Dr. Jennifer Toller Erausquin, associate professor in the Department of Public Health Education, has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the Thomas Undergraduate Research Mentor Award in the tenured faculty category.
For Lexi Kier, sport has always been more than competition — it’s an intersection of joy and loss, community and pressure, and resilience and vulnerability. As a doctoral student in public health education at UNC Greensboro, she is building a research agenda that challenges how institutions understand athletes, particularly Black athletes.
Our goal is to ensure the athlete is getting all of the benefits sport participation can offer.
Louise Vincent knew she wanted to make an impact on public health, but she didn’t know what her calling would be in that field until she was a student obtaining her master’s degree at UNCG.
Public Health Education Alumna Dr. Shemeka Thorpe is the 2025 recipient of the American Public Health Association Sexual and Reproductive Health Section Early Career Professional Award.
We want everyone to feel like they belong here, which will help us all enjoy UNCG and be more connected.
When 20-year-old A’myah Wilson traveled to the Dominican Republic in July as part of a UNCG study abroad trip, she knew it would open her eyes to public health in other nations. What she wasn’t expecting was for it to reshape her philosophy on patient treatment.
Kennedy Strong, a Public Health Education student, is the 2025 student recipient of the Gladys Strawn Bullard award.
I want to work in public health advocacy. Doing work in marginalized and underserved communities is my goal. With Dr. Michael Perko, he helped me to establish what I wanted to do, and that also led me to meeting other wonderful professors of the Public Health (Education) Department, like Professor (Suzanne) Hunt.
Dr. Mike Perko’s 500 Fist Bumps initiative made more than 1,200 connections among youth athletes, coaches, and officials at a recent high school lacrosse tournament in Greensboro. The teams were challenged to connect with each other on the field for three minutes. Athletes held connection coins with their team’s logo on the front and a QR code on the back, walked to someone they didn’t know, and connected with them by trading coins and scanning the QR codes. In nine minutes, more than 1,200 connections were made, which resulted in breaking down barriers, reducing stress, making friendships and creating a sense of goodwill and sportsmanship.
