UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences

12/20/2025

Public health sciences and Spanish double major Autumn Liguori-Bills was recently selected for an inaugural Undergraduate Community Project Award by the UMass Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies (CLACLS). This award – created to encourage student projects that engage Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino communities in the United States through applied, creative, and community-centered work – was presented on December 11, 2025, during La Peña de CLACLS, a community dinner reception held at the Old Chapel.

Liguori-Bills received a third-place award for her project titled “Infant co-sleeping practices among Puerto Rican caregivers.” Her project addresses a critical gap in infant health by examining culturally rooted co-sleeping practices among Puerto Rican caregivers, an underrepresented population in sleep-related research that also experiences disproportionately high rates of infant mortality. In partnership with Cooley Dickinson Hospital and the New North Citizens Council in Springfield, the project engages caregivers directly through interviews and surveys to better understand beliefs, routines, and motivations surrounding infant sleep.

Congratulations, Autumn!

Autumn Liguori-Bills has been selected as one of the recipients of the inaugural CLACLS Undergraduate Community Project Award.

12/18/2025

Finals are done. Your brain deserves a break, but don’t forget about scholarships 👀
Complete the Academic Works application by February 15th
🔗 Link in bio

12/18/2025

Associate Professor of Epidemiology Cassandra Spracklen has been appointed as the program committee chair for the American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) 2026 Annual Meeting, which will be held October 20-24, 2026, in Montreal. Established in 1948, the ASHG is the world’s largest professional community driving the field of human genetics and genomics research and translation, with decades of leadership supporting new discovery and applications. Their annual meeting has grown to become the world’s largest annual meeting in human genetics and genomics with attendance of 8,000 or more each year. Spracklen has served previously in several roles for ASHG, including as a member of both the program committee and the awards committee, and for over ten years as a judge for the society’s DNA day essay contest.

Cassandra Spracklen has been appointed as the program committee chair for the American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) 2026 Annual Meeting.

12/12/2025

Kinesiology researchers Katherine Boyer and Jane Kent have received a five-year, $3.4 million NIH grant to zero in on what’s happening in an older adult’s body when it starts requiring more energy to walk, even as pace slows down. The funding will support a comprehensive examination of walking gait and muscle activity using advanced imaging in the UMass Institute for Applied Sciences (IALS) Human Magnetic Resonance Center.

The ultimate goal is to use their findings to create interventions—such as targeted activity guidelines—to keep older adults as mobile and healthy as possible, for as long as possible.

Katherine Boyer and Jane Kent have received a five-year, $3.4 million NIH grant to support a comprehensive examination of walking gait and muscle activity.

12/09/2025

For three years running now, Professor of Biostatistics Leontine Alkema has been named among the world’s most highly cited researchers by analytics provider Clarivate. The list recognizes researchers whose contributions have demonstrated broad and significant influence in their fields and who rank in the top 1% by citations for their fields. Congratulations, Professor Alkema!

Leontine Alkema is among the 6 UMass Amherst researchers who have been recognized as among the world’s most highly cited researchers in 2025.

12/05/2025

Over 100 senior public health majors came together to present the results of their capstone projects at the 2nd annual Capstone Poster Symposium. As the culminating experience of the public health sciences major, the capstone course is designed for students to synthesize and integrate their learning from previous coursework, internship, and extra-curricular activities in the discipline. The class, which satisfies the integrative experience requirement for the major, also helps students to develop skills in teamwork, communication, and leadership.

“After a semester of drafting and revising, it was wonderful to see students showcase their public health projects, get feedback, and spark new ideas,” notes Alex Knee, a lecturer in biostatistics who served as one of capstone course’s instructors. “These opportunities are so important in building confidence and getting exposure to how we move science forward, which is critical in public health.”

https://www.umass.edu/public-health-sciences/news/public-health-capstone-2nd-annual-poster-symposium

12/03/2025

Congratulations to environmental health sciences doctoral student Kameron Wong and biochemistry and molecular biology major Adam LaChapelle! Wong received the received the best oral presentation award, while Lachapelle received the best undergraduate poster award, at the annual meeting of the Northeast Chapter of the Society of Toxicology (NESOT). They were among the 5 members of Professor Alicia Timme-Laragy's lab who presented at the meeting.

Kameron Wong and Adam Lachapelle received awards at the annual meeting of the Northeast Chapter of the Society of Toxicology (NESOT) held on October 24, 2025.

11/28/2025

Take the of the highly anticipated SPHHS Hub for a glimpse at all of the progress on our new home. 🏠

We’re counting down the days until we can open the doors and welcome you all in.

11/27/2025

In her monthly message for November, Dean Anna Maria Siega-Riz discusses some of the things for which we are grateful. "It's important to remember that we can, and do, come together to support one another in times of need," she writes.

Dean Siega-Riz provides her monthly newsletter message for November 2025.

11/26/2025

Congratulations to SPHHS doctoral students Shivranjani Gandhi (Community Health Education), Godness Biney (Epidemiology), and Ruth Appiah Kubi (Health Policy and Management)! They are among the recipients of this year’s STEM Leadership Fellowship from the UMass Amherst Graduate School. Funded by an NSF Innovations in Graduate Education grant, the two-year program provides STEM doctoral students with training in inclusive leadership – including training on how to lead classrooms and research groups and to collaborate effectively with others.

SPHHS doctoral students Shivranjani Gandhi, Godness Biney, and Ruth Appiah Kubi received STEM Leadership Fellowships from the UMass Amherst Graduate School.