Spotlight Archive
September 30, 2024
Join us in celebrating 20 years of the EPRC! The Emory Prevention Research Center continues to pave the way for healthier communities and brighter futures. Stay tuned as we’ll be highlighting some of our accomplishments over the past 20 years. Here's to two decades of groundbreaking research and unwavering commitment to public health!
May 15, 2024
The EPRC was featured in a new blog post that was published in a collaboration with the PRC Program at the CDC and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), Empowering Local Health Departments: A Spotlight on Prevention Research Centers. This new blog is highlights PRC research, tools, and resources and the EPRC was proud to be featured in the first post.
March 19, 2024
Colleen M. McBride, PhD, affiliated faculty with the EPRC, is an internationally recognized leader in health behavior and health promotion. Her research interests include behavioral change interventions for smoking, diet and physical activity, cancer screening, and interventions targeting multiple risk factors. Dr. McBride’s work focuses on motivating behavior change among populations overburdened by health disparities and addressing genetic-related conditions with minority groups in low-income settings.
November 29, 2023
Angela Zhang, MPH, alumna of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, joined EPRC in 2021. Bringing a robust background in qualitative research, community engagement, and data analysis, Angela plays a vital role in the Healthy Food Retail research team. She coordinates multiple research projects, emphasizing dietary-related population health in small food retail environments. Currently, she is also lending her expertise to the Smoke-Free Homes 5A Study, making valuable contributions to advance public health initiatives.
September 20, 2023
Ja’Vae Greene, MPH, joined the EPRC in 2021 as a Health Educator for the EPRC Core Research Project, Healthy Homes Healthy Families. Shortly after hire, she began to support the Smoke-Free Homes study as a data collector. She has strong interest in health promotion and wellness, with an emphasis on maternal and child health.
August 4, 2023
Kristi Logue, MS is a Project Coordinator, and has been with Emory for 20 years. She is currently working in various areas from data collection to program evaluation for the EPRC Core Research project, Healthy Homes Healthy Families. Kristi will soon transition over to IDDI Shared Resource where she will assist Winship Cancer Institute researchers on select projects.
June 29, 2023
Lucja T. Bundy, MA, EdM is Deputy Director and Sr. Associate Director of Research Programs with the EPRC. She has been at the Rollins School of Public Health since 2004 focusing on intervention research, evaluation, and dissemination of research tested interventions. Currently, she is overseeing the testing of the Healthy Homes/Healthy Families intervention in a hybrid effectiveness trial funded by CDC as part of the Prevention Research Centers.
May 11, 2023
Ana Arana, MPH, an RSPH graduate, joined the EPRC in 2022 as a Public Health Program Associate. She is a motivated public health professional with a strong interest in preventative mechanisms for chronic diseases, health equity, and project management. Currently, Ana is working as a Public Health Program Associate for the EPRC Core Research project, Healthy Homes Healthy Families, and most recently is focusing her efforts on the small grants program to achieve greater health equity among rural Georgians by promoting community involvement in prevention research.
March 30, 2023
Archna Patel, MPH, an RSPH graduate, joined the EPRC in 2019. She has extensive experience as a program coordinator managing several research projects and the overall Managing Epilepsy Well Network, a nation-wide network charged with developing, implementing, and disseminating self-management programs for people with epilepsy. Currently, Archna is working on implementing the HOBSCOTCH trial in Georgia, a program that helps with memory.
February 8, 2023
Courtney Petagna, MPH, CHES, joined the EPRC in August 2020 as a graduate student and then transitioned to being the Project Coordinator for the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) at the Emory Center after completing her master’s degree in 2021. Courtney manages the CPCRN Scholars Program at the national level and conducts research in southwest Georgia around HPV and the HPV vaccine.
December 16, 2022
Victoria Krauss, MPH joined the EPRC in 2020 as the Project Coordinator for SurvivorLink. Previously, she worked on behavioral health programs with the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta and the Peace Corps in Guatemala. Victoria has additional interests in health education and community-engaged research. Her work is continually driven by her connection to the people and communities in which she works.
November 11, 2022
Shaheen Rana, M.A. (Psychology, UIUC), joined IDDI in 2019. She has extensive experience leading research and evaluation projects in public health, mental health, and education, and serves as an expert on culturally responsive evaluation. She is currently the Managing Director of IDDI Shared Resource, and assists Winship researchers on behavioral science research on projects ranging from cancer prevention to end of life care.
October 7, 2022
Erin Lebow-Skelley earned her MPH in Health Behavior from UNC and joined the EPRC in 2015. She manages the EPRC’s communications and BreatheEasy Georgia Homes Program, as well as managing community engagement and evaluation for the HERCULES Exposome Research Center. Erin believes in the power of community-engaged public health research, programming, and evaluation to prevent disease and improve health equity.
September 2, 2022
Shadé Owolabi received her MS in clinical mental health counseling from Mercer University. She joined the EPRC in April 2012 and has worked on several projects addressing behavioral change within the home, including SHS exposure, the home food environment, cancer and diabetes prevention. She currently serves as the intervention coordinator for the EPRC’s two main research studies, Smoke-Free Homes and Healthy Homes/Healthy Families, as well as the liaison for multiple partners implementing EPRC research tested interventions.
April 11, 2022
April Hermstad, MPH, an RSPH graduate, joined the EPRC in 2007. She is an experienced coordinator of research and evaluation projects addressing heathy eating and physical activity behaviors, cancer screening, and access to health care and health-supporting environments. Current evaluations include Healthcare Georgia Foundation’s The Two Georgias Initiative and CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) in Hancock County, Georgia.
January 6, 2022
Josh Kaufmann, MPH is a BSHES graduate. Josh joined the EPRC in August 2021 as a Health Educator for an adapted Smoke-Free Homes intervention project. He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer with experience in qualitative research, health promotion, and community engagement. With additional interests in program evaluation and behavior change. Josh is determined to do work that has impact and heart.
November 11, 2021
De’Coshia Chambers received her MS degree in Applied Exercise and Health Science from Kennesaw State University in 2018. She joined the EPRC as a Health Educator for the EPRC Core Research project, Healthy Homes/Healthy Families. Her area of expertise is promoting healthy behavioral changes to help decrease the prevalence of chronic diseases in low-income and minority communities.
September 20, 2021
Helen Harber Singer, MPH is a BSHE graduate. Helen joined the EPRC in August 2020 after working in violence prevention and policy analysis at CDC. Her area of expertise is the development of knowledge translation products for a variety of audiences. She is a research interviewer and coach on the Smoke Free Homes/5As and Healthy Homes Healthy Families study teams and is happy to be “home”.
June 29, 2021
Ja’Shondra Pouncy, MPH, CHES, is a motivated public health professional with a strong interest in research and project management. Her passion for health promotion and wellness serves as a driving force in her educational and career pursuits. She joined the EPRC in August 2020 as a Public Health Program Associate for the adapted Smoke-Free Homes project.
April 28, 2021
Clarisa Hernandez received her MPH from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health in 2019. After graduation, she joined the EPRC as a Public Health Program Associate for the EPRC Core Research project, Healthy Homes Healthy Families. She is interested in physical activity and nutrition and how these can be used as preventive mechanisms for chronic diseases.
April 13, 2021
The EPRC is offering a second free training on Grant Writing April 23rd from 10-11:30 am EST. New topics include: finding sources of funding, identifying types of funders, identifying evaluation questions, and drafting an evaluation plan. Space is limited so sign up now.
March 6, 2021
The EPRC provides training materials for community organizations who want to increase their success obtaining grant funding. Access the Grant Writing training materials here.
December 15, 2020
SurvivorLink is a patient-controlled digital platform that was created to increase follow-up care among pediatric cancer survivors. It is a portal where pediatric cancer survivors and their caregivers can find educational materials and upload medical records. The patient can also give access to their primary and subspecialty doctors to maintain communication around their survivor care. To learn more, click SurvivorLink.
October 6, 2020
The CDC funds Special Interest Projects (SIPs) to focus on a topic of interest or a gap in scientific evidence. SIP grants are competitively awarded only to investigators affiliated with one of the 26 Prevention Research Centers in the national network. During this funding cycle, Emory has been awarded six SIP grants – two in 2020 and four in 2019. Learn more about Emory’s SIPs here.
October 1, 2020
Our work was recently showcased in Emory Public Health magazine. The article highlights the EPRC’s core research, its rural community focus, and partnering organizations. As a member of the CDC Prevention Research Center Network, Emory faculty were able to obtain additional cancer-related grants. Learn about these grants and see more about Rollin’s cancer prevention work here.