Professor Iris Carlton-LaNey received the 2018 Alumni Achievements Award from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. The university’s College of Health and Human Sciences nominated Carlton-LaNey for the honor based on her “outstanding level of achievement and excellent demonstration in sustained scholarship, career advancement and service to the university.” Carlton-LaNey, the UNC School of Social Work’s Berg-Beach Distinguished Professor, was recognized and accepted the award in March during N.C. A&T’s annual Founder’s Day Convocation. In addition, Carlton-LaNey was tapped as the keynote speaker for the Fayetteville State University School of Social Work African American History Program in February 2018. In March, she also served as the keynote speaker for the Durham County Department of Social Services Social Work History Month Celebration.
Ph.D. candidate Christina Horsford was appointed to the Adult Care Home and Nursing Home Community Advisory Committee for a three-year term. The committee supports the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program.
Lisa de Saxe Zerden served as a panelist at the inaugural Rural Interprofessional Health Conference held on April 13 at the Friday Center. Zerden presented on the behavioral health workforce trends impacting North Carolina. Zerden and colleagues from the schools of pharmacy, medicine, nursing and denistry were also awarded a grant for $43,398 from the N.C. AHEC Campus Innovation Grant Fund to support their project, “Enhancing Interdisciplinary Opioid Stewardship: Education and Training to Mitigate Postoperative Risk.” The project aims to “develop, refine, and disseminate educational content and community resources to support opioid stewardship related to acute-care prescribing. This project also builds on a strong foundation from UNC Medical Center focused on mitigating risks of new opioid dependence and eliminating the large reservoir of unused prescription opioids from communities.
Rachel Goode was awarded a $19,997 grant from the UNC Nutrition and Obesity Research Center for the study “Reducing Binge Eating to Prevent Weight Gain in Black Women: A Pilot Study” and a $7,462 grant from the University Research Council at UNC for the two-year study, “Exploring the “Why” Behind the Binge Eating Behaviors of Black Women: A Qualitative Study.”
Betsy Bledsoe and Josh Hinson received a grant from the Group Foundation for Advancing Mental Health for a project titled, “Together for Wellness: Group Psychotherapy for Resettled Refugees.” The project will be conducted with the UNC Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative and will test the feasibility of comparing group interpersonal psychotherapy, a group intervention endorsed by the World Health Organization, to an existing manualized group intervention for refugees with psychological distress.