Group photo of students and faculty in front of 20th anniversary sign
May. 24, 2024

 

On Friday, May 3, 2024, the UNLV School of Public Health celebrated the end of the academic school year by recognizing student scholarship recipients, faculty excellence, donors and community partners at its annual Honors Ceremony.

Below is the list of all the award recipients recognized at this year’s event.

2024 Student Scholarship Awards

ACHE Scholarship (American College of Healthcare Executives)
Scholarship Recipients: Vidhani Goel, Sisinyous Mengesha, Trisha Anne Claire Santos    

Nevada Healthcare Forum Endowed Scholarship 
Scholarship Recipients: Maryam Z. Dehkhargani, Leticia Delgado, Fye Pinera        

Francisco Sy Undergraduate Scholarship 
Scholarship Recipients: Cleo Navarro

Francisco Sy Graduate Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Miklo Alcala                

Nevada Public Health Foundation Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Ashley Meda, Srishti Awasthi        

Minority Health Consultants Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Zipporah Collier, Lizette Mejia, Jazmin Rios    

Joan Essex Internship Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Kristen Custino                

Guinan & Gerstenberger Scholarship 
Scholarship Recipients: Karen Figueroa Chilito, Ishrat Zaman, Homa Azizimazreah    

Guinan & Gerstenberger Internship Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Jessica Lopez, Dana Surwill    

SPH Alumni Association Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Mae Ling Catayong                

Aetna Community Heart Internship Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Marija Zolfaghari Dobrijevic        

Public & Community Health Benefit
Scholarship Recipients: Brisa Rodriguez Alcantar, Bruno Bevilacqua, Kira Kramer    

Glahnnia Rates Scholarship 
Scholarship Recipients: Tracy Carmelo 

Stacy Darling Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Emylia Terry, Binita Adhikari, Siddharth Raich            

M. Chino Dissertation Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Laurencia Bonsu                    

Roland Sotero Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Mable Lorraine Garrett, Fay Faiz                    

Joshua Huebner Memorial Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Aastha Poudel, Terry Jones    
            
John & Nicanora Gurley Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients:Jazmin Stamaria, Veronica Brown    

School of Public Health Awards

Faculty Excellence Awards     
Excellence in Teaching – Gabriela Buccini
Excellence in Research – Erika Marquez
Excellence in Service – Chris Papesh

Donor Appreciation Award
Robbie Martin

Outstanding Community Partner
Lisa Bogard
Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Scholars Program

Outstanding Internship Partner
Sunrise Hospital

2024 SPH Faculty Awards -- Presented by Kaiju Manera, PHSA President

(The awards were presented in the theme of the movie "Monsters University")

James P. Sullivan -- The Hero   
Dr. Louisa Messenger

Mikee Wazowski -- The Jester  
Dr. Amanda Morgan

Professor Knight -- The Mentor  
Dr. Nicole DeVille

Don Carlton -- The Caregiver    
Dr. Kay Callahan

Roz -- The Gaurdian   
Dr. Sheniz Moonie

Department Awards

Department of Healthcare Administration & Policy                        
Outstanding Research  â€“ Yonsu Kim
Outstanding Teaching  â€“ Maire Simington
Outstanding Service – Jay Shen
Rising Star  â€“ Mohammad Karim
Outstanding Graduate Student – Jalen Jones
Outstanding Undergraduate Student & McGaw Recipient – Thomas Bloodgood III

Department of Environmental & Occupational Health                    
Outstanding Research  â€“ Louisa Messenger
Outstanding Teaching  â€“ Karen Callahan
Outstanding Service  â€“ Charles Regin
Outstanding Part-Time Instructor  â€“ Lawrence Sagadraca
Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award – Alyx Phillips
Outstanding Capstone Class Award – Austin Tang
Outstanding Graduate Student – Samantha Smith, Katharine Major
Outstanding Undergraduate Student – Annie Wang

Department of Social & Behavioral Health
Outstanding Teaching  â€“ Amanda Morgan
Outstanding Research  â€“ Timothy Grigsby
Outstanding Service  â€“ Christopher Johansen
Outstanding Administrative Faculty – Asma Awan
Outstanding Dissertation  â€“ Noehealani Bareng-Antolin
Outstanding Community Partner  â€“ Nevada Cancer Coalition

Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Outstanding Teaching  â€“ Chad Cross
Outstanding Research  â€“ Miguel Fudolig
Outstanding Service  â€“ Timothy Bungum

Ê×Ò³| Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ the School of Public Health
The School of Public Health Sciences (SPH), formerly the School of Community Health Sciences(SCHS), is one of UNLV’s most recent additions. In 2003, Paul W. Ferguson, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, recognized the need for such a school in Nevada, given that rapid population growth threatened the capacity of the state’s public health agencies to cope with new and emerging public health issues. In 2004, the Board of Regents approved the formation of the School of Public Health and the school brought together programs housed in other colleges — environmental studies, health promotion, and healthcare administration — as well as several research centers, the Center for Health Disparities Research, Center for Health Information Analysis, and the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy. The schools centers, coalitions, and labs serve as connections to our community and real world examples of public health in practice. They provide opportunities for our students to engage in public health practice and gain experience as well as allow faculty to be on site role models.