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Tarang Parekh – PhD Candidate in the Department of Health Administration and Policy (HAP) Receives 2021 American Public Health Association Career Enhancement Student Scholarship Award

John Brandon Cantrell — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 14:31:47 +0000

Tarang Parekh – PhD Candidate in the Department of Health Administration and Policy (HAP) Receives 2021 American Public Health Association Career Enhancement Student Scholarship Award John Brandon C… Wed, 10/27/2021 - 10:31

In This Story

Gilbert Gimm, PhD, FGSA

Tarang Parekh, PhD candidate in health services research in the Department of Health Administration and Policy (HAP), received a 2021 American Public Health Association (APHA) Career Enhancement Student Scholarship Award for his outstanding peer-reviewed abstract submission, which was selected for an oral presentation by the Disability Section abstract review committee. The virtual oral presentation occurred on Sunday, October 24, 2021.

The title of Parekh’s abstract is “Medical and Recreational Marijuana Use Among Adults with Disabilities in 2019.” Parekh collaborated on this research study with Gilbert Gimm, associate professor in HAP. Using a national sample of 79,000 adult participants from 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor and Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, Parekh found that adults with disabilities had a much higher prevalence (22.4% vs. 13.0%) of marijuana use compared to non-disabled adults. He also found that the likelihood of marijuana use was more than twice as high for adults with cognitive limitations compared to non-disabled adults.

“Tarang’s finding of cognitive disability as an important predictor of marijuana use is consistent with an earlier study publication in which we found that e-cigarette use was also more prevalent among adults with cognitive disabilities,” said Gimm. “This suggests more research is needed to focus on this important sub-population”.

Parekh also found that expanded recreational marijuana use policies in California were associated with increased marijuana use among adults with disabilities compared to states that only had medical marijuana legalization. “Given Virginia’s legalization of marijuana for recreational use in 2021, it will be important to examine future marijuana use in Virginia and track health outcomes for adults with disabilities,” said Parekh.

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Jorge Garcia: Student Puts Public Health Education into Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic

John Brandon Cantrell — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:59:47 +0000

Jorge Garcia: Student Puts Public Health Education into Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic John Brandon C… Tue, 09/14/2021 - 12:59

In This Story

Jenna Krall, PhD

Master of Public Health provides knowledge and skills for hands-on role in infectious disease surveillance.

Master of Public Health (MPH) student Jorge Garcia gained valuable hands-on experience in infectious disease surveillance while working at the Fairfax County Health Department during the pandemic.

Before joining the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at Mason, Jorge Garcia explored his options for graduate school programs and soon became interested in studying public health. “I first read The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, and then I knew I wanted to work with infectious disease epidemiology,” Garcia said. “I knew of people who studied at Mason and enjoyed their experience, so an MPH in epidemiology was the next logical step, and I have loved the process of striving towards my goal.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic emerging soon after he joined the program, Garcia took on a role that allowed him to gain experience in helping prevent the spread of infectious diseases while also advancing in his coursework at Mason.

In June 2020, Garcia joined the Fairfax County Health Department as a community health worker, where he connected individuals in quarantine and isolation with needed materials and resources, such as groceries, hygienic products, medicine, rental assistance, at-home COVID-19 tests, cleaning supplies, and face masks.

“I would drive to their homes and drop off requested materials, as it was our priority to meet people where they are and make sure they did not leave their home during quarantine to get essential items,” Garcia said.

Educating the Community on Vaccines

As vaccines became more readily available, Garcia transitioned to a new role as a vaccine navigator within the health department to increase vaccination rates, educate members of the community, and address concerns about the vaccine.

“As a vaccine navigator, I interact with people who may be hesitant about receiving the vaccine and educate them on the facts about the vaccines,” Garcia said. “I have worked at community events, vaccine clinics, schools, food drives, churches, and even door-to-door in this capacity. It’s always a win when you can [help] others to get vaccinated after a great conversation.”

While Garcia found the work rewarding, he spoke on how it was challenging to overcome the social determinants of health that affected the communities he served.

Overcoming Challenges

“There are many unique, invisible barriers that the LatinX community face that prevent them from accessing resources or health care,” Garcia said. “An example of one challenge I frequently overcame was transportation to a vaccine clinic. I knew of county resources that [would] pick people up and drive them [to and from] a clinic. Additionally, many did not have email, so I had all my materials printed in Spanish and delivered to their homes.”

When asked what skills he acquired from this experience, Garcia noted how the challenges only enhanced his preparations to becoming a leader in the public health field. “I have had to be flexible, resilient, and adaptable to challenges faced by the community,” Garcia said. “A lot of conversations don’t go according to plan, and learning to speak to all sorts of people has been a critical skill.”

Excelling at Mason

Reflecting back on the courses he’s taken at Mason, Garcia is confident that his classes trained him for his roles with the Fairfax County Health Department. “It feels as if what I learn in class relates immediately to work and vice versa,” Garcia said. “My epidemiology classes gave me a solid understanding for when we had our data meetings to understand trends in COVID-19 cases or vaccinations in the county and targeting areas where we could improve vaccinations.”

Garcia also noted how his biostatistics courses, such as Biostatistics for Public Health II (GCH-805), led by Jenna Krall, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, also helped him prepare for the real-world situations he encountered as a vaccine navigator.

“I love the structure of [GCH] 805 because it simulates a real-world working environment,” Garcia said. “We have learned how to use R [programming language] to work with data sets, find measures of spread, and perform statistical analyses among other things. The flexibility of choosing our hypothesis and running whatever analyses we decided upon helped me learn the material much better and felt like a project or task one would receive at work.”

After he completes his MPH degree, Garcia’s goal is to work as an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Pan American Health Organization(PAHO), or the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “I want to work with infectious disease surveillance in the future, and Mason has helped me in my goals thus far,” Garcia said.

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Social Work Student Mengqi Li Is a Fierce Advocate for the APIDA Community On-Campus and Beyond

mthomp7 — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 14:17:47 +0000

Social Work Student Mengqi Li Is a Fierce Advocate for the APIDA Community On-Campus and Beyond mthomp7 Thu, 08/26/2021 - 10:17

In This Story

Evelyn Tomaszewski, MSW, ACSW

Emily Ihara, PhD, MSW, FGSA

Li shares her passion for social justice and the opportunities the MSW program has offered her so far.

Mengqi Li is a Master of Social Work student with a passion for social justice and advocating for the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) community. She was recently accepted into the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Minority Fellowship Program, with a mission to reduce health disparities for racially and ethnically diverse populations through cultural competency training. Additionally, Li accepted a new position at Mason’s Center for Culture, Equity, and Empowerment (CCEE) as a graduate assistant within the Student Engagement for Racial Justice team.

Li started the MSW program as a major career transition a few years after graduating with an undergraduate degree in business. “I just knew it really wasn’t where my heart was,” she says about working in business. She decided to pursue social work due to her interest in clinical mental health and the field’s emphasis on social justice values.

“The program at Mason has the most diverse faculty, and as a BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and person of color] student that was really important to me,” Li says about why the MSW program stood out to her.

She’s found many ways that the curriculum has intersected with her activism and advocacy. Last spring, she took SOCW 659 Organizing and Advocating for Change, a course on community organizing, during which Li and her classmates brainstormed ways to organize around issues on campus.

Li’s engagement as a student goes beyond the classroom too. She is the founding president of the Asian Graduate Student Association. So far, the organization has recruited nearly 100 APIDA graduate students. “I’m very excited for the potential of this RSO [registered student organization] to build community at Mason,” she says.

Faculty and staff have had a tremendous impact on Li’s life as a student, and MSW Program Director Evelyn Tomaszewski, MSW, ACSW, has been a great ally to her in and out of the classroom. Social Work Department Chair Emily Ihara helped connect Li to CCEE for her graduate assistant position and to other opportunities as well, including the CSWE Minority Fellowship Program.

“Having APIDA faculty and staff [in the department] has been very meaningful,” says Li. She notes that Julie Kim, the director of graduate student life, is an APIDA staff member who has also made a huge impact on her experience at Mason so far.

After she completes her master’s degree, Li plans to continue her advocacy work for the APIDA community, particularly within the field of mental health. She notes that a lack of diverse practitioners may be one reason why Asian Americans do not always seek mental health services, even when they need it. Li is currently in a training program to be a meditation teacher and hopes to integrate mindfulness training into her future clinical work.

When asked about what advice she has for future MSW students, Li says, “Let others know what you care about. I really believe that’s a huge part of what will open the door to opportunities.” She also adds that leaning into your interests and passions “will keep [them] burning and sustain you in whatever form of work that you do.”

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Mason Master of Health Administration Students Earn First Place in Second Annual Penn State Health Administration Case Competition

mthomp7 — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 21:37:50 +0000

Mason Master of Health Administration Students Earn First Place in Second Annual Penn State Health Administration Case Competition mthomp7 Mon, 11/30/2020 - 16:37

On October 31, 2020, students from the Department of Health Administration and Policy (HAP) Master of Health Administration (MHA) program participated in a National Case Study Competition hosted by Pennsylvania State University in partnership with Geisinger Health System.

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Department of Health Administration and Policy