Public health annual awards announced

Dean Ayman El-Mohandes, M.D., M.B.B.Ch., M.P.H., center, poses faculty and students who received awards at the College of Public Health annual awards ceremony. From left, front row: Maha Farid, Janelle Jacobson and Anh Nguyen 2010-2011 Student Association vice-president and president, Dr. El-Mohandes, Veenu Minhas, Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway, Ph.D., and Leah Frerichs. Back row: Bettye Appiah Apenteng, Tao Li, Shawn Gibbs, Ph.D., Austin Person, James Anderson, Ph.D., Joann Schaefer, M.D. and Mohammad Siahpush, Ph.D.

The following College of Public Health faculty members were honored at the college’s recent annual awards banquet:

• Shawn Gibbs, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental, agriculture and occupational health in the College of Public Health, received the excellence in teaching award;
  
• Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology, received the Carruth J. Wagner, M.D. Faculty Prize for Research and Service, for her work with the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board to implement several projects to strengthen the public health infrastructure within the Northern Plains tribal communities;
  
• Mohammad Siahpush, Ph.D., professor of health promotion, social and behavioral health sciences, received the Faculty Research Award for his work in the social determinants of health and tobacco control; and
  
• James Anderson, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics and associate dean for research, received the Alumni Spirit of Service Award for his dedication to, and support of, the alumni of the College of Public Health.

Also at the banquet, Joann Schaefer, M.D., chief medical officer and director of the Division of Public Health for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, received the Chancellor Robert D. Sparks Award in Public Health and Preventive Medicine.