School Notes: School of Public Health
May/June 2019

Kerry urges students to fight climate change

In a February 22 visit, former US secretary of state John Kerry urged YSPH students and others to use their voices, education, and votes to combat climate change, a struggle he described as nothing short of a matter of “life and death.”

One of the architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Kerry said the world’s citizens “by acts of omission and commission, are living out a mutual suicide pact because of the massive changes that are going to take place on our planet.” He urged everyone concerned about climate change to join the growing worldwide movement to raise awareness about the issue by sponsoring community discussions and events and visiting local schools. “Everybody is wondering, ‘Can I really make a difference?’ And the answer is yes. Yes, you really can and you must,” he said.

Grants fund research on caregivers, those with depression

YSPH associate professor Joan Moninhas received a $3.9 million grant to study how certain kinds of emotional support may help relieve stress for parents with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and their adult-child caregivers. 

Assistant Professor Katie Wang received a separate, five-year $886,000 grant to explore how mental health stigma can be a potential risk factor for substance use among adults with depression. Wang plans to use a combination of physiological and daily diary measures to explore whether mental illness stigma contributes to increased reliance on substance use as a coping strategy.

New associate dean for research outlines vision

As the new associate dean for research, Professor Melinda Irwin says she will work to advance the school’s research mission by prioritizing areas of scientific investment, enhancing collaborations both at Yale and externally, and providing faculty the resources they need to succeed. “My immediate priority is to strengthen the school’s research infrastructure,” said Irwin, a professor of chronic disease epidemiology and associate director of population sciences at the Yale Cancer Center. Her second priority is to facilitate collaborations across Yale and through multi-investigator grant submissions, with a goal toward more impactful research that changes practice and policy and improves public health.