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December 2018

Dr. Janna Gewirtz O'Brien (LEAH Fellow) and Dr. Chris Mehus (faculty in the Institute for Translational Research and a former IRT-CAPC fellow) were awarded a Community Health Collaborative Grant from UMN's Clinical & Translational Science Institute for their project Empowering Parents for Wellness in Shelter.
In collaboration with the Center for Leadership in Maternal and Child Public Health, Dr. Calla Brown (IRT-CAPC fellow), Dr. Laurel Davis, and Dr. Rebecca Shlafer published a report on the unmet health care needs of youth residing in Minnesota's juvenile correctional facilities.
Dr. Emily Borman-Shoap received a Herz Teaching Grant for a simulation project that helps residents build their skills in communicating with parents during times of diagnostic uncertainty.
Dr. Annie-Laurie McRee was an invited speaker, sharing her work on using electronic approaches for providing targeted and tailored health messages to promote HPV vaccination as part of a session on “Use of New Technologies for Behavioral Science HPV Vaccine Research" at the European Research Organisation on Genital Infection and Neoplasia in Lisbon, Portugal.
Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health team members Dr. Amy Gower and Dr. Marla Eisenberg publish "Supporting Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth: Protection Against Emotional Distress and Substance Use" in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

October 2018

IRTCAPC fellow Dr. Michael Parks has a new article entitled Delinquency, School Context, and Risk Factors in India, Australia, and the United States: Implications for Prevention in the Journal of Research on Adolescence.

September 2018

Maura Shramko (IRTCAPC Fellow) is coauthor on a new paper in Pediatrics, Transgender Adolescent Suicide Behavior.
Pooja Brar (LEAH Fellow) is featured in this month's Society for Research on Adolescence Emerging Scholar Spotlight.

August 2018

Katie Querna (IRTCAPC Fellow) was featured on RadioActive Youth Media Project (a program of Seattle's NPR station, KUOW). In the podcast, Katie discusses gender norms and drag with some of their youth participants and producers.
Andy Barnes received an Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) Phase II award with former LEAH fellow Rachel Widome, PhD. Barnes will serve as Co-I on the 3-year project entitled "Sleep to Enhance Educational Performance in Schools (SLEEPS).” It will interactively develop and test a middle-school curriculum aimed at bolstering sleep as a protective factor.
Division team members Kristin Teipel and Glynis Shea announced that the SAHRC (State Adolescent Health Resource Cente r) was refunded by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB)/HRSA for an additional 5 years as part of the Adolescent and Young Adult Health National Resource Center. Kristin and Glynis will continue to focus on providing technical assistance, consultation & training to support state public health departments to address and improve healthcare for adolescents and young adults.

June 2018

Rebecca Shlafer received a Notice of Award of her R03 from NICHD, "Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of doula care for incarcerated pregnant women."
Annie-Laurie McRee was named a Fellow in the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. FSAHM status is granted to an individual who has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to the welfare of adolescents and a willingness to advocate on their behalf.
Barb McMorris received the 2018 Friend of Early Career Preventionist Network (ECPN) Award at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research. This award was given in recognition of her support of early career activities; helping ECPN as an organization; promoting training, and early career involvement in prevention efforts; and encouraging early career Preventionists in their work. Barb was nominated for this national mentoring award by several of the division's former and current fellows.

May 2018

Amy Gower and Annie-Laurie McRee published a paper in the International Journal of Transgenderism which examines use of preventive healthcare services among transgender young adults using a data from a national sample of young adults ages 18-26 years. McRee AL, Gower AL, Reiter PL. Preventive healthcare services use among transgender young adults. International Journal of Transgenderism. 2018 May 24:1-7.

April 2018

Rebecca Shlafer has been awarded a CURA Faculty Interactive Research Program (FIRP) grant for 2018-19. Her proposal is titled "Health and Health Care Utilization Among Children Born to Incarcerated Women." Building on partnerships with the Minnesota Prison Doula Project and the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Rebecca's team will conduct telephone interviews with the current caregivers of children born to incarcerated mothers. The study's findings will inform future programming for incarcerated mothers and their children, and have important implications for corrections policy.
Fellow Jamie Cheever received a 2018 President's Student Leadership and Service Award (PSLSA), an award designed to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of outstanding student leaders at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Jamie's research findings regarding sexual violence perpetration and victimization in high school athletics are being disseminated locally and nationally. Using her research and personal experience as an undergraduate student athlete, she continues to advocate for increased sexual violence prevention programming and more comprehensive mental health services and policies at the UMN and statewide.

March 2018

Annie-Laurie McRee received the 2018 Vaughn Rickert Vaccine Research Award from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. The award recognizes the top-rated abstract submission focused on vaccination research.
Andy Barnes, MD, MPH received coverage from Reuters Health, Healio, AAP News, and other media outlets for a study he conducted with Jace Gilbertson, RN, and Debanjana Chatterjee, PhD, that was published in the March 2018 edition of Pediatrics, entitled “Emotional Health Among Youth Experiencing Family Homelessness.” http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/03/15/peds.2017-1767
Annie-Laurie McRee is the recipient of an R01 from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH. The study is titled "A Randomized Controlled Trial of an HPV Vaccine Intervention for Young Sexual Minority Men."
Dr. Michael Parks (IRTCAPC fellow) is the recipient of the 2018 American Academy of Pediatrics Julius B. Richmond Center New Investigator Grant awardee. You can find a summary of his research project, Reducing Socioeconomic Disparities in Smoke-Free Rules among Households with Children here.
Dr. Jennifer Doty, (IRTCAPC fellow) will join the Family, Youth, and Community Sciences Department at the University of Florida, Gainesville, as an Assistant Professor of Prevention starting in August. In her position, she will be graduate faculty for their newly formed PhD program in Prevention and continue her research focused on parent-based programs and bullying prevention among youth.

February 2018

Cathy Jordan received the award for Excellence in Child Health Advocacy
Betsy Murray received the Excellence in Teaching award
Damir Utrzan received the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Award entitled Effects of Parental Incarceration on Family and Child Wellbeing: Informing Best Practices Through an Investigation of Caregiver Experiences. The team includes Joshua Page, Sociology; Damir S. Utržan, Pediatrics (Medical School); Caitlin Curry, Sociology; Julie Matonich, Children of Incarcerated Caregivers; Barbara Frey, Human Rights Program (Law); Perry Moriearty, Child Advocacy and Juvenile Justice Clinic (Law).
Lena Palacios received an award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Lena has been named a 2018 Career Enhancement Fellow.
Cathy Jordan received the Medical School recipient of the President's Community-Engaged Scholar Award.
Division team members Marla Eisenberg, Amy Gower, and Barb McMorris published a study titled "Health and Care Utilization of Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming Youth: A Population-Based Study" in Pediatrics. This study used data from 82,000 students in Minnesota and found that transgender and gender diverse adolescents reported poorer health, fewer health checkups, and more nurse visits than their cisgender peers. The study was discussed by CNN and other media outlets.

November 2017

Naomi Duke, MD, PhD, MPH, defended her doctoral dissertation, Youth Survival Expectations: A Study of Relationships with Early Contexts for Disadvantage & Forecasts for Future Health, to earn her PhD in Sociology.

October 2017

Rebecca Shlafer received a Grand Challenges Research Award for Fostering Just and Equitable Communities. The project is entitled, Identifying and Addressing Disparities in the Criminal Justice and Health Care Systems. Co-PIs: Rebecca Shlafer, Pediatrics; Michelle Phelps, Sociology; Kevin Reitz, Law School; and Tyler Winkelman, Medicine. $570K interdisciplinary team award.

September 2017

Abi Gadea and Paul Snyder recently joined 21 others across the University system in completing the year-long Office of Equity and Diversity's Leadership in Equity and Diversity (LEAD) Program. Through mentoring, personal assessment and reflection, educational programming, targeted skill-building through group work, and community building, Abi and Paul increased their leadership capacity at work through the larger context of equity and diversity.
Betsy Murray, Andy Barnes, and Emily Borman-Shoap, who are named as Top Doctors in the October issue of Minnesota Monthly.

August 2017

Congratulations to Michael Resnick on being named the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient this year from Minnesota Business Innovators in Health and Wellness.
Cathy Jordan was invited to be part of a delegation of 4 U.S. National Science Foundation PIs (and some grad students) to the International Science of Learning Conference (https://events.slrc.org.au/) in Brisbane in September and to participate in an intensive post-conference workshop to share knowledge and build collaborations with members of the Australian Science of Learning Research Centre (https://www.slrc.org.au/).
Andy Barnes’ service as an outstanding mentor is featured on the CTSI website (scroll down).

July 2017

Annie-Laurie McRee and Kristine Rhodes (of the American Indian Cancer Foundation) were recently awarded a pilot grant from the University's Program in Health Disparities Research (PHDR) for their project, Increasing HPV Vaccination in American Indian Health Systems Through a Tailored Toolkit. This project will pilot an HPV vaccination intervention and assess effects on provider vaccination recommendations and HPV vaccine uptake among adolescents attending American Indian health clinics.
Jen Doty just received notice that she has been awarded an Institute of Translational Research (ITR) Collaborative Seed Grant for her proposal, Development of a Parenting Mobile Application with Biofeedback for Latino Parents. The project will include building an app that provides support tools for developing parenting skills, such as example videos, goal setting, and daily goal reminders, as well as assessing stakeholder input to increase effectiveness of the tool.
Congratulations to Betsy Murray and her team, including Andy Barnes and Hannah Gaustad-Randolph, on successful re-competition of their Collaborative Office Rounds (COR) grant, now funded for five more years. Through interdisciplinary care conferences, COR promotes on-going collaboration between primary care pediatricians, developmental behavioral pediatricians, and child psychiatrists to improve child health. COR has been ongoing now since 2006.
Our Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) grant was also funded for another 5 years. Congratulations to Renee Sieving, who led this competitive renewal as the new PI of LEAH, taking over this key leadership role from Michael Resnick. Our MN LEAH program has been continuously funded since 1978! With this successful grant application, Renee led a team of many who make LEAH and our Interdisciplinary Fellowship a truly outstanding training program.

June 2017

Congratulations to Andy Barnes who received the Presidential Award for Service from the Minnesota Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
Iris Borowsky received the 2017 Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Department of Pediatrics Alumni Achievement Award.

May 2017

Leslie Kummer was awarded "Best Poster" among the Medical Fellow presenters at the Minnesota American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Meeting for her poster: “Social and Structural Determinants of Breastfeeding in the United States."

April 2017

Eunice Areba and Myriam Forster received a Grant-in-Aid award for their project: Promoting Effective Coping among Immigrant and Refugee Adolescents. This community engaged project is a collaboration with the Community University Health Care Center (CUHCC) to examine the prevalence and correlates of substance use involvement, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and coping skills that counteract the negative effects of sociocultural stressors on Hispanic and Somali youth.
Eunice Areba won the People's Choice award for her poster "Suicidality: The School Context as a Protective Factor for Ethic Minority Adolescents" at the School of Nursing's Research Day.
Gabriela Lazalde won the Best Culminating Project Presentation for her Health Policy & Management MPH project, "Parent Perceptions of Dentists as HPV Vaccinators".
Renee Sieving received the School of Nursing Award for Community-Engaged Scholarship.
Jennifer Doty received 2nd at the annual PRESS event for her poster presentation in the Postdoctoral Fellow category on "Sexual Harrasment Involvement: Connections Matter" - Research Sponsor: Iris Borowsky
Gabriela Lazalde won the People's Choice Award at the School of Public Health Research Day.
Leslie Kummer received the J.B. Hawley Research Award for her proposed qualitative research project with MDH/WIC. The project is entitled, "Mobile Health Communication in the Minnesota WIC Peer Breastfeeding Support Program: Perceived Benefits and Barriers."

March 2017

Christen Pentek, LEAH Social Work Fellow, received news that her abstract, When Children Have Rights: Minnesota Secondary Students’ Perceptions of School Police Officers, was accepted for an oral presentation at the International Consortium for Social Development in July 2017 in Zagreb, Croatia!
Rebecca Shlafer received the terrific news that her grant proposal, Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Doula Care for Incarcerated Pregnant Women, was selected for funding for a Pediatrics "R" Award.
Andy Barnes and Emily Borman-Shoap, were named "Rising Stars” by Mpls.St.Paul Magazine
A very special congratulations to Lyn Bearinger who received the SAHM Lifetime Achievement Award!

February 2017

Rebecca Shlafer is the faculty recipient of the 2017 Excellence in Health Equity Research Award. She received the award at the 2017 Program in Health Disparities Research Power of Partnerships Awards Dinner & Poster Session.

January 2017

Rebecca Shlafer received a grant from Otto Bremer Trust to improve the mental and physical health outcomes of incarcerated pregnant women and mothers in the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Prison Doula Project.
Jen Doty just received word that she received a grant from the Family Process Institute in support of her Early Career Research for “Development of a Parenting Mobile Application with Biofeedback for Latino Parents.”
Jenny Oliphant completed her service on the Minnesota Department of Health's Stillbirth Workgroup. The group was charged with conducting a review of the current methods of data collection on stillbirths, prenatal protocols to prevent stillbirths, available supports for families who have experienced a stillbirth, and providing recommendations to the state's Maternal and Child Health Task Force. The workgroup was at the request of the state legislature. Findings were delivered to the Commissioner of Health on Dec. 9th.
Marla Eisenberg received the Department of Pediatrics Excellence in Child Health Advocacy award
Emily Borman-Shoap received the Department of Pediatrics Excellence in Teaching award
Michael Resnick received the Department of Pediatrics Outstanding Mentor award