By Erin Jester
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff from every department in the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions gathered for PHHP Days, held April 15 and 16, to celebrate and learn from each other’s research and innovation.
The event featured 149 oral presentations, 148 poster presentations and eight brief, TED Talk-style lectures from faculty addressing the college’s four pillars: teaching, research, service and clinical work.
“That, to me, really shows who we are and what our mission is as a college,” said PHHP Dean Beth Virnig.
The event saw a 20% increase in abstract submissions over last year, and included presentations from students at every level.
Hadassah Sternfeld, a Bachelor of Health Science major and aspiring nurse, presented a poster that explored the role of “medical gaslighting” in women’s psychological and physical health. She praised the research methods class taught by Michael Moorhouse, Ph.D., a clinical associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, with helping prepare her for the research experience.
“Research has set me up to be a better health care provider, but also explore all the different avenues health care has to offer,” she said.
The event attracted more than 30 UF student presenters from outside the college, who noted the value of collaborating with PHHP professors.
Zachary Hotchkiss, an applied physiology and kinesiology major, presented research on rotator cuff injuries conducted under the mentorship of Federico Pozzi, Ph.D., an associate professor of physical therapy. Hotchkiss says the experience gained in the lab has prepared him well for the next stage of his academic career: applying to physical therapy schools.
In addition to faculty judges, this year poster presentations were judged by a panel of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows — an opportunity to participate in peer review. Faculty research presentations expanded, highlighting work on aging in place and projects supported by PHHP Research Innovation Fund.
Ten-minute Pillar Talks by faculty closed out both days, touching on themes of collaboration, curiosity and critical thinking.
Master of Public Health student Santiago Ojeda Sainz said he enjoyed hearing faculty reflections during the Pillar Talks, and that the camaraderie of PHHP Days was palpable.
“Seeing my colleagues from across the college present their work at PHHP Days was both inspiring and humbling,” he said. “It reminds me that our college is packed with talented, dedicated academics who devote themselves to promoting the health of our communities.
Awards
- Undergraduate Teacher of the Year – Laurie Gauger, Ph.D., Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Dean’s Citation Awards
- Chien-Te (Vince) Wu, Ph.D., Department of Occupational Therapy
“A novel working memory task-induced EEG response (WM-TIER) feature extraction framework for detecting Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment”
- Ashby Walker, Ph.D., Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy
“Project ECHO Diabetes Trial Improves Outcomes for Medically Underserved People”
- Michela Mir, Ph.D., Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
“Distinct sensorimotor cough features in a cohort of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy”
- Breton Asken, Ph.D., Department of Clinical Health Psychology
“Moderating effects of plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein along the Alzheimer’s disease continuum”
- Linda Cottler, Ph.D., Department of Epidemiology
“Prevalence and correlates of self-reported new psychoactive substance use among adults in 20 US cities: Results from National Drug Early Warning System surveillance”
- Andrew Judge, Ph.D. (as senior author in support of trainee Andrew D’Lugos), Department of Physical Therapy
“Complement pathway activation mediates pancreatic cancer-induced muscle wasting and pathological remodeling”
- Zhoumeng Lin, Ph.D., Department of Environmental and Global Health
“Toxicophore-informed machine learning integrating Tox21 assay readouts for organ system–specific carcinogenicity prediction”
- Arkaprava Roy, Ph.D. (as senior author in support of trainee Peter Chang), Department of Biostatistics
“Individualized multi-treatment response curves estimation using RBF-net with shared neurons”
Poster presentation awards
- M.P.H. Capstone – Gretel Garcia, “Beliefs, Barriers and Facilitators Influencing Participation in Oncology-Related Research”
- B.H.S. – Lily Frank, “Facilitators and Barriers to Physical Activity Among Rural Individuals with Neurological Impairments: A Case Series”
- B.H.S. – C.S.D. – Jacqueline Hoffman, “Investigating Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) Effects on Cognition and Speech-in-Noise Performance”
- B.P.H. – Claudia Alvarez, “The Role of 6-Phosphofructo-2-Kinase in Inflammatory Response After Ischemic Stroke”
- People’s Choice – Brandon Grassie, “Cognitive Function, Physical Functioning and Activities of Daily Living in Home Health Patients”
Oral presentation awards
- Audiology/communications – Anna Handley, “Empowering Nurses on Hearing Healthcare: A Virtual Training to Improve School-Aged Hearing Screening Accuracy”
- Biostatistics – Yuhang Zhou, “Transparent Sequential Learning and Monitoring of Spatio-Temporal Disease Incidence Rates”
- Clinical Psychology – Nathaniel Wydra, “Exploring the Impacts of Adolescent Problematic Internet Use on Self-Reported Affect”
- Environmental Health/One Health – Emma VanderMeulen, “Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water Source Regions: Quantifying Mixture Risk in the Lake Huron-Lake Erie Corridor”
- Epidemiology – Kayla McNeely, “Examining Behavioral Health Syndemic Shifts and Transition Probabilities Across Menopause Among Women With and Without HIV”
- Health Services Research, Management and Policy – Allison Carrier, “Healthcare Service Utilization Among Menopausal American Women: Recent Trends and Trend Deviations From 2016-2023”
- Rehabilitation Science – Todd Williams, “Changes in Walking Function and Reflex Modulation Following Transcutaneous Spinal Direct Current Stimulation (tsDCS) in People with Spinal Cord Injury”
- Social and Behavioral Sciences – Alexandra Rodriguez, “Catalyzing Cross-Sectoral Advocacy: Constructing the IMPACT Theory for Mobilizing Arts in Mental Health Policy”
- M.P.H. Capstone: In-person – Jakob Meredith, “Wastewater Surveillance Applications for Examining Prevalence of Shigella in Gainesville”
- M.P.H. Capstone: Online – Hannah Jury, “Predictors of Emergency Department Visits, Hospitalizations in Moderate-Advanced Dementia with Lewy Bodies: Findings From the PACE-DLB Study”