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"Private Guns, Public Health"

Speaker: David Hemenway,
Professor of Health Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management

Wednesday, April 20
12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Kresge G-3

Lunch will be provided. RSVP to deansoff@hsph.harvard.edu. This event is open to the HSPH community only.

"Making Disparities Count: From Government Statistics Systems to Action"

Thursday, May 5
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Harvard Conference Center
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur

Moderator: Nancy Krieger, HSPH Associate Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health

Speakers: John Fox, Director of Statistics, Department of Health, United Kingdom; François Héran, Director, Institut national d’études démographiques, Paris, France; Vickie Mays, Professor of Clinical Psychology, UCLA, and Director, UCLA Center on Research, Education, Training, and Strategic Communications on Minority Health Disparities; Eduardo Mota, Chief of Health Statistics, Instituto de Saude Coletiva, Brazil

Discussant: Godfrey Woelk, Associate Professor, Department of Communitiy Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe

Visit www.hsph.harvard.edu/disparities to register. This is the last of three symposia.

Faculty Appointment

Gregory Connolly has been appointed to the HSPH faculty as professor of the practice of public health in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. An internationally known champion of tobacco control, Connolly was appointed last year as an instructor for the Division of Public Health Practice. He is a former director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Control Program, and spearheaded the "Make Smoking History" campaign for 17 years, overseeing the fastest decline in smoking in any state. See related article at right.

Rap Star Visits HSPH to Learn about HIV/AIDS Prevention

Darryl McDaniels of the rap group Run-DMC visited the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative on March 31 to learn about its work in Africa. McDaniels met with HSPH Professor Max Essex, as well as several researchers.

HSPH Schweitzer Fellows

Four HSPH students are among 30 graduate students enrolled at Boston health and human service schools who have been awarded 2005-2006 Boston Schweitzer Fellowships.

The Boston Schweitzer Fellows design and carry out health-related community service projects to assist individuals or communities that lack adequate health services. Each fellow works with a local agency providing at least 200 hours of service with the support of a mentor at their community sites and a mentor at their schools.

The HSPH fellows are:

OLUFEMI ADEGOKE, MS2, Population and International Health: Adegoke works with a non-profit organization, ROCA, to enhance the health and well-being of youth, families, and residents of Chelsea, Lynn, Revere, and East Boston. The goal of his project is to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and unintended pregnancy through changing behaviors and promoting condom use.

DEBORAH COOK, MS2, Society, Human Development, and Health: Cook assists a newspaper project at a women’s prison called MCI-Framingham. She is working with the women to create a health column in the paper to educate and empower the inmates to make better choices about their health both behind bars and once they reenter society.

ANA DIAZ, MS2, Population and International Health: Diaz assists with the development of a business that will provide training and jobs for disenfranchised youth.

RAYMOND TSAI, MS2, Health Policy and Management: Tsai provides assistance and support to families and individuals who face cultural barriers to health care in the Boston area.

Population Study Fellowships

The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies is accepting nominations for three fellowship programs: David E. Bell Fellows, Saltonstall Population Innovation Fund, and the Mortimer Spiegelman Fellowships in Demography and Population Studies. For details on all three programs, visit www.hsph.harvard.edu/hcpds/fellowships.html

HCCP Launches Popular Risk Assessment Web Site in Spanish

The risk assessment web site, Your Disease Risk, has been launched in Spanish at http://www.cuidardesusalud.harvard.edu. The new site, Cuidar de su Salud (Take Care of Your Health), provides tailored prevention messages and health information for Hispanic/Latino Americans, as well as Spanish speakers worldwide.

With Hispanics/Latinos becoming the largest minority group in the U.S., it is increasingly critical to provide accessible health information. "Our goal is to continually reach new audiences and promote healthy behaviors," said Graham Colditz, director of the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, which is responsible for the site.

Cuidar de su Salud offers a personalized risk assessment for 12 different cancers, along with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Users answer a brief series of questions and receive an estimate of their risk in the form of a seven-level bar graph comparing them to average men and women their age. Users can then click on personalized prevention strategies and watch their future risk drop.

Cuidar de su Salud uses the same evidence-based, consensus approach that was used for the original site.