Alumni

Li Xie is pursuing her BS in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior at the University of California, Davis.

Scott Bussell took a year off between his third and fourth year of medical school to pursue his master of public health degree in Epidemiology and Clinical Investigation at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was paired with Marlis Gonzales-Fernandez, MD, PhD, from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and together they worked on a project examining acute post-stroke patients and their risk of dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) among people of different races/ethnicities. Their findings suggest that there is a much higher risk of dysphagia in Asians and other minority groups.

The abstract, Is Dysphagia Risk After Stroke Associated with Race? Further Evidence from Medical Provider Analysis and Review Data (MEDPAR), was presented at the Dysphagia Research Society's Annual meeting in San Diego, and submitted to the journal Stroke for review.

Scott’s independent research on post-stroke vaccinations, A Role for Pneumococcal Vaccine During Admission for Stroke? Observed Protective Effect Against Death in the Medicare Population, was published in the International Journal of Infectious Disease and has been accepted for publication in the October issue of Chest.

He was also awarded a travel grant by the 2010 Ditan International Conference on Infectious Diseases which allowed him to present his poster in Beijing, China in July. He will present his findings again at the American College of Chest Physicians Conference in Vancouver this November.

Vignetta Charles, PhD, has joined the staff of the National AIDS Fund (NAF) as Vice President of Programs and Evaluation, where her responsibilities include overseeing NAF’s strategic grantmaking programs, spearheading efforts to measure and document program outcomes, and developing an expanded portfolio on the translation of science to community.

Prior to joining NAF, Dr. Charles developed and rigorously evaluated innovative, theory-and evidence-based, sexual, reproductive health, and HIV prevention programs. She has dedicated most of her career to issues disproportionately impacting politically disenfranchised communities, focusing on urban sexual and reproductive health with an emphasis on HIV prevention. Dr. Charles’ professional experience includes conducting scholarly inquiry at academic institutions, evaluating national teen pregnancy prevention programs, assessing the effectiveness of black women’s health interventions, serving as the national health educator for the Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies, initiating a teen pregnancy prevention portfolio for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and coordinating HIV and pregnancy prevention programs in both San Francisco and Oakland, California.

Hong Zhu has been selected to receive the Statistics in Epidemiology Young Investigator Award at the upcoming Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver, Canada. The award is based on the manuscript "Incorporating Sampling Bias in Analyzing Bivariate Survival Data with Interval Sampling and Application to HIV Research". The award will be presented at the reception of the Statistics in Epidemiology Section of the American Statistical Association on Tuesday, August 3, 2010.

Nicholas Reich has been selected to receive the Statistics in Epidemiology Young Investigator Award at the upcoming Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver, Canada. The awards are based on his manuscript "Estimating Case Fatality Ratios from Infectious Disease Surveillance Data" He will receive his award at the reception of the Statistics in Epidemiology Section of the American Statistical Association on Tuesday, August 3, 2010.

Asghar Nazeer accepted the invitation to join the Delta Omega Mentor Network and to be the Member under the Spotlight for March 2012 from the National Office of Delta Omega. His profile as a Delta Omega Member under the Spotlight can be seen at link and his Delta Omega Mentor Profile at link.

Asghar has published an article "Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus metrics for patients in Saudi Arabia." with coauthor Dr. Jaffar Al Tawfiq in the Journal of Infections in Developing Countries. This free open-access full-text article can be accessed at link and the Abstract at link. He would appreciate comments and suggestions on this article from JHU faculty and students. He would also welcome any requests for assistance from students and young public health professionals for academic and career related queries as he is now a committed member of the Delta Omega Mentor Network.

Elizabeth Arend recently moved back to the United States after four years of working abroad. She now works for Gender Action in Washington DC, analyzing African Development Bank and World Bank projects on reproductive health and HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

David Hausner has been living in New Delhi, India for a little over one year with his wife, Gita Pillai (JHSPH, PhD, 2001), and three children, Ravi (15), Arjun (11), and Uma (5). He is focusing mostly on HIV and AIDS and working for John Snow, Inc. (JSI) as the Country Representative for the AIDSTAR-One Project in India. This is David's second time living and working in India, having lived here for 5 years between 1994 and 1999. David and his family moved a year ago from Almaty, Kazakhstan where they lived for 5 years, working for JSI in the five former Soviet Republics of Central Asia, also focusing on HIV. He worked for USAID in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for 3 years before that. He and his family have enjoyed exploring many parts of the world, learning new cultures, tasting various cuisines, and meeting many fascinating people. He is happy to welcome visitors.

Karen Kinder recently received her MBA.

Esther Johnston is currently an MD Candidate for 2011.

Paul Rathouz was recently selected as the the new chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics at the University of Wisconsin.

Bradley E. Jones, age 40 of Duluth, died February 17, 2010. Mr. Jones was born in Bristol, TN and was senior vice president and division president for Health Management Associates of Naples, FL. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelors degree in public administration. He also played football and was a member of the German Club while at Virginia Tech. He is survived by his wife of 15 years Deborah Jones, daughter Anna Katherine Jones and son Burke Hamilton Jones all of Duluth, mother Bonnie Jones of Lebanon, VA, many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and two godchildren.

Joan Griffin was recognized by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health as a Community Partner Star as part of the 2009 Community Partner Awards on September 17, 2009.

Ranit Mishori, assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, has received the 2009 "Emerging Leader Award" from the Family Medicine Education Consortium (FEMC) and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) at their annual Northeast Region conference.

The award, presented in October, is part of the FEMC’s Emerging Leaders Initiative, a program aimed at identifying those with the potential to be future leaders in family medicine, academic and community service efforts.

Dr. Mishori is director of the Family Medicine Clerkship program at the GUSOM. In addition to her service to patients and students, Mishori is contributing health editor at Parade Magazine and a regular contributor to the Washington Post health section.

Farley Cleghorn spent a 10-year stint at the University of Maryland Medical Center/Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore before moving in 2004 to the Futures Group in Washington, D.C., where he is now Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer.

I recently retired from the World Health Organization and would like to share my 20 years of experience with former colleagues.

Debora Kuchka-Craig has been elected to serve as the Healthcare Financial Management Association's voluntary Chair of the Board of Directors for 2010-11.

Richard Steele's lecture "The limits of evidence-based medicine, and what we can do about disability due to medically unexplained symptoms" has been awarded 30 minutes of oral time at the Jerusalem International Conference on Integrative Medicine, Oct. 19-22, 2010. See link for more details.

Cathie Borrie has launched two titles on alzheimer's. Her mother's voice weaves through the text, drawn from conversations recorded over the seven-year caregiving experience. Borrie launched both titles at a MoMa presentation for World Alzheimer's Day.

Daniel E. Jimenez assumed the position of Chief, Occupational Medicine at DeWitt Health Care Network's Preventive Medicine Department in Fort Belvoir Virginia on March 1, 2009.

Clayton Kallman is currently semi-retired and living in Gainesville, Florida. He comes to Baltimore yearly for Homewood lacrosse, and would love to hear from former friends, colleagues, and classmates.

Irene Hiscock will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of her graduation from JHSPH in 2011.

Linda Hart published a paper titled 'Standardized Protocols and Processes Enhance Compliance with Recommended Care, Improve Staff Perceptions of Patient Safety at a Birthing Center' on the AHRQ Innovations Exchange website in 2009 with a recent update in 2010. She hopes all her classmates are doing well and enjoying their worklife as much as she is!

Heddy Hubbard is the director of guidelines for the American Urological Association (AUA). Dr. Hubbard joined the AUA upon her retirement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after more than 30 years with the federal government, most recently with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Jeanne Brinkley retired on February 1, 2008, after more than 38 years in public health, first for the Baltimore City Health Department, then Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

She returned to Baltimore in 2005 after living in Hoopers Island, Dorchester County, Md., for 19 years. After retiring, Brinkley began volunteering with an inner-city grade school that has 40 children in the one kindergarten class. She also works part-time as a massage therapist.

Stephen Weinstein has founded 'Communications in Behavioral Biology' during his time as an Associate Professor at the Bloomberg School, a journal produced at the APL and published by Academic Press. CBB was the first computer-produced journal and was partially supported by the NSF. Along with two other Hopkins alumni, Henry Felton and Chris Olander, he has launched a website to alter the landscape of the publishing industry for both fiction and non-fiction. NovelMaker.com just won the 2008 American Graphic Design Award for websites. The service is free.

Hideyasu Aoyama is a Professor Emeritus of Okayama Medical School and was President of the Kochi Women's University from 2003 to 2007. She is an honorary lifetime member of the Japanese Society of Public Health and the Japanese Society of Occupational Health, the Japanese Society of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, and was a past-chairman of the National Comittee of Community Medicine and Medical Education from 1994 to 1997.

Samuel Yeh retired from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2005 after 42 years of service.

Carl Helvie has started hosting a radio show, The Holistic Health Show, at link. His guests include Dr. Bernie Siegel, Dr. Patricia Garfield, Dr. Anne Marie Evers, Dr. Patricia Crane and Dr. Carolyn Chambers Clark.

Calvin Zippin, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, was honored as 2009 Person of the Year by B'nai B'rith of Greater San Francisco.