Archived Department Highlights
Academic Year 2022-2023
The Department of Community Health welcomes two new faculty members, in Fall 2022:
- Leah Abrams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health. She comes to Tufts from the Center for Population and Development Studies at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she was a Sloan Postdoctoral Fellow on Aging and Work. Abrams’ research and teaching interests include social epidemiology, health policy, population aging, work/retirement, and mental health. Her research has been published in peer reviewed journals, such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, International Journal of Epidemiology, and The Gerontologist. She holds a PhD and MPH from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Professor Abrams is teaching CH 99 Social Epidemiology this Fall.
- Talha Ali is a social epidemiologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health. She joins Tufts from Yale University School of Medicine where she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Section of Geriatrics. Dr. Ali’s research interests include structural racism and health disparities; social support networks; caregiving; and cognitive aging and dementia. Her work has been published in journals such as The Journals of Gerontology, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Dr. Ali is a 2022 NIA Butler-Williams Scholar and an NIA IMPACT Collaboratory Faculty Scholar. She received a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and an MS in Epidemiology, and a BS in Psychology from Yale University.
Professor Ali is teaching CH 105 Race, Ethnicity and Health this Fall.
Academic Year 2021-2022
Lynne Pepall will retire at the end of June 2022 after extensive and dedicated service to Tufts University. She has served as an instructor and Chair of the Department of Economics, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and most recently Chair of the Community Health Department. We are grateful for her strong leadership, clear vision, and enthusiastic commitment to our department, and we wish her well in her new adventures. Click here to view Resolution on the Retirement of Professor Lynne Pepall.
We are extremely excited to announce that Professor John Fu will be the next Chair of Community Health. Professor Fu joined the Community Health Department in Spring 2021 and is passionate about mentoring a future generation of public health practitioners!
Andrea Acevedo is promoted to Associate Professor July 1, 2022. We got to congratulate Prof. Acevedo at our annual Community Health Senior Event on May 20, 2022. This event was brought back as an in person event this year!
Shalini Tendulkar receives the Lerman-Neubauer Prize for Outstanding Teaching and Advising for 2022. This recognition is awarded annually to a faculty member who has had a profound intellectual impact on his or her students, both inside and outside the classroom. Faculty are nominated by graduating seniors.
( of note! Karen Kosinski received this in 2018 as well!!)
Sy Bellin Research Award 2022: Raissa Li, Marwah Kiani and Florence Almeda were awarded the Sy Bellin Research Award for completion of their 2022 Senior Honors Theses.
**Professor Bellin was one of the founders of the Community Health Program. He served as director of CH from 1976 until 1978, then again between 1993 and 1995. In 2001, in honor of its 25th anniversary, CH established the Bellin awards. This research award continues in his memory.
Academic Year 2020-2021
Subin Jeong '21 and Ivette Rodriquez Borja '21 announced as recipients of Tufts Senior Awards (April 2021)
Professor Alecia McGregor featured in February 2021 issue of The Tufts Daily: You Gotta Know: Alecia McGregor examines US health care through a historical perspective
Tufts students and faculty, working in partnership with community leaders from The Welcome Project in Somerville, learned valuable lessons from adapting their research due to COVID-19. Read about Professor Shalini Tendulkar and her community-based participatory research course CH 182, featured by Tisch College: 'How a Community-Based Participatory Research Project Navigated the Pandemic.'
CH student Iman Ali '22 featured in the Summer 2020 issue of JUMBO, Tufts' undergraduate admissions magazine.
Academic Year 2019-2020
Watch: Community Health Class of 2020 Tribute Video
Jennifer Allen was interviewed on WGBH's 'In It Together' about Tufts' Equity Study of Covid Vaccine Acceptability (July 2020)
Adolfo Cuevas was featured in Tufts Now: Why People of Color Are Suffering More from COVID-19 (July 2020)
Congratulations to Maureen Kamanu '20 and Seble Yigletu '20 for receiving the 2020 Tufts Presidential Award for Civic Life
The research of some Community Health students is featured in the annual Tufts Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium: "Research in Community Health focuses on the concrete, experiential outcomes of social inequality"
In November 2019, CH students traveled to Washington D.C. to present research at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) annual meeting
Cecilia Flores named to 2019's 'Latino 30 Under 30' list
We are delighted to have Lynne Pepall, Professor of Economics, as the new Department Chair of Community Health
CH Alum Colleen Doolan A'19 M'23, has been named to the list of top thirty honorees for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year Award
Madina Agénor named to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)'s Committee on Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United States
Professor Adolfo Cuevas featured in Tufts Now article "Link Between Racial Discrimination and Cardiovascular Health"
Community Health grad Colleen Doolan: 2019 Senior Spotlight
Community Health Senior Audrey Evers' Senior Honors Thesis featured in Tufts Now
Publication in Pediatrics features research by Dr. Madina Agénor
Publication in Acta Tropica features research by Dr. Karen Kosinski
Publication in Society of Behavioral Health features research by Dr. Adolfo Cuevas
Publication in Cancer Causes and Control features research by Dr. Jennifer Allen
Dr. Keren Ladin's work on ensuring equity for patients with intellectual disabilities who need transplants was featured in March 29, 2019 article in Bloomberg Law