Friday, September 24, 2010

Congrat's to Dr. Martin

Kudos to the SCRHRC's Amy Martin! Her graduate course, "Perspectives in Rural Health," won the Tenth Annual Delta Omega Award for an Innovative Public Health Curriculum. Delta Omega is the honorary society in public health, founded in 1924 at Johns Hopkins.
Amy's award will be presented at the Delta Omega business meeting in conjunction with the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Denver this November. If you're planning on being at APHA, the Delta Omega meeting will be held at the Grand Hyatt Denver, 1750 Welton Street, Denver, CO on Monday, November 8, 2010 from 4-5:30 p.m, with a reception to follow.
Let's hear it for training the next generation of rural health practitioners and researchers!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Presenting Research at Academy for Health Equity conference

Holdy folks -- I have recently returned from the presenting a poster at the Academy for Health Equity conference in Englewood (suburb of Denver), Colorado. It was a small conference, but it was a good experience.

This is a relatively new group; it started in 2006 as a result of the 2006 Minority Health conference. It sounds like there was a realization at the meeting that there was no group at that time solely dedicated to the elimination of health disparities worldwide. This group is young and energetic, and I would encourage those researchers involved in health disparities to get involved with this group. Although the number of participants was small, that will only change if others attend.

Two presentations really stuck with me -- Dr. Adewale Troutman with Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness gave a phenomenal keynote presentation about health as a human right, which got everyone jazzed for the remainder of the day's sessions. The closing keynote by Dr. David Williams with the Harvard School of Public Health gave a strong presentation about the progress we have made in terms of health disparities and where we still need to do. The power of research presented well has the ability to motivate and cause change. I'm very glad I was able to hear these talks.

And, I gotta say, the conference cuisine was the best of all of the conferences I have had this year. It was clear that what was on my plate was actual food in all instances, and it was actually pretty tasty. Kudos to the Marriott Park Meadows! The bar has been raised for the Denver Convention Center in November.