New honors for SPHHP faculty and staff

By GRACE LAZZARA

Gloria Aidoo-Frimpong, PhD, MPH, MA, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, was named a Health Disparities Research Institute (HDRI) Scholar for 2024. HDRI is an arm of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which supports the career development of promising early-career minority health and health disparities research scientists and stimulates research in the disciplines supported by health disparities science.

Aidoo-Frimpong recently completed a two-year National Institute of Mental Health T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University. She is a dedicated health equity scholar whose research focuses on:

• exploring HIV risk, intersectional stigma and the challenges faced by socially vulnerable groups in accessing HIV and sexual health services
• developing innovative, theoretically backed HIV prevention continuum interventions tailored for minority populations, specifically Black men who have sex with men and African immigrants
• leveraging technology to implement and disseminate HIV prevention programs within these communities

Erin Brunelle, director of client services for SPHHP’s Center for Assistive Technology, received a 2024 UB Digital Accessibility Advocate Award. She was recognized for her work in CAT where she:

• provides evaluation and training to hundreds of people with disabilities using assistive technology to achieve their educational and vocational goals
• collaborates with Accessibility Resources to provide education on the often-invisible digital accessibility barriers experienced by students
• initiated a collaboration with the Rehabilitation Counseling department to understand barriers to assistive technology and mental health access by people with disabilities in underserved populations

Jacob McPherson, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science, co-presented a webinar introducing guidelines to help improve how students return to learning at the university level after brain injury. The webinar was part of his work in collaboration with the Brain Injury Association of New York State, with which McPherson developed the guidelines over the past 16 months. The association is a statewide non-profit membership organization that provides advocacy and support to people and families living with brain injuries.

Amy Millen, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, is chair-elect for a three-year term for the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Interest Section of the American Society for Nutrition. Millen will be chair of the section in 2025-26.

Interestingly, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology Jo Freudenheim initiated the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Interest Section in the 1990s.

ASN aims to help improve health globally through evidence-based nutrition, advancing nutrition science policy and advocating to improve public health. Its research interest sections “ensure representation of and support for the various areas of nutritional research within the publications and scientific programs of the Institute,” providing ways for ASN members to focus on scientific and practice-based issues in nutrition.