PERSONAL STATEMENT ON TEACHING, SCHOLARSHIP AND SERVICE

I’ve worked in higher education for more than 30 years and have been a teacher in our undergraduate public health program for more than a decade. My interest in teaching public health arose from a love of this field of study, which inspired me to undertake both a PhD and MPH in epidemiology, with additional coursework in health education. My teaching philosophy and methods have been shaped both by my area of study and by the many years I spent previously as a college and university reference librarian and its related training. I find teaching the undergraduates at Bloustein an exceptionally rewarding experience.

Since my initial appointment to Assistant Teaching Professor in 2014, I’ve taken on an increasing amount of administrative work for Bloustein, coupled with greater professional involvement. This began with my work on the 2014-2016 accreditation of our undergraduate program in public health, and my appointment since 2016 as Public Health Program coordinator. In my previous academic appointments as a librarian, I often served as a coordinator (reference services, electronic resources) with hefty administrative responsibilities. I especially enjoy taking an active role in the growth and development of our program and facilitating both faculty and student participation as a part of it.

1. TEACHING

I began teaching in the undergraduate public health major part-time in 2007, while completing my PhD in epidemiology at UMDNJ (now the Rutgers University School of Public Health) and working full time as a reference/instruction librarian and electronic resource coordinator at Lafayette College. After conducting research workshops and being a guest-lecturer for more than 20 years, I found teaching my own course thrilling. Upon the successful defense of my doctorate in epidemiology in August 2013, I was offered an Instructor position starting in September and was promoted to Assistant Teaching Professor in September 2014.

Although my current contract specifies a seven course annual load during the academic year, I often teach an overload during the academic year and teach during both winter and summer sessions. Since my promotion to Assistant Teaching Professor, I have taught more than 50 courses for Bloustein with a total enrollment of approximately 1,600 students. No doubt because of my familiarity with instructional technology and love of electronic resources, I have a particular interest in online and hybrid course delivery and find them assets in encouraging active learning, maximizing student participation and stimulating student-teacher interaction. I make every effort to incorporate the best practices that promote independent learning skills, information literacy and critical thinking in all my courses. I enjoy working with traditional-aged students as well as the non-traditional students who tend to enroll in my online courses. I am especially pleased that a number of my students choose to take multiple courses with me and often recommend my courses to others. In addition to my regular offerings in Epidemiology, I also offer two online electives that I developed for our public health major (Urban Health and Cancer and Society). In addition, I have also taught an online version of a traditionally lecture-based course (Health and Public Policy). Typically, my courses range in size from 35 to 50 students. Since 2014, the average of my teaching evaluations across all my courses ranges from 4.7 to 4.8 for teaching effectiveness and 4.5 to 4.8 for course quality. (Please see the summary data on my course evaluations from 2014 to date, including student comments, in the Appendix.)

In addition to my duties as instructor, I also serve as a faculty supervisor/mentor or site preceptor to our undergraduate students for Professional Practice Internship, Bloustein Honors Thesis, SEBS Honors Tutorial and independent study and on doctoral dissertation committees. Since 2014, I have served as site preceptor for three Professional Practice Internships where I directed student research on the legacy of Atomic Bomb testing on communities in New Mexico, trends in adolescent health in Africa, and the evaluation of synergistic interactions among individuals coinfected with Hepatitis C and Schistosoma. During this period I also served as an undergraduate Honors Thesis adviser or Thesis mentor, on topics ranging from the use of oral contraceptives in the prevention of ovarian cancer, recurrent pregnancy loss in women with Celiac disease, and the use of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM) as an adjunct medical practice in India. In addition, I have also served as a faculty supervisor for SEBS Honors Tutorial students for five semesters, and have often involved these students on projects related to the development of the What’s Next Canvas site or program series. In addition, I regularly advise individual students on career opportunities in public health and write an ever-increasing number of recommendation letters for internships and graduate programs (currently, between 6 to 12 letters per semester).

Finally, I also served on two doctoral dissertation committees since 2014, one for student Eric Lauer (“Teasing Apart the Complex Relationship Between Psychological Distress, Mental Health Conditions, Social Factors and Disability in the United States”, Graduate School – New Brunswick, Rutgers University) and most currently for Joseph Abraham, Doctoral Candidate, (“Proactive Accessibility of an Online Undergraduate Course: A Study in Feasibility and Acceptability”, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University).

2. SCHOLARSHIP

My scholarly activity since 2014 includes the successful completion of the two main certifications in my profession, several publications and poster presentations and participation in numerous conferences and workshops. With respect to key certifications, I became Certified in Public Health (CPH) in December 2018 from the National Board of Public Health Examiners. This body is associated with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and by extension our accrediting body, the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). In April of 2019, I also earned the Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) credential, granted by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing. While neither of these certifications are required for my position as program coordinator, both are highly desirable and serve to raise the prestige of our program as well as myself at the national level. Since becoming certified, I have also worked to raise student awareness of and interest in these certifications, which they may undertake after they have gained substantial work experience and/or graduate study after graduating from our program.

At present, my research focuses on liver cancer and chronic liver disease. I have a particular interest in schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that impacts over 220 million globally and tends to amplify the impact of coinfection with Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C viruses. Impacting the most vulnerable, these infections are often associated with rural-urban health differences and are associated with primary liver cancer, which is typically a rapidly progressing and highly fatal disease. Since 2014, I have published two major invited works on this subject including a chapter in the Advances in Parasitology monograph series and a chapter in a forthcoming book by Springer publishers focusing on hepatocellular carcinoma associated with this coinfection. My coauthor in these works was Dr. Bernard Fried, Emeritus Professor and internationally known specialist on parasitology. In both of these works, I was the primary investigator and responsible for the vast majority of the research and writing. Whenever feasible, I try to include undergraduate Bloustein students or alumni in my research and publications or presentations. In addition, I am also working on a collaboration with Dona Schneider on an interactive workbook in epidemiology, based on my experience teaching epidemiology as a highly successful online course.

For the past two years I have presented my research as posters at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual meetings. I also presented a poster related to a focus group we undertook with our public health Public Health Practitioners as a resource for evaluating undergraduate programmatic effectiveness at the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health annual meeting in 2018 in Arlington, Virginia. Since 2014, I have participated in more than a dozen conferences or workshops, many of which were at the state or national level. These have included the National Cancer Institute’s Liver Fibrosis to Cancer workshop, the annual Undergraduate Public Health and Global Health Education Summit, The Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting, The New Jersey State Cancer Registry Research Symposium and both the New Jersey and New Mexico Public Health Associations Annual Conference.

During this period, I also served as a peer reviewer for a number of journals including: World Journal of Gastroenterology, Cancer Medicine, Current Cancer Therapy Reviews and Cancer, Causes and Control. My professional memberships include the New Jersey Public Health Association, the New Mexico Public Health Association, and the Society of Epidemiologic Research.

3. SERVICE

Since the fall of 2016 I have served as the Public Health program coordinator, and at Bloustein have taken on an increasing level of responsibility each year. At present, these duties include: (A) serving as the key contact with our accrediting or certifying body, CEPH; (B) maintaining any and all relevant accreditation or certification standards and/or protocols; (C) working together with the Executive Director of Undergraduate Programs to serve as the key point person for the preliminaries to, and preparation and dissemination of, all associated self-studies and supporting data and reports; and, (D) working together with the Executive Director for Undergraduate Programs to serve as the key point person for CEPH’s next site visit. As part of these duties, I hold Public Health Program meetings twice a semester and in May 2019 inaugurated our first annual retreat. I also review and decide upon course transfer requests in public health and, in conjunction with the Executive Director for Undergraduate Programs, interview and make recommendations for hire for Part Time Lecturers in public health. As part of my duties, I also represent our program at the American Schools and Programs of Public Health national meeting each year in Arlington, Virginia and at the Undergraduate Public Health and Global Health Education Summit. At present, my three main activities are: (1) Chairing our 2019-2021 CEPH self-study; (2) fostering greater outreach and career information for our students and contact with alumni; and (3) strengthening our affiliations with community colleges.

After chairing a sub-committee on how to expand faculty involvement in career advising, I undertook the organization and development of the “What’s Next?” program series for our undergraduates in conjunction with Christina Torian. At present, the program consist of a fall presentation on preparing for graduate school and a spring panel featuring Bloustein undergraduate alumni in the workforce. This program currently focuses on students interested in careers in public health, global health and health administration, but I hope to broaden it to serve a wider range of our student interests. The overall attendance and feedback has been very positive, and I have made every effort to be inclusive when seeking faculty and alumni participation. Since its initiation, I have created a companion site on Canvas with complementary content and have overseen the development of faculty-interview videos for inclusion on the site. To date, hundreds of students have joined the site, which went live in mid-October 2019. There are additional plans for further expansion and promotion in 2021 featuring a series of podcast "day in the life" interviews.

I also serve as the lead instructor for Epidemiology, and take an active role in recruiting and mentoring our PTLs for this course. As part of this, I share all materials for this course and provide additional support for new teachers. In addition, I also serve on the Advisory Board for the County College of Morris's Associates degree in Public Health, and given an annual talk on careers in public health to their students each spring.

I also advocate for public health at the national level by my involvement in other academic initiatives. Key among these was my involvement in the JSTOR-Rutgers initiative, where I played a pivotal role in initially interesting JSTOR in Rutgers as a test site for the development of a national database in public health serving researchers, students and other practitioners. JSTOR is a nationally known digital library of high-quality academic journals, books, and primary sources. My role involved working with JSTOR staff and other colleagues at Rutgers to recruit key faculty and undergraduate and graduate public health students to participate in the spring 2017 database development workshop, which I also participated in.

Finally, I am currently serving as an Undergraduate Network representative volunteer on the Data Advisory Committee at the American Schools and Programs of Public Health annual meetings. Most recently, I have also begun to do consulting work for other institutions developing undergraduate public health programs that will be seeking CEPH accreditation. In my capacity as an epidemiologist, I have also served as a general consultant to the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (NM), where I provided general information on how to interpret epidemiologic data on atomic bomb survivors and various aspects of the scientific process. The group is comprised of residents (largely poor, rural Hispanic or Native populations) who were either alive at the time of the Trinity nuclear test or are decedents who reside in the area. This community has long complained of high rates of certain cancers which they attribute to radiation exposure. Some 70 years after Trinity, the National Cancer Institute finally began a study of this community and their estimated exposure from the bomb, but due to poorly handled public relations they have since lost the trust of residents. The community has since undertaken a Health Impact Assessment. At present, no results from NCI have been released.