News & events from our faculty, students and alumni.
January/February Newsletter
Correction: The image of Helen Zukinin the previously sent newsletter was incorrect. We have updated it to include the correct photo. We've also included information about the call for applications for the 2021 Training Course in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology.
announcements
Announcing the Helen Wallace Dissertation Award
The Helen Wallace Dissertation Award was created to advance and elevate graduate-level research at the intersection of MCAH, innovation, and technology. This award continues Helen Wallace’s legacy to advance MCAH through cross-sector collaboration, training, and research. Doctoral students across UC Berkeley are invited to apply, with applications closing March 12th, 2021. More details are available on the Wallace Center website.
Call for Applications: 2021 Training Course in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. PST, March 1, 2021 Apply here
The Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and CityMatCH will again offer a Training Course in Statistics and Epidemiological Methods as part of their ongoing effort to enhance the analytic capacity of state and local health agencies. The training course is an intensive program that combines lectures, discussion, hands-on exercises, and opportunities for individualized technical assistance. Two webinars prior to the training will set the stage for the onsite course and several post-course webinars will serve to build upon and extend the in-person training.
events
How Black Mamas and Birthing People Are Redesigning Quality in Hospital Births
Presented by the UCSF Preterm Birth InitiativeThursday, February 25
12:00 - 2:00 pm PST RSVP
This virtual event features Dr. Karen Scott of UCSF and her work pioneering the PREM-OB Scale and the SACRED Birth Study. Dr. Scott and her team are redefining how success is measured in hospital births by centering Black birthing narratives and community wisdom. The study, designed by Black women scholars, championed by Black women advocates, and centered on Black birthing patients is a key innovation that could serve as a new standard in hospital quality improvement.
COVID-19
UCB MCAH COVID-19 Repository
UC Berkeley Center of Excellence in Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health has created a repository of faculty-vetted resources and information on the novel coronavirus and how it relates to MCAH topics such as adolescent health, mental health, pregnancy & delivery, gender, global health, environmental health, and technology, among others. The information will be posted and continually updated as additional material becomes available. View the repository on our website.
Jaime Peterson's Op-ed for OHSU News: Vaccinate Teachers, Re-Open Schools
An op-ed from our alumna Jaime Peterson MD, MPH '19, professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University: teachers are essential workers—prioritize their COVID-19 vaccination and re-open schools. Read more on the OHSU website.
Eskenazi Presents CERCH Findings on Study of COVID-19 Among Farmworkers
In December, the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health (CERCH) produced the first major study on the burden placed on farmworkers by COVID-19. The study, led by MCAH professor emerita and epidemiologist Brenda Eskenazi, surveyed and tested over 1000 farmworkers—95% of whom were Latino— in Monterey County to determine their COVID-19 infection rates and risks as well as the impact of the pandemic on their lives. See the summary of the study on the CERCH website; view their Berkeley Conversations presentation here.
Deardorff Op-Ed: As We Return to School, We Must Also Invest in Social Learning
As schools across the nation prepare to return to in-person learning, attention and resources must be directed not only to supporting the academic losses students have suffered but also to the social and emotional ones, says an opinion piece co-written by MCAH program head, Julianna Deardorff.Read more on the SF Chron website.
BPH's Community Action Team leads #100LetsMaskThis Challenge
President Biden is inviting citizens to commit to 100 days of wearing masks. Join the Berkeley Public Health Community Action Team, co-led by MCAH affiliate professor and I4Y director Coco Auerswald, in their #100LetsMaskThis campaign to help reinforce this important Public Health message to help stop COVID-19. Join the challenge.
research centers
Youth Researchers Study Air Quality & Environmental Inequities in Richmond
Researchers from the Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health (CERCH) partnered with the RYSE youth justice center in Richmond, California to conduct youth participatory action research (YPAR) on air quality justice in their community. The RYSE youth researched monitored nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), noise pollution and community risk factors in addition to being trained in environmental health literacy and professional development. The team found that census tracts with higher Black populations had the highest NO2. Read the study on the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health website.
Wallace Center Study: Abortion Pill Searches Yield Unreliable Results
New research from MCAH alumna Betsy Pleasants and coauthors from the Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability and Wallace Center for Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health shows that only one of the top five Google webpage results for those searching for information on the abortion pill is trustworthy. Read more on the Berkeley Public Health website.
students
MCAH Students Present Their Summer 2020 Internships
View recordings hereof Berkeley Public Health student presentations from their MCAH-related summer internships, sponsored by the Helen Wallace Center for Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health.
alumni
Solaire Spellen Writes on Racism as a Root Cause of Health Disparities
Solaire Spellen (MPH '18), Associate Director at UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative and MCAH alumna, coauthored an article presenting the Racism as a Root Cause (RRC) approach as a new framework for developing strategies, policies, and mechanisms to address the root causes of health disparities. Read the article in Pediatrics.
Ryan Gamba Leads Study on Effects of Food Insecurity on Latino Farmworker Children
UCB MCAH Alumnus Ryan Gamba, (MPH '13) PhD, currently assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Cal State East Bay, led a recent study on the effects of early life exposure to food insecurity on farmworker families who participated in the Berkeley-based Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) study. Read more on the BPH website.
Helen Zukin Leads CERCH Endocrine Disruptor Study
UCB MCAH alumna Helen Zukin (MPH '20) led a CERCH-coauthored study which found that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals during pregnancy increased odds of excessive gestational weight gain, a risk factor for gestational diabetes. Read more on the Environmental Research webpage.ge. text anchor
Becky Reno, Cheri Pies Summarize Lessons Learned from Best Babies Zone
From former MCAH Postdoctoral fellow Becky Reno PhD, a recent article summarizing the Best Babies Zone Initiative was published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal. The article's coauthors included Dr. Cheri Pies, MCAH professor emerita. Read a summaryof their article on the Berkeley Public Health website; read the full paper on pubmed.
Elizabeth Ly: Abortion Providers Find Opposition from Colleagues
A study coauthored by MCAH alumni Elizabeth Ly (MPH '19), currently Clinical Affairs Coordinator at the Society of Family Planning,found that when confronted with colleagues' opposition to abortion care, 59% of directors of OB/GYN training programs denied those services to patients. Read the study summary here.
Christiana von Hippel Uses Big Data to Study Behavioral Innovation on Reddit
A new study led by Christiana von Hippel, ScD, MPH (former MCAH/Wallace Center postdoctoral fellow from 2018-2020) introduces the concept of behavioral innovation and natural language processing methods to find innovations in big data. Behavioral innovation happens when ordinary people, or “users,” faced with problems in daily life invent new techniques or strategies to meet their own needs. Published in a special issue of Research Policy this month, the study used novel big data analysis methods to mine and analyze posts on subreddits, or community discussion forums on the social media platform Reddit. Read more.
faculty
Kim Harley: Persistent Organic Pollutant Exposure Impacts Fertility
A review of existing literature by Kim Harley, MCAH Professor and researcher at the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health and her coauthors shows that exposure to persistent organic pollutants such as flame retardants and organochlorine pesticides may impact women's ability to conceive. Read more.
Ndola Prata Presents on Unsafe Abortion at FIGO Kigali Conference
Dr. Ndola Prata, MCAH professor and head of the Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability, spoke at the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO) Africa Regional Kigali Congress virtual conference on December 15th, 2020. Her topic: unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion in sub-saharan Africa. Read a summary of the conference on the FIGO website.
Cassondra Marshall, Anu Manchikanti Gomez Co-Lead Contraception Study
MCAH professor Cassondra Marshall and MCAH affiliate professor Anu Manchikanti Gomez of the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare have been awarded a two-year grant from Arnold Ventures to establish the national level of unmet need for contraception. The goal of the study is move beyond a "one-size-fits-all" approach to contraception and develop person-centered metrics based on women's expressed needs and preferences. Read more on the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare website.
Jaspal Sandhu's Imagine Lab Showcases Innovations in Domestic Violence Prevention
MCAH professor Jaspal Sandhu and his colleagues at Gobee Group hosted Futures Reimagined: Showcasing Innovations in Domestic Violence Prevention on February 9th in partnership with the Blue Shield of California Foundation. The event included presentations from Anti-Violence Ventures, History Reimagined, and Influencers 4 Justice . Read more about Imagine Lab, co-led by Dr. Sandhu, here.
