PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
RESEARCH
IN PROGRESS—
SPRING 2013 · VOLUME 2 · NUMBER 4
Donald A. Holzworth, MS
Chair
Executive in Residence
Gillings School of Global Public Health
James Rosen, MBA, MSPH
Public Health Foundation Board
Liaison to Advisory Council
Partner
Intersouth Partners
Marcia A. Angle, MD, MPH
Adjunct Professor
Nicholas School of the Environment
Duke University
William K. Atkinson, PhD, MPH
President and Chief Executive Officer
WakeMed
Mark E. Brecher, MD
Chief Medical Officer and
Senior Vice President
LabCorp
Gail H. Cassell, PhD, DSc (hon)
Vice President, Scientific Affairs
(Retired)
Distinguished Lilly Research
Scholar for Infectious Diseases
Eli Lilly and Co.
Willard Cates Jr., MD, MPH
President, Research
FHI 360
Michael J. Cucchiara
Managing Partner
Graypants Inc. and Pangea Foods
Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH
Gillings Professor of the Practice
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Jeffrey P. Engel, MD
Executive Director
Council of State and Territorial
Epidemiologists
Ken Eudy
Chief Executive Officer
Capstrat
James R. Hendricks Jr., MS
Vice President, Environment,
Health and Safety
(Retired)
Duke Energy
E. Wayne Holden, PhD
President and Chief Executive Officer
RTI International
Michael E. Kafrissen, MD, MSPH
Research Scientist
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
John McConnell
Chief Executive Officer
McConnell Golf
Jesse Milan Jr., JD
Vice President and Director
Community Health Systems
Altarum Institute
James Patrick O’Connell, PhD, MPH
Chief Executive Officer
Acea Biosciences Inc.
Jane Smith Patterson
President
Jane Patterson & Associates
Virginia B. Sall
Co-founder and Director
Sall Family Foundation
Markus Wilhelm
Chief Executive Officer
Strata Solar LLC
Louise Winstanly, LLB, MSB
Attorney and Medical Ethicist
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Lloyd M. Yates, MBA
Executive Vice President
Progress Energy
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Global Chief of Scientific Affairs
Senior Vice President
OUTCOME
Carmen Hooker Odom, MS
Former President
Milbank Memorial Fund
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Acting Division Director
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National Center for Health Statistics
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Paula Brown Stafford, MPH
Vice President
President, Clinical Development
Quintiles
Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH
	
Executive Vice President
Ex Officio
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PhD, FACP
Senior Vice President and
Chief Quality Officer
Baylor Health Care System
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Endowed Chair
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MPH, PA
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Sanford Pediatric Dentistry
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Director, Regulatory Affairs-Biosurgery
Ethicon Endo-Surgery
Johnson & Johnson
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Gillings School of Global Public
Health Alumni Association and North
Carolina Citizens for Public Health
Alma (Gibbie) Harris, MSPH, RN
Health Director
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Assistant Surgeon General
	
Associate Administrator
HIV/AIDS Bureau
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Joan C. Huntley, PhD, MPH
	
Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Joseph F. John, MHA, FACHE
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The Emory Clinic Inc.
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Emory University School of Medicine
Mark H. Merrill, MSPH
	
President and Chief Executive Officer
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Malcolm Pirnie, the Water Division
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Public Health Foundation Incorporated BOARD OF DIRECTORS
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health ADVISORY COUNCIL
DEAN
Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
David Pesci
EDITOR
Linda Kastleman
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EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
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Linda Kastleman, Kathleen
Kearns, David Pesci
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Vol. 2, No. 4, Spring 2013.
contents
10
FROM THE DEAN’S DESK
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Solutions on the horizon at the Gillings School
SUZANNE MAMAN IN TANZANIA
Small loans change health behaviors
in at-risk young men
THE BIRTH OF BIODEPTRONIX
Scientific improvisation puts researchers
in good company
GLENN WALTERS
Tinkering his way to an innovative academic career
UNC’S NUTRITION RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Discovering what every body is craving
STEVE ZEISEL’S GATES FOUNDATION GRANT
Enables pregnant women in The Gambia to deliver
healthier babies
NAB DASGUPTA
Saving lives while giving back to North Carolina
JASON SURRATT
Exploring the dark side of the forest
EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY TO
TEACH MILLENNIALS
5
ALUMNUS VIEWPOINT
North Carolina’s decision about
Medicaid expansion affects everyone
SCHOOL NEWS
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
OUR DONORS
SPRING 2013
EUNICE BROCK
Honoring a beloved daughter through
a scholarship gift
PARENTS ESTABLISH DISSERTATION AWARD
TO HONOR CYNTHIA CASSELL
RON AND JAN KIMBLE
Creating a legacy for Jamie
PHILIP SINGER PROFESSORSHIP FUND
Continues to grow!
RONALD AND ANN WOOTEN
A public health crisis too close to home
MAKING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
Annual donor dinner celebrates campus water theme
FEATURES & NEWS
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3
5
8
10
12
13
14
18
20
23
24
28
31
32
33
34
35
36
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14
18
20
2 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
• Taking solutions to scale. Associate
Professor Will Vizuete and colleagues
saw that the best way to disseminate their
miniaturized air-monitoring device was
to commercialize it. BioDeptronix is a
vital step in realizing their vision, a suc-cess
supported by partners including Dr.
Don Rose, director of UNC’s Carolina
KickStart Program, and Don Holzworth,
the School’s Executive in Residence.
• Getting support for pilot research. Pilot
data are essential if we’re to turn ideas
into reality, but support for pilot proj-ects
can be hard to find. We are grate-ful
for the gift from Dennis Gillings
and Joan Gillings that funded some
of the innovations described here.
• Seeing the relevance of one field to
another. Associate Professor Suzanne
Maman saw that microfinance, proven
in other domains, could be used to
change young men’s risky behaviors.
Seeing connections between fields
can lead to amazing breakthroughs.
• No public health researcher is an island.
Our research depends on teams, usu-ally
from multiple disciplines and
perspectives.
• Working with community partners. We
helped pioneer research that involves
working with community partners in a
collaborative, community-based man-ner.
Nab Dasgupta’s experience saving
lives in Wilkes County, N.C., shows
the effectiveness of such an approach.
• Get out from the Ivory Tower. In 2004,
Professor Harvey Jeffries and colleagues
constructed a smog chamber on the
roof of McGavran-Greenberg Hall, con-necting
the chamber to a laboratory
so researchers could assess the effects
of smog particles on lung tissue. The
project was ingenious and provided
real-world data. Drs. Jason Surratt,
Will Vizuete and others continue to
employ the chamber in their research.
• Question the obvious. While I may look at
the sun and see warmth, Drs. Surratt and
Vizuete see chemical reactions. Some-times,
the ordinary is extraordinary.
• Improvise. Scientific progress rarely
proceeds in straight lines. Improvisation
in science, as in music, Dr. Vizuete shows,
can bring us to the best discoveries.
• In the end, though, there’s an innovation
– an idea, product or program that is a
better solution to a public health problem
than prior solutions.
Kenan Professor Steve Zeisel could have been
talking about any of these projects when he
described his work at the Nutrition Research
Institute. When one takes new approaches
to emerging issues, he says, “the results are
exciting—and the promise of the future
unlimited.” How true.
I hope you enjoy this issue and the spe-cial
people featured here. Many more great
people are connected to the Gillings School
of Global Public Health, and we want you to
meet them all.
Thanks for reading.
Warmly,
In this spring issue, we focus on research-in-progress,
as befits the season. We highlight people who are
developing new solutions to public health problems
and acknowledge that their successes are built upon a
foundation of scholarship and research that connects
the past to the future. Excellence, quality, creativity
and innovation are hallmarks of the people featured
here. I find several lessons in their projects.
Dr. Barbara K. Rimer
from the Dean’s desk
Research connects past and future
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 3
In 2012, our researchers reported their stud-ies
in about 850 peer-reviewed publications
and were awarded more than $154 million to
advance public health.
Our students continue their education in
public health or get jobs in their fields after
graduating. We know they develop into dedi-cated
and influential public health leaders.
One such leader is this year’s Harriett Hylton
Barr Distinguished Alumni Award winner,
Wilbur Milhous, PhD. Milhous, professor and
associate dean for research at the University
of South Florida, is renowned internationally
for global health infectious disease research,
especially efforts to prevent and treat malaria.
Outstanding faculty members, such as
Steven Zeisel, MD, PhD, Kenan Distinguished
Professor of nutrition and this year’s Bernard
G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award
winner, are another indicator of impact.
Under Zeisel’s leadership of the UNC Nutri-tion
Research Institute (www.uncnri.org), in
Kannapolis, N.C., Carolina researchers are
building on his discoveries about the nutri-ent
choline and exploring the many ways diet
and exercise can preserve and protect human
health. (See page 12.)
In this issue of Carolina Public Health,
we explore yet another way of determining
the School’s “impact factor.” The following
articles about research in progress illustrate
passionate commitment and determination
to find solutions to major public health prob-lems.
Even as the papers are published and
the prizes awarded, academic discoveries
have begun to be translated into workable
solutions.
• Suzanne Maman, PhD, associate profes-sor
of health behavior, realized that neither
quality nor quantity of education programs
alone was changing the violent and/or risky
As part of a public university, the Gillings
School of Global Public Health is committed
to making real and measurable differences in the
lives of North Carolinians, who are our neighbors
and generous benefactors. As our name reflects—
and as the world requires—we also are deeply
involved in global h ealth challenges. A number o f
measures help us gauge our impact.
Research in progress—
Solutions on the horizon
at the Gillings School Dr. Will Vizuete’s lab
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
4 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
behaviors of young men in Tanzania. Drawn to the successes of health
policy and management research professor Sheila Leatherman, MSW,
who has integrated microcredit with health interventions to improve
women’s lives around the world, Maman adapted the microfinance
and health model to help young men reduce partner violence and
HIV risk. (See page 5.)
• Jason Surratt, PhD, assistant professor of environmental sciences and
engineering, read an article about trees in the rainforest contributing
to air pollution and wondered if the same phenomenon was contribut-ing
to the brown haze seen in cities and even hovering over the Smoky
Mountains. Now, he’s seeking ways to lessen the impact of chemical
reactions, sparked by the sun, between human-made pollutants and
nature. (See page 18.)
• Nabarun Dasgupta, doctoral candidate in epidemiology, makes
medicines – especially prescription pain killers – safer by compil-ing
surveillance data from poison control centers and developing a
clearer picture of product misuse. That information can help guide
new controls and warnings, and inevitably, save lives. (See page 14.)
Now is a great time in public health research and education. Our
faculty members and students are employing the tools of the informa-tion
age to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. We’re learning
from business and other sectors about incentive behavior change and
communications. Our horizon is unbounded by traditional borders,
whether of countries or disciplines.
It’s exhilarating to look out on a landscape of possibility and know
that we have the potential to make the world safer and healthier.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
—Ramona DuBose
R E S E ARCH I N P ROGR E S S
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
clockwise from top left: Students in Dr. Sue Hobbs’ health policy and management class; Nab Dasgupta’s overdose prevention kit; Drs. Ken
Sexton, Will Vizuete and Glenn Walters (l-r) in the ESE Design Center; staff members on Dr. Suzanne Maman’s microfinance project in Tanzania.
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 5
What did they want? An opportunity to
make money, most of all. Training in business,
so that if they got a chance to make money,
they would know how to make more. But it
takes money to make it, and these men were
desperately poor.
So Suzanne Maman decided to give them
$100 loans.
Affecting health-related behavior by pro-viding
small business start-up loans, known
as microfinancing, was not unprecedented.
Maman, associate professor of health behavior
at Gillings School of Global Public Health, had
heard of it, and she knew that Sheila Leather-man,
research professor of health policy and
management, had significant expertise in
the area.
“I have been working in the nascent field of
integrating microfinance and health for about
ten years in Asia, Africa and Latin America,”
Leatherman says. “Suzanne knew what I was
doing as a Gillings Visiting Professor back in
2008 and wondered whether microfinance
The young men from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
had heard it all.
They had been educated about safe sex and
taught methods to prevent the dramatic spread
of HIV ravaging their community. They were
encouraged to reduce the ongoing physical and
sexual violence against their partners. They
had data on the dangers of alcohol abuse. The
instruction had come both from professionals
and peers—presented in a variety of different
ways—and yet the negative behaviors continued.
They had heard it all, but nothing made them
care enough to change.
Suzanne Maman
in Tanzania—
Small loans change
health behaviors in at-risk young men
Teens in Dar es Salaam need jobs that provide
direction, self-respect and a little cash.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
6 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
SUZ ANNE MAMAN IN TANZ ANIA
might be a possibility in her work with male
youth groups in Tanzania.”
However, there was a catch. Most micro-financing
in the service of health education
had been done with women. If the men of Dar
es Salaam were ignoring other health-care
interventions, what made Maman think they
would respond to this one?
“I sensed an opportunity,” she said. “Vir-tually
all the young men with whom we had
spoken were hungry for access to job oppor-tunities
and any type of business training.”
So she proposed to provide exactly that to
19 men. “One hundred dollars each,” Maman
says. “They would use it to create their own
small businesses, and we would provide coun-seling
on starting a small business. But part
of the deal was that the loans also would be
combined with health education.”
Maman initially had hoped to target men in
the 18- to 24-year-old range, but quickly found
that opinions and habits of men that age were
so ingrained that incentives likely would not
change them. Instead the focus fell on a group
of 15- to 19-year-olds. A Gillings Innovation
grant (see www.sph.unc.edu/accelerate) and a
grant from the National Institutes of Health
provided support for a pilot study. The efforts
would be centered on a local “camp.”
“Young men in their early teens to mid-20s
from this part of Tanzania spend their time in
‘camps,’ which are something between social
clubs and gangs,” Maman says. “Most don’t
attend school or have access to stable income.
Camps provide the men with an identity and
a place to socialize with other young men.”
In addition, during research that led to the
pilot program, Maman and colleagues found
that 47 percent of the young men in the tar-geted
age range said they had two or more sex
partners in the past year; 47 percent of those
had one or more concurrent sexual partner-ships.
Twenty-one percent also presented with
at least one symptom of a sexually transmitted
disease in the preceding four weeks, and 41
percent said they had perpetrated physical or
sexual violence against a female partner. Their
attitudes and behaviors regarding sex gener-ally
were learned from other men.
The pilot program focused on four groups
of five young men. Each individual was given
a loan of $100 and was responsible for paying
back the money with interest at the end of the
loan period.
Each received business skills training that
included information about running a small
business and managing money. Older men
in the community who had been born into
poverty – but had managed to establish suc-cessful
businesses – were brought in as role
models. The microfinance was combined
with a peer-led HIV- and violence-prevention
program. Leaders within the camps were
recruited and trained to communicate with
peers about behaviors that put themselves
and their partners at risk for HIV and other
sexually transmitted infections, and about
PHOTO BY TOM FULDNER
strategies to resolve conflict with partners that did not involve violence.
The pilot ran in 2009. What kind of busi­nesses did the young men start? Nothing extravagant. Some bought charcoal wholesale and resold it at a profit. Others performed bicycle repair, started a video rental business, sold secondhand clothing or fried fish. All but one repaid the money. Most importantly, the young men responded to the health behav­ior instruction. They retained a heightened awareness of negative sexual activity and reported a drop in high-risk sexual behaviors.
Maman’s study was published in 2010 in the journal Social Science and Medicine. (See tinyurl.com/maman-SSM-social-venues.) That work has led to a new $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study a much larger sample of men.
“This study will involve about 2,800 young men in more than 50 camps,” Maman says. “It will include a baseline survey to assess behaviors, sexual activity and the frequency with which they commit physical or sexual violence against partners. We want to deter­mine whether our combined microfinance and health leadership intervention produces a drop in incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, an increase in condom use, and a reduction of sexual and physical violence against their partners.”
RESEARCHERS FEATURED
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Suzanne Maman, PhD, is associate professor of health behavior.
Sheila Leatherman, MSW, is research
professor of health policy and management.
TANZANIA PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY PROJECT STAFF
opposite page: Dr. Suzanne Maman in a classroom at Gillings; a project staffer (right) asks advice.
below: An entrepreneur distributes his wares; a city street reflects its residents’ poverty.
The study will be done in collaboration with colleagues at Muhimbili University of Allied Sciences in Dar es Salaam.
Maman says she hopes this approach will provide young men with information and skills that enable them to build successful businesses and allow them to imagine a dif­ferent kind of future for themselves.
“If men can envision a different way of life,” she says, “they may not engage in behaviors that put their futures at risk. Increasing men’s knowledge about sexually transmitted dis­eases and partner violence also will benefit the community’s women.”
If the larger project proves successful, Maman will have established the foundation for a microfinance-health behavior interven­tion that can be adapted in similar at-risk communities in other countries.
—David Pesci
CAROLINA PUBLIC HEALTH | 78 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
SUZ ANNE MAMAN IN TANZ ANIA
Will Vizuete is a huge fan of jazz. In 2009 and 2010, he was disc jockey
for a weekly jazz program on WXYC, the UNC campus station, and
he’s still a volunteer DJ on occasion. Part of what he loves about jazz is the
improvisation, the innovation. A musician may start with a riff and suddenly
take it in a completely different direction. Another responds, works off the
new riff on the fly, then improvises. Around the ensemble it goes, on beat,
off beat, an impressive, dynamic, never predictable journey.
In some ways, jazz is similar to Vizuete’s work as a scientist.
This is especially so in the last few years,
during which Vizuete joined an ensemble
of colleagues and became entrepreneur and
co-founder of his own start-up company – a
venture that came out of the not-so-thin air.
In fact, it was the gritty, smoggy air.
Early in his career, Vizuete knew smog and
other air pollutants caused asthma, lung can-cer
and other respiratory illnesses. But was the
illness related only to the number of pollution
particles, he wondered, or were there times of
day or particular locations that made people
more vulnerable to respiratory problems?
“[Based on the EPA’s models], toxicity is
determined by how many toxic particles are
in the air,” Vizuete says. “But if you examine
data showing how many people die from lung
ailments per cubic meter, you see that more
people die in one area of the country than in
another, even when the particulate mass per
volume is identical. That means an important
factor is being missed in the calculations.”
That factor, Vizuete believed, was right
overhead – the sun.
“You can take an air sample and expose
it to a day’s worth of sunlight,” he explains.
“The sun sparks chemical activity, and the
The birth of BioDeptronix—
Scientific improvisation puts
researchers in good company
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 9
molecules absorb radiation. By sunset, the toxicity of that same sample has increased by five to
10 times its original levels.”
Vizuete knew this because, as a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin, he had
a chance to conduct research with Harvey Jeffries, PhD, professor emeritus of environmental
sciences and engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Jeffries built the smog chamber that sits atop the School’s McGavran-Greenberg Hall, the first
of its kind. The opportunity to work with Jeffries and see first-hand the data garnered by smog
chamber sampling did much to inspire Vizuete’s interest in atmospheric chemistry.
The smog chamber revolutionized analysis of exhaust pollution and allowed researchers
to replicate conditions in virtually any locale in the world. It had limitations, however. It was
immobile and expensive to build, and shifts in the wind or quickly changing weather situations
could render data useless. Vizuete was even more troubled by the analysis that happened after
the sampling was done.
“We know that the smaller the particles, the more deadly they are,” he says. “This is especially so
when they get below 2.5 micrometers in diameter. But around the world, air sample analyses use a
liquid suspension. When the particles are suspended, they agglomerate and form bigger particles.
We weren’t analyzing the riskiest pollutants. I kept thinking, ‘We need a better way to do this.’”
Jeffries and Dr. David Leith, retired professor of environmental sciences and engineering at
UNC, had the same thought back in 2002. They tried to repurpose a piece of equipment from the
mid-1970s, an electrostatic precipitator, to perform smog analysis that didn’t require the liquid
suspension. By the time Vizuete met them, Jeffries and Leith had adapted the precipitator, placing
the refrigerator-sized unit into an incubator and connecting it via a long, sealed duct from the
smog chamber on the roof down to the basement of Rosenau Hall.
The reconfigured precipitator allowed researchers not only to examine samples directly, but
also to see the effects when the samples were exposed to cultured lung cells and other tissue.
“But what if we could take the whole thing to Houston, Los Angeles, London, Beijing or wher-ever?”
Vizuete asked. “What if we could set it up in a neighborhood adjacent to a factory or a
refinery that was emitting high amounts of pollutants? Or bring it inside a building where some
air-based environmental hazard was suspected and do sampling right there, in real time? Our
data would be so much better, and we could better establish the risks of being in these cities or
near these facilities. We could institute preventive measures.”
Idea, meet improvisation.
Dr. Ken Sexton (left) and Dr. Will Vizuete describe the operation
of the smog chamber on top of McGavran-Greenberg Hall.
Vizuete joined the UNC environmental
sciences and engineering faculty in 2005 and
soon began discussing his idea with Kenneth
Sexton, PhD, now a retired research professor
from the Gillings School.
By 2007, they decided to see whether they
could build a portable electrostatic unit. But
where should they start in creating a sophisti-cated
scientific device from scratch?
Why, with Glenn Walters, of course.
Walters is director of the Environmental
Sciences and Engineering Design Center, a
one-stop fabrication shop. He and his col-leagues
and students create devices of all sorts,
made of metal, plastic and other materials, for
researchers at the Gillings School of Global
Public Health and across campus (See page 10).
“My primary area of study is wastewater, and
I had no direct experience in electrostatics or
lung tissue sample analysis,” Walters says. “But
my current portfolio is ‘whatever comes along.’
This often means I spend a lot of time discuss-ing
with researchers not only what they want
but also the science behind it.”
One of the mechanical challenges was to
enclose an incubator within the unit rather
than the other way around. The sampling
process, which involved a series of collection
areas, also had to be refined. Each area was
dime-sized and included a semipermeable
membrane. The thought was to make it larger
so as to increase the sensitivity of the readings.
“It’s always a puzzle when you start a new
project, even one that has some established
principles and components involved,” Wal-ters
says. “It’s almost like saying, ‘Let’s write
a book.’ There are lots of ways to approach a
problem. There are times when you get two or
three months into a design and start wondering
if you need to scrap or just recast it.”
The three men persisted, obtaining a Gill-ings
Innovation grant in 2008 to help support
their efforts. It took “eight or nine iterations,”
but by 2009, they had a fully functional pro-totype
with a self-contained incubator and
the capability for more sensitivity than the
repurposed electrostatic precipitator would
have allowed. The device was now the size of
a large suitcase. They called it “The Gillings
Device,” and its completion mandated the next
improvisation: entrepreneurism.
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
Glenn Walters—
Tinkering his way to an
innovative academic career
As with many budding researchers, Glenn
Walters found his calling in the field. In his
case, however, “the field” was not a clinical
site, a remote corner of the globe or a neigh-borhood
ruined by industrialization. For
Walters, inspiration came from a junkyard.
“The junkyard wasn’t far from where I grew
up in Vermont,” Walters says, “and I was
always over there looking for old TVs, car parts
and things like that. I was always taking things
apart, but it drove my father nuts that I did not
always get them put back together correctly.”
When he was in high school, Walters
befriended a local contractor who had a
metal-scrapping business. One of the man’s
clients was IBM, which had a research and
development plant in nearby Essex Junction.
“I would get switches, conductivity meters,
process controllers, scrap wire and switches
from him. Anything I could get my hands on.
I even got hold of a chip fabricator once,”
Walters says, with more excitement than you’d
expect a chip fabricator to generate. “I used
to break parts down, hook other parts up and
try to figure out how everything worked.”
Walters didn’t have the same level of inter-est
for his school work, however.
“I wasn’t a very attentive student. In fact, I
barely graduated from high school,” Walters
says. “I had no intention of going to college.”
T H E B I R T H O F B IODE P T RONI X
“This was something completely new for me,” Vizuete says. “I’d never started a company.”
He decided to take a new UNC class for entrepreneurial-minded faculty and staff members and
students called “Launching the Venture.” There he met Dr. Don Rose, director of Carolina Kick-
Start, a program designed to help support UNC faculty members in their entrepreneurial efforts.
“[Vizuete and team] ended up being the first venture we formally supported, and they’ve quickly
become a poster child for the program,” Rose says. “They had a great product. We helped them
take the steps toward becoming a viable venture, from assisting them with patents, corporate
structure and other legal issues to pairing them with a great chief executive officer, Chris Price.”
The fledgling company, named BioDeptronix, garnered nearly $250,000 in support, including
$150,000 from the National Institutes of Health and $50,000 from the National Science Founda-tion.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has registered strong interest in purchasing the
first commercial rendition of the product.
“I’m very happy and grateful that there are people like Dennis Gillings and Joan Gillings who
contribute to programs such as the Gillings Innovation Labs, which can support development
and translation of science to beneficial products,” Sexton says. “I’m also grateful that the School
and UNC are supportive of such funding programs.”
Rose sees the process as a natural outgrowth
of research predicated upon direct response to
a pressing societal need.
“This is a great example of researchers
looking to solve a problem – which is what
public health is all about – and then making
that solution available for wider use,” Rose
says. “[BioDeptronix’s] solution is effective. It’s
cheaper, it’s portable, and it’s 10 to 100 times
more sensitive than what is available now. This
is a product that could develop over time and
provide many people with better data. That
leads, in turn, to better solutions for some
pressing public health issues.”
From an idea to collaboration to focused
effort, with a bit of improvising along the
Dr. Glenn Walters is at home in
the ESE Design Center.
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
10 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
However, after a year of working odd jobs, including pumping gas during one of the cold­est winters on record in Vermont, Walters saw only one way to get ahead–college.
“So I enrolled at a local junior college in the business management program, and it all just clicked,” he says. “I was highly motivated, worked hard and quickly became ranked at the top of my class.”
After graduation, Walters was hired as membership manager for the Vermont Cham­ber of Commerce. It was a great job for a young person, traveling around the state, meeting with businesspeople. Still, he wanted to do something more substantive. A battery of aptitude tests and talks with a career coun­selor pointed toward engineering.
Walters subsequently enrolled at the Uni­versity of Vermont, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, with an emphasis on environmental systems. He worked for a time at an environmental consult­ing firm in Alaska, consulted with a Boston-area firm for several years, and then started looking at graduate schools. The search led him to UNC, where he earned his doctorate in environmental sciences and engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
He also found his way to the ESE Design Center in the basement of Rosenau Hall, where the facility’s then-administrator,
Randall Goodman, recognized Walters as both an experienced engineer and skilled craftsman. Before Goodman retired in 2007, he recommended that Walters be brought on as the new director. Because of Walters’ advanced degree and training, the position was enhanced to include an academic com­ponent, as well.
Walters quickly expanded the operation, developing a more capable facility that could provide services University-wide.
“We do everything from basic design and simple repairs to some very sophisticated work with metals, plastics and other com­posite materials,” Walters says. “We’ll take on almost anything.”
Along with the Gillings Device (See page 8) and a wide array of other projects for ESE researchers, this “anything” has included membrane filtration cells for RTI International (www.rti.org), special testing chambers for a UNC School of Dentistry pain-control study; an inhalation toxicology for UNC’s School of Medicine; and an estuary-sampling instru­ment for the Department of Marine Sciences.
“We’ve also been working on a highly sensitive swallowing monitor for premature infants that helps new mothers differentiate various sounds the infants make while feed­ing,” he says.
Crafting these devices requires more than making them functional. Many have to be shrunk down, simplified, expanded or even made to look like something they are not.
“Often they have to be made to look as if they have no apparent value,” he says. “Many of the researchers with whom we work travel to parts of the world in which sophisticated-looking things have a way of disappearing.”
It’s a long way from collecting scrap elec­tronics, but Walters wouldn’t have it any other way.
“A lot of what I learned back then informs what I do now,” he says with a smile. “I may not have taken the typical path to an aca­demic career, but I love where I am. Every day presents a new challenge, a new thing to build or take apart and put back together in a different way.”
—David Pesci
way, Vizuete’s career took a turn he hadn’t anticipated.
“I never thought in terms of starting a business or creating a deliverable product,” he says. “But now we’re already thinking about other uses for the device that could include partnering with other companies. We might want to increase the device’s sensitivity to account for nanomaterials or develop real-time personal samplers that could be used in homes or businesses. There are a lot of directions we can go from here.”
Sexton agrees.
“This instrument ultimately can be deployed and used in homes, as well as other buildings and workplaces.”
In some ways, it’s a lot like a good jazz riff. So many new ideas are just waiting to waft off the original one. All it takes is talented players, hard work and a good sense of impro­visation when the right moments come along.
—David Pesci
RESEARCHERS FEATURED
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Harvey Jeffries, PhD, is professor emeri­tus of environmental sciences and engi­neering (ESE) at the Gillings School.
David Leith, PhD, is a retired ESE research professor.
Don Rose, PhD, director of Carolina KickStart (tinyurl.com/NCtracs-Carolina-Kickstart), received his bachelor’s degree in nutrition from the Gillings School.
Kenneth Sexton, PhD, is a retired research professor of ESE.
Will Vizuete, PhD, is associate professor of ESE.
Glenn Walters, PhD, is director of the ESE Design Center and an ESE research associate.
The ESE Design Center serves
more than 60 clients at the School, across campus and at other organizations, each year responding to more than 100 work orders of varying complexity.
CAROLINA PUBLIC HEALTH | 1112 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
Thanks to research by scientists at the UNC
Nutrition Research Institute (NRI), in Kan-napolis,
N.C., nutrition wellness prescriptions
are becoming a reality. Drs. Brian Bennett,
Carol Cheatham, Karen Corbin, Amy John-son
and Steven Zeisel study the relationship
of our unique genetic composition with the
nutrients that make us function most effi-ciently.
Research into genetics, metabolism,
cognitive function – even bacterial content of
our gut—provides insight into what each of us
needs to be at his or her best.
Assistant genetics professor Dr. Brian Ben-nett,
for example, explores factors that may
increase some people’s heart disease risk.
His theory? In some people, too much of the
nutrient choline might react with common
gut bacteria, forming a harmful byproduct of
metabolism, or metabolite. Those individuals
may want to avoid choline supplements.
In contrast, pregnant women – require
abundant choline to support development of
the fetal brain and nervous system. Dr. Ste-ven
Zeisel, Institute director, and Dr. Carol
Cheatham are examining possible benefits
of adding choline supplements to the diets of
pregnant women in The Gambia to stimulate
cognitive development in fetuses (See box on
page 13 for details.)
Blueberries may stimulate cognitive func-tion,
too—especially in the elderly. They
might help people stay sharper and more
alert as they age. Through a grant from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cheatham
is exploring possible benefits of an extract
of blueberries to thinking and reasoning in
the elderly.
Carol Cheatham, PhD
T H E B I R T H O F B IODE P T RONI X
Imagine visiting your doctor for a prescription
– not for medication, but for a diet perfectly
tailored to your body’s needs. You would get a
precise menu for feeling and looking your best –
foods to ward off chronic diseases such as cancer
and diabetes, to preserve memory and other brain
function, even to increase fertility.
UNC’s Nutrition
Research Institute—
Discovering what
every body is craving
Brian Bennett, PhD Karen Corbin, PhD Amy Johnson, PhD
PHOTO BY CHAD MITCHELL
Another NRI researcher, Dr. Karen
Corbin, leads a team that discovered a
pattern of genes that may cause some people
to develop a fatty liver, which could progress
to fibrosis and cancer. A genetic test to mea-sure
predisposition has been developed but
is not ready for public use. When that tool is
available, it may be an important way to help
genetically predisposed people to avoid obe-sity
so as to avoid more extensive problems.
Diet even could affect fertility – specifi-cally,
how well sperm swim. A common gene
polymorphism (a “misspelled” gene) may
prevent sperm from developing adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), a molecule that stores
energy. Without energy, sperm are unable to
swim, possibly causing infertility. Dr. Amy
Johnson, then a postdoctoral research associ-ate
at NRI, and her team found that adding the
nutrient betaine to the diet solves the problem
in mice; they are hoping to show how similar
supplements could help men. First recognized
in beets, betaine helps the body metabolize
homocysteine, an amino acid.
Projects such as these thrive at NRI, where
experts in nutrition, memory, metabolism,
genetics and other scientific specialties col-laborate.
On the N.C. Research Campus in
Kannapolis, they connect with researchers
from many other disciplines, as well. N.C.
State University’s Plants for Human Health
Institute is next door and is partnering with
Cheatham on her blueberry research.
“You don’t often have collaborative oppor-tunities
like that,” Zeisel says.
Researchers on the Kannapolis campus
have access to some of the most sophisti-cated
equipment anywhere. NRI has one of
11 metabolic chambers in the U.S., allow-ing
researchers to measure metabolism and
energy expenditure over an extended period
of time, usually 24 hours. Just down the
sidewalk is the David H. Murdock Research
Institute, housing advanced biotechnology
equipment, including
a molecular genomics
laboratory, metabolo-mics
laboratory, a 950
MHz nuclear magnetic
resonance supercon-ducting
magnet, and a
broad array of micros-copy
technologies and
other capabilities.
“Amazing things are
happening here,” Zeisel
says. “Our approach is different from being
on a large, established campus. It’s more of
a start-up environment, where researchers,
often early in their careers, are taking new
approaches to emerging issues. The results
are exciting – and the promise of the
future unlimited.”
 
 
          —Ramona DuBose
UNC’ S NUT R I T ION R E S E ARCH I N S T I TUT E
Steve Zeisel’s
Gates Foundation Grant
Steve Zeisel, PhD
Would giving choline supplements to pregnant women in The Gambia improve fetal brain devel-opment
and future cognitive functioning? Dr. Steve Zeisel’s proposal to discover the potential
has made him and the UNC Nutrition Research Institute a Grant Challenges Exploration winner.
The initiative is funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore ideas that “break the
Enables pregnant women in The Gambia
to deliver healthier babies
mold” in solving global health and develop-ment
challenges.
Choline is critical to fetal brain develop-ment.
Women in developing countries like
The Gambia eat one-half to one-third of the
recommended amount of choline, and these
areas also report suboptimal fetal and child
growth. Could providing choline supplements
to pregnant women improve their babies’
lives?
“If we show positive results, the program
could be expanded throughout sub-Saharan
Africa, Jamaica and other low-income coun-tries
where diets do not deliver adequate
choline. We’re hoping to improve how chil-dren
perform in school and enhance their
lives,” Zeisel says.
In The Gambia, a 4,007-square-mile West
African country that knifes through Senegal,
106 of every 1,000 children die before the age
of 5 (U.N., 2010).
THE GAMBIA
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 13
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
F E AT U R E S AND N EWS
14 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
PHOTO BY RAMONA DUBOSE
Nab Dasgupta—
Saving lives while giving
back to North Carolina
Project Lazarus may be a work in progress, but
all the progress has been in the right direction.
The organization, which aims to educate about and
prevent prescription drug overdose, has developed
in less than five years from an effort in one rural
North Carolina county to a program that now
influences overdose prevention efforts in every
county in the state.
On the surface, the line of success seems fairly
straight; in fact, it was anything but. It might
not have happened at all except for a series of
serendipitous events – sage admonishment
from a mentor at a major pharmaceutical
company, the chance finding of a roommate
on Craigslist, a meeting with a determined
Wilkes County chaplain. Partnering with
the county medical examiner, a variety of
law enforcement officers and first responders
was also pivotal. So were endorsements from
the North Carolina Medical Board and The
White House.
“Actually it all started with bioterrorism,”
says Nabarun “Nab” Dasgupta, an epidemiol-ogy
doctoral candidate at the Gillings School
of Global Health at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
That was back in 2002, when ample
amounts of federal money suddenly were
being dedicated to fighting terrorism. Das-gupta
was searching for a summer internship
while at Yale University for a master’s degree
in public health. Government agents won-dered
if he’d be interested in joining a team
that would prepare for a bioterrorist attack –
in Wyoming.
“To be honest, I didn’t think Wyoming was
a real target for bioterrorism,” he says. “So I
started to look for a place where I could make
a more immediate impact.”
Dasgupta was interested particularly in how
information from informal sources could be
used in conjunction with traditional public
health surveillance to develop more robust
drug safety treatments and solutions. Pharma-ceutical
company Purdue Pharma presented
him with an intriguing opportunity.
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
Nab Dasgupta (right) shows his overdose prevention kit
to adviser Dr. Steve Marshall.
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 15
“[Purdue] had learned that their drug Oxy-
Contin increasingly was being abused, and
they wanted to establish a team that would
generate strategies and solutions to address
this,” Dasgupta says. “This seemed more like
what I was looking for.”
After completing his master’s thesis
research – interviewing drug users and deal-ers
in his home state of Maine as part of a
Yale research study – he was hired by Purdue
Pharma to lead their epidemiology efforts.
The work was fascinating. Dasgupta became
immersed in studying the effects of OxyCon-tin
and other opioid drugs. The group aspired
to provide improved physician and patient
training and information, to combat addiction
and remediate overdoses when they did occur.
Dasgupta also learned about an antidote that
was highly effective in overdose emergencies.
“If administered in time, naloxone [the
antidote] reverses the effects of most opioid
overdoses,” he says. “It is also relatively safe.
For instance, if an overdose is suspected but
in reality hasn’t happened, administering nal-oxone
won’t harm the patient.”
The group worked hard for almost four
years on the problem. However, soon after
the drug went off patent and received generic
status, the company decided to disband the
group. Looking for that next step in his
career, Dasgupta began applying to doctoral
programs. When he was accepted at UNC,
a senior member of his group, Dr. Curtis
Wright, took him aside.
“Dr. Wright had spent much of his career in
the Navy and the Food and Drug Administra-tion,”
Dasgupta says. “He told me, ‘Nab, you
went to great private schools, but attending a
public university involves something differ-ent.
The people of North Carolina are giving
up resources and opportunities just to educate
you. Your tuition does not repay that debt. It
is your responsibility to find ways to give back
to that state.’ To be honest, I never thought of
my education in this way, but I really took it
to heart, and when I got to Chapel Hill, I was
determined to do just that.”
However, before starting the doctoral pro-gram,
Dasgupta needed a place to live and a
roommate in Chapel Hill – which meant a
search on Craigslist.
Also looking for a roommate on Craigslist
was Rachel Fesperman, an MD/MPH student
at UNC. After a brief phone call, she and
Dasgupta decided to share a house together.
It wasn’t long before Fesperman, who grew
up in Wilkesboro, N.C., invited Dasgupta to
visit her hometown, meet her family and go to
MerleFest, an annual music festival in Wilkes
County founded by famed songwriter Doc
Watson. Dasgupta was game.
“I wasn’t from around here, and this seemed
like a great opportunity to see more of North
Carolina and its culture,” Dasgupta says.
“Being an epidemiologist, I immediately went
Overdoses involving prescription painkillers are at epidemic levels and now kill more
Americans than heroin and cocaine combined. The great majority [perhaps 70 percent or
more] are unintentional deaths. States, health insurers, health care providers and individuals
have critical roles to play in the national effort to stop this epidemic of overdoses while we
protect patients who need prescriptions to control pain.
—Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH
Director, U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)
PHOTO BY NAB DASGUPTA
A community coalition of physicians, clinic managers, epidemiologists,
members of the faith community and others meet at the Wilkes County
(N.C.) health department to discuss Project Lazarus.
NAB DA SGUP TA
online to see what kind of public health data
I could find out about Wilkesboro. What I
learned pretty quickly was that Wilkes County
had a drug overdose death rate of nearly 47
deaths per 100,000 people. That was extremely
high.”
It was actually the highest rate in the state.
Dasgupta met Rachel’s father, Dr. Joe Fesper-man,
a local physician, and asked if the data on
overdoses were accurate. Dr. Fesperman con-firmed
the figures and said that most of the
overdoses were linked to prescription drugs.
“‘Unintentional injury and poisoning’ is the
number-one source of death in the U.S. for
people under 45 years of age, and overdose is
the biggest source of death within that very
broad group,” says Steve Marshall, PhD, pro-fessor
of epidemiology at the Gillings School
and director of the UNC Injury Prevention
Research Center. “Prescribing of opiate-based
medicines has skyrocketed, and with it, the
number of deaths from overdose. Some of
this is chronic abuse, such as people who take
pills to get high and take too much. But a lot
of it is people with chronic pain who become
addicted to painkillers, or even just kids who
experiment with other people’s medicines
when no one is watching.”
When Dasgupta asked if there were any
efforts underway to stem the problem, Dr.
Fesperman said that a local hospice chap-lain,
Fred Brason, had been working with a
Substance Abuse Task Force and hospice to
try to reverse the trend.
Fresh off an internship through which he
wrote opioid addiction treatment guidelines
at the World Health Organization, Dasgupta
met with Brason and convinced the chaplain
this would take a much broader approach.
They called their effort “Project Lazarus” and
began expanding, quickly joining forces with
the Northwest Community Care Network
(the local Medicaid authority). They met with
Susan Albert, MD, the Wilkes County medi-cal
director, as well as the county sheriff, rep-resentatives
from other first responders and
local social workers.
“My previous experience really helped
inform the process,” Dasgupta says. “I knew
we had to get buy-in from all these groups
and the medical community, and I knew we
had to find the reasons current efforts were
falling short.”
Dr. Albert says the project was a medical
intervention from the beginning. “Nab intro-duced
Project Lazarus, and it really expanded
our focus on the community.”
It quickly became clear that most of the
participants who try to identify and treat these
drug overdoses found the available literature
on overdose prevention and treatment too
clinical and generic.
“So we worked with them to create their
own guide on how to manage chronic pain
and prevent overdose. It was a great solution
because it gave everyone in the group owner-ship
of the material. Every page had meaning
for them,” Dasgupta says.
The group members also decided to develop
their own emergency overdose tool kit, com-plete
with naloxone and directions for treat-ment
and resuscitation. The kit would be
accompanied by comprehensive training on
how to spot overdose symptoms – they weren’t
always apparent – and how to respond and
administer naloxone.
“We wanted to give these kits to all first
responders and any patients who thought
they may have need of one. However, the kits
required a doctor’s prescription, and the local
physicians were hesitant about our efforts.”
Dasgupta and his colleagues decided to
approach the North Carolina Medical Board
directly and ask for an official endorsement of
their new strategy, something that was widely
considered a long shot.
“We were a very new, small community
group,” Dasgupta remembers. “I was con-fident
in our methods and our data, but we
knew this wasn’t going to be easy. They really
grilled us, too. But by the end of our presenta-tion
we had completely won them over.”
As a result, the medical board issued a state-ment
of support that read, in part:
The prevention of drug overdoses is consis-tent
with the Board’s statutory mission to pro-tect
the people of North Carolina. The Board
therefore encourages its licensees to cooperate
with programs like Project Lazarus in their
efforts to make naloxone available to persons
at risk of suffering opioid drug overdose.
After that, Project Lazarus received support
from local physicians. Grants from public
health and drug policy foundations allowed
Project Lazarus to issue a free overdose kit to
anyone in Wilkes County.
“There was no procedure for treating over-dose
with naloxone prior to Project Lazarus,”
says medical director Albert, “except as it
occurred in the ambulance or emergency
department. We now have naloxone in the
homes of people who are determined to be at
increased risk of overdose.”
Within two years, the overdose death rate
in Wilkes County dropped from 46.6 per
16 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
Nab Dasgupta (left) assembles overdose
prevention kits in Wilkes County, N.C.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
100,000 (2009) to 29.0 per 100,000 (2011). Proj-ect
Lazarus also worked with representatives
at Fort Bragg, N.C., to set up a similar project,
called Operation OpioidSafe. The success of
Project Lazarus has drawn the interest of com-munity
health organizations and educators
throughout the state.
“Community Care of North Carolina has
picked up our program. The blueprint has
gone to the public health officials in every
county in the state,” Dasgupta says. “While
each county presents unique challenges, the
process can be adapted to meet their needs.”
The staff of Project Lazarus has helped set
up similar programs in California, Maine,
Ohio, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Last
August, The White House called, asking if
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy (also known
as the Obama administration’s “drug czar”),
could visit Project Lazarus.
During his trip to Wilkes County, Ker-likowske
told a packed room, “Project Laza-rus
is an exceptional organization – not only
because it saves lives in Wilkes County, but
also because it sets a pioneering example in
community-based public health for the rest
of the country.”
“There is a new wave of epidemiology,” says
Marshall, who is also chair of Dasgupta’s dis-sertation
committee. “I call it ‘intervention
epidemiology’ – in which the epidemiologist
is not someone who simply quantifies risk fac-tors
and then moves onto the next disease, but
rather is someone who is actively engaged with
developing and testing innovative solutions
to the health problems of our age. This new
scholar has broad skills. She can talk health
behavior theory and interrupted time series
analysis in the same sentence, and in language
that anyone can understand. He doesn’t just
study health problems; he studies solutions. In
fact, the scholar is part of the solution. Nab
personifies the type of epidemiologist that is
desperately needed in the 21st century.”
Dasgupta is slated to defend his disserta-tion
in summer 2013. Once he earns the
doctorate, he’d like to pursue other interests
in epidemiology, but he says he will remain
involved in Project Lazarus. As for whether
he has honored Dr. Curtis Wright’s plea to
give back to the people of North Carolina,
Dasgupta is philosophical.
“I think Dr. Wright’s words helped me to
see the history and sacrifice behind UNC as
an institution, that so many folks over gen-erations
in North Carolina have put their
taxes and physical selves into making this a
great school, of which I am the beneficiary,”
Dasgupta says. “The best I can do is use what
I have learned here to help repay that debt to
them and their descendants.”
—David Pesci
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 17
More information
can be found at
A 20-minute video describes the work of the Project
Lazarus team. (See http://tinyurl.com/lazarus-video.)
note: On April 9, the Good Samaritan and Naloxone bill (SB20)
was signed into law in North Carolina. The public health bill to
prevent overdose deaths, which passed with nearly unanimous support,
cited Project Lazarus as a model. Read more at projectlazarusnc.tumblr.com.
{ www..prrojjecttllazarrus..orrg}
Dasgupta presents the Project Lazarus
“Naloxone Rescue Kit,” which he hopes
will save lives.
In the Christian Bible, St. Lazarus was resurrected by Jesus Christ after having been dead for four days. The name Lazarus means “God is my help.”
Keep up with us
on facebook:
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PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
F E AT U R E S AND N EWS
18 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
NAB DA SGUP TA
Jason Surratt—
Exploring the dark
side of the forest
The fragrance of evergreens and less-notice-able
odors from hardwoods stem from hydro-carbons
called terpenes, which are emitted by
all trees. These natural chemicals mix with
nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, pollutants
from automobile exhausts and coal-burning
power plants. Sunlight combines with the
mixture to cause a chemical reaction in the
atmosphere, producing fine particulates that
may reduce visibility in many national parks
and – more significantly – may lead to or
worsen cardiopulmonary disease, asthma and
other serious health problems.
“Man-made pollutants perturb the natu-ral
chemistry of our atmosphere,” Dr. Jason
Surratt says. “Sunlight sparks a reaction that
creates the brown smog that hangs over cities
and is likely more harmful than original pol-lutants
on their own.”
Surratt and colleagues conduct atmospheric
research at Look Rock Mountain, near the city
of Knoxville and several Tennessee Valley
Authority coal-fired power plants. The study
is supported by the Electric Power Research
Institute and the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). Surratt received an early-career
grant from EPA, as well as the Walter
A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award from
the Health Effects Institute, to fund further
research on the impact of human-caused
pollutants and isoprene, the most abundantly
emitted terpene.
Surratt examines these pollutants in air
chambers at UNC-Chapel Hill – one on the
roof of McGavran-Greenberg Hall and the
other in Pittsboro, N.C., south of Chapel Hill.
The team also examines them in Surratt’s
Michael Hooker Research Center laboratory.
Fine particulates generated from the cham-bers
are examined using a device developed
by Dr. William Vizuete. The device exposes
living lung tissue to pollutants to determine
potential human health effects (See page 8.)
Trees are likely responsible for the misty haze
that gave name to the Smoky Mountains—
and for much of the smog that hangs over cities.
Wait! Aren’t trees the world’s best air fresheners,
producers of oxygen that make our atmosphere
healthier? Yes and no.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 19
In the past, it was not possible to test indi-vidual
components involved in the formation
of aerosols. Subsequent interactions with
human populations have not been possible
because the relevant compounds were not
available. Collaboration between Surratt’s
laboratory, which specializes in atmospheric
chemistry, and the laboratory of Surratt’s
mentor, Dr. Avram Gold, who has expertise
in synthesis, could yield important insights
into both the atmospheric reactions lead-ing
to aerosol formation and the human
health effects resulting from exposure to
aerosol. Ultimately, the research could lead to
development of rational strategies to control
atmospheric aerosol formation and minimize
adverse health effects.
Surratt compares the importance of making
this link between natural and human-made
particles in the air with the discovery of the
threat to the ozone layer from chlorofluoro-carbons
(CFCs) used as coolants in refrigera-tors
and air conditioners and as aerosols in
many household products.
“In the 1980s, there was public outcry about
how CFCs were destroying the ozone layer
that protects us from harmful effects of the
sun,” Surratt said. “The result was a ban on
CFCs.”
Surratt’s research may inspire similar wide-spread
control measures to reduce health
threats related to the compounding of tree
emissions, human-made pollutants and
sunshine. “However,” – he quickly points
out, laughing – “banning trees won’t be
the solution!”
—Ramona DuBose
RESEARCHERS FEATURED
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Avram Gold, PhD, is professor of
environmental sciences and
engineering (ESE).
Jason Surratt, PhD, is assistant
professor of ESE.
William Vizuete, PhD, is associate
professor of ESE.
Dr. Jason Surratt is assisted in his UNC laboratory by Dr. Ying-Hsuan Lin, ESE postdoctoral
fellow (top), and ESE doctoral student Sri Hapsari Budisulistiorini (bottom). His team also
conducts research at Look Rock Mountain, near Knoxville, Tenn. (center).
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN CONTRIBUTED PHOTO PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
F E AT U R E S AND N EWS
20 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
Dr. James Porto Jr. has developed a sophis-ticated
simulated state entity, complete with
tornados, chemical spills and health systems
facing financial crises. His simulation game,
called FranklinStateSim, lets students in the
executive master’s program make team deci-sions
and instantly see the results.
In these and other ways, members of the
School’s faculty have adopted new technolo-gies
in the classroom.
“The old ways of teaching and learning
may not apply to the new type of student
we’re seeing,” says Dr. Anna Maria Siega-Riz,
associate dean for academic affairs. “They
have grown up with technology that allows
them to have information at their fingertips.”
Most students in Dr. John Paul’s large lecture
class have smartphones, and they all have lap-tops.
To boost student engagement, Paul puts
the ubiquity of the devices to good advantage.
He intersperses lectures with brief polls, and
his students respond with text messages that
lead to lively discussions.
Dr. Suzanne Hobbs brings together a cohort
of far-flung doctoral students in health leader-ship
for weekly online classes. Although they
live all over the U.S., in Europe, Africa and
even Papua New Guinea, her students can
glimpse each other’s lives and interact face
to face – and they say they feel more con-nected
than they ever did in a conventional
classroom.
JA SON SU R R AT T
It’s important to meet students where they are.
—John Paul, PhD
Embracing technology
to teach millennials Dr. Jim Porto (standing, left) visits a
class taught by Dr. Sue Hobbs (right).
New pedagogies such as “flipping the
classroom” facilitate engagement, she says.
“Instead of the teacher’s providing all the
information, the teacher becomes the facilita-tor
of information. Students research the topic
and exchange information they acquire online
and from other sources. Then the teacher can
facilitate discussion of what they’ve learned.”
“Moving toward more collaborative teach-ing
and learning changes the demands on
physical classroom space,” notes Rob Kark,
management engineer. In response, the
School’s learning spaces are being updated.
Now in progress are two large projects – the
establishment of a large multimedia classroom
and the conversion of existing space into a
collaborative classroom with docking stations,
multimedia screens and Web-conferencing
stations. On the drawing board is renovation
of an open study room to promote collabora-tion.
Two additional classrooms already have
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 21
been equipped with whiteboards, projectors
and moveable chairs.
School leaders hope eventually to provide
cutting-edge technology in additional spaces,
including the Fred Mayes Center, the Design
Center (see page 10) and Rosenau Audito-rium.
Small “hotspots” around the School,
such as the one already installed in Michael
Hooker Research Center’s Armfield Atrium,
will facilitate student teamwork. An updated
conference room will enable the dean and
others to videoconference with peers around
the world, solving public health problems in
real time.
Creating technology-rich spaces is “defi-nitely
not cheap,” Kark observes. “The tech-nology
is as costly as the construction of the
space itself.”
Still, the investment is no longer optional.
Students must be provided with the technolo-gies
they will be expected to master in their
professional lives.
Siega-Riz says technology-equipped spaces
can facilitate ways of teaching that have advan-tages
over traditional methods. “We have
technology that allows students to review the
material repeatedly until they master it. We’ve
encouraged flipping the classroom because
we believe if we make students responsible
for their own education, it’s more effective.”
When students view taped lectures before
they come to class, for example, class time can
be used for teamwork, group discussion and
individual presentations. “That allows you to
focus more on critical thinking skills and on
the essence of the content,” Siega-Riz says.
Using the simulation Porto has developed
allows students to practice high-stakes deci-sion
making with no risk to a real community.
“I’m an old helicopter pilot,” Porto notes.
“We practiced flying by using simulators,
which can really reduce the time to expertise.”
Other technological and pedagogical
advances make it possible to extend the
School’s reach through established online
programs. Currently, the online program
Hobbs directs helps build public health lead-ership
capacity in the countries that need it
most, since participants earn a doctorate while
Dr. John Paul uses new technologies
to boost student engagement.
In Dr. Hobbs’ class, students work in groups to master information quickly.
Left to right are Madison Lackey, Caroline Crews and Michael Edwards.
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
RESEARCHERS FEATURED
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Suzanne Hobbs, DrPH, is clinical
associate professor of nutrition and of health
policy and management.
John Paul, PhD, is clinical associate profes-sor
of health policy and management.
James Porto, PhD, is clinical assistant pro-fessor
of health policy and management.
Anna Maria Siega-Riz, PhD, is professor
of epidemiology and of nutrition and is the
School’s associate dean for academic affairs.
EMBR ACING T ECHNOLOGY TO T E ACH M I L L ENNI A L S
continuing to work full-time in their com-munities.
Hobbs also is working with UNC’s
Center for Faculty Excellence to develop the
University’s first hybrid course, one that will
coordinate online and residential sections so
that students can move between the two.
Soon, the first massive open online courses
(MOOCs) will be offered at the School. Paul,
who serves on the provost’s task force on
MOOCs, says the new approach certainly
will affect how residential classes are run.
“Studying the techniques and approaches they
use definitely will affect how I teach. I find it
very exciting.”
All these developments depend on con-stantly
updated infrastructure – and on con-stant
innovation by faculty members.
“It’s important,” Paul says, “to meet stu-dents
where they are.”
           —Kathleen Kearns
The old ways of teaching and learning may not
apply to the new type of student we’re seeing.
—Dr. Anna Maria Siega-Riz
22 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
Room 2308 McGavran-Greenberg Hall
is undergoing changes to make it a more
technologically versatile and learning-friendly
classroom. Seating and wiring
will allow students to work in different
configurations, and a glass wall will
introduce natural light. right: Rob Kark, Dr.
John Paul and Dr. Jim Porto (l-r) discuss the
changes. below: A drawing of the empty
room as it will appear from the hallway.
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 23
Alumnus viewpoint
North Carolina’s decision about
Medicaid expansion affects everyone
Regional Economic Models Inc., an eco-nomic
modeling firm, highlighted benefits
of Medicaid expansion for our state’s strug-gling
economy. The expansion could result
in 23,000 more jobs, $1.4 billion higher gross
domestic product (GDP) and a rise in annual
disposable personal income to $1 billion.
Without Medicaid expansion, North Caro-linians
will bear the burden of paying for the
Some political decisions affect a small group;
others impact us all. On February 5, North
Carolina senators passed Senate Bill 4; the
equivalent bill in the House—16—was passed
February 26. Both mandate that the state will
opt out of Medicaid expansion. This is the case,
despite the fact that the Affordable Care Act pays
for Medicaid expansion for the next three years,
after which the federal government will never pay
less than 90 percent of the state’s costs.
Brian Ellerby, MSPH, a 1988 health policy and management alumnus (then
health policy and administration), is chief executive officer of Triad Adult and
Pediatric Medicine in Greensboro, N.C., an organization with a mission to
provide family health care that is comprehensive, holistic and delivered with a
spirit of compassion and respect.
In February, Dr. Brian Ellerby celebrated
the opening of a pediatric pharmacy at his
organization’s practice. The service helps
families better understand and comply
with their children’s medical prescriptions.
sick seeking health care in emergency rooms
and safety-net clinics. My organization, Triad
Adult and Pediatric Medicine, is among the
groups that will bear that burden.
We are medical home to 54,000 adults and
children, all with annual incomes at or below
200 percent of the federal poverty level. Sev-enty
percent of those adults and five percent
of the children are uninsured. In 2012, we
provided 90,000 patient visits, of which 30,814
were for the uninsured.
Our cost per visit is $176, as compared to
a non-urgent emergency room visit costing
an average $800 in our area. If we were not
here, the uninsured would seek care at emer-gency
rooms. This could cost the community
$24,651,200 – a total greater than Triad Adult
and Pediatric Medicine’s entire annual budget
of $16.2 million. It is estimated that $500 of
employer-sponsored health insurance pre-miums
are attributable to cost-shifting, i.e.,
hospitals moving costs of providing care to
the uninsured onto the insured.
It is important to expand Medicaid, while
at the same time holding accountable pro-viders,
insurers and recipients of care. Only
then will we achieve both clinical and finan-cial
outcomes that will sustain our health-care
system.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
—Brian Ellerby
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
John J.B. Anderson, PhD, nutrition professor
emeritus, led a study assessing benefits of cal-cium
on bone mineral density and determined
that older adults would be better served by
taking in calcium from foods. The study was
published online Oct. 15, 2012, in The Journal
of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Ralph Baric, PhD, epidemiology professor,
and Mark Denison, MD, professor of micro-biology
and immunology at Vanderbilt Uni-versity
School of Medicine, collaborated on a
study that may show how to cripple the ability
of the SARS coronavirus to cause disease
by using the virus’ rapid mutation abilities
against itself. Epidemiology postdoctoral fel-low
Rachel Graham, PhD, led the study,
published Nov. 12, 2012, in Nature Medicine.
Margaret Bentley, PhD, Carla Smith Cham-blee
Distinguished Professor of nutrition and
associate dean for global health, has studied
the interplay of maternal and infant risk fac-tors
that lead to TV watching in infants. The
research, which appears in the Jan. 7 issue
of Pediatrics, found that mothers who were
obese, who watched a lot of TV and whose
children were fussy were most likely to put
their infants in front of the TV.
Jianwen Cai, PhD, biostatistics professor,
found that heart disease risk factors are wide-spread
among Hispanic/Latino adults in the
U.S. The largest ever of its kind, Cai’s study
was published in the Nov. 7, 2012, issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
It found that 80 percent of Hispanic/Latino
men and 71 percent of women had at least one
cardiovascular disease risk factor.
A study by Rose Cory, PhD, suggests that arc-tic
warming is an even bigger global problem
than previously thought. Cory measured the
effect of sunlight on the carbon long locked
away in the frozen soils. Conversion of the
organic carbon to carbon dioxide gas has
potential to double the amount of greenhouse
gas in the earth’s atmosphere. Cory’s results
were reported online Feb. 11 in the Proceed-ings
of the National Academy of Sciences.
A study led by Susan Ennett, PhD, professor
of health behavior, found that 22 percent of
surveyed mothers believed that children who
taste alcohol at home are better at resisting
alcohol-related peer pressure. The findings,
published in JAMA Pediatrics in November
2012, are troubling, given that early exposure
to alcohol is a primary risk factor for problem
drinking during adolescence.
Myles Faith, PhD, associate professor of nutri-tion,
co-authored an October 2012 study
published in the Journal of Consumer Research
revealing a strong association between mascu-linity
and eating meat. The findings suggest
that what men choose to consume may be
shaped by metaphors and beliefs about what
certain foods might say about them. Faith also
published a study March 20 in Obesity find-ing
genetic causes for children’s picky eating.
Alumna Abigail Haydon, PhD, and faculty
members Amy Herring, ScD, and Carolyn
Read more at www.sph.unc.edu/news.
unc gil l ings school of globa l publ ic hea lth
october 2012 – apr il 2013
SCHOOL NEWS
Selected Publications
24 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
Dr. John Anderson
Dr. Margaret Bentley
Dr. Myles Faith
Dr. Ralph Baric
Dr. Jianwen Cai
Dr. Susan Ennett
Dr. Amy Herring Dr. Carolyn Halpern
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 25
Dr. Ivan Rusyn
Halpern, PhD, co-authored a study examin-ing
a range of sexual behaviors in adolescence
and how those behaviors relate to reproductive
health and sexual risk-taking later. The study
was published online Oct. 3, 2012, in Perspec-tives
on Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Marcia Herman-Giddens, DrPH, adjunct
professor of maternal and child health, found
that boys in the U.S. appear to be entering
puberty much earlier than in the past, a trend
that may have important medical, psychoso-cial,
public health and environmental implica-tions.
Her study was published online Oct. 20,
2012 in Pediatrics.
Zachary Kerr, epidemiology doctoral student,
analyzed causes of exertional heat illness and
death among high school athletes in a study
published in the November issue of the Ameri-can
Journal of Preventive Medicine. Stephen
Marshall, PhD, epidemiology professor, was
co-author.
Health behavior doctoral student Joseph G.L.
Lee, MPH, co-authored a September 2012
American Journal of Public Health article
showing that an Institute of Medicine report
on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) health underestimates evidence of
tobacco use by the LGBT population, com-pared
to heterosexuals. Such underreporting
is problematic because IOM’s findings are
used by federal agencies and funding entities
to set public health policy and priorities.
Amy Lowman, MPH, research associate,
and Steve Wing, PhD, associate professor of
epidemiology, found that solids from sewage
treatment (sludge) used as fertilizer on farm
lands cause health problems among people
who live near the affected areas. Their study
appeared in the March 11 Environmental
Health Perspectives.
Sandra Martin, PhD, professor of mater-nal
and child health and associate dean for
research, and Angela Parcesepe, maternal and
child health doctoral candidate, are authors
of a chapter in the new book Violence Against
Women and Mental Health, edited by A.
Riecher-Rossler and N. Sartorius and pub-lished
Feb. 7.
Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, nutrition pro-fessor,
contributed research to a study finding
that the number of American youths with
Type 2 diabetes could increase by almost 50
percent by mid-century. The study, led by the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion
and the National Institutes of Health,
was published in the December 2012 issue of
Diabetes Care.
Andy Olshan, PhD, professor and chair of
epidemiology, and Kimon Divaris, PhD,
epidemiology alumnus and research assistant
professor of dentistry at UNC, conducted
research showing that genes responsible for
nervous system development and immune
function also play a role in chronic peri-odontitis,
a gum disease. Findings were
published March 4 in Human Molecular
Genetics. Olshan also co-authored a study
in the March 7 Genetics in Medicine assert-ing
that progress in DNA sequencing offers
opportunity to identify preventable rare
diseases through screening.
Drs. Barry Popkin, Meghan Slining and Shu
Wen Ng, nutrition faculty members, led an
independent evaluation of the Healthy Weight
Commitment Foundation’s pledge to reduce
one trillion calories from the marketplace by
2012 and 1.5 trillion by 2015. Findings were
published Jan. 17 in The American Journal of
Preventive Medicine. Popkin, W.R. Kenan Dis-tinguished
Professor of nutrition, also worked
with Carmen Piernas, nutrition doctoral stu-dent,
and colleagues to find that while sugary,
higher-calorie beverages are still enjoyed too
much by American consumers, low-calorie
drinks are closing the gap in households with
and without children. Published March 25 in
Pediatric Obesity, the study spanned 10 years
and found a trend toward increased intake of
lower-calorie beverages and decreased intake
of higher-calorie sweet drinks.
Ivan Rusyn, MD, PhD, environmental sci-ences
and engineering professor, was one of 18
international scientists who helped reclassify
trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical formerly
used as a degreaser and in dry cleaning, from a
cancer “hazard” to “carcinogenic to humans.”
The scientists’ assessments were published as
volume 106 of the IARC Monographs. A sum-mary
of the evaluations was published Oct. 26,
2012, in Lancet Oncology.
Carmen Samuel-Hodge, PhD, research assis-tant
professor of nutrition, examined interac-tions
between African-American adults living
with diabetes and their non-diabetic family
members. The article, published in the March
issue of the Journal of General Internal Medi-cine,
found unresolved family conflict, role
confusion and concerns about not knowing
Zachary Kerr
Dr. Sandra Martin
Dr. Andy Olshan
Dr. M. Herman-Giddens
Dr. Beth Mayer-Davis
Dr. Barry Popkin
Dr. C. Samuel-Hodge
F E AT U R E S AND N EWS
what to say to family members living with
diabetes. Samuel-Hodge and colleagues also
implemented a proven weight-loss program
in the “real world,” through select N.C. health
departments. Findings, published Feb. 14
in the journal Obesity, demonstrated that
local staff members trained in an evidence-based
program can facilitate clinically mean-ingful
weight loss by program participants.
Anthony Viera, MD, has determined that
people take nutrition information most seri-ously
when it is presented in terms of how
long it would take to burn the calories in any
given food through exercising. His study was
published March 1 in the journal Appetite.
Daisy Zamora, PhD, postdoctoral researcher
in the UNC medical school and 2010 alumna
of the Gillings School, analyzed data missing
from a prior study and cast doubt on current
dietary advice about vegetable fats and heart
health. The clinical trial, published online Feb.
5 in the British Journal of Medicine, shows that
replacing saturated animal fats with a com-mon
omega-6 polyunsaturated vegetable fat
is linked to an increased risk of death among
patients with heart disease.
The Active Living by Design grant program,
led by Sarah Strunk, MHA, and funded from
2003 to 2009 by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, is featured in the November
2012 supplement of the American Journal of
Preventive Medicine.
Dr. Rebecca Fry
Selected Grants
Amy Herring, ScD, Rebecca Fry, PhD, and
Marilie Gammon, PhD, leaders in the School’s
Biostatistics for Research in Environmental
Health grant, were delighted to learn that the
research and training program was renewed
for another five-year period by The National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The grant has been awarded continuously to
the Gillings School since 1971, when it was
won by Bernard Greenberg, PhD, then-chair
of the biostatistics department, making it the
longest continuing training program at the
School. The grant supports 23 doctoral and
five postdoctoral scholars in biostatistics,
epidemiology, and environmental sciences
and engineering.
Vijaya K. Hogan, DrPH, clinical associ-ate
professor of maternal and child health,
leads First Foods, W.K. Kellogg Founda-tion’s
national breastfeeding initiative. Hogan
received a $900,000 grant to give children a
healthy start by ensuring more babies receive
breast milk as their first food experience.
Cheryll Lesneski, DrPH, and Rohit Ramas-wamy,
PhD, faculty members in the Public
Health Leadership Program, were awarded
a $99,917 grant from Pfizer to design and
execute smoking cessation programs at three
inpatient Alcohol and Drug Treatment Cen-ters
in North Carolina. The project is timely,
given that the state is establishing regulations
for mental health facilities to become smoke-free
campuses in 2013.
Philip May, PhD, research professor of nutri-tion
and Nutrition Research Institute scien-tist,
received a $5.3 million grant from the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism, one of the National Institutes of
Health, to conduct research on fetal alcohol
spectrum disorders in South Africa.
Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, PhD, assis-tant
professor of environmental sciences and
engineering, has received one of this year’s
four Health Systems and Services Research
Mentored Research Scientist Development
Awards, presented by the Robert Wood John-son
Foundation (RWJF) to emerging research-ers
who examine the effects of public health
services on population health. MacDonald
Gibson will focus upon the historically Afri-can-
American Rogers Road/Eubanks neigh-borhood
in Chapel Hill, N.C.
26 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
SCHOOL N EWS
Dr. Vijaya Hogan Dr. Philip May Dr. Anthony Viera
we’re turning
in June 2 015! 75
Watch for events in the
coming year that celebrate
the Gillings School.
Dr. Myron Cohen
In memoriam: Brian Montgomery Sumner,
MD, Master of Public Health student in the
Public Health Leadership Program (PHLP),
died in an accident in Costa Rica on Jan. 4.
He was 51.
The 2012 Water and Health Conference: Sci-ence,
Policy and Innovation explored critical
global issues in water and health during the
third annual event, held Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 2012.
About 500 people attended the international
gathering, co-sponsored by The Water Insti-tute
at UNC and the UNC Institute for the
Environment. Jamie Bartram, PhD, directs
The Water Institute. During the conference,
The Water Institute received a $75,000 grant
from Wells Fargo & Company.
Anna Schenck, PhD, associate dean for pub-lic
health practice at the School, chaired this
year’s American’s Health Rankings® Scientific
In Memoriam
WILLIAM CLYDE FRIDAY, JD (1920 - 2012)
Mr. Friday, who served as president of the University of North Carolina from 1956 to 1986,
died on UNC’s University Day, Oct. 12. He was 92. So many will miss his loyalty to the state
and University he loved, as well as his wit, compassion and unwavering sense of justice.
Read about his special relationship with the Gillings School of Global Public
Health at www.sph.unc.edu/billfriday.
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 27
Other News
Josh Nesbit Dr. Anna Schenck
Dr. Jamie Bartram
Advisory Committee. Gillings School faculty
members have been instrumental advisers in
the development and review of the rankings
since the process was established in 1990. The
rankings analyze and report on the nation’s
health on a state-by-state basis.
Myron S. Cohen, MD, acclaimed physician
and HIV/AIDS researcher, was the keynote
speaker at UNC’s December commencement.
He offered graduates his recipe for success:
timing, taking chances, trust and tenacity.
Josh Nesbit, executive director and co-founder
of Medic Mobile, a nongovernmental
organization that employs mobile technolo-gies
to improve health care in challenging set-tings,
was scheduled at press time to present
the keynote address at the Gillings School’s
spring 2013 commencement, held Saturday,
May 11, at 1 p.m. in the Carmichael Arena on
the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.
The University of Cambridge (U.K.) and the
Gillings School of Global Public Health are
pioneering collaborative research in dementia,
obesity, tobacco and alcohol, and disease pro-gression
and treatment. Among UNC public
health faculty involved in the collaboration
are Drs. Peggye Dilworth Anderson, Michael
Kosorok, Barbara K. Rimer, Kurt Ribisl and
June Stevens. For more information about
the partnership, contact Barbara Wallace at
bobbi_wallace@unc.edu.
Jonathan LaPook, MD, was the keynote
speaker at the 45th annual Fred T. Foard Jr.
Memorial Lecture on April 11. LaPook, chief
medical correspondent for CBS Evening News
with Scott Pelley, spoke on “Public Health at
the Intersection of Medicine and Media.”
Jo Anne Earp, ScD (right), former chair and professor of the health behavior department, was
honored with a day-long symposium and retirement dinner on April 12. Earp, who joined the Gillings
School faculty in 1974, has been friend, mentor and educator for multiple generations of public health
leaders. Earp is pictured here with current HB chair, Dr. Leslie Lytle. Read more about “Earpfest” at
www.sph.unc.edu/news.
F E AT U R E S AND N EWS
28 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
Service Project Award. Each group received
$1,500 to help its members reach program
goals. ENVRSO aims to improve N.C. middle
school education in science and technol-ogy;
Drink for Tomorrow works internation-ally
to promote sustainable clean drinking
water projects.
Rebecca Fry, PhD, assistant professor of
environmental sciences and engineering,
will serve a three-year term on the National
Research Council’s committee on inorganic
arsenic, providing expert guidance to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
Shelley Golden, MPH, and Jo Anne Earp, ScD,
lecturer and professor, respectively, in health
behavior, co-wrote an article that received the
Lawrence W. Green Paper of the Year award
at the annual meeting of the Society for Pub-lic
Health Education, held Oct. 25-27, 2012,
in San Francisco. The article was published
in the June 2012 issue of Health Education
and Behavior.
Sandra B. Greene, DrPH, Professor of the
Practice in health policy and management
(HPM) was reappointed in December 2012
for a two-year term on the N.C. State Health
Greg Allgood, PhD, alumnus and director of
Procter and Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drink-ing
Water Program, was one of 17 celebrities
and clean water advocates who climbed Mt.
Kilimanjaro in January to draw attention to
the nearly one billion people in the world
without access to clean drinking water.
Gregory Characklis, PhD, professor of envi-ronmental
sciences and engineering and
director of the UNC Institute for the Envi-ronment’s
Center for Watershed Science and
Management, was elected to the Association
of Environmental Engineering and Science
Professors (AEESP) board of directors.
Myron S. Cohen, MD, J. Herbert Bate Distin-guished
Professor of medicine, microbiology
and immunology in the School of Medicine
and professor of epidemiology at the Gillings
School, was elected to the Institute of Medi-cine
(IOM), one of the highest honors in the
fields of health and medicine. Cohen also was
named “Tar Heel of the Year” by the Raleigh
(N.C.) News and Observer, for his extensive
research in AIDS prevention and treatment.
Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH, was elected to the
board of directors of the National Founda-tion
for the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Devlin is Professor of the Practice
of health policy and management and former
N.C. State Health Director.
The Environmental Sciences and Engineer-ing
Student Organization (ENVRSO) and
A Drink for Tomorrow are the 2013 win-ners
of the Gillings Student Organization
Dr. Greg Allgood Dr. Gregory Characklis Dr. Leah Devlin Shelley Golden
Read more at www.sph.unc.edu/recognitions_and_awards.
AWARDS &
RECOGNITIONS
october 2012 – apr il 2013
unc gil l ings school of globa l publ ic hea lth
Yang Chen, Camille McGirt and Reena Gupta (l-r) claimed second prize at Carolina Challenge.
PHOTO BY PATRICK VERNON
management major, was one of 17 college
students across the state to receive the N.C.
Campus Compact’s Community Impact
Award last fall. The award recognizes college
students who make significant, innovative
efforts to address local community needs.
McGirt, founder of “Healthy Girls Save the
World” (healthygirlssavetheworld.org), a
program that educates girls about nutrition
and physical activity, also received the 2013
University Award for
the Advancement of
Women and placed
second at the 2013
Carolina Challenge.
Sherry Rhodes,
director of student
services, received
the School’s 2012
Staff Excellence Award, which recognizes an
employee whose work demonstrates impact
and a focus on the core values of the School.
Rhodes has worked at the School since 1993.
Sanitation Creations, an entrepreneurial
venture founded and led by Gillings School
alumna Liz Morris, MS, was second runner-up
in the inaugural UNC Social Business
Conference, held Sept. 27, 2012, at N.C. A&T
State University in Greensboro, N.C., and
alumni-track winner of UNC’s Carolina
health policy and management graduate,
was selected by The American Academy of
Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) to
receive the organization’s Young Investigator
Award. He presented his paper at AAHPM’s
annual assembly on March 16 in New Orleans.
Richard A. Luettich Jr., ScD, professor of
environmental sciences and engineering,
received the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security’s Impact Award for his work in pre-dicting
water heights and flooding in coastal
areas during Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, nutrition
professor, was appointed interim department
chair, effective June 1. She succeeds June
Stevens, PhD, distinguished professor and
chair since 2006.
Camille McGirt, senior health policy and
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 29
Coordinating Council in Raleigh. Greene also
was appointed interim chair of HPM in April.
Denise Hallfors, PhD, adjunct professor
of maternal and child health (MCH) and
senior research scientist at Pacific Institute
for Research and Evaluation, and Carolyn
Halpern, PhD, MCH professor, co-authored
a paper that won the American Journal of Pub-lic
Health’s (AJPH) 2012 “Paper of the Year”
award. The study, published in the June 2011
AJPH, examined the support of adolescent
orphan girls in Zimbabwe to stay in school as
a way to decrease HIV risk.
Health policy and management students took
first prize at three national case competitions
this academic year. Health-care strategists
include Jordan McInerney and Marissa Noles
(Humana Case Competition), and Jessica
Johnson, LeVelton Thomas and Christina
Lomax (National Association of Health Ser-vices
Executives’ Everett V. Fox competition),
who won events last October, and Kelley
Lamb, Cayla Wigfall and Eric Ransom, who
won University of Alabama at Birmingham’s
annual case competition on Feb. 28.
Amy Herring, ScD, professor of biostatistics,
received the prestigious Mortimer Spiegel-man
Award from the American Public Health
Association’s (APHA) statistics section. Her-ring
was recognized Oct. 30, 2012, at APHA’s
140th annual meeting and exposition in San
Francisco.
Mark Holmes, PhD, assistant professor of
health policy and management, was elected
chair of the editorial board of The Journal
of Rural Health. He began his one-year term
on Jan. 1.
Dio Kavalieratos, PhD, December 2012
Dr. Sandra Greene Dr. Mark Holmes Dr. Dio Kavalieratos Dr. Richard Luettich Sherry Rhodes
At the case competition (l-r): Eric Ransom, Kelly Lamb, UAB representative and Cayla Wigfall
Dr. Wilbur Milhous Dr. P.K. Sen
Dr. A.M. Siega-Riz
AWARDS & R ECOGNI T IONS
30 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
Dr. Carmina Valle Dr. John Wiesman Dr. Steven Zeisel
Teaching Innovation awardees (l-r): D. Richardson, A. Viera, O. Coronell, A. Holliday, J. Paul, M. Roth and K. Ribisl.
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
council for the National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute.
Jason Surratt, PhD, ESE assistant profes-sor,
received the Walter A. Rosenblith New
Investigator Award from the Health Effects
Institute. (See more about Surratt on page 18.)
School leaders presented Teaching Innova-tion
Awards last fall to develop or improve
classes in 2013 and 2014. Awardees included
Alice Ammerman, Daniel Pomp, Timo-thy
Jay Carney, Shelley Golden, Sue Hobbs,
Deborah Tate, Kurt Ribisl, Anita Farel, Rohit
Ramaswamy, James Porto Jr., Jay S. Levy, and
Kathy Roggenkamp.
David Richardson, Anthony Viera, Orlando
Coronell, John Paul, Kurt Ribisl, Amy Her-ring,
Marcia Roth and Amanda Holliday
received Teaching Innovation Awards on Jan.
29. Their students voted for faculty members
who “improve the learning environment by
integrating new technologies, engaging stu-dents
in interactive activities, and introducing
and incorporating progressive curriculum
ideas into the classroom.”
Carmina Valle, PhD, a December 2012 nutri-tion
alumna, received the Society of Behav-ioral
Medicine Outstanding Dissertation
Award for 2013. Valle is now a postdoctoral
fellow in the cancer health disparities training
program at the Gillings School.
Anthony Viera, MD, MPH, 2006 School
alumnus, has received the inaugural Charles
Baynes Wilkerson Distinguished Professor-ship
in Family Medicine in UNC’s School
of Medicine. Viera directs the Health Care
and Prevention Master of Public Health
degree program in the Public Health Leader-ship
Program and is associate professor of
family medicine in UNC’s medical school.
John Wiesman, DrPH, health policy and
management alumnus, was appointed
to serve as Washington State’s Sec-retary
of Health, effective March 12.
Steven Zeisel, MD, PhD, and Wilbur Mil-hous,
PhD, respectively, received the Bernard
G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award and
Harriet Hylton Barr Distinguished Alumni
Award. Zeisel, Kenan Distinguished Profes-sor
of nutrition and director of the Nutrition
Research Institute in Kannapolis, N.C., and
Milhous, professor and associate dean for
research at the University of South Flori-da’s
College of Public Health, accepted their
awards at the 45th annual Fred T. Foard Jr.
Memorial Lecture on April 11.
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 31
DONORS
Melinda’s life was grounded in honesty, integrity and love. So recalls
Eunice Brock, Melinda’s mother and the person who established in
her memory The Melinda Kellner Brock Maternal and Child Health
Scholarship at the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
The endowed scholarship will assist a public health student who
demonstrates a passion for maternal and child health.
“Destined to be a nurse,” as one colleague observed, Melinda began
her career in the mother-baby unit at WakeMed Hospitals in Raleigh,
N.C., and then worked for 15 years in family planning at the Durham
County (N.C.) health department. Her too-early death in March 2010
left her family and friends grief-stricken and the world deprived of a
talented and compassionate caregiver.
In remembering Melinda, her former WakeMed supervisor recalls
that their nursing unit included people from both ends of the socio-economic
spectrum. “Melinda’s passion was to be assigned to those
less fortunate,” says Sarah Caviness, RN. “She easily established
rapport with the patient and all the family members [and] especially
enjoyed the time she spent with new mothers. Her personality—and
her mature understanding of grief—made her a [great support] for
women who had lost their infants.”
DONORS
OUR DONORS
Eunice Brock—
Honoring a beloved daughter
through a scholarship gift
Her openness also extended to colleagues, Caviness says, and they
often benefited from Melinda’s understanding and support.
“Melinda was a natural at the health department,” says former
co-worker Robin Godwin, RN. “As a public health nurse, she quickly
realized she would also serve as a social worker. Our clients need so
much that it’s hard to try to meet their needs. But that was never a
problem for Melinda. She found services for her patients and often
would follow up to see their progress.”
Like the clients in Durham County, Godwin says she is a better
person for having known Melinda Brock.
“Melinda was an extraordinary public health nurse,” her mother
says, “and it seems fitting to establish a scholarship in her memory
both at the UNC School of Nursing and at the Gillings School of
Global Public Health. Who knows? Perhaps one day, a talented nurse-in-
training will be awarded both.”
Eunice Brock says she hopes that the scholarship’s recipients “will
live lives dedicated, as Melinda’s was, to people in need – and that they
will give to others in a spirit of kindness and compassion.”
In the early 1980s, Eunice Brock, always ahead of her time, was the
first woman in Chapel Hill to own her own real estate agency. Later,
hers was the first residential real estate agency in the U.S. to have its
own website. In 2011, she was designated a “Town Treasure” by the
Chapel Hill (N.C.) Historical Society.
 
 
 
 
 
—Linda Kastleman
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
To explore ways your gift might memorialize a loved one, contact the School’s
Office of External Affairs at (919) 966-0198, or visit giving.unc.edu/gift/sph.
Melinda, with her mother Eunice
32 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
DONORS
The Cassell family (left to right, Gail, Ralph and Cynthia) visited with
children at Socios En Salud and Caryabeyllo Cultural Center, in Lima,
Peru, in April 2012. In 2005, the family helped establish the Center to
address medical and social issues related to drug-resistant tuberculo-sis,
which is common in the Caryabeyllo district of Lima.
Gail H. Cassell, PhD, DSc (Hon.), and Ralph
H. Cassell, MBA, are very proud of their
daughter, Cynthia.
In 2007, Cynthia Cassell received a Doc-tor
of Philosophy in maternal and child
health, with a minor in epidemiology, from
what is now the Gillings School of Global
Public Health.
Cynthia now works with the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s National
Center on Birth Defects and Developmen-tal
Disabilities. She is a health services
researcher and focuses on health service use,
costs, access to care and outcomes of chil-dren
with birth defects. Recently, she won
the American Public Health Association
Maternal and Child Health Section’s 2012
Young Professional Award for her combi-nation
of professional and personal skills,
experiences, accomplishments and future
impact in the maternal and child health
field. She currently serves as an adviser and
supporter on the School’s Public Health
Foundation Board.
Eli Lilly and Company, from which Gail
recently retired after 13 years, matched the
Cassells’ gift to double the impact of the
couple’s generosity.
Cynthia says she is proud to call herself a
Carolina public health school alumna. “Many
rewarding opportunities were provided by my
parents and outstanding mentors at Carolina,
including Drs. Anita Farel, Robert Meyer, Bert
Peterson, Jonathan Kotch and Ron Strauss,”
she says. “I was uplifted by their wisdom and
continuous generosity. They are inspiring role
models in public health, especially maternal
and child health. With this award, we hope
that other students will be as fortunate as I
was to learn from these outstanding faculty
members.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
—Linda Kastleman
Parents establish
dissertation award to
honor Cynthia Cassell
To explore ways your gift might meet a
student’s long-term or immediate need, contact
the School’s Office of External Affairs at (919)
966-0198, or visit giving.unc.edu/gift/sph.
Before Cynthia joined the CDC, the
Cassells established the Cynthia H. Cassell
Doctoral Dissertation Award in Maternal
and Child Health to honor their daughter’s
many accomplishments and help support
other students pursuing doctoral degrees
in maternal and child health.
Through their gift, they wanted par-ticularly
to honor the mentorship offered
to their daughter by Anita Farel, DrPH,
clinical professor, and Robert Meyer, PhD,
adjunct professor, both in the Department
of Maternal and Child Health. Cynthia
previously worked under Meyer’s supervi-sion
with the North Carolina Birth Defects
Monitoring Program, part of the N.C. State
Center for Health Statistics within the N.C.
Division of Public Health.
“We are pleased to provide this award at
such an excellent institution,” the Cassells
say, “and hope in some small way that the
gift will provide other maternal and child
health doctoral students with opportunities
they might not otherwise have had.”
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 33
DONORS
The Jamie Kimble Scholarship for Courage will be awarded annually to a nutrition or other UNC public health student, preferably one whose life
has been affected by domestic violence or who is committed to preventing it. Learn more at giving.unc.edu/gift/sph.
The virtues appended to various gifts in her memory offer clues about
who she was – a Jamie Kimble Character Scholarship for young women
who otherwise might not be able to afford college; a Jamie Kimble
Spirit Award; and her parents’ most recent gift, and likely not the last
one – The Jamie Kimble Scholarship for Courage at the Gillings School
of Global Public Health.
Growing up in Greenville, N.C., Jamie seemed to have drawn all aces
– head, heart, hands and hope. Many who knew her well called her an
inspiration, “the best friend you could have.” She was the first to call
on birthdays or send handwritten thank-you notes; she was everyone’s
problem-solver. She ran marathons, was a “health nut,” disciplined
herself in gymnastics and dance. When her parents returned home
after leaving their only child to start college at Carolina, they found
Jamie’s note under their pillows: I love you so much and appreciate all
you have done for me.
In 2002, Jamie, a bright and dedicated scholar, earned a Bachelor of
Science in Public Health in nutrition from the Gillings School and won
the department’s Joseph Edozien Outstanding Undergraduate Award.
Along the way, she began a sales career she loved with and was recently
awarded a promotion. Last year, she looked forward to moving from
Anna Maria Island, Fla., to Dallas.
His name isn’t important. They had dated several years – much of it
rocky and riddled with verbal and emotional abuse. Her parents knew
Ron and Jan Kimble—
Creating a legacy for Jamie
there was no physical abuse – Jamie had
told them she would never tolerate that
from anyone–but her limitless compas-sion
made her vulnerable and caused her
to stay too long.
“We were so proud that she had the courage to leave and had
begun to live a happier life,” her parents recall.
In September 2012, three months after the breakup, the man
returned, this time with a gun. He killed Jamie, then killed himself.
In an extraordinary show of grace, the Kimbles want to focus
on Jamie’s legacy rather than their own terrible grief. They plan to
develop a network of ways to address and end the violence – from
educational programs to changes in the judicial system that will
identify and punish perpetrators to the establishment and support
of women’s shelters to political action nationwide.
Their name for the gift to Jamie’s alma mater reflects their pride
in her for having the courage to leave. Now, they want to help
others leave and live.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
—Linda Kastleman
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
Jamie (center) with her mom and dad
Since last fall, Ron and Jan Kimble have armed themselves with
statistics. One in four women is a victim of domestic violence
during her lifetime. Four people in the U.S. die every day
because of it. Seventy percent of the violence occurs after
the victim has ended the relationship. The problem affects
everyone, without regard to income, ethnicity or social status,
but 85 percent of the victims are women.
34 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
DONORS
IN JUNE 2011, PHILIP C. SINGER, DANIEL A. OKUN DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR
OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING, RETIRED AFTER 38 YEARS AT CAROLINA.
WE SALUTE THE FOLLOWING ALUMNI, FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE
ESTABLISHED THE PHILIP C. SINGER DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORSHIP IN
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING IN HIS HONOR. IT IS NOT TOO
LATE TO HONOR DR. SINGER WITH A GIFT TO THE PROFESSORSHIP FUND!
in Environmental Sciences
and Engineering
THE PHI L IP C. SINGER
DISTINGUISHED
PROFESSORSHIP
We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this list, which was compiled on March 29. To report an error or omission, please contact Susie Smith at susies@email.unc.edu.
Michael D. Aitken
& Betsy Rudolph
Robert Glenn Arnold & Katherine
Fox Arnold
David Bruce Babcock
Mark Oldham Barnett
James Joseph Barry III
Robert Alan Berndt
Mark Dean Beuhler
James Henry Borchardt
Treavor Hall Boyer
C. Vance Brooks IV
George Cameron Budd Jr.
Stephen Emory Cabaniss
Grace Robinson Chan
Shengder David Chang
Jean Marie Colthurst
Carrie Anne Delcomyn
Francis A. DiGiano
& Ann DiGiano
William Bruce Dowbiggin
Howard J. Dunn
Jose Antonio Felix-Filho
Kevin Michael Fitzpatrick
Robert Harold Forbes Jr.
Alice Harris Fulmer
Lyne S. Gamble Jr.
Robert Ernest Gandley
Stefan Johannes Grimberg
& Jan Elizabeth DeWaters
Richard Warren Gullick
Nora J. Han
Wayne Harris
& Naomi S. Harris
Hazen and Sawyer P.C.
Tara Lynn Hickey
Carl R. Johnson
Richard Miles Kamens
Ryan Scott Kingsbury
Peter Jonathan Kolsky
Lawrence David Kornreich
Donald Thomas Lauria
& Marie M. Lauria
Andrew James Lawler
Desmond Frederick Lawler
& Alice Cotter Lawler
Margaret “Peggy” Layne
James Robert Leserman
Janet Martha Levy
Thomas Clifford Long
Julia Prince MacMillan
Lee M. Marcus
& Elain Fisher Marcus
William Sheffield McCoy
Raymond Joseph Nierstedt
James Edward Nix
William Kevin O’Neil
Gretchen Dara Onstad
Douglas Martin Owen
David Edward Pinsky
Brian Lee Ramaley
David Alan Reckhow
& Catherine Grace Wanat
Anthony William Reevy
& Caroline Weaver
Barbara K. Rimer
James K. Schaefer & Donna Schaefer
Christopher Roman Schulz
Robert James Shimp
Estate of Hattie Singer
Vanessa Lynn Speight
Gerald Eugene Speitel Jr.
Donald Jeff Spiegel
Jeanne Stahl
Joel Leslie Storrow
& Donna Bigham Storrow
Rodger Ladd Tatken
John Eric Tobiason
Margaret Bliss Umphres
William Vizuete
Jason West
& Amy Davenport
Donald G. Willhoit
Randall Edgar Williams
Jack Eugene Wilson
Chen-yu Yen
& Ray-Whay Chen Yen
John Sterling Young Jr.
The ffund fforr
cconttiinuess tto grrow!!
To make a donation, contact Peggy Dean Glenn
at (919) 966-0198 or pglenn@email.unc.edu.
C A R O L I N A P U B L I C H E A LT H | 35
DONORS
Recently, Ronald and Ann Wooten were
in the audience when an administrator at
The University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill reported some startling news. About
97 percent of the university’s violent crime,
student-on-student assaults and rapes are
connected to alcohol and drug abuse.
The Wootens already were familiar with
World Health Organization data showing
alcohol to be associated with four percent
of the global disease burden, a factor in
more than 60 diseases, and in mental dis-orders,
car crashes, high-risk behaviors, and
economic and educational failures. But as
UNC alumni, they didn’t like a major public
health crisis being so close to home.
“We know that the Gillings School of
Global Public Health is a leader in tackling
health challenges such as these,” Ann Woo-ten
says. “UNC public health students travel
around the world, developing solutions
wherever they go. We wanted to call upon
these young leaders to educate and motivate
people here on campus to help put a stop to
unhealthy patterns of alcohol abuse.”
The Wootens met with Kurt Ribisl, PhD,
professor of health behavior at the Gillings
School. Ribisl has stood in staunch opposi-tion
to tobacco and alcohol abuse, especially
among minors. Together, they devised a
program through which students would
lead the charge against alcohol abuse on
campus.
Jessica Boten, master’s student in health
behavior and one of the students who
received funding for the project, believes
the work of Ribisl’s team is important.
“My efforts have focused on town policies
and interventions such as better enforce-ment
at bars and increased server train-ing,”
Boten says. “I feel confident that our
research will give town and campus leaders
the information they need to develop effec-tive
policy changes.”
“The Gillings School of Global Public
Health is one of the most influential
educational environments in the world,”
Ronald Wooten says. “We’re confident
that Dr. Ribisl and others at the School
can help UNC students reach their highest
Ronald and Ann Wooten—
A public health crisis too close to home
potential and develop healthy habits needed
for a lifetime of success.”
Ann Wooten agrees. “Ronald and I have
always been passionate supporters of the
Gillings School. It has been a tremendous
honor knowing that our university’s public
health school maintains a superior reputation
around the world. We are happy to be part of
the School’s mission.”
—Linda Kastleman
Dr. Kurt Ribisl (left) and Jessica Boten
For more information about how your gift can
help address a public health challenge, visit giv-ing.
unc.edu/gift/sph or call the School’s External
Affairs office at (919) 966-0198.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
PHOTO BY LINDA KASTLEMAN
F E AT U R E S AND N EWS
36 | S P R I N G 2 0 1 3
In a mise en scène engineered by event plan-ner
Jerry Salak, white hydrangeas and spar-kling
beads that appeared to be water drop-lets
graced the round, teal-draped tables. A
light show designed by Maestro Productions
featured images of water rivulets on the
white columns in the atrium. The program
cover included a photograph by Dan Sears, in
which the Old Well is reflected in a series of
raindrops. Even the menu spoke to the theme
– a Tuscan vegetable soup called acquacotta
(“cooked water”), salmon and poached pear.
Dean Barbara K. Rimer officially recog-nized
Bartram as Holzworth Distinguished
Professor at the dinner, and he and his bene-factors
were presented with University chairs.
Bartram also co-directs the campus-wide
water theme program (watertheme.unc.edu),
along with Dr. Terry Rhodes, professor of Dr. Jamie Bartram, Don Holzworth, Dean Barbara Rimer
and Jennifer Holzworth (l-r) celebrate the Holzworths’
gift and Dr. Bartram’s distinguished professorship.
Making a world
of difference—
Annual donor
dinner celebrates
campus water theme
There was no question about the choice of décor at the annual World of Difference
dinner last fall. After all, the event, held Nov. 29, 2012, to celebrate donors who give
$1,000 or more annually to the School or its academic units, was held during the first
year of the University’s two-year, campus-wide “water” theme. It was also the year
in which Don and Jennifer Holzworth, intent upon strengthening the efficacy of The
Water Institute at UNC, endowed a professorship awarded to the Institute’s director,
Dr. Jamie Bartram.
PHOTO BY TOM FULDNER
PHOTO BY TOM FULDNER
music and senior associate dean for fine arts
and humanities.
Dr. Allen Mask, health team physician
at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C., served as
master of ceremonies for the evening. He
introduced talks by students who were ben-eficiaries
of generous support by donors,
including Rachel Nethery (John and Diane
Fryer Fellow), Melissa Sanchez, RN (Jean
Tower Lassiter Scholar and John and Sallie
Shuping Russell Scholar), and Tyrone Hall
(Class of 2012 Annual Fund Scholar).
Among the attendees were members of
the School’s Rosenau Society (who give
an annual $1,000 or more in unrestricted
funds), Cornerstone Society (who give
$25,000 or more to the building fund, nam-ing
rooms and spaces), and those alumni
and friends who have established endowed
professorships, fellowships, scholarships and
specialty funds.
Joey Crosswell, Environmental Sciences and En-gineering,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Coastal
Waters and Implications for a Stormier Future
Alison Doernberg, Maternal and Child Health
and Social Work, Supporting North Carolina
Families Facing Cancer
Shellie Ellis, Health Policy and Management,
Prostate Cancer Care Quality Not Affected by Race
Alexander Gorzalski, Environmental Sciences
and Engineering, Treating Groundwaters From the
Castle Hayne and Peedee Aquifers
Zachary Kerr, Epidemiology, Municipal Pedes-trian
and Bicycle Planning to Support Safety
Ashley Kranz, Health Policy and Management,
Comparing the Effect of Delivery Models for Pre-venting
Dental Caries in Young Children
Lucia Leone, Nutrition, Increase Access to
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in Lower-Income
Neighborhoods
PHOTOS BY TOM FULDNER
We made quite an impact!
SAVE THE DATE
FOR THESE
UPCOMING EVENTS
2013 World of
Difference Dinner
Thursday, November 21
Hope to see you there!
2014 Fred T. Foard Jr.
Memorial Lecture
Thursday, April 10, 2014
The Foard speaker
will be alumnus
GREGORY ALLGOOD, PHD
Director, Children’s Safe
Drinking Water Program
Procter & Gamble
Dr. Allen Mask, health team physician at WRAL-TV
in Raleigh, N.C., was master of ceremonies
for the fall 2012 World of Difference dinner.
Please be in touch to
discover how you can
celebrate with us!
Call (919) 966-0198, or visit
giving.unc.edu/gift/sph.
Gillings School students won 13 of this year’s 41 Impact Awards. Presented annually by UNC’s Graduate
School, the awards are given for graduate student research deemed to be of “exceptional benefit to the
people of North Carolina.”
Stephanie Baker, doctoral candidate in health behavior, received the coveted
Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished Service and was recognized along
with the Impact awardees at a reception on April 10.
Read more about these outstanding students at gradschool.unc.edu.
A. Kranz L. Leone M. Lewis
J. Crosswell A. Doernberg S. Ellis A. Gorzalski Z. Kerr
K. Messier J. Moss M. Nadimpalli A. Richardson A. Sanders
Making a Difference in North Carolina are:
Meghan Lewis, Public Health Leadership,
Evaluating the Utilization of the Community
Health Assessment
Kyle Messier, Environmental Sciences and
Engineering, Integrating Multiple GIS Methods
for Estimation of Tetrachloroethylene
Jennifer Moss, Health Behavior, Improving Uptake
of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine to
Improve Cervical Cancer Outcomes
Maya Nadimpalli, Environmental Sciences and
Engineering, Carriage of Antibiotic-Resistant
Staphylococcus aureus by Livestock Workers and
Household Members
Andrea Richardson, Nutrition, Dynamic
Environments and Obesity: Risky Genes?
Alison Sanders, Environmental Sciences and
Engineering, Assessing Arsenic, Cadmium,
Mercury and Lead Levels in Pregnant Women
The univers ity
of north carol ina
at chap e l hi l l
CAMPUS BOX 7400
CHAPEL HILL, NC 27599-7400
Nonprofit
Organization
US Postage
PAID
Permit #177
Chapel Hill, NC
ON THE COVER:
Dr. Will Vizuete examines components of a portable device that allows him to
study the toxicity of air pollution particles. READ MORE ON PAGE 9.