Student Accomplishments

VA Nursing Partnership (VANAP)

Congratulations to the entire Sophomore 2 Cohort for passing HESI. Thank you VANAP faculty Susan Pauly-O'Neill for your support!

Master of Science in Behavioral Health (MSBH)

Jason Gant, an incoming MSBH student, has been chosen as a 2015-2016 Campus Leader by the Futures Without Violence program. Jason is one of only ten students who were chosen from a national pool of applicants. During his fellowship year, Jason will be working with male athletes at USF to change values and behaviors around excessive drinking and interpersonal violence and sexual assault.

Anne Marcy has been doing a fieldwork project at the Bill Wilson Center in Santa Clara. The Bill Wilson Center provides mental health and transitional housing services for youth and young families. However, the center does not offer employee wellness services to its 140 mental health professionals. Anne assessed the need for employee wellness services and created a proposal for a wellness program. She worked with agency administrators to convert her needs assessment data into a grant application. In June, Bill Wilson Center was awarded an Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) Public Mental/Behavioral Health Workforce Retention program contract ensuring Anne's proposed wellness program will be staffed and implemented over the next few months.

Carl Schüler has been chosen as an inaugural member of the San Francisco Veterans’ Mental Health Council (VMHC). Carl was selected as one of a dozen initial members who convened for the first time in July. The purpose of the Mental Health Council is to "facilitate input from stakeholders on the structure and delivery of mental health services" offered through the VA and community agencies. Carl was also invited to be a veterans representative for the Veterans and Families Advocacy Group. He is also a member of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Group, along with Alexandra Rosalsky (MPH Cohort 6).

Students Renesha Westerfield (MSBH), Alexina Cather (MPH), and Natasha Vengrinovich (MPH) created a proposal for an assignment in their Program Planning, Management and Evaluation class taught by Dr. Kathleen Raffel and Dr. Marie-Claude Couture. Students in this class were asked to identify a local public health issue, identify local resources and services in place in the community, and to design innovative, cost-effective interventions to address the problem. For Renesha, Alexina, and Natasha, they saw a critical need to combat sex trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Oakland. They researched how other communities combat sex trafficking and proposed that the Alameda County H.E.A.T. Watch add a text component to their already existing sex trafficking hotline. They saw the text component as a solution to reach communities and populations who were overlooked or who feared for their safety for reaching out. The proposal was brought to the attention of Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley to make the proposal a reality. It is now the hope of the Alameda County District Attorney's Office to reach populations that are often overlooked, such as boys and transgender youth.

Master of Science in Health Informatics (MSHI)

Chris Atterbury and Nikhil Haas, along with MSHI faculty Patricia Francis-Lyon and Bob Horton, earned a prestigious Gates Foundation grant (Gates Foundation Pilot Award in Computational and Systems Immunology) to continue their work and collaboration with Stanford University on receptor markers.

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Hilda Cerros, MPH Cohort 5 student, writes:

"After taking Dr. Barbara Sattler’s Environmental and Occupational Health Issues in Public Health, learning how every day we all are exposed to toxic chemicals that hide in the air, food, furniture, personal care items, and much more, I knew I wanted to do my fieldwork in environmental health. Then, I found Center for Environmental Health (CEH), a nonprofit organization that is a  leader in growing efforts to protect people from exposure to toxic chemicals in consumer products and toxic emissions.

It has been an exciting opportunity working directly with the program director of Healthy Energy Choices, Sue Chiang. One of the main projects I am working on alongside our very own Dr. Sattler is helping develop a strategy to inform and engage health professionals (nurses, physicians, and other public health professionals) about public health issues associated with fracking and other well stimulation techniques in California. In addition, I am working on creating a California-specific fracking fact sheet for health professionals. My hope is for the fact sheet to become a useful tool for current and future health professionals.

After much research on fracking, the lack of government regulation and information on health and environmental impacts of fracking is much more apparent to me. And with interest from communities to learn more about how toxic chemicals involved in the fracking process are affecting their health and community, I was inspired to develop a health survey. With the help of my mentor, my goal is to administer the survey in at least one community in the San Joaquin Valley, which is where the majority of fracking in California takes place. Hopefully, the results from the survey can be used by communities in California as an organizational tool to help them reduce or ban fracking and other harmful well stimulation techniques!"

Master of Science in Nursing for Registered Nurses (RN-MSN)

Noor Dythavon, RN, CEN, was recognized for her Award of Excellence by UC Davis Medical Center Stroke Program for her last semester's final project.

Anh Juntura, RN, Linda Shieds, and Fern Cudlip presented (2015, February). Bridging the Gap: Discharge to Follow-up: A Qualitative Review. Poster session presented at the International Stroke Conference, Nashville, TN.