Alumni News & Notes

Learn about the recent accomplishments of your fellow Dartmouth Institute alumni—and tell us about your own!

Jessica Hensley MPH'20

Jessica Hensley was recently offered a part-time role as the health policy legislative analyst for Oregon State Representative Rachel Prusak, the Chair for Oregon's House Committee on Health Care. Hensley’s role stems directly from her MPH applied practice experience and integrative learning experience work that Hensley did for Prusak’s team to help develop policy proposals for advancing legislation on universal primary care across the state.

“Now I get to be employed within the Legislature doing what I am passionate about and enjoy, in the area of public health that largely drew me to The Dartmouth Institute in the first place: health policy reform,” Hensley says. “It feels like the exact balance I was hoping for because I'll still be able to be the primary caregiver for our toddler son and also be able to continue to participate in Oregon's health reform in a really tangible way.”

Patrick Ho, MD, MPH'20Patrick Ho penned a reflection piece on patient advocacy in the August issue of Psychiatric Services.  Ho serves as president of the New Hampshire branch of the American Psychiatric Association, having advanced into the role in 2019 as a fourth-year psychiatry and preventive medicine resident.

Monika Maripuri MPH'20

Monika writes, “Graduating in the midst of a pandemic was quite difficult, especially with no job offer in hand. After months of hard work and patience, I'm finally pleased to say that I've received an offer and have started working at the Veterans Affairs in Boston as a Project Manager at The Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC).”

Nhimba Mwinga MPH'20

After graduation, Nhimba co-authored a book chapter titled Global Infant Health: Innovations, Socio-economic and Environmental Determinants. The book, Handbook on Global Health edited by Robin Haring, Ilona Kickbusch, Detlev Ganten, Matshidiso Moeti, was accepted for publication on September 26, 2020 and her chapter will appear in the section Global Health Life Course Perspectives. Nhimba also volunteered with Wise Upper Valley Lebanon, New Hampshire, and Families in Transition-New Horizon Manchester New Hampshire.

Stoddard Davenport MPH'19

New research by Stoddard Davenport, a healthcare management consultant at Milliman, looks at how out-of-pocket costs for patients requiring hospitalization for COVID-19 could vary depending on a number of different factors, including healthcare payer, state, age, length-of-stay, and complications.

Arian Khoshgowari MPH'19In early fall as schools worked to re-open, Arian Khoshgowari MPH'19 teamed up with his mother to author and illustrate a children's book called "The Masked Heroes." Follow James, Ryan, and Lily as they learn the importance of hand washing, social distancing, and mask wearing to become heroes by helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The book is available for free on themaskedheroesbook.com. It will soon be available in different languages and also on Amazon, with 100% of the proceeds to be donated to a non-profit that is helping children throughout the pandemic.

Fiona McEnany MPH'19A Dartmouth-Institute-led study, recently published in the journal Pediatrics, is a continuation of lead author's Fiona McEnany's MPH'19 capstone research project. The study offers new details about pediatric mental health boarding in emergency departments across the country, a problem that has steadily increased in the last 10 years and been made worse by a shortage of psychiatric resources.

Fiona was also highlighted as one of the honorees included in New Hampshire Union Leader's 20th-anniversary edition of "40 Under Forty," which commends "recognized acclaimed writers, innovative educators, extraordinary volunteers, citizen legislators, immigrant entrepreneurs." 

Catherine Alexander, DNP, MPH '18, RN MPH alumna Catherine Alexander is the lead author of "Building a Reliable Health Care System:
A Lean Six Sigma Quality Improvement Initiative on Patient Handoff," recently published in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality. The article was co-authored by serveral colleagues from Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the Veterans Health Administration, and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, including Dartmouth Institute alumnus and Associate Professor Brant Oliver, PhD, MS, MPH, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC.

Benjamin Cher MS'18Benjamin Cher, now a medical student at University of Michigan, is lead author on a new paper in JAMA Network Open which finds that current measures of social risk used by value-based purchasing programs may reflect clinical risk unmeasured by Medicare claims instead of social risk as intended.

Natasha Kurien MPH'18Natasha works at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center on health services and implementation science research at CATALYST. Her research focuses on reducing opioid overdose deaths by 40 percent in Ohio, Massachusetts, New York and Kentucky over the span of five years. Some other projects within her work include creating a measurement tool to measure patients' capacity to engage, a quality improvement project for implementing medication assisted treatment in their hospital, and understanding patient-reported outcomes for cancer treatments.

Furaha Prosper Kyesi, MD, MMed, MPH'17

Furaha writes in from Tanzania where she is a pediatrician and public health specialist. Since 2018, Dr. Kyesi has been working with the Immunization Program in Tanzania as Head of Section of Service Delivery and Introduction of New Vaccine (prior she was working with Temeke Regional Referal Hospital).

Additionally, she and her Tanzanian and Dartmouth colleagues have published a paper that was part of her Dartmouth studies: "Successful implementation of Isoniazid preventive therapy at a pediatric HIV clinic in Tanzania" in BMC Infectious Diseases.

Chase Hendrickson, MD, MPH'16Chase Hendrickson is the host of a new journal-club podcast for the Endocrine Society. Chase practices general endocrinology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he is an associate program director for the endocrinology fellowship program.

Salman Hussain MPH'16Salman was appointed to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Rare Disease Advisory Panel, where he will be advising PCORI and other funders on the conduct of patient-centered research in rare disease and how to meaningfully engage the rare disease community. He joins his Dartmouth Institute classmate Carly Paterson Khan MPH'16 on the panel.

Jared Rhoads MPH'16

Jared Rhoads and co-author Jeffrey Flier examine the determinants and potential paths to enhancement for the U.S. health provider workforce in the latest issue of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 

Renata Yen MPH'16; Catherine Saunders, MPH'16, PhD'20; Camille Harris MPH'19

New research from a 3-year, Dartmouth Institute-led study will help women with breast cancer make better surgery choices. The PCORI-funded study details how patient decision aids improve their decision process, particularly for women with lower health literacy. The research team features an international collaboration of health services researchers, including several Dartmouth Institute alumni co-authors: Renata Yen MPH'16; Catherine Saunders, MPH'16, PhD'20; and Camille Harris MPH'19.

Cole Zanetti, DO, MPH'16

Cole was appointed as the senior advisor for the Veteran Health Administration’s Innovation Ecosystem. In this role, he will be helping the VA nationally in shaping the vision and strategic direction of the entire innovation arm of the VA. This position is an add-on to his current role as a primary care section chief in the Colorado VA so that he can continue to provide guidance from the perspective of an on-the-ground-clinician.

John C. Matulis, DO, MPH'15

John continues to practice in the community internal medicine practice at Mayo Clinic, Rochester as a general internist. John has been involved in telemedicine efforts within his practice, which includes being part of the COVID front-line care team.  John writes, “I think back on and use the skills I gained from The Dartmouth Institute regularly.  I often reflect how fortunate I was to have had the opportunities and unique training that we received at Dartmouth.” John and his wife, Katie, welcomed their son, John Francis Matulis, this summer.

Lisa (Jackson) Lucas, MPH'14

Lisa and her husband, Rob, welcomed their second child, Lucy Grace, on December 23, 2020. All is well, even if Lucy's 15-month-old brother, Rory, is not quite sure who or what she is yet! Lisa and Rob will build their dream home in Wisconsin this year and move from Colorado in March 2021. Lisa continues her work in tissue donation and wants to remind everyone to register to be an organ/tissue donor.

Yuki Aoyagi, MD, MPH'13Yuki moved to New Zealand with his wife and two daughters in 2015, after serving two years in Rwanda as a Geisel faculty member for the Human Resources for Health Program. He is currently working as a consultant physician in general medicine and infectious diseases at Dunedin Hospital. He is also Associate Clinical Director of Internal Medicine Department and actively involved in teaching at Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, as a Clinical Senior Lecturer.

Yuki’s main achievements for 2020 include: Winning a university teaching award (Certificate of Excellence in Teaching 2020) in the Department of Medicine, co-authoring a textbook in clinical infectious diseases in Japan (Dialectics on Infectious Diseases by ID Specialists, Medical Science International, Tokyo), as well as catching big chinook salmon in Otago Habor with lures.

Benjamin Chan, MD, MPH'13

Combining scientific acumen and a passion for protecting the health of our communities, New Hampshire State Epidemiologist and MPH alumnus Dr. Benjamin Chan has been named NH Citizen of the Year.

Regina-Anne Cooper, MPH'12, LSSCGB

Regie started a new position with Dartmouth College in the Norris Cotton Cancer Center working on a few clinical research projects for Community Health.

Heather Wolfe MPH'12

Heather brings years of experience in holistic nutrition, health coaching, homesteading, and scratch cooking to her newly published vegetarian cookbook titled Sustainable Kitchen: Recipes and Inspiration for Plant-based, Planet Conscious Meals (Herald Press, 2020).

More than just a cookbook, Sustainable Kitchen offers a philosophy of eating grounded in nutritional and environmental wisdom, a testament to the author's conviction that food choices matter greatly when it comes to the well-being of ourselves, both body and soul, and our world. Click here for a look inside the book.

Meena Sigireddi MD, MPH'11Meena completed her residency training in Internal Medicine in 2018 and finished a Genetics fellowship in 2020. She is now working as an Adult Clinical Geneticist at NYU.

Bianca Belcher, MPH'10, PA-C

Bianca Belcher was promoted to Vice President of Clinical Operations for Steward Health Care Network and now oversees the network's strategy and efforts in the transitions and post-acute care space. The clinical team, made up of over 150 nurses, community health workers, social workers, pharmacists, and behavioral health specialists aims to reduce total cost of care and improve quality outcomes for their ACO.

Matthew A. Davis, PhD, DC, MPH'10

University of Michigan Associate Professor of Nursing Matthew Davis received a University of Michigan Henry Russel Award during the 96th Henry Russel Lecture on March 9. The award is the university’s highest honor for faculty members at the early to mid-stages of their careers. Davis, who is also an associate professor of learning health sciences at the U-M Medical School, is one of four faculty members selected for the award. An educator and a health services researcher, Davis' work includes the identification of sources of arsenic exposure in the U.S. population, tracking the national opioid epidemic and the development of methods to use social media data to measure social support and public opinion.

Oren Mechanic, MD, MPH'10

Oren leads telehealth efforts at Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at BIDMC as its medical director. During the pandemic, telehealth has provided hundreds of thousands of virtual visits to patients at the medical center, allowing for increased access, family engagement, and patient-centric care. Oren's interests remain in value-based and accessible care delivery, hallmarks of The Dartmouth Institute's education, and works on digital health innovation.

Shannon Sweeney MPH'09Shannon Sweeney and husband Tyson Seely (Tuck '13) welcomed their second daughter in July 2020, Nellie Kate Seely, who joins big sister Etta (2). Shannon has been working remotely as a research associate for Oregon Health & Science University on the AHRQ-funded EvidenceNOW evaluation called ESCALATES.

Annie Nguyen MPH'07Annie was elected Chair of the Aging and Public Health section of the American Public Health Association (APHA).

Ruofan Yao MD, MPH’07

Ruofan Yao is a co-author on a new paper on improving treatment outcomes for women facing severe hypertension (severely high blood pressure) during pregnancy. Their project used an automated treatment algorithm built into the electronic medical record system to identify pregnant patients with severe hypertension and provide treatment recommendations independent of physician input. This system eliminated communication errors and medical staff explicit/implicit biases in treating severe hypertension in pregnancy.

The national recommendation is to provide treatment for severe hypertension in pregnancy within 30-60 minutes. However, the average compliance rate across the country is only around 50 percent. The project Yao supported provided a >90 percent compliance rate without any adverse events.

Read the full paper in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Jason Azuma MPH'04

Jason writes in that he is holding down the fort in Orange County, California, working from a slowly evolving home office, a.k.a. the garage. He says, “We are trying to keep our 7-year-old daughter engaged in her second-grade curriculum via impromptu home schooling, doing what I can with EMS field data (NEMSIS anyone?) to inform decisions on pandemic operations, and putting in lots of time on my exercise bike. If anyone is on Strava look me up!”

James DiResta, DPM, MPH'04

The podiatry practice of Dr. James J DiResta at Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport has formally affiliated with Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge as a satellite surgery rotation site for MAH PGY-1 podiatric medicine and surgery residents. James looks forward to supporting PGY-1, 2 and 3 residents with their research projects.

James Lynch, MD, MS'01For Dartmouth Institute alumnus James Lynch, MD, MS'01, brain health has become his passion. In a recent article for Thrive Global, he and his colleagues reflect on team-based care for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), highlighting a 'potentially game-changing treatment' that pairs a biological intervention called Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB) with high quality psychological care.

Over the past 10 years, James has been spearheading the advancement of SGB to treat post-traumatic stress symptoms. Find out more: www.drjameslynch.com/stellate-ganglion-block

Katherine S. Rowell, MS'99Katherine recently published a new book under contract with Wiley titled "Visualizing Health and Healthcare Data -- Creating clear and compelling data visualizations to see how you're doing." It is currently available on Amazon and is an extension of the work that the firm (HealthDataViz) she founded in 2013 specializes in – creating clear and compelling displays of data and information.

John Stys, MS'98John writes in, “After serving as COO and CNO for Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care from 2017 to 2019, I took a position with a new community-based palliative care company called Prospero Health. At Prospero, I serve as Regional Vice President in the Midwest supporting clinicians in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. In the Spring of 2021, I will complete a professional doctorate in Bioethics from the Neiswanger Institute at Loyola University Chicago.”

 

 

POSTED 1/25/2021 AT 09:27 AM IN #news #alumni