “I’ve found the […]

WashU & Parents as Teachers community-academic partnership benefits families “where they are” (Links to an external site)

WashU Research Associate Professor, Rachel Tabak PhD, and Senior Vice President and Chief Research Officer of Parents as Teachers National Center (PATNC), Allison Kemner, MPH, work together in a community-academic partnership that benefits families while advancing the field of dissemination and implementation science.

Perspectives From Public Health Practitioners and Advocates on Community Development for Active Living: What are the Lasting Impacts?

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Abstract Purpose: Evidence suggests differential impacts of community development, including gentrification and displacement. Public health practitioners and advocates are key stakeholders involved in the community development process related to active living, yet little is known about their perceptions of its impacts. We explored the perspectives of relevant leaders of public health departments and key community and […]

Perspectives From Public Health Practitioners and Advocates on Community Development for Active Living: What are the Lasting Impacts? (Links to an external site)

Abstract Purpose: Evidence suggests differential impacts of community development, including gentrification and displacement. Public health practitioners and advocates are key stakeholders involved in the community development process related to active living, yet little is known about their perceptions of its impacts. We explored the perspectives of relevant leaders of public health departments and key community and […]