May 14, 2014

Nicole Vaughn, PhD, (left) an assistant professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy, and students that work with her on her research, were busy last month presenting their work at multiple conference and events, including NIH training programs and other national organizations.  The research focused on addressing public health concerns in urban areas, including violence prevention and diabetes, as well as community research approaches.

Dr. Vaughn is an expert in diabetes and pre-diabetes prevention programs in urban areas, including using videos and collaborating with local churches to address diabetes in African American communities.

Together with graduate and undergraduate students, including Kimberly Arnold, Beatriz Reyes and Juhi Mawla, along with Laura Hunter, MPH ’13, and Crystal Wyatt (staff), Dr. Vaughn presented “Getting People In Sync: Using Videos to Facilitate Pre-Diabetes Management in African American Churches in Philadelphia” at the Society for Behavioral Medicine 35th Annual Conference. Some of the students were also participants of the Opening the Doors for Diverse Populations to Health Disparities Research program at the School of Public Health. Professors Marcia Polansky and Longjian Liu were co-authors of the study.

Following are additional highlights of Dr. Vaughn's recent presentations:

4/8/14
Invited Lecturer at NIH Training Academy
Presentation Title: “Community Engagement in Health Disparities Research: From Violence Prevention Research to Chronic Disease Prevention in Urban Communities”

4/24/14
Presenter
Society for Behavioral Medicine 35th Annual Conference
Presentation Title: “Using Videos to Facilitate Pre-Diabetes Management in African American Churches”

4/25/14
Presenter
Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development 25th Annual Conference
Presentation Title: “Multi-Institutions, Multi-Organization Community-Academic Partnerships for Research: Are you Ready to Be “In a Relationship”?”
Co-Presenters included: Ayana Bradshaw (CHOP), Dr. Alice Hausman (Temple University), Terry Guerra (Achieveability), and Nicole Thomas (Independent Consultant)

4/28/14
Presenter
Eastern Evaluation Research Society 37th Annual Conference
Presentation Title: “Research, Resources and Rigor: Using Digital Animation as a Method to Disseminate Research Findings with the Community”