Public health community comes together to recognize and celebrate each other

On May 4th, 2023, University of Kentucky College of Public Health (CPH) cordially invited their community to the 2023 CPH Awards Night event, an opportunity to celebrate each other and recognize outstanding achievements and excellence of students, faculty, and staff.

The event kicked off with a welcome message from Dr. Heather Bush, acting dean at the UK College of Public Health.

“I’m excited to be here and that you are here with us,” said Bush. “This is a celebration for all of us. It is a celebration for public health, which involves everyone here tonight. Our work in public health never occurs in isolation – this is a field where you cannot do it alone.”

Afterwards, Dr. Charles “Chipper” Griffith, acting dean at the UK College of Medicine and alum of the UK College of Public Health, provided some opening remarks to the audience.

“I am grateful for public health. Public health has made me a better doctor,” said Griffith. “Public health provides so much more context with understanding peoples’ experiences, versus just treating them as a patient. I appreciate having that public health lens and thankful to this college for those experiences when I was a student. To all the students, faculty, and staff attending this evening, you have my gratitude.” 

Dr. Sarah Cprek, director of undergraduate studies, started the awards celebration with the Undergraduate Awards. The following undergraduate students received awards (in order of presentation): 

• Howard L. Bost Award – Kangai Miriti 
• John Sterling Wiggs Golden Rule Award – Carlee Combs 
• Undergraduate Research Award – Katie Boroughs 
• Outstanding BPH Student – Christopher Otieno 

The graduate awards followed presented by Dr. Maureen Jones, director of graduate studies of the Master of Health Administration (MHA) program, and Dr. Richard Ingram, director of graduate studies of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program. The following graduate students received awards (in order of presentation): 

• Outstanding MHA Student – Michaela Taylor 
• Howard L. Bost Award – Haritomane Nikolaou 
• John Sterling Wiggs Golden Rule Award – Jordan Shannon 
• Outstanding MPH Student Award – Aaron Charles, Harrison Hynes, Gabrielle Cochran, and Ashley Carroll 

Dr. Meredith Duncan, director of graduate studies for the PhD program in epidemiology and biostatistics, presented the Outstanding PhD Student Award to Feitong Lei. 

Research awards followed which began with the 100 Pub Club Award, presented by Doris Castellanos, assistant dean of research operations at CPH, to the following faculty members (listed alphabetically): 

• David Fardo 
• Douglas Zhang 
• Erin Abner 
• Heather M. Bush 
• John Lyons 
• Philip M. Westgate 
• Teresa Waters 

For the Paper of the Year Award, Castellanos recognized the following: 

• Dr. Kathleen Winter, state epidemiologist for the state of Kentucky, titled ““Reduced Risk of Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 After COVID-19 Vaccination — Kentucky, May–June 2021.” 
• Dr. Svetla Slavova, interim associate dean for research at CPH, titled “"Signal of increased opioid overdose during COVID-19 from emergency medical services data" 

Benji Bryant, graduate coordinator and staff council chair at CPH, presented the staff of the year awards to the following three individuals (listed alphabetically):

• Brandon Howlett 
• Doris Castellanos 
• Jonathan Greene 

Student Public Health Association (SPHA) president, Luke Karem, had the distinct honor of announcing this year’s prestigious Golden Apple Award to Dr. Angela Carman, vice chair of the Health, Behavior & Society department at CPH. 

Dr. Maureen Jones and Dr. Martha Riddell announced this year’s Delta Omega and Upsilon Phi Delta Honorees.  

2023 Delta Omega include (listed alphabetically):

• Alyssa Hargis 
• Abigail Knapp 
• Danny Cornett 
• Emma Gough 
• Grace Debo 
• Haley Shepherd 
• Jennifer Marcum 
• Julia Kollitz 
• Kathleen Winter 
• Kathryn Boroughs 
• Kelsey Cohn 
• Kelsey Gatton 
• Keith Knapp 
• Kylee Pipgrass 
• Oluomachukwu Anaenugwu 
• MaKayla Slone 
• Sydney Clark 

2023 Upsilon Phi Delta include (listed alphabetically): 

• Adriel Wilson 
• Corbin Kirksey 
• Kaitlyn Shell
• Kate Cox 
• Mackenzie Baker 
• Megan Gilmore
• Sarah Kercsmar 
• Shivang Patel 
• Tharunika Venkatesan 

The student leadership teams were recognized by Anna Hallahan, senior alumni coordinator, Matt Bunch, academic advisor, and Dr. Maureen Jones.  

Student Public Health Association (SPHA) leadership team include (listed alphabetically): 

• Charisma Cornell – Secretary
• Julia Kollitz – Treasurer
• Kelsey West – Communications Chair 
• Luke Karem – President 
• Raegan Persful – Vice President  

MHA Student Association (MHASA) leadership team (listed alphabetically): 

• Becca Rawlings - Vice President, Finance
• Corbin Kirksey - Vice President, Compliance
• Elijah Hames - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Integration Coordinator
• Estevan Mikhail - Service Coordinator
• Hannah Wethington - Vice President, Service
• Kaitlyn Shell - Vice President, Membership
• Kate Cox - Part Time Representative
• Shelby Watkins - Vice President, Professional Development
• Shivang Patel - President
• Sylvia Justice - Logistics Coordinator
• Tharunika Venkatesan - Executive Secretary

CPH Student Ambassadors include (listed alphabetically): 

• Amaya Garrett 
• Ashley Duff – Lead Ambassador 
• Emma Grace Hague 
• Faith Fursman 
• Jade Forest 
• Olivia Allran 
• Princess Magor Agbozo 
• Vanessa Diaz 

Dean Bush concluded the awards ceremony by asking everyone to celebrate all the award winners and nominees.  

“I am so proud that we were able to take time to celebrate the magnificent work we do in public health. Our work in public health is not easy, but we need to take the time to celebrate our hard work. It is certainly appreciated and valued!”