News & Events

Are Healthful Foods Too Expensive for Low-Income Americans?

This and Other Questions are Addressed in College of Health Sciences Research Projects by Dr. Harry Zhang, Dr. Holly Gaff and Dr. Anna Jeng. (Full Story)

Student featured in the Daily Press

Nobel Laureate Dr. Ferid Murad, right, guest speaker at Research Expo 2007, talks with Cynthia Kratzke, a graduate of the doctoral program in health services research and adjunct faculty member for the School of Community and Environmental Health, and Donald Parker, current doctoral student in health services research, prior to his talk April 5 at the Constant Center. Co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in medicine, Murad is director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Students' Research Project Aims to Help Region's Uninsured Residents

WTKR Airs Segment on Global Warming, featuring Frank Spellman

Keller working for Environmental Learning Center in Indiana

Did you know there were sand dunes in Indiana?

Well, neither did Melissa Keller until she went to work as a naturalist intern for the Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center. Originally from Eastern Virginia, she's thrilled to be back near the water and is excited about teaching young people about the different ecosystems in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Melissa is a Sociology major with a Chemistry minor who just finished a master's degree in Community Health focused in Environmental Health at Old Dominion University. She took this job to give herself time to think about her next career steps but is finding that she loves teaching kids in this classroom without walls or ceiling. "We're teaching a curriculum, but we go on a 7-hour hike and learn everything there," says Keller.

She's led camps during the summer, and she assists with an ongoing program called "A Walk Through Time" where students get to meet some of the historic figures who have lived in this area since the beginning of recorded time. This fall she'll be leading a program called "Frog in the Bog" that focuses on succession and how conditions change from the bog to the open beach to the dunes.

Keller says the pay isn't great but she's provided with housing and food, and advises that it's a great teaching experience for anyone who is uncertain about a traditional teaching experience and has made some important decisions about how much more actively involved in nature she'll continue to be in the future.

"I've decided that when I have my own family, I will take them out hiking and doing all these neat cool things like climbing sand dunes."

But first she'll go back to school to become a nurse practitioner in order to help young women learn more about their personal health. But she'll likely take along some valuable teaching lessons learned along the dunes of Indiana.

APHA 2006 - In Progress!

School of Community and Environmental Health faculty, students and alumni are headed for Boston, MA on November 5, 2006. Their papers listed below have been accepted through a rigorous review process to present at the 134th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association.  Congratulations to all!

Alvanzo A, Boykins A, Plichta S, Leisey M, Forte J, Carson S.  Difference in characteristics of victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other violent crimes who present for forensic exam

Goodman J, Plichta S, Hudson D, Futrell A. Examining colonoscopy screening history among community health center patients aged 50 years and older.

Anderson J, Cole M, Louis R, Perez E, Phillips S, Warren C, Wheeler J, Misra R.  Is hand hygiene a social norm within a college population?
 
Beard H, Plichta S, Neff J.  Predicting changes in formal-informal caregiving mix in eldery stroke survivors.  

Goodman J, Plichta S, Zhang Q, Rodriquez B, Goodman K. Evaluation of a community health center's enhanced service delivery model for chronic care management: stop-gap prescription medication access and health service utilization.

Kopitzke A, Karlowicz K. Understanding medicare changes: overcoming enrollment obstacles for extra help and part D.

Misra R, Patel T. DIA study:  prevalence of diabetics, metabolic syndrome and CVD risk factors among Asian Indians in the United States.

Neff J, Parker D. Validation of a 4 dimensional measure of spirituality/religiosity for substance abuse treatment clients in a sample of urban church-goers.

Nicolwala H, Misra R, Guntupalli. Tobacco use, knowledge, attitude, and social impact of smoking among Asian Indian college students.  

Tiraphat S, Jeng A. Temporal patterns of ambient air pollutants in the central area of Norfolk, Virginia.

Parker D, Neff J. Measuring spirituality: multi-dimensional tool. Presented at the 134th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Boston, MA, November 2006.

Plichta S, Goodman J, Goodman K, Adams-Tuffs K, Notarianni. Challenges in pregnancy prevention programs for girls in high risk urban areas. 

 

Plichta S, Boykins A, Alvanzo A, Carson S, Forte J, Leisey M. Disparities in assault characteristics of sexual assailt victims presenting to the ED.

Ranne J, Houseman C, Echternach J. Relationship between developmental screenings and health service effectiveness.

Ranne J, Zhang Y, Houseman C. Exploration of child service effectiveness through health practice retention.

Otero-Fisher K, Tiraphat S, Houseman C, Heisler K, Prim Z, Murphy J, Dool J. Strategic planing of a focus group for a community health center in the Hampton Roads area.

Tiraphat S, Jeng A, Otero-Fisher K.  Hospitalization for morbid obesity in Virginia.

 

Tweed S, Houseman C, Plichta S, Butterfoss F. Identifying health behaviors in maritime union memberss.

Zhang Q, Wang Y. Changes in the socioeconomic inequality of overweight among U.S. adolescents between 1971 and 2002.

 

 

 

 
 

Six Students Shine At Research Forum In Richmond

On March 29, 2006, six of ODU's best and brightest graduate students traveled to Richmond to present scholarly research at the first annual Virginia Graduate Re-search Forum hosted by the Virginia Council of Graduate Schools.

Scott H. Brunstetter, Jewel S. Goodman, Chris Klentzman,Frank K. Thomson III, Felicia M. Toreno, and Eyad M. Youssef joined 64 students from 12 Virginia schools to show legislators and top-level administrators the importance of investing in graduate education. Brunstetter's re-search focused on pacifism in the German Green Party, and Goodman presented findings on community health fairs. Klentz man offered research on the develop-ment of a Coastal Storm Impulse (COSI) scale, and Thomson's re-search looked at antibiotic resistance genes in the macroorganism Vibrio cholerae. Toreno explored articulation trends in allied healthprograms, while Youssef evaluated the effect of attachment style on negative mood and risk taking.

The Virginia Graduate Re-search Forum is part of an educational campaign launched by the Virginia Council of Graduate schools, which is an organization of several graduate deans from Virginia schools, whose mission is to provide corporations, government, and the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) with valuable information and living examples of why graduate education in Virginia deserves attention and funding.

Participating students were able to translate their research into laymen's terms and display that information on posters, so anyone attending could get an idea of what these students were spendingtheir time and energy learning. Friendships and scholarly interest grew across the institutions.

Participant Scott Brunstetter said, "For me, it was fascinating to see the diversity of research projects throughout Virginia, in particular the real world impact that many of them could have." Felicia Toreno reported, "The atmosphere surrounding the variety of research showcased was very collegial."

Plans are underway for a second Virginia Graduate Research Forum, which will hopefully be as successful as the first, if not more so.