During the academic year, the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior offers seminars featuring researchers, local public health professionals and department doctoral candidates as they share their current work, ideas and community involvement to improve the health people in our society.
Seminars are hosted in person, as well as virtually.
Heather M. Gardiner, PhD
Professor and Carl V. Granger Endowed Chair in Health Equity
Department of Family Medicine
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Wed., Feb. 11, 2026
11am EST
Farber G26
If you cannot attend our Brown Bag Seminar in person, we can provide the link to access to livestream via Zoom. Please email our department coordinator for access.
To view other previously recorded student and faculty presentations, visit Community Health and Health Behavior on YouTube.
Doctoral candidate, Natasha Allard, presents her dissertation defense titled "Identifying Opportunities to Promote Young Adult Healthcare Seeking and Improve the Timeliness and Severity of Cancer Diagnoses: An Examination of Symptom Appraisal, Help-Seeking Decisions and Psychosocial and Behavioral Barriers to Healthcare Engagement."
Doctoral candidate, Michelle Goulette, presents her dissertation defense titled "Modes of Cannabis Administration and Regulatory Implications for Youth and Young Adults Living in the United States."
Doctoral candidate, Kate Rogers, presents her dissertation defense titled "Gender Norms and Attitudes in the Sexual Behavior and Values of Tanzanian Young People and African Immigrant Young Women in the US."
Doctoral candidate Jacob Bleasdale presents his dissertation defense titled "The Role of Food Insecurity in the HIV Care Continuum: A mixed methods approach to a complex public health phenomenon."
Dr. Laurene Tumiel Berhalter, director of Community Translational Research
in the Department of Family Medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, presents "Family History and Breast Health: Learning from the past to improve our future."
Dr. Carole Rudra, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, presents her current research: Clinical and cost-related outcomes of palliative care.
Doctoral candidate Gloria Aidoo-Frimpong presents her dissertation defense titled "Exploring the Acceptability and Potential Use of Oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV Prevention Among Ghanaian Immigrants in the United States of America."
Doctoral candidate Amanda Ziegler presents her dissertation defense titled "Adolescent Eating Autonomy: Defining and Measuring a Novel Construct to Assess Adolescents’ Autonomous Eating Behaviors."
Dr. Ashare, associate professor in the Department of Psychology at UB, presents her current research:
Determinants and outcomes of tobacco and cannabis use in the context of medical comorbidities.
Doctoral candidate Christina Kasprzak presents her dissertation defense titled "Evaluation of pre-implementation capacity and implementation effectiveness of an evidence-based intervention for mobile produce markets."
Doctoral candidate Danielle Smith presents her dissertation defense titled "Adult Co-Use of Cannabis and Nicotine: Multiple perspectives on a complex phenomenon."
Community Health and Health Behavior Adjunct Instructor Dean S. Seneca presents "Raising Awareness of American Indian/Alaska Native Health Disparities: Addressing social determinants and promoting health equity."
Doctoral candidate Jessica O'Neill presents her dissertation defense titled "Financial scarcity, eating self-regulation, and obesity."