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2017 faculty and staff Delta Omega initiates

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The following four individuals will be inducted into the Omicron chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society at the Graduate School of Public Health, which recognizes merit and encourages further excellence in, and devotion to, public health work. Delta Omega members are found in key leadership and essential fieldwork positions throughout the public health community and include current and past U.S. surgeon generals, a former president of the American Public Health Association, deans of the schools of public health, researchers, and policymakers. Our alumni inductees’ work in the practice of public health serves as inspiration for future graduates of Pitt Public Health.

NANCY W. GLYNN is assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Pitt Public Health. An exercise epidemiologist with a strong interest in the measurement of fatigability, physical activity, fitness, and physical function in older adult populations, she has completed pioneering work to develop innovative approaches for measuring performance and perceived fatigability in older adults; specifically, she designed and validated the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale (PFS), the first self-administered tool that combines a measure of fatigue and demand. Since 2013 she has been a director of the doctoral level course, Reading and Analyzing the Public Health Literature.

Glynn has served as director of the master’s degree programs in epidemiology since 2012. In this capacity she has recruited and mentored more than 100 students, including identifying internship placements. She represents the Department of Epidemiology as a member of the school-wide Education Policy and Procedures Committee, and also serves on the Department of Epidemiology’s admissions, curriculum, and scholarship committees. Glynn was recognized in May 2017 as a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, Health Sciences Section. In April 2014, Glynn founded the community service group Epi Gives Back, offering opportunities for students and faculty to engage in volunteer activities throughout the community. Outside of the University, Glynn has served on the boards of directors for JDRF, Temple Sinai, and the Israel Heritage Classroom in the Cathedral of Learning. In 2015, Glynn received the Margaret F. Gloninger Service Alumni Award for her significant contributions to the school and greater community through volunteer service.

Glynn received her PhD in epidemiology in 1994 from Pitt Public Health.

LEAH M. LAMONTE has served since 2006 as a vector control specialist with the Allegheny County Health Department, one of only two employees in the Vector Control Program and responsible for all surveillance, control, education, and prevention of vector-borne disease in the county. Her primary work involves conducting mosquito-borne disease surveillance to determine the activity of arboviruses like West Nile Virus as well as tracking the spread of invasive mosquito species (e.g., Asian Tiger mosquito) that have the potential to introduce new viruses like Zika. She engages with the public through educational efforts such as community and academic presentations, science and health fairs, and interviews with local media outlets. She also helps to train county municipal workers seeking a pesticide applicator’s license and enforces public health laws relative to preventing mosquito-breeding habitats.

Lamonte mentors and trains future public health graduates through her participation in the Pitt Public Health Alumni Mentor Program and Pittsburgh Summer Institute, which the school facilitates. She actively participates on the board and currently serves as president of the Pennsylvania Vector Control Association, an organization providing educational enrichment and professional networking to all Commonwealth health personnel engaged in vector control activities.

Lamonte received her MS in infectious diseases and microbiology from Pitt Public Health in 2006.

NATALIE A. SOLOMON-BRIMAGE is a public health analyst serving as a project officer and contract officer representative (COR) for the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Office of Training and Capacity Development within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) HIV/AIDS Bureau. She oversees the monitoring, assessment, and reporting for selected demonstration sites in the following SPNS initiatives: Dissemination of Evidence Informed Interventions to Improve Health Outcomes along the HIV Care Continuum Initiative; Use of Social Media to Improve Engagement, Retention, and Health Outcomes along the HIV Care Continuum; Enhancing Access to and Retention in Quality HIV/AIDS Care for Transgender Women of Color Initiative; System-Level Workforce Capacity Building for Integrating HIV Primary Care in Community Health Care Settings; and Culturally Appropriate Interventions of Outreach, Access, and Retention among Latino(a) Populations. Her research interests include cultural humility, health equity, and women’s health in communities of color. In her spare time she volunteers with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., mentoring young women on their career paths.

Solomon-Brimage joined HRSA eight years ago as an HRSA Scholar in what was then the Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Services. She managed the bureau’s $50 million state loan repayment program and was a COR for the credit-vetting process of clinicians participating in the National Health Service Corps.

Solomon-Brimage earned her MPH in behavioral and community health sciences from Pitt Public Health in 2006.

CHRISTOPHER A. TAYLOR serves as an epidemiologist in the Alzheimer’s Disease and Healthy Aging Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he focuses on public health issues that affect older Americans, including infectious diseases such as influenza; injuries, including falls; and dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease. His responsibilities include promoting the health and wellbeing of persons with dementia as well as the need to identify caregiving as a public health issue. He also has completed work on re-examining the surveillance definition for dementia-related mortality.

Taylor joined the CDC as a postdoctoral fellow in the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 2010. In this position, he broadened his public health focus to include the study of infectious diseases and applied epidemiology and assisted with outbreaks in the field, including yellow fever in Uganda and anthrax among injection heroin users in Scotland. He then transitioned to the CDC Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team, where he functioned as the lead epidemiologist for national surveillance efforts of persons with TBI. He published several manuscripts on the subject and led the development of the plan to expand public health surveillance of brain injury through a national telephone survey. In October 2014, Taylor was detailed to the CDC Emergency Operations Center to assist with what was then considered to be one of the greatest threats to public health in the past decade—the spreading pandemic of Ebola in West Africa. Along with his team, he served as a direct line for health departments and clinicians across the United States, providing guidance for those working to prevent cases of Ebola from going undetected on American soil.

Taylor earned his PhD in epidemiology at Pitt Public Health in 2010.

2017 STUDENT DELTA OMEGA INDUCTEES
In addition to these four Delta Omega inductees, 14 Pitt Public Health students were inducted into Delta Omega at the April 30 Celebration of Students Awards.

Learn more about the Delta Omega Honorary Society at

www.publichealth.pitt.edu/deltaomega

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5/18/2017
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