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Taylor's mission is to “pass the baton” to the next generation of social workers – with a focus on recruiting more Black men to the field. Part of that recruiting process is busting some of the myths commonly associated with social work careers.

Gary T. Taylor, MSW ‘15, is destigmatizing mental health support and normalizing therapy in the Black community one barbershop at a time. “Barbershops are this safe space for Black men,” explains Taylor who has been working with local barbershops in the Rappahannock region since 2022 to foster healthy discussions about mental health by educating barbers on “mental health first aid” for their patrons.

Economic downturn and reductions in Medicaid coverage drive demand for free wellness, preventative, and COVID-related services.

On the same day National Nutrition Month kicks off, millions of individuals and families in the U.S. who currently receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assessment Program (SNAP) will see a decrease in their federal food benefits. On March 1, pandemic emergency allotments to SNAP are set to end–cutting benefits by $90 per month per person (on average).

National, state, and county leaders learned about the Mason and Partner Clinics, which prepare students to serve vulnerable populations and increase access to care for marginalized communities.

As Dean Germaine Louis retires at the end of the 2021-22 school year, we reshare this story where she reflects on the similarities in the beginning and end of her career.

The ����AV College of Health and Human Services announced today that its PhD in Health Services Research with concentrations in Health Systems and Policy and Knowledge Discovery and Health Informatics have been accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

As the region approached the second anniversary of declaring a state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, the College of Health and Human Services convened academic, health department, and philanthropy leaders to discuss the current public health priorities and opportunities to partner in transforming the region’s public health infrastructure.

Bethany Cieslowski, calls herself a disruptor – but don’t just take her word for it. One just needs to tour the virtual reality and simulation space on the 2nd floor of Peterson Health Sciences Hall with Cieslowski or participate in one of her VR/Sim training sessions to confirm that she has already brought positive change and vision to the College of Health and Human Services.

In a first-of-its-kind study, Associate Professor Hong Xue and Professors Alison Cuellar and Lawrence Cheskin and colleagues at ����AV's College of Health and Human Services examined associations between the amount of time spent on specific social media sites and the use of both e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes.  

While most of the social media platforms reviewed in the study showed no significant association with vaping, Xue and his colleagues did find that college-age e-cigarette users who spent more time on Snapchat did have a higher prevalence of lifetime e-cigarette use as well as an increased frequency of e-cigarette use in the past 30 days.

College-age e-cigarette users who are occasional or regular vapers spend an average of just over two hours a day on Snapchat, according to the study. Non-users, on the other hand, spend less than an hour each day on the app. The study also found that each extra hour on Snapchat was associated with a 4.61 percent increase in likelihood of lifetime e-cigarette use