USF public health leader involved in the FDOH investigation comments Florida’s rate of ectopic pregnancy deaths jumped in 2009-10 – an increase that may be associated with delays in obtaining care and illicit drug use, according to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The state’s rise in ectopic pregnancy deaths, published in the CDC’s Feb. 17 issue of Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, runs counter to the national trend of steadily declining deaths. “It was surprising,” said one of the report’s co-authors Dr. William Sappenfield, […]

USF’s Jodi Ray’s tireless efforts to reduce the number of uninsured children have earned her recognition from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), earning the honor Excellence in Children’s Health Outreach and Enrollment (ECHOE). Ray is project director of Florida Covering Kids and Families, part of the Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies, which is operated through the USF College of Public Health. Ray was recognized by CMS – along with nine other organizations and individuals – for her outstanding efforts to identify and enroll eligible children […]

Tampa, FL (Dec. 27, 2011) — A nationally recognized maternal and child health epidemiologist has joined USF Health as chair of the College of Public Health’s Department of Community and Family Health and director of the Lawton & Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies. William Sappenfield, MD, MPH, brings nearly 27 years experience in maternal and child health (MCH) epidemiological research and practice at the national, state and local levels. Dr. Sappenfield joins the University of South Florida from the Florida Department of Health, where for six years […]

USF’s Adewale Troutman, MD, MPH, CPH, has been elected president-elect of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Troutman, who joined USF last fall, will serve this post until Nov. 2014, when he will become president of the organization for a three-year term. He is professor in USF’s Department of Community and Family Health in the College of Public Health and directs the Public Health Practice and Leadership, the Center for Leadership in Public Health, and the Public Health Practice Masters of Public Health program. “In his role of president-elect and […]

Dr. Dennis Kyle, Professor in the Department of Global Health was recently selected as one of only two USF Health Distinguished Professors awarded this year.  This is the highest honor bestowed on a member of the USF Health faculty and we know that Dr. Kyle clearly merits this distinction. Dr. Kyle majored in Biology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (BA, 1979) and completed a PhD in Zoology at Clemson University (1984). Following a postdoctoral position at the University of Georgia, he began a 21 year association with the Walter […]

Citing multiple strengths that serve both students and faculty well, the Council on Education for Public Health awarded the USF College of Public Health a full seven years of accreditation as a school of public health.    Dr. Donna Petersen “We are an outstanding school of public health and this confirms the quality of our operations and our efforts in addition to the passion we bring to everything we do,” said Donna J. Petersen, MHS, ScD, dean of the College and senior associate vice president for USF Health. “Accreditation is […]

While most of us were spending our past weekend with family, doing projects around the house, and maybe watching the USF Bulls play football, students and faculty from the College of Public Health spent the better part of their Saturday building a playground. With the help of KaBOOM – a not-for-profit organization that funds playground equipment in places where the resources are most needed but ill afforded – the COPH team and other members of the Tampa community turned an empty lot on the corner of 15th Street and 19th […]

Tampa, FL (Oct. 24, 2011) – Researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public College Health have shown for the first time in a rodent model that the earliest form of malaria parasites can lay dormant in red blood cells and “wake up,” or recover, following treatment with the antimalarial drug artesunate. The study, which appears today in the online journal PLoS ONE, suggests that this early-stage dormancy phenomenon contributes to the failure of artesunate alone, or even combined with other drugs, to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease.  […]

  The University of South Florida’s Public Health Dean  rolled up her sleeve Friday and got a flu shot from the University’s highest ranking nurse — Dianne Morrison-Beedy, PhD, dean of the USF College of Nursing.  Donna Petersen, ScD, was among the more than 1,200 people who received free flu shots Oct. 20 at the College of Public Health’s Annual Flu Shot Drive.  Also stopping by to get her flu shot and visit with students was USF President Judy Genshaft. Working in collaboration with the Hillsborough County Health Department (HCHD), nursing and medical […]

The USF College of Public Health 15th annual  Free Flu Shot Drive will be held 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, Oct. 21, at the college, 13201 Bruce B. Downs Blvd, Tampa FL 33612 (corner of Bruce B. Downs Blvd and Fletcher Ave.).  The shots will be available to adults ages 18 and older while supplies last. Working in collaboration with the Hillsborough County Health Department (HCHD), nursing and medical student volunteers supervised by clinical faculty, occupational medicine residents and HCHD nurses will offer vaccinations against this year’s predicted influenza […]