Department of Anthropology

In Recognition of World Mental Health Day

Theresa S. Betancourt, ScD, MA, Boston College School of Social Work

“The Mental Health of Children Affected by Armed Conflict: A Call to Action”

October 12, 2023 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Theresa S. Betancourt is the inaugural Salem Professor in Global Practice at the Boston College School of Social Work and Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA). Her primary research interest is to understand the protective processes that contribute to risk and resilience in the mental health and development of children and adolescents facing adversity in a variety of cultures and settings. Dr. Betancourt has led initiatives to adapt and test evidence-based behavioral and parenting interventions for children and families facing adversity; she additionally focuses on strategies for scaling out these interventions using implementation science approaches. She is Principal Investigator of an intergenerational study of war/prospective longitudinal study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone, a scale-up Family-Strengthening Intervention for children and families in Rwanda, and community-based participatory research on prevention of emotional and behavioral problems in refugee children and adolescents resettled in the U.S.

RSVP

Join In-Person: J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Room 204

Livestream via YouTube

In Recognition of World AIDS Day

Leigh E. Szucs, Ph.D., CHES, Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

November 30, 2023 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Topic: School-Based HIV Prevention Programs for Adolescents

Leigh Szucs, Ph.D., CHES is a Health Scientist in the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) at the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her research focuses on implementation and evaluation of school-based health education programs, specifically sexuality education to prevent STIs, including HIV, and unintended pregnancy among adolescents. Through this portfolio of work, Leigh also provides technical and capability building assistance to local education agencies (LEAs), using evidence-informed strategies that address adolescent sexual health outcomes, but also protective factors to support the social, emotional, and learning needs of young people. Leigh earned a Master of Education in Health Education at Texas State University and PhD in Health Education at Texas A&M University.

RSVP

Join In-Person: J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Room 204 

Livestream via YouTube

Jim Downs, Ph.D., Gettysburg College

Topic: Effects of Colonialism, Slavery, and War on Medicine

January 25, 2024 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Jim Downs is the Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Era Studies and History. He is the author of Sick From Freedom: African American Sickness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction (Oxford UP, 2012), Stand By Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation (Basic Books, 2016) and Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine (Harvard UP, 2021) which has been translated into Chinese, French, Korean, Japanese, and Russian.

RSVP

Join In-Person: J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Room 204 

Livestream via YouTube

In Recognition of Heart Health Month

Andrea Spaeth, Ph.D., Rutgers University

Topic: Sleep and Cardiovascular Disease

February 29, 2024 | 12:30 -1:30 PM

Trained as an experimental psychologist, Dr. Spaeth has dedicated herself to a career in sleep research aimed at advancing our understanding of how changes in sleep behaviors affect health outcomes, with a focus on weight management and metabolic health. Dr. Spaeth developed her own independent line of research in this area as a graduate student by assessing the impact of sleep on weight, caloric intake and energy expenditure in healthy adults participating in an ongoing in-laboratory sleep restriction protocol. As a postdoctoral researcher, she gained experience in the implementation of sleep and meal timing interventions outside of the laboratory and examined the impact of these interventions on cardiometabolic outcomes. The ultimate goal of Dr Spaeth’s research will be to develop and implement effective lifestyle modification interventions related to sleep in diverse at-risk populations to promote health and wellness.

RSVP

Watch the Livestream

Chelsea Singleton, Ph.D., Tulane University

Topic: Impact of Healthy Food Access on Dietary Intake and Chronic Disease

April 18, 2024 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Dr. Chelsea Singleton is a nutritional epidemiologist whose research examines the impact healthy food access has on food purchasing behavior, dietary intake, and chronic disease risk. The overarching goal of her research is to document and dismantle nutritional inequities affecting low-income populations and people of color in the U.S. Her recent work has primarily focused on describing the mechanisms by which structural racism and structural violence impede healthy eating in underserved communities. She has extensive experience working with nutrition assistance program participants (e.g., SNAP, WIC), and she primarily uses epidemiological, geo-spatial, and community-based participatory research methods to accomplish her research goals. Prior to joining the SBPS faculty, she was an Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed a USDA-funded post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2018. In 2020, the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities (NIH/NIMHD) awarded her a five-year K01 grant. Her K01 research aims to study the effects of community violence on food retail and food purchasing behavior in low-income African American communities. She is a proud Tulane and Xavier graduate! 

RSVP

Join In-Person: InCHIP, J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Room 204

Livestream via YouTube