Public Health Practice

Faculty and Projects

Linda Degutis, Dr.PH., MSN Associate Professor of Surgery (Emergency Medicine) and Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
Director of the newly established Yale Center for Public Health Preparedness. Research focuses on educational strategies in the area of disaster preparedness, as well as injury and violence prevention interventions.

Serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and is an active member of the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section of APHA. Other activities include membership on the Healthy People 2010 Task Force of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine and the Board of Directors of the American Trauma Society. Served on the Steering Committee for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Acute Care Research Agenda development, leading the workgroup on disaster preparedness. Co-chairs the workgroup on Community Preparedness and Response as part of the Core Team for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agency-wide research agenda development process.

Research Director for the Section of Emergency Medicine and is Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing at Yale.

Durland Fish, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
Research on deer tick control for Lyme disease prevention involves a multi-center trial of an insecticidal self-treatment device for white-tailed deer developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The six-year study has so far shown a 71% reduction in the deer tick population in communities with treatment devices, compared to untreated controls. This translates to an equivalent 71% reduction in Lyme disease risk for residents in treated communities.

Using satellite imagery to predict mosquito species composition and abundance emanating from Connecticut's wetlands. This information, combined with measures of West Nile virus activity from the Connecticut Department of Health (human cases, dead birds, infected mosquitoes) will provide local communities with an assessment of West Nile virus risk for implementing disease prevention measures (mosquito spraying, personal protection measures). Land-based mosquito surveillance data cannot be available for all 169 towns in Connecticut, each of which must make intervention decisions.

Developing a spatial model for Lyme disease risk based upon the local density of deer tick vectors and genotypes of the Lyme disease spirochete carried by these ticks. The model will predict Lyme disease risk throughout the range of the deer tick in the U.S. and will help improve the accuracy of clinical Lyme disease diagnosis by physicians, as well as facilitate more precise targeting of Lyme disease prevention measures by local health agencies.

Lauretta Grau, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
Conducting multisite, longitudinal evaluations of syringe exchange programs, and HIV and Hepatitis C prevention among injection drug users, with particular focus on female and minority populations.

Serving as co-principal investigator with Subasree Srinivasan, M.D., researching new HIV infections among people over 50 in Fair Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut.

James L. Hadler, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Clinical Professor in the Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
State Epidemiologist and Director of the Connecticut Department of Public Health's Division of Infectious Diseases. This division works to reduce the occurrence of preventable diseases in Connecticut through disease surveillance, case and outbreak investigation and control, screening, immunization, preventive therapy, outreach, case management, and professional and public education.

Principal investigator, Emerging Infections Program, a collaborative program between the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the Yale School of Public Health, and principal investigator on the CDC/State of Connecticut Bioterrorism (BT) Cooperative Agreement, providing funding for BT aspects of the CT Partnership Projects. (see entry for Elaine Anderson above)

Course lecturer in the Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases course, Investigation of Disease Outbreaks.

Robert Heimer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
Principal investigator and co-principal investigator on several projects doing field-based prevention work concentrated on the scientific evaluation of prevention programs serving drug users, including syringe exchange, hepatitis vaccination, and overdose prevention programs.

Jeannette Ickovics, Ph.D., Professor, Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Director of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Program
Leads the Connecticut Women's Health Project, which is committed to HIV/STD prevention and promoting reproductive health among at-risk women.

Serving as principal investigator on a prospective study of HIV risk among pregnant teens.

David Katz, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor Adjunct in Public Health Practice
Partners Reducing Effects of Diabetes: Initiatives Through Collaboration & Teamwork (PREDICT), a project of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC), is a 3-phase, highly participatory intervention dedicated to sustainable reductions in diabetes, its complications, and related health disparities in the African-American communities in New Haven and Bridgeport.  Phase I was dedicated to formative research, Phase II applied the findings of Phase I to design and implement tailored community interventions in New Haven, with Bridgeport serving as the control site, and in Phase III, the PREDICT partners will identify suitable means for sustaining, institutionalizing, and disseminating effective intervention components/strategies.

Wellness Initiative for Improved Tomorrows (WINFIT) is an employee wellness initiative developed through joint collaboration between the PRC and Griffin Hospital. The primary objective is to develop a comprehensive initiative that incorporates intervention components, focusing primarily on physical activity and nutrition, designed to educate employees and to provide a social and physical environment supportive of adoption of healthy behaviors.

Kaveh Khoshnood, Ph.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
Working on control of tuberculosis among Russian soon-to-be and released prisoners in the city of St. Petersburg in partnership with the Medical Department of Prison Administration, the City TB Center, St. Petersburg State University and the Biomedical Center.

Trace Kershaw, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Serving, with Mark Bond-Webster, as co-principal investigator on a CIRA Community Research Partnership Program exploring HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention with men in virtual public sex environments.

Serving as principal investigator on a community-based HIV/STI intervention for pregnant women in Haiti.

Linda Marc, Sc.D., M.P.H., Lecturer in Public Health Practice
Principal Investigator on a grant that will document Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) recruitment, retention, promotion and procedures, with regard to faculty from underrepresented minorities (URMs). Results will be used to compare the YSPH efforts to best practices nationwide, as documented in the literature and a review of practices at comparable institutions. This research effort is intended to develop new and improved practices and to establish guidelines and resources for URM faculty, serving as a national model. It is expected that (1) URM faculty will enrich the clinical and research education, for both faculty and students, as it relates to minority health issues and special populations; and (2) research generated by URM investigators will contribute to disease prevention, health promotion and the elimination of health disparities which disproportionately impacts the underserved populations (i.e., lower socioeconomic status, immigrant, multilingual and multiethnic populations). Dr. Marc initiated this study with the Emerging Majority Affairs Committee (EMAC), a subcommittee instituted by the Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health. She serves as an EMAC Executive Member and chairs the EMAC Scientific and Faculty Recruitment Subcommittees.

Leonard Munstermann, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
Principal investigator on a grant, centered at Yale's Peabody Museum, that is a middle school curriculum development program for health-related science.  Current focus is on West Nile virus and Lyme disease.

Linda Niccolai, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
Working with the Connecticut Department of Public Health's Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Control Program providing analytical support to various projects that use existing health department data.  To date, the partnership has performed a descriptive epidemiologic and geospatial analysis of syphilis cases in Connecticut, and has analyzed an electronic medical record database from public STD clinics, producing information that is used by the health department to target resources and prevention efforts for STD control.

Serving as principal investigator on a project exploring sexual partnership characteristics, patterns, and condom use among persons infected with HIV.

Serving as co-principal investigator with Robina Albrandt, L.C.S.W., M.P.H., on a project developing a peer to peer HIV prevention intervention for mature women.