Professional Notes: October 2023
10/11/2023
Professional Notes is a round-up of awards, presentations, papers, and the other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff members, and students.
Faculty and Staff
Travis Loux, Ph.D. (Biostatistics) and colleagues published the study "A cross-sectional study: Association between tobacco/alcohol usage and mental health with disabilities."
Additionally, Loux, Hong Xian, Ph.D. (Biostatistics) and the team from the VA published the study "Comparative effectiveness of SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, DPP-4 inhibitors, and sulfonylureas on risk of major adverse cardiovascular events: emulation of a randomised target trial using electronic health records."
Echu Liu, Ph.D. (Health and Management Policy) and colleagues published the research "The impact of healthcare industry convergence on the performance of the public health system: a geospatial modeling study of provincial panel data from China."
Liu also teamed up with Ph.D. alum Miao Cai and published the paper "The impact of healthcare industry convergence on the performance of the public health system: A geospatial modeing study of provincial panel data from China" in the Frontiers in Public Health Journal. This paper examines the impact of healthcare industry convergence on the performance of the public health system in the eastern, central, and western regions of China.
Michael Rozier, S.J., Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) and student volunteers published a report in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice titled "Neither Words nor Images: Health Departments' and Hospitals' Use of Twitter During COVID-19 Had Limited Racial Representation and Content on Disparities Decreased Over Time" that determined the degree to which hospitals and state health departments used written content or visual representation on social media to draw attention to racial disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Katherine A. Stamatakis, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) and Aly Terhaar (College for Public Health and Social Justice) contributed to the published study "A Community-wide Collaboration to Increase Enrollment, Retention, and Success in Evidence-Based Lifestyle-Change Programs in Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations."
Stamatakis and Terhaar also were published with Washington University in St. Louis for their work on the Alliance project. The Alliance aims to reduce barriers and connect regional organizations to improve participation in diabetes education programs at the YMCA.
Terhaar also published a a collaborative effort publication of early-stage researchers from a group called NOPREN (Nutrition and Obesity Prevention, Research, and Evaluation Network). The article was titled "Challenges and Opportunities for Equity in US School Meal Programs: A Scoping Review of Qualitative Literature Regarding the COVID-19 Emergency."
Keon Gilbert, DrPH (Behavioral Science and Health Education) co-authored the research article "An Invitation to Imagine: Conclusion of the HPP Series “What Is Anti-Racism in Health Promotion Practice?” in the Health Promotion Practice journal. The article discusses their invitation to scholars and practitioners to review all 17 contributions to the series and to continue to ask — and address — the question ‘What is anti-racism in our practice, scholarship, and lives?”
Steve Rigdon, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) was an author on a study that proposed a framework for developing data-driven prescriptive optimization models with risk criteria for traditional trucking applications. The study "Shortest Path Problems with a Crash Risk Objective' was just published in the 'Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board."
Whitney Linsenmeyer, Ph.D. (Nutrition and Dietetics) had a number of articles published on transgender health and nutrition including:
- Linsenmeyer, W. Nutrition research and practice with transgender and gender nonconforming populations. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 2023; 1-16. (Invited article).
- Linsenmeyer W, Stiles D, Garwood S, Giedinghagen A, Lewis C, Strand G. The Sick, Control, One Stone, Fat, Food (SCOFF) is a Valid Eating Disorder Questionnaire to Use With Transgender Youth [published online ahead of print, 2023 Sep 15]. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2023;99228231200754.
- Katie Heiden-Rootes, Ph.D. (Medical Family Therapy), Linsenmeyer W, Levine S, Oliveras M, Joseph M. A scoping review of the research literature on eating and body image for transgender and nonbinary adults. J Eat Disord. 2023;11(1):111.
- Heiden-Rootes, K., Linsenmeyer, W., Levine, S. et al. A scoping review of the research literature on eating and body image for transgender and nonbinary adults. J Eat Disord 2023;11:111.
Cynthia Nebel (Student Affairs -School of Medicine Students) co-authored a book, "Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better 1st Edition."
Nori Katagiri, Ph.D. (Political Science) published two articles. One is "Artificial intelligence and cross-domain warfare: balance of power and unintended escalation" in Global Society, in which he examined the relationship among AI, military operations, and cyber attacks to draw its strategic consequences.
The other article is "Learning Patterns and Failures: An Analysis of ISIS Operations between 2013 and 2019,” in Carolin Gorzig, et al., eds., How Terrorists Learn: Organizational Learning and Beyond (London: Routledge). In the article, Katagiri explored how the lack of learning the right lessons led to the failure and demise of the Islamic State (ISIS).
J. Cameron Anglum, Ph.D. (Education) authored a piece published by the Brookings Institute examining partisan differences in policy preferences to address teacher shortages across the nation.
Michael Mancini, Ph.D. (Social Work) and Vicki Moran, Ph.D. (Nursing) and others co-authored a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The paper was titled "Incidence of and Factors Associated With Recurrent Firearm Injury Among Patients Presenting to St. Louis Trauma Centers, 2010 to 2019." The paper was covered by CNN.
Liz Chiarello, Ph.D. (Sociology) was featured on Born Curious, a Harvard Radcliffe Institute podcast. Chiarello was a Radcliffe Fellow from 2019-2020 and in the summer of 2023. The podcast previews her book, "Policing Patients," that is forthcoming with Princeton University Press.
Steven Rogers, Ph.D. (Political Science) appeared on the Politics in Question Podcast to discuss his new book, "Accountability in State Legislatures."
Chris Arnatt, Ph.D. (Chemistry) has been named by his alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University, one of the university’s top 10 graduates of the past decade. VCU Alumni’s 10 Under 10 awards celebrate alumni who earned their first VCU degree within the past 10 years and who have enjoyed remarkable professional success, made important contributions to their community and/or loyally supported the university. Arnatt is an associate professor at SLU in the department of chemistry and department of pharmacology and physiology, as well as director of the Chemical Biology Program; he graduated with a doctorate in medicinal chemistry from VCU’s School of Pharmacy in 2013. Arnatt earned his degree only a decade ago, but he has already received two prestigious research grants from the National Institutes of Health, totaling $4.5 million.
Sarah Frye, Ph.D. was named the winner of the Editors' Choice Award for Best Educators' Forum Article in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology in 2022. The award was presented to Frye and Jennifer Prekeges for "Interview with Nuclear Medicine Technology Educators on the Impact of COVID-19 on Programs, Outcomes, and Employers"" J. Nucl. Med. Technol. 2022; 50:174–178.
Jalil Kianfar, Ph.D. (Civil Engineering) was awarded the 2023 Faculty Advisor Award by the St. Louis Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This award recognizes a faculty or practitioner advisor of an ASCE student chapter who has demonstrated significant leadership in fostering positive attitudes towards the civil engineering profession among students. The ASCE St. Louis section encompasses student chapters from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
The SLU ASCE student chapter offers a variety of educational, professional development, networking, and social activities to civil engineering students and the broader campus community. Additionally, the chapter’s student members actively participate in academic competitions. Most notably, SLU ASCE secured an overall second-place ranking at the Mid-America Student Symposium. Kianfar has been serving as the advisor for the Saint Louis University (SLU) ASCE student chapter since January 2021.
Enoch Azasu, Ph.D. (Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience) was selected by the National Institute of Mental Health to receive a 2023 Global Mental Health Visionary Innovators Shaping Tomorrow's Advancements (VISTA) Award, recognizing his outstanding contributions to research, community engagement, and equity in the field of global mental health. This award is designed to honor early career researchers who have demonstrated exceptional promise and commitment in their work.
Alexei V. Demchenko, Ph.D., (Chemistry) was honored with the 2020 Fellows Award from the Academy of Science St. Louis for his work while at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Demchenko received the award at the 26th annual Academy of Science – St. Louis award dinner last month. The ceremony was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Missouri Hispanic Heritage Month flag, designed by a SLU adjunct faculty, José Guadalupe Garza (Photography, Social Practice) was recently unveiled at the Missouri History Museum.
Aubin Moutal, Ph.D. (Pharmacology and Physiology) was awarded a 4-year grant (September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2027) from the Department of Defense Chronic Pain Management Research Program ($1,130,556 to SLU). In collaboration with Frank Porreca, Ph.D, at the University of Arizona, the proposal aims to develop a therapy against the neurohormone prolactin, which has shown selective activity in females prevalent chronic pain disorders. The proposal also emphasizes the validation of human targets to provide a deeper understanding of the molecular changes in female nociceptors under stress, leading to the development of highly novel and sex-specific therapies for pain and functional pain syndromes.
Sarah Oerther, Ph.D. (Nursing) has been appointed to the National Environmental Health Association’s (NEHA) Climate and Health Program Committee (2023-2025). Oerther is the only nurse appointed to this committee.
Students
SLU Chemistry Ph.D. Candidate Lawrence Bordoh has written a crime thriller, "DNA Memory." The book is set in the quiet coastal town of Haven. There, a gruesome discovery at the historical Old Marston House sets off a series of events that threaten to unveil the dark secrets lurking in its shadows. As Detective Clara Mitchell and Detective Richard Hobbs grapples with the murder, Dr. Sara Eastwood, a brilliant geneticist, stumbles upon a groundbreaking technique to extract memories from DNA. The memories, ethereal and fragmented, offer a tantalizing glimpse into the final moments of the murder victim, Lisa. As Eastwood dives deeper into Lisa's genetic memories, she uncovers a world of arcane rituals and a surprising killer that sends shockwaves through the heart of Haven. In the aftermath, the world grapples with the ethical implications of unearthing memories, pondering the sanctity of personal experiences and the potential misuse of such a powerful tool.
Hiba Alvi, a graduate student in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, published the project she completed for her course Multilingual Communication Disorders with her professor, Elizabeth Roepke, Ph.D. (Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences). The paper contains guidelines for speech-language pathologists working with Urdu-speaking or Muslim clients.
Students in arts and humanities departments convened in Pere Marquette Gallery in DuBourg Hall on Friday, Sept. 15, to socialize and compete on teams in a humanities-themed passport competition.
The competition was the inaugural event of the SLU Humanities Society, a new initiative aimed at fostering community among students interested in the humanities, fine arts, and related fields.
Faculty from American Studies, English, Fine and Performing Arts, Health Care Ethics, History, Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Philosophy, and Theological Studies were present to ask the teams questions related to their fields of study. The teams also had the opportunity to answer bonus questions related to past St. Louis Literary Award winners.
After the competition, faculty members Amy E. Wright, Ph.D. (Hispanic Studies, and Filippo Marsili, Ph.D. (History) addressed students and shared what they do and why they love working in the humanities.