News

People in Kentucky experience some of the highest rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, substance use, diabetes and obesity in the nation. These health disparities are the focus of work inside the Healthy Kentucky Research Building (HKRB), UK’s newest research facility.

James P. Ziliak, PhD, is the Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics, Director of Center for Poverty Research and Kentucky Federal Statistical Research Data Center, and a Core Faculty member of the Center for Health Equity Transformation. Dr. Ziliak along with Dr. Robert Moffitt have co-edited a special issue on Entitlement Reform in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. The volume contains eleven articles on the major social insurance and means-tested transfer programs in the U.S., along with two reflections and an Introduction to the volume.

"Patrick Kitzman, PT, PHD, associate dean for research in the UK College of Health Sciences, will receive the Outstanding Advocacy in Neurologic Physical Therapy Award from the American Physical Therapy Association at the APTA’s annual conference in 2020. This prestigious honor is given to those in the field of physical therapy who have made an extraordinary impact on advocacy for neurologic physical therapy. 'I am humbled to receive this award. But, when you do advocacy work, it’s a group effort,” he said. “It takes all of us to make a change.

Congratulations to CHET Faculty Member Dr. Laurie McLouth, for having her research selected for a poster walk during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium held in San Francisco October 25, 2019. Led by an expert in the field, Poster Walks are interactive, small-group tours of posters deemed novel, scientifically intriguing, or otherwise interesting to the Poster Walk leader. Congratulations Dr. McLouth! https://meetinglibrary.asco.org/record/179555/abstract

On October 28, 2019, The College of Arts and Sciences Sociology Department is hosting its first visiting scholar as part of its Social Inequalities Lecture Series. Dr. Micah Johnson is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida. The title of his lecture is "Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Opioid Misuse and other Factors Associated with Polysubstance Misuse: A Statewide Sample of Adolescents in the Florida Juvenile Justice System" Dr. Johnson's lecture will take place on October 28, 2019 at 11:00am in the Lexmark Room of the Main Building (209)

For two years, University of Kentucky researcher April Young and her team have been onsite in Eastern Kentucky working with community members to assess and gather information on substance use in rural communities for a project known as Kentucky Communities and Researchers Engaging to Halt the Opioid Epidemic, or CARE2HOPE.

CHET is pleased to launch our Speaker Series with esteemed Scholar Dr. Kimberly Horn. Dr. Kimberly Horn, EdD is a professor and scientist at the Virginia Tech Carilion Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. Arriving from George Washington University in 2018, where she was the research dean in the School of Public Health, Dr. Horn is a nationally recognized research leader, scholar, and innovator.

The Center for Health Services Research (CHSR) will be hosting renowned scholar Leonard Egede, MD, MS for a talk on "Social Determinants and Health Outcomes" during Grand Rounds on Friday October 4th at 12:00pm in the Chandler Hospital Auditorium. Dr. Egede is a general internist, tenured Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW).

The Center for Health Equity Transformation is currently recruiting for two faculty positions.

We would like to congratulate CHET Core Faculty member Lovoria Williams, PhD, for being named the Nurse Researcher of the Year by the National Black Nurses Association at the 47th Annual Conference in New Orleans on Saturday, July 27.

The award represents her work to deliver community-based interventions that reduce health disparities among minority and medically underserved populations by increasing tobacco cessation and cancer screening behaviors and reducing obesity and diabetes.

Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor in the University of Kentucky College of Nursing.

The University of Kentucky is hosting its first Annual Inclusive Health Summit through a collaboration between UK Inclusive Health Partnerships and the UK Healthcare Transform Clinic. The summit will take place September 7, 2019 from 9:00am-4:30pm and is free of cost.

The UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) is now accepting applications for Early Career and High Impact Pilot Projects. The purpose of this funding mechanism is to provide a new opportunity and resources to support innovative, collaborative research relevant to the health challenges and disparities faced by the nation and the citizens of Kentucky.

The 43rd Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) Conference will be held at the University of Kentucky March 12-15, 2020, for the first time in the organization's history, inpartnership with  the University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center, College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate Appalachian Research Community (GARC) 

We are pleased to welcome Shyanika W. Rose, MA, PhD as a faculty member of the Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET).

The Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center (TCC) for Health Disparities Research at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) has just published a special issue supplement with the Journal of Ethnicity & Disease titled “Advancing Health Equity and Reducing Disparities with Collaborative Policy Research.” This issue presents innovative and groundbreaking policy research, policy action, and health equity interventions from the TCC, a center funded by NIMHD. The issue includes introductions by MSM President and Dean and former NIMHD Advisory Council member Dr.

The fifth annual Appalachian Research Day, Come Sit on the Porch, will be hosted September 18, 2019 by the University of Kentucky Center of Excellence in Rural Health (UK CERH) in Hazard, KY.

This NIH workshop, "Pathways to Prevention: Achieving Health Equity in Preventive Services" will assess the available scientific evidence on achieving health equity in the use of clinical preventive services in a health care setting, focusing on three leading causes of death in the United States: cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

It will take place June 19-20, 2019 via live videocast and in-person at the Natcher Conference Center (Building 45), NIH Main Campus, Bethesda, Maryland.

The workshop will also address the following questions:

"The American Journal of Public Health special issue New Perspectives to Advance Minority Health and Health Disparities Research is the culmination of a 2-year NIMHD-led transdisciplinary science visioning process that bridged scientific disciplines to develop a coordinated research vision.

Watch how Dr. Nancy Schoenberg hopes to partner with communities in Southeastern Kentucky to help tackle the scourge of diabetes in Appalachia.