News and Announcements - HBS PhD Newsletter - May 6, 2022

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Melanie Tran on successfully defending her dissertation "Minority- and Immigrant-Owned Small Business and Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance". Congratulations Dr. Tran and all the best for the future beyond HBS!

Tristen is due to defend her dissertation "The Relationship Between Medical Assistant Job Roles and Employee Outcomes: A Mixed Methods Study" on May 31, 2022. Good luck, Tristen!

Marisa offers her knowledge and perspective on the City of Denver's approach to crime at Union Station. In this article, she references her research around criminalization of homlessness in the city and the effects of the urban camping ban on mental health and safety. Check it out!

News Article

Health and Behavioral Sciences PhD Alumni Dr. Emily Mrig will be starting as an Assistant Professor at the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Precision Medicine (TRANSPERS) this Spetember, and will also have an appointment in the Institue for Health Policy Studies and the Helen Diller Cancer Center. Congratulations, Dr. Mrig!

My background is in biology, psychology, and epidemiology, and my specific interests are in stress, resilience, and coping mechanisms, as well as social determinants of health and long-term outcomes of infectious disease. Some of my strongest passions include rural health disparities, community-based participatory research, and biopsychosocial perspectives on health. My thesis research is on the associations between perceived stress, sleep duration, and post-acute fatigue sequelae of COVID-19, and I currently work as a graduate research assistant for the University of Arizona's Student Aid for Field Epidemiology Response (SAFER) and CoVHORT programs by investigating chronic outcomes of COVID-19 and enteric diseases. I’m very excited to continue my education through the Health and Behavioral Science program at CU Denver!

As a doctoral student in Health and Behavioral Sciences, my goal is to perform research that has tangible, real-world impacts. As a woman and mother, I am personally invested in the equitable advancement of mother-centered care to improve birth outcomes. My research focuses on the neuroactive steroid allopregnanolone, cortisol and related steroid hormones, and their relationship with maternal stress and gestational length. Using a novel assay developed as part of my master’s thesis, I am investigating these compounds as objective stress biomarkers, which may be useful alone or in conjunction with self-reported stress and mood data. My goal is to expand the diagnostic toolbox – enhancing practitioners’ ability to identify and mitigate maternal stress resulting in improved maternal/fetal outcomes. Additionally, I am interested in the plasticity available in the index pregnancy through the highly conserved maternal-fetal-placental unit and how this plasticity allows us to reconceptualize stress in pregnancy.

Erica Morse is an incoming Ph.D. student in Health and Behavioral Sciences (Fall 2022) at the University of Colorado Denver and a Senior Project Manager at Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research (IHR). She has over 22 years of health research experience including two years as a post baccalaureate research fellow at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, and over 16 years of experience in Health Services Research and evaluation at Kaiser Permanente. Erica holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a Master of Arts Degree in Medical Anthropology from the University of Colorado Denver. Her interests include Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH), mental health, and substance abuse, and she implements qualitative and mixed methods in her research. Erica aims to explore the social, historical, and political context of health, wellness, and resilience as it relates to patient and provider interest in, and utilization of, CIH.

Noemy Rodriguez was born and raised in Denver, Colorado and is proud to call Swansea her home. She is a proud Class of 2012 alumna from Bruce Randolph High School. She graduated with her B.A in Sociology and her M.A in Sociology from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. Noemy considers herself to be a Revolutionary as she is the first in her family to receive a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree. Throughout her time at UNCO, she participated in various organizations on campus such as, the Center for Human Enrichment TRIO Program, Pi Lambda Chi Latina Sorority Incorporated, the Stryker Institute for Leadership Development program, and INSPIRE. Noemy gained an enriching perspective on social justice and leadership during her college career and in her involvement with INSPIRE. She found a passion in helping young people from her community find their voice and to become the authors and narrators of their own story.

Public Health Undergraduate Advisor

Hiring Rate: $21 hourly

Weekly Hours Expectation: Approximately 10 hours/week

Job Description: This position is responsible for a variety of advising tasks including (but not limited to) assisting with class planning and registration, communicating requirements, assisting transfer students with transfer credits, assisting with gradation, and assisting Health & Behavioral Sciences department with recruitment events.

If you are interested, please send the following to Anne Marie at annemarie.summers@ucdenver.edu:

• Your Advisor’s name
• Your current year in the program
• Expected number of years you would want to serve as PBHL advisor
• Estimated number of hours available to work as PBHL advisor

Graduate Program Assistant

Hiring Rate: $21/hourly

Weekly Hours Expectation: Approximately 5 hours/week, varies seasonally with more hours during the application period.

Job description: This position is responsible for a variety of recruitment tasks for the PhD program including (but not limited to) communicating with potential HBSC PhD students, maintaining a list of programs to send recruitment materials, assisting in triaging inquiries about the PhD program, assisting with maintaining graduate student profiles on the website, and other tasks as requested by the Director of Graduate Studies or the Program Assistant.
If you are interested, please send the following to Anne Marie at annemarie.summers@ucdenver.edu:

• Your Advisor’s name
• Your current year in the program
• Expected number of years you would be interested in serving as the GA.
• Estimated number of hours available to work as the GA.