Five members of the Georgia Tech-based Atlanta area Working Group on Race and Racism in Contemporary Biomedicine including HSOC's own Dr. Jennifer Singh attended a conference called “The Politics of Health in the U.S. South” at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 17 - 18, 2016. The two-day conference was comprised of faculty, graduate students, activists, and policy makers from around the region and the country.

FALL 2016
HTS 3823: Special Topics Course - Health Inequality
T/Th 12:05 - 1:25 pm
Professor Jennifer Singh PhD, MPH -jennifer.singh@hsoc.gatech.edu

This course is designed to investigate social conditions such as poverty, social isolation, and segregation as well as ascribed characteristics of gender and race that are predictive of a battery of contemporary chronic diseases and causes of premature death. Topics will cover health inequalities in the U.S., selective global perspectives, and policy efforts to eliminate health inequalities. Intended to be far more than a simple lecture course, the class will provide students with numerous opportunities to deeply engage with the course material through response memos, small group discussions, conversations with experts on course topics, and an independent (group) research project. This course qualifies as an elective for the Health, Medicine and Society (HMS) Minor in the School of History and Sociology.

Contact: jennifer.singh@hsoc.gatech.edu

Become a part of the Department that touches the lives of every American! At the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) you can give back to your community, state, and country by making a difference in the lives of Americans everywhere. It is the principal agency for protecting the health of citizens. Join HHS and help to make our world healthier, safer, and better for all Americans.

Combine limitless opportunities, a feeling of home, and international teamwork at the world's leading strategy consultancy. In our case study, you can make the health-care industry fit for the future with digital solutions and discover what international challenges await you at BCG Germany. We are looking for outstanding university students, PhD candidates, and professionals of all fields to join our German offices.

Advanced German skills are required. All majors and class levels may apply.

Apply to attend this workshop in Boston on April 23-24. The workshop can lead to internships and full-time positions in BCG's German offices.

Date(s): March 1, 2016, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: Clary Theatre, Student Success Center, Atlanta, GA

Join us for presentations by:
Elena Conis (Emory University), Bernice Hausman (Virginia Tech), Melinda Wharton (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Healthy Dissent: Urban Ecologies and the Art of Relational Politics
A Public Lecture by Michael Montoya
Introduced by Camara Jones, Morehouse School of Medicine
Monday, January 25, 3pm
Student Center Theater
Georgia Tech

Sponsored by the Working Group on Race and Racism in Contemporary Biomedicine, with the support of GT-FIRE

Michael J. Montoya is a professor of anthropology, Chicano/Latino Studies, public health and nursing science at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Making the Mexican Diabetic: Race, Science, and the Genetics of Inequality. Montoya is also the director of the Community Knowledge Project, which is an experimental space for communities of all kinds to learn and engage in action together. Montoya's work seeks to characterize the ways community knowledge can make academic questions more relevant and research more robust. Equally important, he believes that making community is a birthright and that health and wellbeing require it.

Stress Management 101

This week, the Student Government Association (SGA) is hosting SGA Week 2015.

From Oct. 26–30, events will take place on Tech Walk and across campus to show students what SGA has been working on and what they hope to accomplish in the next year. All members of the Georgia Tech community are welcome.

Agnes Scott College will be hosting the second annual Atlanta Undergraduate Conference on Health & Society on November 7th. This is an opportunity for students from the social sciences, public health, and natural sciences who are interested in health to come together to share their work in a friendly environment. Presentations of significant class projects, internships, study abroads, or critical literature reviews are welcome.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is October 16.

Flu Shots Offered on Campus Starting Next Week

Vaccinations will be free for students who have paid their student health fee and $25 for faculty and staff. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people get vaccinated against flu soon after vaccine becomes available, if possible by October. BuzzCard is required when checking in for the flu shots.

Flu Shot Clinic Dates:

• Tuesday, September 29 (10am-3pm)
• October 6 (10am-3pm)
• October 20 (10am-3pm)
• November 10 (10am-3pm)
• November 17 (10am-3pm)

Students may also make an appointment to get a flu shot.

Student Monica Jamison writes in The Technique about bringing mental health to the forefront of our conversations. Below is an excerpt from the article, check out the full piece here.
It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to not have it all together. It’s okay to be sad, overwhelmed, frustrated, or even depressed. Our culture places a disproportionate amount of value on happiness. Many people put on a happy face for the world, for their parents, and often times even for their friends. However, negative feelings are valid and nothing to be ashamed of.

To some extent, everyone experiences highs and lows, whether the times of not being okay last hours, days, weeks, or more. Experiencing the full spectrum of emotions is human, and giving oneself permission to experience and acknowledge negative feelings is crucial. Suppressing these specific feelings can lead to serious emotional stress and worsening of mental health. For these conversations to occur more easily, the taboo on talking about sadness and stigma against mental illnesses, especially depressions, needs to be broken down. In the meantime, whether you have had just a day of not being okay or too many to count, that is okay. One day you will be okay again, and talking about it is okay, too.

On behalf of The Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority (“The Authority”) Board of Trustees, Thomas W. Dortch. Jr. Chair, and our CEO, Lisa Flagg, we are extending a personal invitation to you, the faculty and students to attend our 4th annual Health Summit, where this year’s focus is on “Violence: America’s Challenge”.

As owners of the Grady Health System, we are concerned about the alarming number of patients that appear in our emergency room as victims of violence. In fact, homicide is one of the top issues that Grady identified in their Community Health Needs Assessment that need to be addressed in the community.

Our goal is to raise awareness of this epidemic and its many faces, identify practical strategies to address the underlying issues associated with violence, and provide resources that will empower our communities to adequately address violence on a local, state, and national level.

Summit: “Violence: America’s Challenge”
Date: October 28, 2015
Location: The Hyatt Regency Downtown
265 Peachtree Center Ave
Atlanta, GA 30303
Time: 8:30am-5:00pm

The summit is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC and only requires registration here.

Leslie Leighton, who completed his MS in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science (HSTS), was recently featured on the Emory University graduate school website.  Dr. Leighton (MD, PhD) recently completed his dissertation, entitled Explaining the Decline of Coronary Heart Disease Mortality in the United States in the 1960s: An Historical Analysis.  To read more about his work, go to www.gs.emory.edu/news_and_events/2015-07-14-leslie-leighton.html.  Congratulations Les!

Dr. Jennifer Singh, Assistant Professor in HTS, is participating in the International Medical Sociology Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland this summer.  The conference includes scholars of various ranks organized around plenary speakers and working groups on common interests (e.g., health disparities, mental illness, genetics, etc.). For more detailed information on the event, visit http://msc2015.yourhost.is.

Interested in joining a global organization of dynamic women dedicated to positively impacting the healthcare community?

The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Atlanta chapter is currently offering scholarships for young professionals (30 years old and under) who would like to become active members of our organization. All scholarship recipients will receive free membership and one-on-one mentoring with a local HBA member.

Epic is actively recruiting spring grads - we're searching for smart, passionate people who want to achieve great things. Opportunities for all majors include Project Management, Technical Writing, Training and Quality Assurance. Interested students are welcome to contact me directly or can visit our website (www.careers.epic.com) for more information.
About Epic:Epic makes software for mid-size and large medical groups, hospitals and integrated healthcare organizations – working with customers that include community hospitals, academic facilities, children's organizations, safety net providers and multi-hospital systems. Our integrated software spans clinical, access and revenue functions and extends into the home.

Helping Hands: Students Wanted to Serve as Peer CounselorsStudent mental health remains top of mind for colleges and universities nationwide, including Georgia Tech. This year, a new peer counseling initiative is taking shape on campus to let students help one another as they face mental health issues.

The peer counseling initiative is a part of Burdell’s Buddies, a program through the Counseling Center that focuses on raising awareness of mental health issues and promoting the use of campus, professional, and personal resources. Applications are now open, and due April 3, for students who are interested in being trained to serve as peer counselors.
Learn more about Burdell’s Buddies from the Counseling Center website.

Georgia Tech’s Women’s Awareness Month (WAM) is excited to bring Stacy Pershall to Tech’s campus on Monday, March 23rd at 5pm in the President’s Suite D in the Student Success Center. Stacy, a renowned, engaging speaker will be talking about her experiences with overcoming Borderline Personality Disorder. This is an exciting opportunity for students and faculty to hear a first hand experience of mental illness and learn how they can help those with mental illness. WAM giveaways will be available for attendees. 

Dr. Tone's Advanced Topics in the History of Medicine class recently visited the Centers for Disease Control. The second photo is the students with the bio containment vessel that first transported Ebola to the CDC.

I am a first year graduate student in UAB Rehab Science Program. Specifically I am focusing on how rehabilitation and information technology can improve health conditions in special populations and to address health disparities amongst populations. HTS, specifically the seminars, have helped me to develop useful research, critical thinking, and writing skills in order to answer the questions that originate throughout my graduate classes and research. Being an HTS alum at Georgia Tech, I was prepared and knew what was expected of a graduate level education. I was nervous starting my graduate program, because I was the youngest incoming student, as well as the only student to not already hold a Master's degree. However, I never feel left behind in my classes, and frequently draw on talking points and notes that I acquired throughout my time at Tech. I credit any current and future success to the HTS faculty, curriculum, and department!