The PHE faculty are back from a busy summer and ready for the new academic year. Below are a few highlights from the many activities that took place over the summer months.
- Drs. Amanda Tanner and Kelly Rulison both presented research at the Society for Prevention Research’s annual meeting in May. Dr. Rulison co-facilitated a pre-conference workshop about Promising Practices in Teaching as Applied to Prevention Science and presented work from the myPlaybook research project (about using the Multiphase Optimization Strategy to engineer a better substance use prevention program for college student athletes). She also presented from the PROSPER peers research group (about the diffusion of intervention effects) and led a brief discussion about social networks. Dr. Tanner presented a talk about the Care Initiative, an HIV linkage to care program, from her work with the Adolescent Trials Network. Tanner also met with an NIH program officer, PHE’s Drs. Wyrick and Milroy, and 2 colleagues from Penn State: Drs. Linda Collins & Kari Kugler) to prepare for an R01 grant application.
- Dr. David Wyrick kicked off his summer with a visit to New York City and Bend, Oregon with his family! Highlights of his trip included seeing the NYC Broadway musical “Matilda,” along with paddle boarding, kayaking, hiking, spelunking, and tubing in Oregon. He also completed the first year of the Institute to Promote Athlete Health and Wellness and started two major projects related to myPlaybook. The first is an NCAA-funded process pilot of myPlaybook with over 110 NCAA Division I colleges/universities. The second is an NIH-funded effectiveness trial with over 60 NCAA colleges/universities across all 3 divisions. The Institute was awarded a contract from the NCAA to develop a sexual assault module for the myPlaybook project. They recently hired a post-Doc for the 2014/15 academic year.In addition, Dr. Wyrick worked with Drs. Tanner and Milroy to submit an NIH R01 grant application aimed at using the Multi-Phase Optimization Strategy (MOST) to develop an intervention to prevent STIs among college students.
- Dr. Jeff Milroy started his summer with a visit back to his hometown in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two daughters. He also completed the first year of the Institute to Promote Athlete Health & Wellness as Associate Director and began recruiting over 60 colleges and Universities for an upcoming randomized control trial to be implemented in the fall and spring semesters. Dr. Milroy also conducted multiple myPlaybook webinars; alcohol and other drug prevention for NCAA student athletes, and presented Health coaching for coaches at the National Coaching Conference in Washington DC! Currently, Dr. Milroy is working on the development of a web-based behavioral intervention to prevent Sexual Assault and Promote Bystander Intervention among NCAA student-athletes. He also worked with Drs. Tanner and Wyrick to submit an NIH R01 grant application, was a peer reviewer for Exploration: The Journal of undergraduate research and creative activities for the State of North Carolina, and participated in the Kay Yow cold water challenge!