News & Events

May 2019

• Leslie Kummer was awarded an AAP CATCH Planning Grant to conduct a 1-year project, entitled "The Somali Mother Infant Lacation Experiences (SMILE) Project," in Olmsted County, MN starting in July 2019. She will use a CBPR approach in partnership with the Somalia Rebuild Organziation and the Olmsted Area Breastfeeding Coalition to explore the development of a culturally-relevant breastfeeding support intervention.

April 2019

• Adolescent medicine fellow, Dr. Janna Gewirtz O'Brien won 1st place at the annual Pediatric Research, Education and Scholarship Symposium in April 2019 for her poster Running the Risk: A comparison of mental health outcomes among runaway, homeless and stably housed youth. 

March 2019

• Dr. Cathy Jordan published A Coordinated Research Agenda for Nature-Based Learning in Frontiers in Psychology
• Dr. April Wilhelm presented "Belonging to different worlds: community leader perspectives on Somali youth tobacco use in Minnesota and the potential roles for families and communities in prevention" at the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians Innovation & Research Forum.
• Drs Marla Eisenberg, Amy Gower, and team publish Perspectives From Nurses and Physicians on Training Needs and Comfort Working With Transgender and Gender-Diverse Youth.
• Dr. Rebecca Shlafer and team produced  Sexual and Reproductive Health Report: Comparisons of Minnesota Youths in Public School and Juvenile Correctional Facilities (JCFs)

February 2019

• Dr. Michael Parks and Dr. April Wilhelm presented a poster on Traditional and emerging tobacco product use and related protective factors among Somali youth in the United States at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting. 
• Dr. Annie-Laurie McRee and team's "Nativity Status and genital HPV infection among adults in the U.S." was published in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics journal. 

January 2019

• Dr. Damir Utržan (post-doctoral fellow) gave a continuing education presentation on Mental incapacity: Merging treatment and enforcement to the American Immigration Lawyers' Association. 

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 Center) 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.