The College of Public Health and Health Professions hosted its 29th annual Research Day on April 13, featuring 96 poster presentations by undergraduate and graduate students.
The event included a workshop on maximizing the impact of one’s research, presented by members of the PHHP Research Committee, and three-minute oral presentations by the top graduate student poster awardees.
“Research Day is an exciting day to showcase the efforts of PHHP students and their faculty mentors,” said Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., PHHP’s associate dean for research and chair of the department of epidemiology. “Their work spans multiple disciplines, cultures, countries, populations and topics. I am proud to be associated with this talented group of students and faculty mentors and look forward to seeing their scientific contributions in print.”
Lisa Klesges, Ph.D., professor and dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Memphis, provided the keynote address: “Public Health Research: The Times They are a-Changin’.”
Klesges has specialty training in behavioral epidemiology and her current work involves family‐based obesity prevention in children, behavioral and environmental risk factor assessments, and translational methods for behavioral interventions. As a co‐director of the Memphis Alliance for Public Health Research, she built a community‐based research program to promote women’s and children’s health and she was a finalist for the Memphis Business Journal’s Health Care Hero award. She has been a principal investigator or co‐investigator for more than 40 research projects supported by the National Institutes of Health, national philanthropic organizations and local agencies.
Top abstracts
Eliza Warren, department of clinical and health psychology
Mentor: Michael G. Perri
Kelly Hawkins, department of physical therapy
Mentor: Emily Fox
Caitlin Banks, department of physical therapy
Mentor: Carolynn Patten
Tori Galatas, department of occupational therapy
Mentor: Lucia Notterpek
Denny Fe Agana, department of epidemiology
Mentor: Catherine Striley
Lindsay Rotblatt, department of clinical and health psychology
Mentor: Michael Marsiske
Michelle Valenti, department of speech, language, and hearing sciences
Mentor: Karen Hegland