All Grantees
2007-2008 New Connections Initiative Awards
- Priscilla A. Barnes, M.P.H., C.H.E.S
Western Michigan UniversitySenior Consultant, Public Health
Project Title: Examination of local health department partnerships with nongovernmental agencies in improving public health outcomes.
"The New Connections award has greatly impacted my professional development by providing me with a network of peers and experts in the field that have similar interests. I am also able to learn new skills and learn more about how the RWJF impacts the health care of local communities."
Project DescriptionLocal health departments can improve the overall health status of the public, as well as improve their functions and practices, by forming partnerships with non-governmental organizations. These partnerships have helped local health departments to identify and solve problems, expand services and resources and convene members of the local public health system to achieve a common goal.
Barnes' project examines the factors that influence the presence or absence of partnerships between local health departments and non-governmental agencies in improving health outcomes among disadvantaged populations.
As part of her project, she is conducting a literature review on models and tools used by local health departments to engage in partnerships with non-governmental agencies; exploring factors that produce or hinder partnerships between local health departments and non-governmental agencies and determining if these factors are important at certain stages of collaboration for different types of organizations involved; and developing recommendations essential for public health practice.
Biography
Priscilla Barnes is a fourth-year doctoral student in the interdisciplinary health studies program at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She also works as a health education program manager at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, where she is responsible for program development and evaluation.
Previously, Barnes worked for the National Association of County and City Health Officials as a program manager on the Exploring Accreditation project. She also served as the program director of the Minority Health Partnership (MHP), a section of the Calhoun County Public Health Department in Battle Creek, MI, and as a public health prevention specialist at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Barnes' research interests include the public health system, evidence-based health promotion initiatives, public health and faith community partnerships and health disparities.
- Annjeanette Elise Belcourt-Dittloff, Ph.D.
University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences CenterJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Exposure to Violence, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress, Substance Abuse and Healthcare Utilization: The impact of cultural factors within two American Indian communities.
"The technical training provided has resulted in significant developmental gains in my ability to understand and use advanced statistical techniques, present at national conferences, represent and investigate my research interests and questions, establish collaborative relationships with communities and other researchers, and develop as a junior investigator."
Project DescriptionBelcourt-Dittloff's study is designed to extend our empirical understanding of the impact of domestic and community violence in two American Indian reservation communities. Although the available evidence reveals high rates of exposure to violence and psychiatric disorder within the American Indian population, limited research exists on how to address domestic and community violence in this often underserved population.
Her study examines how sociocultural resources relate to exposure to violence, psychiatric disorder and help-seeking. Identifying a protective role for sociocultural resources could lead to the development of innovative treatment modalities and health care policies to alleviate psychological suffering for American Indians.
She is analyzing data from the American Indian Service Utilization, Risk and Protective Factors Project (AI-SUPERPFP), housed by the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs, at the University of Colorado Denver to explore these relationships. AI-SUPERPFP was a large population-based, cross-sectional epidemiological study of psychiatric disorder, service utilization patterns and risk and protective factors in two American Indian reservation populations.
Previous studies using the AI-SUPERPFP dataset have already provided a great deal of information on mental health in these American Indian populations, but the relationship of sociocultural resources to the links among violence, psychiatric disorder and help-seeking has yet to be explored; the secondary data analyses included in this project seek to fill this gap.
Biography
Annjeanette Elise Belcourt-Dittloff (Blackfeet, Chippewa, Mandan and Hidatsa), Ph.D., is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota. She obtained her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Montana in 2006. At that time, she joined the faculty and Health Sciences Center at the University of Colorado Denver to conduct research related to trauma and resilience in American Indian communities.
Belcourt-Dittloff has a longstanding record of collaborative research with Native communities investigating cultural resiliency, spirituality, adversarial or posttraumatic growth and psychosocial factors involved in depression and suicidal ideation. She has presented her research findings to numerous national conferences and tribal communities and has published in peer-reviewed journals.
Belcourt-Dittloff's clinical experiences inform her research and knowledge base of American Indian communities. She has worked in a variety of clinical settings serving a diverse clientele; most recently she completed an internship with the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver, often addressing veterans' post-trauma reactions. Belcourt-Dittloff has worked extensively to address psychosocial issues with individual clients and has received a variety of specialized clinical intervention trainings and experiences working with clients from a variety of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.
- Thema S. Bryant-Davis, Ph.D.
Pepperdine UniversityJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: The influence of social factors on African American women's experiences of domestic violence
"I applied to this grant: (1) to enhance my skills as a researcher and as a grant applicant, (2) to contribute to the intimate partner violence literature with a particular focus on African American women, and (3) to gain funds to disseminate relevant findings beyond the academy to agencies serving persons affected by intimate partner violence."
Project DescriptionBryant-Davis' project investigates the influence of social factors - poverty, education, employment, social support, neighborhood safety and religious involvement on African American mothers who have experienced partner abuse. The study explores both the social risk factors contributing to the occurrence of abuse as well as the social risk factors contributing to survivors' abuse of substances. The study uses data from the Fragile Families Project, a multi-city sample of mothers of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Biography
Thema Bryant-Davis, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Pepperdine University and a researcher, educator and licensed psychologist with expertise in the cultural context of trauma recovery. She completed her doctoral training at Duke University and her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical Center.
Bryant-Davis served for three years as an American Psychological Association representative to the United Nations. In 2007 she was awarded the Emerging Leader of Women in Psychology Award by the American Psychological Association Committee on Women in Psychology. She authored the book, "Thriving in the Wake of Trauma: A Multicultural Guide."
- Marah A. Curtis, Ph.D.
Boston UniversityJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: The Effect of Incarceration on Fathers' Health
"Complex social problems like health disparities require multi-disciplinary, out-of-the-box thinking. The connections that RWJF fosters create the conditions for such potential."
Project DescriptionCurtis' study, entitled, "The Effect of Incarceration on Fathers' Health," will use the nationally representative Fragile Families and Child Well-Being longitudinal data to examine the impact of incarceration on fathers' health. Health, a vital component of family well-being, is often overlooked for low-income, urban fathers.
Labor market opportunities, parenting tasks and familial living are all impacted by the ability of both parents to function in their assigned roles. Fathers with poor health are more likely to have labor market difficulties, excessive expenses and may be forced to make trade-offs between medications and other goods. Research confirms that fathers who have been incarcerated face more barriers in terms of labor market opportunities and family formation.
The impact of incarceration on low-income, urban fathers' health is unexamined but may prove to be particularly important, especially considering that nearly 1.5 million people are behind bars in local jails, state and federal prisons. Incarceration rates vary markedly by race and ethnicity, with estimates for black men as high as 30 percent and 16 percent for Hispanic men.
Approximately 600,000 individuals are released from federal and state prisons each year, the majority of whom are male, black or Hispanic, poorly educated, non-violent offenders with a history of substance abuse. Incarceration is also clearly a family affair with more than half of inmates reporting they have at least one child younger than 18; in addition, 93 percent of these incarcerated parents are fathers.
Since incarceration rates disproportionately affect disadvantaged black and Hispanic men, many of whom are parents, the impact of incarceration on these fathers' health is an important and pressing question for low-income, urban families' well-being.
Biography
Marah A. Curtis, Ph.D, M.S.W., is an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Social Work, where she teaches U.S. Social Welfare policy. She joined the Boston University faculty in the fall of 2005 after completing postdoctoral studies at the Social Indicators Survey Center at Columbia University. Curtis received her Ph.D. in social policy, planning and policy analysis at Columbia University School of Social Work in 2004 and was both a Council on Social Work Education and Columbia University Public Policy Consortium Fellow.
Curtis' research interests focus on the effects of public policy on the well-being of children and families with particular emphasis on housing policy, incarceration and poverty. Curtis received a Peter Paul Career Development Professorship from Boston University in 2006 that is awarded to support the research of outstanding junior faculty.
- Robert L. Dunigan, Ph.D.
Brandeis UniversityJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Determinants of Treatment Engagement and Time to Event of Recidivism for Young African-African American and Latino Males
"My goals are to explore theories and methodological approaches that are culturally relevant in explaining substance abuse and dependency for minority sub-groups. I hope to further develop the skills and knowledge that will allow me to effectively study these problems, to refine the available theoretical frameworks, and to consider how to develop effective policies and treatment strategies to address these issues."
Project DescriptionYoung African-American and Latino males with a history of criminal justice involvement and substance abuse problems are at high risk for relapse and recidivism, yet treatment interventions that address these problems have been limited. Moreover, there is little evidence about the effectiveness, and cultural and social relevancy, of treatment practices administered pre-and post-release for the general prison population, and young African-American and Latino male offenders in particular.
Dunigan's study involves secondary data analyses to examine factors that predict whether young African-American and Latino male offenders receive substance abuse treatment during prison and post-release, and how treatment is associated with time to recidivism (re-arrest or re-incarceration) post-release. Dunigan includes subgroup comparisons of young African-American, Latino and Caucasian males with their older cohorts to better understand the interactions among race/ethnicity, age, substance abuse treatment and monitoring post release, and the relationships of all of these factors to outcomes.
He is using data from an existing de-identified dataset, created using probabilistic matching of Connecticut's Department of Correction files with data from Connecticut's Departments of Public Safety and Mental Health and Addiction Services Substance Abuse Treatment Information System.
The dataset includes all sentenced prisoners with moderate to serious substance use disorders who were released during fiscal year 2003, along with substance abuse treatment, Department of Correction's movement and arrests for fiscal years 2001-2005 for the same individuals.
The results may provide useful information to help justify the expenditure of additional resources to develop strategies and interventions to improve health and social outcomes for young African-American and Latino male offenders. Providing such interventions would be an important step in reducing the much greater societal costs associated with negative health and public safety consequences, along with the monetary expenditures associated with re-incarceration in lieu of offering substance abuse treatment for these populations.
Biography
Robert Dunigan, Ph.D., is a senior research associate at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University. With 15 years experience in clinical social work, with particular expertise in the areas of treatment intervention and program development for individuals diagnosed with chronic mental illness and substance abuse problems, his research has focused on drug and alcohol treatment and prevention aimed at improving the quality of life and health service needs of marginalized groups and individuals.
He is also interested in conducting research, aimed at understanding barriers to participation in clinical studies for communities of color, to develop more effective recruitment and retention strategies, particularly for individuals not connected to formal health and social institutions.
Dunigan received his Ph.D. from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis, were he was a recipient of a predoctoral training grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Addiction.
- Dawnovise N. Fowler, Ph.D., A.M.
University of Texas at AustinJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Examining Substance Abuse and Related Psychosocial Factors Among Women Intimate Partner Abuse Survivors
"As a junior investigator, funded secondary data analysis is such an efficient way to accomplish important milestones that contribute to the knowledge base, including publications, conference presentations and future research endeavors. In doing so with a seminal, nationally representative data source, I am developing specific skills required for managing a large dataset. In addition, this opportunity increases both my visibility and credibility as a funded researcher."
Project DescriptionThe overarching goal of Fowler's research is to contribute knowledge in two under-explored areas in domestic violence research with women intimate partner abuse survivors who also have substance use problems: 1) screening and identification, and 2) identifying the role of psychosocial correlates.
An intersectional theoretical framework provides understanding of the complexities of intimate partner abuse victimization as a specific type of trauma, related psychosocial factors, and the need for proper screening and identification if effective and comprehensive interventions are to be employed for this population.
Fowler is conducting a critical review of the literature to understand screening approaches to identify the co-occurrence of intimate partner abuse and substance abuse in various social service settings such as substance abuse treatment, primary health care, shelters and child welfare agencies. In addition, she is analyzing secondary data from the National Violence Against Women Survey to determine the relationships between intimate partner abuse and specific psychosocial factors for women intimate partner abuse survivors.
Various psychosocial factors are commonly associated with intimate partner abuse among women survivors, including substance abuse, community violence and adverse mental health. Fowler will use model building strategies in logistic regression to assess the relationship of intimate partner abuse to specific sociodemographic characteristics, psychosocial factors (e.g., substance abuse, community violence, and adverse mental health), and intimate partner abuse factors (e.g., type of abuse).
She will use model generating strategies to test the validity of a causal structure model and determine the best explanatory model. She will also test the model for intimate partner abuse for particular racial and ethnic groups. Her research has implications for improving the understanding of 1) the screening approaches and issues specific to identifying the co-occurrence of intimate partner abuse and substance abuse, and 2) the psychosocial correlates impacting the lives of women intimate partner abuse survivors.
Biography
Dawnovise Fowler, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the school of social work at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. Fowler earned her bachelor of arts in economics from Spelman College, master of arts from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, and Ph.D. from Howard University's School of Social Work.
Fowler has received invaluable research training on several federally-funded projects. Prior to the assistant professor position, Fowler was the first postdoctoral fellow at the UT-Austin's School of Social Work's National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded Substance Abuse Research Development Program.
She conducts research on women survivors of intimate partner abuse as an underserved population with unique service needs, untapped resourcefulness and phenomenal resiliency. She is developing promising research on shelter-based substance abuse intervention for women survivors.
Fowler has authored articles on intimate partner abuse, mental health, substance use, spirituality, race/ethnic differences in dually-diagnosed women, children exposed to domestic violence, and African American social work leadership. Fowler teaches Development Across the Lifespan, Foundations of Social Justice: Values, Diversity, Power, and Oppression, and Advanced Research in Clinical Social Work.
- Lisa C. Gary, Ph.D.
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public HealthInvestigator, Quality/Equality
Project Title: Measuring Quality: Understanding the Patient Satisfaction Profiles of Vulnerable Populations
"As a New Connections grantee, I have experienced a rigorous grant review process and received affirmation that my research ideas are relevant, interesting, and fundable. Receiving this grant is a marker of my ability to function as an independent scholar. My new funding track record is especially important for me as a tenure-track faculty person. The salary support is invaluable because I have time to write manuscripts and develop my research, which is critical for academic career success. In addition to these career advances, I have met many great scholars who are conducting innovative research and who are open to collaborating. I am developing a project with a former New Connections grantee on measurement issues for quality benchmarks in hospitals and health plans. I truly appreciate the initiative the RWJF has made to seek out diverse perspectives from junior investigators; this type of effort is definitely needed."
Project DescriptionGary is conducting a secondary data analysis of the Healthcare for Communities Wave 2 (HCC2) Study. The HCC2 is a survey of consumer experiences with their mental health care and general medical health care. She examines quality of care from the perspective of vulnerable consumers, including racial minorities, persons with chronic illnesses and persons with mental health needs, using patient satisfaction as the primary outcome variable.
The first aim of her study is to determine if the likelihood of receiving mental health services and satisfaction with mental health services and general medical care services differ between minority and Caucasian patients. The second aim of her study is to assess the effect of having a chronic illness on these relationships. This research builds on her dissertation research, which examined how minority patients react differently from Caucasian patients when they experience problems with their medical care.
Biography
Lisa C. Gary, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.S., is an assistant professor of health care organization and policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health. Gary's research specializations include mental health care access and quality, healthcare consumer empowerment, and patient trust in the African American community and other communities of color.
She also studies health care quality issues for people with chronic illnesses such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. She is particularly interested in examining how 1) patient-level factors such as untreated mental health needs, patient trust, and patient preferences, and 2) organizational factors such as managed care and health workforce diversity influence consumer empowerment and health care quality.
Gary earned her Ph.D. in health policy with a concentration in epidemiologic methods at Yale University. She also has a masters in public health in epidemiology and an M.S. in mathematics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She received her B.S. in mathematics magna cum laude at Spelman College.
- Melody S. Goodman, Ph.D.
Stony Brook University Medical Center - Graduate Program in Public HealthJunior Investigator, Public Health
Project Title: Stony Brook University Medical Center - Graduate Program in Public Health Utilizing National Data to Obtain Local Health Disparity Estimates
"The New Connections award has been a great first step in my professional development. It was the first grant I received after graduate school and has allowed me to begin my career as an independent researcher. The protected time and grant funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has validated my research interest, allowing me to work on research that I am truly passionate about. The coaching and training clinics sponsored by the Foundation have also helped to better prepare me for my role as an independent junior researcher at a large research university."
Project DescriptionHealth disparities associated with race have been consistently observed in mortality, morbidity and other indicators of health. Despite heightened national attention of health disparities, progress in reducing these disparities has been slow. Part of the problem may be that the agenda to reduce disparities in health have been set on the national and state levels and are based on national and state level data. This is potentially problematic because these levels are far removed from the individual level where health outcomes are realized.
Goodman is developing statistical models that allow for the extrapolation of national data to obtain county, town, zip-code and other smaller geographic area estimates of the prevalence of five chronic diseases asthma, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease by race. She intends to build a multi-level model to estimate local health disparities using social, demographic and behavioral risk factors contributing to the prevalence of the disease and modeled on three levels: state, county and individual. She is developing separate models for each disease outcome.
Readily available data on the differences in health status, exposure to risk factors and access to care between different populations on the local level is necessary for local governments and health departments to determine priority areas and pertinent interventions. The lack of data limits the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of public health policy, local public health programs and public health interventions.
The development of the proposed models will provide local public health agencies with estimates of prevalence for chronic disease and the differences in prevalence by race, despite a lack of data collection at this level. These models provide a unique and affordable way for local public health agencies to obtain data that are not readily available.
Biography
Melody S. Goodman, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of preventive medicine in the division of evaluative sciences at the graduate program in public health at Stony Brook University Medical Center. In June 2006, at the age of 27, she received her Ph.D. from the department of biostatistics at Harvard University with minors in theoretical statistics and the social determinants of health disparities.
She was a National Institutes of Health minority predoctoral fellow. Her doctoral work focused on statistical methods for community-based cancer interventions and racial/ethnic health disparities research.
Goodman has also assumed the role of director for the Center for Public Health & Health Policy Research. This center was developed through a memorandum of understanding between the graduate program in public health at Stony Brook University and the Suffolk County Department of Health Services with the mission to improve health and health care for the residents of Suffolk County, Long Island. Goodman is a promising young researcher and has received a New York State Assembly citation for her commitment to academic excellence.
- Wrenetha A. Julion, D.N.Sc., M.P.H.
Rush University Medical CenterJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Promoting Paternal Involvement in African-American Non-resident Fathers Via Faith-Based Parent Training
"I applied for the New Connections Award because I saw the program as an opportunity to expand my career as a whole and my abilities as a researcher. I'm proud to be a recipient of this award and to be a member of the RWJF family. The entire experience has been stellar. The New Connections Award has had the greatest impact upon my ability to manage a large statistical database. The skills that are needed for successful data base management are totally separate from the skills you need to analyze data, and this study has afforded me the opportunity to become more proficient in both. I feel like I'm now more of a partner with my statistician, rather than solely a recipient of his expertise."
Project DescriptionPaternal Involvement is important to the development of healthy children and the well-being of fathers and families. However, two-thirds of African-American children do not live with their fathers, and we know little about the reasons fathers and children are separated. Julion hypothesizes that church-partnered initiatives hold great promise as implementation sites for parent training interventions, based upon the historically important role of African American churches in implementing change in the African American community.
Her research specifically aims to examine socio-demographic and contextual variables related to parental involvement with the aim of developing strategies that can be implemented within or in partnership with church-partnered settings to increase and maintain parental involvement among young African American fathers who do not live in the same home as their children.
She will conduct a secondary data analysis using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the largest study examining relationships among unmarried couples with a specific emphasis on learning more about fathers. Julion will conduct structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between study variables and parental involvement.
Factors that are found to be associated with greater parental involvement can subsequently guide effective and contextually-relevant interventions for young African American fathers who do not live in the same home as their children.
Biography
Wrenetha Julion, D.N.Sc., M.P.H., is a registered nurse who has worked in the areas of women's and children's health and community health for her entire nursing career. She earned her bachelors of science in nursing from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; dual masters degrees in nursing and public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago; and her doctorate in nursing from Rush University in Chicago.
Julion has actively been involved in nursing education for the past 10 years and serves as an assistant professor at Rush University College of Nursing. In addition, Julion is co-investigator on a study funded by the National Institutes of Health to examine parent participation in preventive parent training programs; and she is co-author of the Chicago Parent Program. Her individual research efforts focus on learning more about factors that influence African American fathers' involvement with their non-resident children, and her ultimate goal is to develop and implement fatherhood programs to increase father involvement. Julion is married with three children.
- Naa Oyo Kwate, Ph.D.
Columbia UniversityJunior Investigator, Healthy Eating Research (Obesity Team)
Project Title: Studying Spatial Associations Between the Density of Schools and the Density of Fast Food Outlets
"Because I applied through the special solicitation, I am fortunate to be part of both the Healthy Eating Research and New Connections networks. The New Connections award has already had a powerful impact on my professional development. I attended a special mentoring workshop at the Healthy Eating Research meeting. I was able to meet the other Healthy Eating Research-New Connections scholars, their mentors, and Healthy Eating Research program staff. We completed a number of activities centering on our professional vision and the means by which we could enact our plans.
Project DescriptionObesity in the United States has increased exponentially over the past few years. Although prevalence has risen steadily across demographic groups, the highest rates occur among the most disadvantaged, particularly low-income African American and Latino children. In New York City, 31% of Latino and 23% of African American elementary school children are obese, putting them at risk for poor health during childhood, and obesity and chronic illnesses as adults.
Fast food has garnered increasing attention as a risk factor for obesity, given its extremely high-energy density and poor nutritional profile. Researchers have found that fast food restaurants are more prevalent in low-income and predominantly African American neighborhoods, and have also documented close spatial proximity to schools.
Kwate's study seeks to expand on this literature by investigating three key areas: the role of school and neighborhood segregation in shaping children's food environments; determinants of fast food density; and the processes underlying fast food owners' site selection and store operation.
To address these aims, Kwate will use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Phase I to quantify, map and analyze spatial data on fast food locations in New York City. In Phase II, she will conduct semi-structured interviews with selected owners of fast food businesses to ascertain the owners' views on the benefits of operating at particular locations.
Biography
Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Kwate's research centers on determinants of African American health, with particular attention to individual level experiences of identity and inequality, and the intersection of these variables with more distal structural factors. She is particularly interested in determinants of dietary behavior and food environments.
Kwate trained as a clinical psychologist, specializing in the treatment of children and adolescents, and during graduate school, she studied the cultural construction of psychiatric disease classification, the cultural context of clinical practice, and the impact of racial/cultural identity on mental health. Her work in the psychiatry departments of large New York City hospitals brought home the extent to which low-income African American and Latino families were burdened with chronic illness, including being overweight and obese, and this led to a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer prevention and control. Kwate has published papers on culture and mental health practice, African American racial/cultural identity, the role of perceived racism in negative health outcomes and African American neighborhoods.
- Tamara G.J. Leech, Ph.D.
Butler UniversityJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Public Housing and Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors
"New Connections has enabled me to focus on the research questions of most interest to me. Instead of being driven by what is easy or available, I have been able to decide my own research -- and therefore professional -- agenda."
Project DescriptionIn 1998, the federal government implemented major changes to public housing policy, largely based on the assumption that decreasing the concentration of poverty would improve public housing residents' life chances, including adolescent violence, substance use and risky sexual behavior.
Leech's project employs propensity analyses and structural equation modeling to investigate the association between public housing residence and adolescent health risk behavior. Her project examines the behavior of teens living in public housing before and after the 1998 reforms, and investigates potential mechanisms that would explain any emerging associations.
Biography
Tamara Leech, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at Butler University, received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Michigan. Her areas of expertise include medical sociology, urban communities, the interaction between race and gender and adolescent health risk behavior. Leech's previous academic experience has focused on racial and ethnic variations in child and adolescent well-being. She serves as a consultant on social organization and crime issues for several Indianapolis neighborhood associations.
- Arlesia L. Mathis, Ph.D.
University of Michigan-FlintJunior Investigator, Public Health
Project Title: The Impact of Privatization of Primary Care Services In Florida Health Departments on Racial and Ethnic Populations
"I applied for the New Connections award because it gave me the opportunity to conduct research using secondary data analysis. Previously, I had not seen that many opportunities to receive research support for secondary analysis. In addition, I felt that the New Connections award would allow me more time to work toward developing a research agenda. As a new faculty member, it was important to start right away developing research that makes a significant contribution to my field. The New Connections award has allowed me to attend trainings and conferences that otherwise I would be unable to attend. It also allowed me to reduce my teaching load so that I could devote more time to research, which in the long run, will help me to attain tenure."
Project DescriptionThe outsourcing of local health department services may be one of the most important transformations in the nation's public health system. Recent research shows that about three quarters of local health departments have privatized some public health services. The decision to privatize generally depends more on a community's unique characteristics and service delivery system than on a specific type of needed service.
Mathis' study examines how changes to the delivery of primary care services affect access and health outcomes in racial and ethnic populations served by Florida's health departments. Her evaluation uses zip codes as the area for analysis.
The methodology for analyzing primary care access uses a scoring system that assigns a numerical score to each zip code, which represents the relative capacity to provide basic primary care services within an area. To measure health outcomes, the study uses health status indicators related to primary care.
The final analysis uses retrospective, longitudinal population-based data obtained from the United States Census and the Florida Department of Health to examine the health status of racial and ethnic populations in areas with contracted primary care versus the health status of those in areas where county health departments provide primary care programs.
Biography
Arlesia Mathis, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of health sciences and administration at the University of Michigan-Flint. She holds a Ph.D. in public health from the University of South Florida.
In addition to the RWJF grant, Mathis received in August 2007 an LRP grant in Health Disparities Research from the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities for her research in racial and ethnic health disparities. Mathis holds Bachelor of Science degrees in microbiology and psychology from the Louisiana State University and a Master of Arts in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of West Florida. She is also a Certified Public Manager.
Prior coming to the University of Michigan-Flint, she worked as a statistician at the Florida Center for Health Statistics and as an operations and management consultant at the Florida Department of Health in the area of minority health.
She has 20 years of experience working in the public and private sector and was awarded numerous professional and academic awards, including the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, the Delores Auzenne Fellowship, the Kosove Award, the Davis Productivity Award, the Superior Accomplishment Award and the Chancellor's Award.
- Anna Adachi-Mejia, Ph.D.
Dartmouth CollegeJunior Investigator, Healthy Eating Research (Obesity Team)
Project Title: Assessing the Impact of School Vending Machine Policies on Rural Adolescent Beverage Consumption
"The New Connections award has offered me a tremendous opportunity to develop new professional collaborations as I refine my own areas of investigation as an independent researcher. Within only the first few months of receiving the award, I was launched into a productive trajectory facilitated by the mentoring workshop and formal mentoring partnership supported by receiving this award. I am currently involved in five different studies, of which I am a principal investigator on three and am managing a staff of nine survey administrators."
Project DescriptionAdachi-Mejia's study aims to analyze the impact of school vending machine policies on adolescent beverage consumption in predominantly rural high schools across New Hampshire and Vermont.
Using data from an ongoing National Institute of Environmental Health Science study that she is involved in that is analyzing over 2,000 adolescents from 38 middle and high schools, Adachi-Mejia will examine the natural variation in school vending machine policies and content and determine whether beverage options in school vending machines influence adolescents' beverage consumption.
She will compare school beverage vending machine guidelines, restrictions, implementation and content; and evaluate the influence of the school beverage vending machine environment on adolescent beverage consumption. Compared to younger grades, high schools have the most flexibility regarding developing policies for beverage vending machine content and access.
The ongoing National Institute of Environment Health Science's study of adolescent obesity presents an ideal opportunity to examine the natural variation in middle and high school vending machine policies and content, and to determine the extent to which beverage options in school vending machines influence adolescents' beverage consumption. To date, no studies have examined these questions.
A wide range of stakeholders will potentially benefit from this study, including students, their parents, school staff/administration (e.g., principals, coaches, nurses, food service directors), school districts, physicians and policy-makers.
School districts will directly benefit from understanding the impact of their wellness policy on student beverage consumption, and schools will be able to learn about the key factors that have been successful in other schools. Parents will benefit from information on vending machine content, locations, hours and revenue generated, which they currently lack.
Policy changes in schools can be implemented quickly, and can affect the health of thousands of students. School-based changes are more efficient and more economical than interventions at the individual or household level. Thus, if the data indicate that school vending machines predict consumption of beverages, her findings can be used to achieve healthful school policy change on a national scale.
Biography
Anna Adachi-Mejia, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, is an investigator in the community health research program of the Hood Center for Children and Families (http://hoodcenter.dartmouth.edu/index.html). She received both her M.S. and her Ph.D. from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at Dartmouth Medical School.
She has extensive experience in survey research methods, specializing in telephone interviews with children and adults. Her areas of investigation include obesity and tobacco prevention in rural youth, promotion of physical activity in rural mothers and promotion of healthful eating in the workplace.
In addition to Adachi-Mejia's New Connections grant, she has received an Active Living Research grant (The Effect of Motivation, Barriers, and Perceptions of the Built Environment on Physical Activity Levels) from the RWJF.
- Diana R. Romero, Ph.D.
Hunter College, City University of New YorkJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Health, Hardship, and Race/Ethnicity in Vulnerable Families: A Multifactorial Examination of the Fragile Families Dataset
"I believe that the New Connections grant has had a positive impact on my professional development in three major ways. Given RWJF's reputation, my institution's response to my receiving the award was very favorable; it is considered a significant achievement upon which promotion and other related decisions may be based. It has helped to support some of my time, which has allowed me to devote more to research activities. Additionally, the professional development conferences that the New Connections program has held for grantees have been very helpful in different aspects of professional development, including fostering collaborations, making presentations, writing manuscripts and approaches to seeking additional funding."
Project DescriptionRomero's Health & Hardship study examines the relationship of social factors and health to better understand how they come together to create vulnerable populations and to identify mechanisms through which health improvements can be made at individual, community and policy levels--a multilevel approach to addressing poor health and social conditions.
The Fragile Families data is well-suited for research relevant to vulnerable populations. It has yielded much information regarding marital decision-making, social/instrumental support and paternal involvement.
Yet, we need to better understand the combined role of physical and mental health, psychosocial factors, racial/ethnic identity and reproductive decision-making for poor and low-income women and children who suffer economic deprivation and social marginalization.
Romero's project uses a multilevel framework to examine how the relationship between distal variables (community and familial/social level) and proximate variables (individual level) affect maternal and child health outcomes. She is using secondary data analysis of the Fragile Families longitudinal data being conducted at the Urban Public Health Program at Hunter College, City University of New York.
Key variables included in the analyses are: physical and mental health status, health care access, economic well-being, material hardship, environmental factors, government program participation and demographic characteristics.
Biography
Diana R. Romero, Ph.D., is an associate professor of urban public health at Hunter College, City University of New York. Her research interests include domestic reproductive health and poverty policy; factors influencing fertility and family-formation decision-making; and, Latino health issues.
As project director for the Finding Common Ground project at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, she directed a collaborative research project, investigating the potential impact of welfare reform policies on the health of poor women and children. These activities involved quantitative and qualitative research methods at the national, state, community and clinical levels, as well as a project specifically focusing on the impact of these policies on native and immigrant Latina women.
Currently, she is working on several inter-related projects--one involving analysis of the Fragile Families longitudinal study, another using the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), and another involving key-informant interviews of state welfare administrators--all pertaining to the health and well-being of poor and low-income women in the context of welfare policy changes. Romero has served as an investigator on a multidisciplinary project focusing on the health of urban minority communities supported by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
She serves on the board or has otherwise been actively involved with several outside organizations, including: the Reproductive Health Technologies Project (RHTP); the NYC Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS); the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE); the Public Health Association New York City (PHANYC); and, the American Public Health Association (APHA), both in the population, family planning, and reproductive health section as well as in the Latino Caucus. Romero's doctoral research pertained to contraceptive decision-making among Latina and African-American women in large, urban settings.
- Sunny H. Shin, Ph.D.
Boston University School of Social WorkJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Explaining Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health Services Use among Children involved with Foster Care
"I applied for the New Connections award to make productive connections with private foundations and colleagues whose career goals are to reduce and eventually eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in access to health and human services."
Project DescriptionShin's long-range research goal for his project is to identify potential solutions for reducing racial and ethnic disparities in maltreated children's access to mental health services. Barriers to accessing mental health care constitute a more significant problem for ethnic minority children than for Caucasian children, specifically for minority children involved with the child welfare system.
His project is adding to the knowledge base to understand the mechanisms by which race and ethnicity influence access to mental health services. Using structural equation modeling and longitudinal analyses, his project provides additional information to mental health service research about: 1) How mental health outcomes are influenced by childhood maltreatment and involvement with the child welfare system; and 2) How family and cultural factors intersect with racial and ethnic minority children's access to mental health care.
Biography
Sunny H. Shin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Boston University's School of Social Work. His primary research areas are mental health services research, racial/ethnic disparities in mental health services use, child maltreatment, substance abuse and educational outcomes of maltreated children.
In recent years, Shin has studied the effects of childhood maltreatment on developmental outcomes and health and human services use by children, adolescents, and their families. He has practice experience in child welfare and school social work. Shin received his M.S.S.W. degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he taught research methods and practice evaluation courses.
- Shakira Franco Suglia, Ph.D.
Harvard University School of Public Health
Junior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Impact of Violence Exposure on Children's Health
"The program description appealed to me because the research interests of the foundation were similar to mine yet I still felt that within the New Connections research questions I could have enough liberty to development my own specific research question. The New Connections program is also very unique in that it combines research, mentoring and training as well as the opportunity to network with researchers that share similar interests."
Project DescriptionSuglia's research is conceptualized within the stress-health paradigm and focuses on a chronic life stressor prevalent in low-income, minority populations in the U.S. - violence. Her research takes advantage of data already collected in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.
She is exploring the role of violence exposure (community, domestic and maltreatment) in children's development of asthma. Furthermore, she is exploring how other social factors (i.e., housing characteristics and economic factors) can modify the effects of violence exposure on the development of asthma.
Biography
Shakira Franco Suglia, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research is multidisciplinary as she examines the effects of social and environmental factors on children's health, both psychological and physical.
She is exploring the relationship of the stress hormone, cortisol, and violence exposure and how social and environmental factors can modify this association. Suglia is interested in the development and application of latent variable analyses that will facilitate the analyses of latent constructs, such as stress, which are not directly measured but ascertained with the use of multi-item questionnaires. In addition, she is exploring the role of traffic-related pollutants in relation to children's cognitive and behavioral development.
- Daphne C. Watkins, Ph.D.
University of Michigan
Junior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: The Influence of Psychosocial Factors on the Mental Health of Black Men in America
"The New Connections Initiative award came highly recommended by a colleague, and I knew that the Foundation had a reputation for working side-by-side with junior investigators to expand diverse perspectives that inform the Foundation's programming objectives. I believe that the New Connections award has helped advance my career to the next level. The award has allowed me to establish myself as an independent researcher as well as build relationships with individuals (at the Foundation and across the country) who I will continue to collaborate with even after the funding has ceased. I am grateful for the New Connections Initiative award because it has helped bring research on black men and mental health to the forefront and receive the national attention that it deserves."
Project DescriptionBlack men face greater psychosocial stressors than other groups, which also places them at greater risk for mental health problems. Past approaches to studying the mental health of black men have been limited due to challenges in identifying the variables that best explain their mental health.
Watkins' study uses cross-sectional data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) to examine the influence of psychosocial factors on the mental health of black men at early, middle and late adulthood.
Use of the NSAL data, obtained from the University of Michigan's Program for Research on Black Americans, is pertinent to this study because it was used to explore inter-and intra-group racial and ethnic differences in psychosocial distress and mental disorders, as well as the influences of a variety of stressors, coping resources and help-seeking strategies among national samples of African Americans, or blacks.
The purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of the mental health of black men. Specific aims are to: (a) identify the psychosocial factors that help shape the mental health of black men; (b) examine the impact of these psychosocial factors on their mental health; and (c) pinpoint strategies that focus on improving and maintaining mental health outcomes for black men.
Three research questions will be addressed: (1) What are the psychosocial factors that influence the mental health of black men at early, middle, and late adulthood?; (2) How do psychosocial processes stimulate major depression and anxiety disorders in black men at early, middle, and late adulthood?; and (3) What are the implications for future programs geared toward improving and maintaining the mental health of black men?
Identifying the psychosocial factors that influence mental health for black men is informed by models that identify the strengths and weaknesses of black men within and across levels and at different periods over their life course. These models will improve our understanding of the risk and protective factors associated with mental health and illness among black men and assist in developing strategies to improve and maintain their mental health.
Biography
Daphne C. Watkins, Ph.D., is a research investigator in the department of obstetrics and gynecology and the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. She has devoted her professional career to health promotion and disease prevention among underserved individuals and communities.
Watkins' interests include research on gender disparities in mental health and illness, health education and behavior and intervention/prevention research. Currently, she is studying how gender differences influence the mental health of Black Americans over the life course.
She has produced a growing number of publications that underline gender role socialization and mental health - particularly with regard to the Black American experience. An anthropologist and health educator by training, Watkins applies both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to her research to increase our knowledge on the influence of psychological distress on the health and health behaviors of minority populations.
Watkins received her doctorate in health education from Texas A&M University. Upon receipt of her doctorate, she completed a National Institute of Mental Health-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
- Eunice Wong, Ph.D.
RANDJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations
Project Title: Mental Health Outcomes Among New U.S. Immigrant Children
"The New Connections award has helped establish my credibility as an independent investigator, allowed me to network with other colleagues with similar research interests, and provided opportunities to refine my research skills. In addition to these tangible gains, the New Connections award has provided me with many intangible gains such as being connected to and inspired by so many others devoted to improving the health and well-being of the underserved."
Project DescriptionEven though immigrants make up an ever increasing part of the country, there is limited knowledge on immigrants' adjustment to life in the U.S., especially in terms of mental health outcomes.
Wong's study proposes to examine depression outcomes and associated risk factors among U.S. immigrants using the New Immigrant Survey, the first study conducted with a nationally representative sample of new U.S. immigrants. She will examine a variety of pre-immigration and post-migration factors related to successful adaptation in the U.S.
Biography
Eunice Wong, Ph.D., is an associate behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She has research expertise in mental health and substance abuse in racial and ethnic minority populations. Wong has published on the role of cultural influences on psychological assessment, treatment process and distress.
Her more recent work has focused on treatment access, health outcomes and psychoeducation interventions for trauma-exposed populations. She has also conducted work on acculturation and substance abuse, racial and ethnic disparities in health and cultural influences on substance abuse treatment outcomes.
2006-2007 New Connections Initiative Awards
2006-2007 New Connections Initiative Awards
- Bettina M. Beech, Dr. P.H., M.P.H
Vanderbilt University School of MedicineSenior Consultant, Childhood Obesity
Project Title: An Examination of Policies to Support Healthy Eating Among Rural High School Students in the Delta
"The New Connections award offered a unique opportunity to receive input from and work with the Childhood Obesity Team at the Foundation. This award enabled me to gain exposure to other childhood obesity scientists and develop additional research skills in health policy analysis."
Project DescriptionResearchers and policy-makers are increasingly turning to environmental and policy approaches to combat obesity. Nutrition policies, have predominantly focused on elementary and middle school students. However, high school students have an increased exposure to competitive foods and vending products that are generally higher in fat and sugar. Tennessee recently passed legislation that governs the sale of vending products during school hours. The effect of this policy has not been assessed, particularly among low-income students attending rural high schools.
Beech's study seeks to: examine local and state policies regarding sweetened beverages and sugary snacks that apply to students attending rural high schools in Tennessee; examine associations between eating patterns of rural high school students and school food environmental policies; and determine the economic impact of the school vending policy experience by rural high schools.
Specifically, she plans to evaluate the following research questions:
- How is the level of implementation of the vending policy associated with the prevalence of sweetened beverage and snack consumption among rural high school students?
- What strategies have been employed to oppose policy implementation, and how has resistance to the new vending policy been overcome?
- How does new policy implementation affect, and how is it affected by resource allocation?
Biography
Bettina Beech, Dr.P.H., associate director of health disparities research at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has a unique interdisciplinary background that integrates public health, cancer prevention and control, health disparities, nutrition, obesity prevention and treatment, epidemiology, and children's health issues.
A native of Los Angeles, Beech holds a B.A. and Master of Public Health from Temple University and a Dr.P.H. in community health from University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Public Health. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral science at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, she served on the faculty at the Tulane University School of Public Health and at the University of Memphis, Department of Psychology. Beech's research focuses on the role of nutritional factors in the primary and secondary prevention of chronic diseases, with a particular focus on childhood obesity and related problems such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Her current studies involve the development and evaluation of interventions to prevent or treat childhood obesity in primary care and community-based settings, particularly among African Americans.
- Rhonda BeLue, Ph.D.
The Pennsylvania State UniversityJunior Investigator, Quality/Equality Team
Project Title: Investigating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Quality and Location of Care
"New Connections has benefited my professional development by providing me access to a group of colleagues that I would not have met otherwise. Receiving the grant also gave legitimacy to my work in the eyes of my department."
Project DescriptionBeLue examined racial and ethnic disparities in the quality and type of care at hospitals and ambulatory care facilities. Her study explored factors associated with racial and ethnic disparities in patients' perceptions of the quality and receipt of care. Specifically, she examined the effects of health care facility characteristics on quality outcomes and how health care setting context may contribute to disparities in quality outcomes.
Biography
Rhonda BeLue, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of health policy and administration and the methodology center in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. BeLue's research has focused on methodologies for developing and evaluating interventions to reduce health disparities for chronic relapsing disease in low-income families. Prior to coming to Penn State in 2005, she was a division leader for public health research and evaluation at the Metropolitan Public Health Department in Nashville.
- Earle C. Chambers, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Yeshiva University, Albert Einstein College of MedicineJunior Investigator, Obesity Team
Project Title: Household instability and the 'obesogenic' environment
"I applied to the New Connections Initiative because I was interested in examining a research question that married my interests and provided an opportunity to work with the RWJF. I was in the last year of my postdoc and wanted to take a bit of a turn with my research. The New Connections award allowed me to do this. I transitioned from my postdoc training to an assistant professor position in a department that is in tune with my research interests. This award solidified my commitment to examining the social factors that influence health, which is important to my new institution. I also built a strong relationship with another New Connections grantee that has resulted in both manuscript and grant collaborations."
Project DescriptionMany researchers have focused on the home environment as a complex interplay of family dynamics with social and material resources in efforts to better understand individual health-related behaviors. It is unclear how both the home and neighborhood environments work in concert to influence obesity risk. The relationship between household characteristics and obesity risk could be accentuated within neighborhoods that have limited access to healthy options.
Chambers' study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the effects of household instability in areas of low and high poverty and on obesity in urban mothers and their children. He hypothesizes that body mass index will increase in households with higher levels of instability and that the risk of obesity associated with high household instability will be largest among those living in more poverty-stricken areas.
Biography
Earle C. Chambers, Ph.D., M.P.H, is an assistant professor in the department of family and social medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. He completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, his masters in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), School of Public Health, and his bachelor's degree in biology from Duke University.
He is interested in how obesity promoting behaviors are influenced by family dynamics, physical space and access to social and material resources within the neighborhood. He tries to allow his research interests to be led by the innate right that people have to live healthy lives and maximize their potential within their communities. Chambers believes that addressing issues that tackle racial/ ethnic disparities in health outcomes and health care access are especially prudent in achieving this end.
- Florence J. Dallo, Ph.D., M.P.H.
The University of Texas School of Public HealthJunior Investigator, Quality/Equality Team
Project Title: Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Quality of Care of Immigrants and non-Immigrants in the United States
"Many of my colleagues ask me about my experiences in applying for a RWJ grant; therefore, I am able to assist my colleagues in their efforts to obtain a RWJ award. I always stress to my colleagues the dedication and commitment of the individuals at RWJ in helping us really make the most out of our awards, and how our connections with RWJ staff and project directors and officers open so many other doors."
Project DescriptionDallo's study assesses whether there are racial and ethnic subgroup differences in the quality of care for immigrants and non-immigrants. To address the goal of this study, she proposed the following specific aims: 1) to examine the association between patient and physician interactions and immigrant status and 2) to examine the association between satisfaction with care and immigrant status.
Biography
Florence Dallo, Ph.D., M.P.H., has been an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas, School of Public Health, Dallas Regional Campus, since September 2006. Prior to this position, Dallo was a Kellogg Health Disparities Postdoctoral Fellow for two years under the mentorship of David R. Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H., University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research. Her primary research interests are in chronic disease, with an emphasis on racial and ethnic disparities and acculturation. Specifically, she examines how and why diabetes disproportionately affects minority groups, and how these disparities can be alleviated. Dallo is currently co-teaching Introduction to Epidemiology, writing grants related to diabetes and mentoring several students on their M.P.H. theses.
- Cristiane S. Duarte, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Columbia University Medical CenterJunior Investigator, Obesity Team
Project Title: Built Environment and Overweight in Early Childhood: Understanding Disparities and Key Mechanisms
"New Connections has allowed me to think about childhood obesity from a perspective that is not mainstream in my field. Concretely, that has opened doors for other funding opportunities and for collaboration with another New Connections grantee. The way New Connections is structured, not only by emphasizing the health of historically disadvantaged populations but also by putting together scholars from these populations, offers a rare and lively illustration of the many implications of consistently focusing on traditionally marginalized groups. This experience has demonstrated to me that focusing one's career on vulnerable populations is possible and desirable."
Project DescriptionDuarte's project analyzes the impact of the built environment on obesity. Successful obesity prevention models involving the built environment should be based on knowledge about mechanisms through which the built environment may shape health and behavior early in life.
The main research questions she is attempting to answer are: Is the built environment related to overweight in children at 36 months? Do built environment differences help to explain racial and ethnic disparities in early childhood overweight? Is maternal depression part of the association between built environment and overweight in early childhood?
The specific aims of the project are to: (I) examine whether characteristics of the urban built environment are associated with overweight in early childhood; (II) verify if characteristics of the built environment contribute to racial and ethnic weight disparities in early childhood; and (III) determine the extent to which the possible association between the built environment and overweight in early childhood can be explained by maternal depression.
She is conducting secondary data analysis focused on the third wave of The Fragile Families Study. Her outcomes are measured mother relative weight and child height and weight transformed to BMI-for-age-gender. The main independent variables are external and internal built environment based on the interviewer's observation and parental information access to healthy grocery shopping.
Biography
Christiane S. Duarte, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an assistant professor in the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University. Her research focuses on understanding the relationship between child mental health and factors of high social impact, such as childhood obesity, large-scale disasters, cultural context or service system structure.
Duarte is particularly interested in improving knowledge about disadvantaged groups. She has focused on Latino populations, addressing mental health issues relevant to youth based either in the U.S. (e.g., acculturation and service use) or in Latin America (e.g., access to mental health services). Duarte has received federal funds as well as two awards from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD).
- James Jennings, Ph.D.
Tufts UniversitySenior Consultant, Human Capital Team
Project Title: Impact of Changing Demography on Racial and Ethnic Relations in Community Health Centers in Low-Income Neighborhoods
"New Connections has allowed me to discover important relationships between public health and community development. As a result, I have introduced public health literature in my graduate courses."
Project DescriptionCommunity health centers are technically described as "Federally Qualified Health Centers" by the federal government's Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau of Primary Health Care and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The key query guiding the research for this paper is: How should community-based health centers in low-income urban neighborhoods respond to rapid demographic changes involving people of color and immigrants? This question is significant because demographic changes can impact the accessibility to health care on the part of vulnerable populations, but also contribute to continuing racial and ethnic health disparities.
There are two related questions raised here: How is this kind of change related to broader community changes or issues that might affect the mission and work of community health centers? And, what kinds of strategies should be considered by the leadership of community health centers in the delivery and accessibility of health care in low-income neighborhoods that are undergoing racial and ethnic changes?
The methodology for this study is based on an extensive literature review and expert interviews. The research also highlights two community health centers to illustrate how complex demographic changes engulf health organizations. The paper ends with recommendations that can help community health centers enhance their visibility and participation as major community players in low-income urban areas.
Biography
James Jennings, Ph.D., is a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. He teaches graduate courses in the areas of social welfare; community development; and race and public policy. Jennings has published several books and numerous articles in a wide range of journals. His latest book is, "Race, Neighborhoods, and the Misuse of Social Capital" (Palgrave MacMillan 2007).
Jennings also works with many grassroots organizations in Boston and other cities in Massachusetts on issues dealing with housing, health and local economic development. One of his current research projects focuses on the impact of immigration on Massachusetts' health economy.
- Marilyn Johnson-Kozlow, Ph.D.
San Diego State UniversityJunior Investigator, Quality/Equality Team
Project Title: Acculturation and Health Disparities among Latinos
"Through New Connections, I have increased my publications and learned how to analyze complex sampled data. Receiving this grant has allowed me to be more likely to receive grants in the future."
Project DescriptionCalifornian Latinos have lower rates of colorectal cancer screening compared to non-Latino whites, which may account in part for the disparities in colorectal incidence. From 1988 to 2003, there was a 21% decrease in colorectal cancer incidence among non-Latino whites compared to a 5% decline among Latinos.
Johnson-Kozlow's study sought to examine the effect of acculturation on colorectal screening among Mexican and Mexican-American men and women in California. She investigated 603 Mexican-American men and 893 Mexican-American women from the 2005 California Health Interview Survey aged 50 and older who did not have colon cancer.
Johnson-Kozlow developed a 7-item acculturation index (composed of English language use and proficiency, nativity, citizenship, and years living in the U.S.). Covariates in the logistic regression model measured socioeconomic status, health status, and healthcare access; analyses were stratified by gender and corrected for complex sampling design.
After controlling for socioeconomic status, health status, and healthcare access, higher acculturated Mexican-American men and women were more likely to have had lower endoscopy, fecal occult blood test, or both of the colorectal screening tests. Compared to lower-acculturated men, higher-acculturated men were 2.6 to 3.4 times more likely to have colorectal screening; similar adjusted odds ratios for women varied from 2.3 to 4.1.
She concluded that colorectal screening is effective in preventing cancer; educational and outreach efforts and efforts to decrease provider-oriented barriers among lower-acculturated Mexican-Americans should be intensified.
BiographyMarilyn Johnson-Kozlow, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the division of health promotion in the graduate school of public health at San Diego State University (SDSU). She has a doctorate in epidemiology, public health, from the joint doctoral program at San Diego State University and the University of California at San Diego.
She has over 30 years of experience in applied research settings in both the private and public sectors. She is the principal investigator on a three-year study funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program entitled "Modeling ETS Exposure and Dose Using PDA E-Diaries."
Her interests are in measurement of health behaviors (dietary intake, exposure to secondhand smoke and physical activity); the effect of acculturation on health disparities among Latinos; and the development of ecological models for health behavior change. She teaches Health Promotion Program Planning and Evaluation and Health Risk Appraisal at San Diego State University. She also teaches data analysis and statistics at Palomar College.
- Nina S. Parikh, Ph.D.
Hunter College, City University of New YorkJunior Investigator, Coverage Team
Project Title: Access to and Utilization of Health Care among New Immigrants
"Using the dataset proposed has allowed me to not only query about the my initial research question for the New Connections Initiative, but has sparked other related inquiries I plan to pursue after the grant period. I have had the chance to network with RWJF experts, as well as establish a network of colleagues with similar interests who may serve as possible co-investigators and consultants on future research studies."
Project DescriptionThe objective of Parikh's study is to assess the social, economic, and cultural factors that affect access to and use of health care among U.S. legal immigrants.
Data are from the Round 1 of the New Immigrant Survey, a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of 8,573 adult immigrants admitted to permanent residence and their children. Comprehensive information across several socio-behavioral domains, including migration history, employment, income, language, religion, marital status, family, physical and mental health, health care and health behaviors was collected from respondents.
Parikh plans to develop an expanded model of access and utilization by immigrants based on her previous work and the existing literature. Her model will be used to examine social, economic and cultural characteristics at the individual- and contextual-levels, and test hypotheses related to disparities in access to and utilization of services among new U.S. immigrants.
The results of her study will advance our understanding of factors affecting immigrant health trajectories over time and can inform the targeted development of culturally competent interventions designed to improve the health outcomes of immigrants.
Biography
Nina S. Parikh received her Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University, and an M.P.H. in health policy and management from Emory University. She is a senior research associate at the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity of Hunter College, City University of New York, focusing on complex social factors influencing healthy aging among diverse urban populations, including the interactions among health literacy, social networks and adaptation/acculturation.
Her current research involves the examination of social and cultural determinants of health and health care of underserved populations, the effects of the built and social environment on the health and health trajectories of the elderly, particularly immigrant populations, and the health status of community-based older adults in New York City. She has received grant support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Administration on Aging, NYC Department for the Aging, The Commonwealth Fund and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Parikh was previously a researcher on several projects, including an investigation of utilization patterns of emergency department patients in the Bronx, NY, a multi-phase multi-site evaluation of an HIV-prevention intervention aimed at high-risk women, and a prevalence study examining low-health literacy among public hospital patients.
- Ninfa Peña-Purcell, Ph.D.
Texas A&M UniversityJunior Investigator, Pioneer Team
Project Title: Hispanics' Use of Health Information on the Internet: Implications for Healthcare Professionals
"I applied for the grant as an opportunity to gain research experience and for professional advancement. It is worth noting that my association with RWJF has been a tremendous asset when seeking employment this past year."
Project DescriptionThe purpose of Peña-Purcell's project was to conduct a secondary analysis investigating Hispanics' use of the Internet to seek health information. This study used data collected in the Impact of the Internet and Advertising on Patients and Physician (IAPP), 2000-2001 cross-sectional survey to examine Hispanics' perceptions about their experience accessing Internet health information.
She sought to estimate the prevalence of Hispanics' Internet use to seek health information and, among Internet health information seekers, assess views about online health information and its effect on the physician-patient relationship and health care utilization.
Biography
Ninfa Peña-Purcell, Ph.D., is an assistant professor with Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M System. The focus of her work is to provide research support in the development, implementation and evaluation of health promotion programs delivered to Texas AgriLife Extension Service agencies.
Prior to her employment at Extension, Peña-Purcell was a visiting assistant professor with Texas Woman's University. Peña-Purcell serves as board member with the Texas Society for Public Health Educators. Her research interests are health information technology and addressing health disparities among Hispanics/Latinos.
- Deinya M. Phenix
New York UniversityJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations Team
Project Title: Detention, Education, and Community-Based Services among Former New York City Jail Inmates
"The New Connections award has had a strong impact on key aspects of my professional development, including obtaining experience in project design and working with health data."
Project DescriptionPhenix' project relates educational attainment, labor market participation, training and other community reintegration factors to rates of drug use, violence and other risk behaviors among formerly incarcerated young men with a self-reported history of substance use.
Through a secondary analysis of New York City health intervention evaluation data, with two points in time and a battery of economic, health and criminal history data, she demonstrates a small but significant differential attributable to educational attainment and participation. In addition, a comprehensive investigation of educational opportunities for this most at-risk subpopulation of youth, including qualitative investigation of the health care providers, administrators and educators available to assist them, reveals a consistent press toward educational attainment.
This impetus is consistent with theory but must prevail amidst a chaotic system of competing priorities, including criminal justice case processing, family crises and other client problems, as well as systemic and administrative pressures on providers.
Her recommendations include systemic reforms that cross administrative and disciplinary boundaries, encouraging more structured collaboration and possible scaling up of mutually desired, multi-systemic interventions.
Biography
Deinya Phenix helps community-based collaborative and research organizations obtain and analyze public education data. She manages a large library of public school and district data and provides technical assistance in statistical applications and research design.
She conducts research projects that study the social geography of educational opportunity, teacher compensation and learning communities, New York State district administrators appointed to serve as liaisons for homeless students, discipline and policing in New York City schools, and schools serving at-risk youth.
Prior to joining the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, Deinya worked as a research scientist at New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy, as research programmer at the New York City Criminal Justice Agency and as a research associate at the Institute for Social Research. Phenix' multifaceted perspective on urban education stems from her social science background. She holds a master's degree in sociology from the University of New Mexico and is a doctoral candidate and adjunct instructor in sociology at New York University.
- Juliette K. Roddy, Ph.D.
University of Michigan--DearbornJunior Investigator, Vulnerable Populations Team
Project Title: Access and Consumption of Addiction Treatment Service in Primary and Specialty Care Settings
"The award generated a personal note from my provost and my dean. Both wrote to encourage my work and to let me know that the effort was noticed...All of these contacts will further my career. The additional publication will help me on my tenure-track path. I am more widely recognized in the Social Sciences department due to newsletter announcements of the grant. The grant has just made me more visible on campus. The grant also allowed for connections with other grantees. Ronica and I have become 'writing partners'. We check in with each other frequently to make sure that we are making progress with our work and providing each other with encouragement.
Project DescriptionTreatment for behavioral health lags behind the medical mainstream in terms of application and measurement of evidence based practices
Roddy's project aims to present a broad picture of consumer exposure to evidence-based substance abuse treatment, the intensity of the exposure, and the perceived quality experienced and described by the consumer. Using standards developed in literature for evidence based care, she examined the Fighting Back National dataset ( N=3,297 national survey) and the National Survey of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Problems data [Healthcare for Communities, HCC] (N=12,158) for access and consumption of evidence based practices of substance abuse services. Both surveys consist of nationally representative data obtained by phone interview.
Roddy found that correlations reveal significant relationships between types of insurance and treatment modes for substance abuse. In regression analysis, significant predictors of substance abuse treatment include public insurance plans (Medicare, Medicaid, gap/supplemental insurance and other public programs), while employer-provided insurance is not a predictor. However, residential treatment is significantly predicted by employer provided insurance.
Cluster analysis reveals two groups of substance abuse treatment consumers clustered on six variables. Group 1 (n=37) is enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance and is more likely to attend self-help substance abuse treatment. Group 2 (n=19) is not enrolled in employer-provided health insurance, incurs more months of substance abuse treatment, and is more likely to discuss substance abuse treatment with a primary care physician. Descriptive statistics on those who receive substance abuse/mental health care and had insurance (HCC, n=1289) reveal that 74 (6%) consumed emergency room visits for substance abuse treatment, with 43% of those respondents visiting more than once.
The analysis suggests insurance influences access and provision of treatment for substance abuse disorders. Evidence-based treatment standards and cost considerations will continue to impact treatment for behavioral health.
Biography
Juliette Roddy, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan Dearborn. Her primary assignment is in the Masters of Public Policy Program within the Social Sciences Department.
Roddy's area of research is in substance abuse, specializing in the economic effects of opiate addiction. She has completed a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded three-year post-doctoral position at Wayne State University's Jefferson Avenue Research Clinic where methadone treatment is offered to Detroit area opiate users.
She is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and serves on the board of American Indian Health and Family Services, one of only 35 urban Native American health clinics within the United States.
- Ronica Rooks, Ph.D
University of Colorado at DenverJunior Investigator, Quality/Equality Team
Project Title: Explaining Racial Disparities in Quality of Care and Health Care Utilization among Black and White Adults: the Chronic Illness and Caregiving Survey
"The New Connections award was quite prestigious for my professional development... I gained respect from my colleagues in my former and current departments...It enhanced the attractiveness of my application in pursuit of a new academic job....It gave me access to a statistician to assist with my research; this relationship has continued to develop into a friendship and co-authorship on several planned articles...and it has given me confidence about my grant writing abilities and encouragement to pursue future grants."
Project DescriptionRooks' project goals were to conduct research on racial and ethnic health disparities in quality of care and health care utilization using the 2001 Chronic Illness and Caregiving Survey and the 2003 Community Tracking Study, Household Survey.
For the Chronic Illness and Caregiving Survey, her research questions addressed whether: 1) racial disparities in quality of care and health care utilization existed among chronically ill American adults, and whether 2) these disparities vary by socioeconomic status (i.e. education and income), perceptions of financial burden, age, health insurance type, managed care plan or not, and residential area.
For the Community Tracking Study, her research question focused on whether the relationship between race and ethnicity and health care utilization, specifically physician's visits, varied by age or chronic conditions for African American, Latino and other minority adults compared to Caucasian adults.
Biography
Ronica N. Rooks, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in health and behavioral sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. Prior to this, she was an assistant professor in sociology at Kent State University. She also completed a W. K. Kellogg postdoctoral fellow in health disparities at the University of Michigan and a postdoctoral fellowship in geriatric epidemiology at the National Institute on Aging.
She graduated from the department of sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park with concentrations in demography and social stratification. Her research focuses on explanations for racial and socioeconomic status disparities in the health of African Americans, particularly focusing on neighborhood socioeconomic status and demographics to examine heart disease and physical functioning outcomes among the elderly; perceptions of unfair treatment on hypertension, mental health, and health care utilization among adults; and geographic variation in adult patients' perceived quality of and access to health care on health care utilization.
2008-2009 New Connections Initiative Awards
