CEHHS students help with public health needs in Detroit

Several College of Education, Health, and Human Services students spent their summer helping Detroit citizens lead healthier lives by doing internships at public health organizations—including Karly Koos at Healthy Detroit and Gadah Sharif at Authority Health, which was formerly known as Detroit Wayne County Health Authority.

Julie Roddy, chair of UM-Dearborn’s Department of Health and Human Services, said internships are important because they connect students to work experience—and, even more importantly, to the people.

Sharif, a junior majoring in health policy studies, got interested in the health field at a young age. Now works at a doctor's office and her desire to be by the side of those in need made her spent her summer as an intern at Authority Health.

“I love my job, but I felt a need to find out what’s going on in a patient’s life beyond the office setting", Sharif said.

During her internship, Sharif did a comparative community health needs assessment of Detroit-area hospitals and analyzed transportation and food needs of the people being served by Wayne County public health offices, local nonprofit organizations and more.

Koos, a senior majoring in public health, wants to improve health outcomes for Detroit residents too.

Through her internship with Healthy Detroit, she helped implement the Detroit Health Park initiative, did outreach to let residents know about Healthy Detroit Days and worked on the Healthy Detroit Passport app, which allows residents to track their participation in these events and gave them incentives to stay active.

“Interning with Healthy Detroit gave me a better idea of the big picture of public health than I would have gotten anywhere else in the country.", Koos said. 

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Dean Janosky as Keynote Speaker at the Doctors for America 2015 National Leadership Conference

WASHINGTON, DC - Dr. Janine Janosky participated as keynote speaker at the Doctors for America 2015 National Leadership Conference held at the Grand Hyatt in the nation's capital on October 10-11, 2015.

Dr. Janosky was part of the panel of experts during the opening plenary session in which the social impacts on health were discussed.

The panel held a dialogue about the challenges of providing basic resources to patients, enabling them to take care of their own health, particularly those in poverty.

Dr. Janosky, who implemented the Accountable Care Community in Akron, OH, said, "We must move from Accountable Organizations to Accountable Communities".



About Doctors for America:
Doctors for America is a group of 16,000 physicians and medical students in all 50 states.  They work in private practices, academic centers, community health centers, and government-run systems like the Veteran's Affairs and the Indian Health Service.  Their mission is to improve the health of the nation and to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, high quality health care.

Encouragement and guidance ensures positive results for health policy studies grad

After searching for a way to make a difference in the field of health outside of a clinical setting that would allow him to work with people who needed assistance, Ray Lynem found his educational home in UM-Dearborn's Health Policy Studies program through the guidance of  Lawrence Radine, then associate professor of sociology and Director of the Health Policy Studies. Radine retired after the Fall 2014 semester.

Lynem views his studies assisting him in moving toward his ultimate goal.  “The ability to have such a profound impact on the health of others would be an incredible experience and responsibility. My most important mission is to promote justice and equality within the healthcare system by increasing access to care for all people.”

Lynem is attending U-M Ann Arbor this fall to earn a Master of Health Services Administration degree.


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Undergrads support clinical research efforts at St. Mary Mercy Hospital

An inaugural group of seven UM-Dearborn students recently completed the yearlong Emergency Medicine Research Associate Program (EMRAP) through the College of Education, Health, and Human Services at UM-Dearborn.

“EMRAP is an opportunity for undergraduate students to work directly with physicians in order to support ongoing research activities and quality improvement projects in the clinical setting of the emergency department,” said Debalina Bandyopadhyay, former director of health professions advising within UM-Dearborn’s College of Education, Health, and Human Services. Bandyopadhyay worked with Dr. Daniel Keyes, an emergency medicine physician at St. Mary Mercy Hospital, to implement the program.

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CEHHS Faculty and Students Highlighted in September 21 Issue of the Reporter

In the September 21 2015 issue of the Reporter highlights the work of CEHHS Department of Education faculty members Dara Hill, LaShorage Shaffer, and Karen Thomas-Brown this summer with residents of Detroit’s Osborne neighborhood.  They created and taught a Writers Club for youth at the Matrix Human Services Center and took part in the non-profit organization Life Remodeled’s community project, which focuses on a Detroit neighborhood each summer to renovate a school, restore select homes, and remove blight and overgrowth.  The faculty members worked with the teens on expressing their hopes and dreams for themselves and their neighborhood at the weekly Writers Club.

“At the Writers Club, we said you can sit there and watch, or you could be a part of the change that’s going to happen. It doesn’t end here. It was important for them to think about sustainability,” Hill said. “For the youth who participated, they shared how it was empowering to see brush cleared away or have nice green space in an area that once had grass taller than they are.”

Read the full article in the Reporter here

CEHHS Faculty Build Global Geography Knowledge

CEHHS Faculty members Dr. Karen Thomas-Brown and Dr. LaShorage Shaffer, and CASL Faculty Dr. Cameron Amin and Dr. Jamie Wraight, were awarded a grant by the Michigan Department of Education to work with 6th, 7th and 9th grade Social Studies educators in Wayne County on global geography through the Wayne School Global Geography Project.  

Partnering with the Michigan Geographic Alliance, and Wayne RESA, educators from local school districts, including Dearborn, Taylor, Livonia and Detroit Public Schools, are offered over 90 hours of professional development training in global geography content, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and pedagogy focusing on Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Contemporary Global Issues, and Era 7-Global Crisis and Achievement 1900-1945.  

In August, the first phase of the project was launched and to date, over 41 teachers are actively participating in the project.  

For more information on the Wayne Schools Global Geography Project, please contact Dr. Karen Thomas-Brown

CEHHS Special Education Online Master Program Receives Top Twenty Accolade

The College of Education, Health, and Human Services online masters degree program in Special Education was recently noted as one of the top twenty in the nation. Ranked at number three, the Early Childhood Education Zone said, "[The University of] Michigan-Dearborn special education program has three areas of study. It’s a great value, especially for in-state students who can take full advantage of the program’s diversity."

To read more about the details of UM-Dearborn's special education program, including more information regarding the whole list of top twenty schools, click here.