The UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) will welcome two new postdoctoral students to be WK Kellogg Health Scholars beginning in August.
Barbara Baquero and Briana Woods will be UNC Kellogg Health Scholars-Community Track from 2010-2012. The Kellogg Health Scholars Program is funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and supports the development of new leadership in the effort to reduce and eliminate health disparities and to secure equal access to the conditions and services essential for achieving healthy communities.
Woods will graduate with a Ph.D. in Child Clinical Psychology from University of Washington in June 2010 and is completing her clinical internship at the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She aims to develop culturally-relevant, sustainable interventions to reduce sexual risk behavior and substance use and to promote mental health among African American youth exposed to violence.
“The genuine commitment [at UNC] to translating research into practice in relevant and sustainable ways is inspiring,” said Woods. “I am excited to pursue my training at a place with such a rich CBPR history and vision.”
Baquero is a doctoral candidate in the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health (Health Behavior) at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. She is interested in furthering the understanding of the social and cultural implications on health among Latinos and racial/ethnic diverse groups through community-based participatory research methods.
“I wanted to come to UNC-Chapel Hill for my KHSP training because of the faculty and community partnerships that I would work with,” said Baquero. “I believe the diversity of the community partnerships, projects and faculty will provide me with the best environment for my post-doc training.”
Baquero also said that positive reviews from previous UNC Kellogg Health Scholars persuaded her to apply for UNC’s program.
Kellogg Health Scholars pursue their research at eight different locations: Harvard University;Johns Hopkins University; Morgan State University; the University of California, San Francisco/Berkeley; the University of Michigan; the University of Pittsburgh; the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and UNC-Chapel Hill. The fellowship is highly competitive and UNC-Chapel Hill interviewed 11 finalists for the two spots beginning in 2010.
UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan offer Community Track training focused on community-based participatory research and relationships between academe, community and public health practice. Eugenia Eng and Alexandra Lightfoot, both research fellows at HPDP, lead the UNC program. Eng is also a professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Lightfoot is the Assistant Director for the Community Engagements/Partnership Core and CBPR Unit at HPDP.