Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy awards 38 certificates

The Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy has awarded 38 certificates in health policy to graduating seniors. The 38 students, who come from 14 academic departments, completed an interdisciplinary program of health policy course work and research as part of their work toward the A.B. degree.

The 2007 certificate recipients, including their field of study and thesis/research project title, are as follows:

Jennifer Ang, biological anthropology, “Acupuncture and Its Public Policy Implications in the U.S. Health Care System”

Jennifer Cai, biology, “The Medical Education of End-of-Life Care by Hospital Ethics Committees”

Jenny Carloss, government, “Novartis Takes India to Court over Patent Law: Threat to Affordable Antiretroviral Access for the Poor?”

Julia Chandler, economics, “Schooling & Sanitation: Do Latrines in Schools Affect Girls’ Enrollment?”

LeeAnn Chang, biology, “The Influence of Cultural Beliefs on a Mother’s Decision to Acquire HPV Vaccination for Her Child”

Jennifer Chung, environmental science and public policy, “The Price of Breathing Deeply: How Socioeconomic Status and Its Indirect Effects Can Influence Susceptibility to Traffic-Related Emissions of Pollutants”

Anne Conlin,* social studies, “Community Health Centers as Positive Lifeworld Colonization: Habermas and Health Care Inequalities”

Cynthia Cortez, biology, “Disparities in Minority Health: Understanding Patient Activation as a Component of a Culturally Competent Health Care System”

Ifunanya Ejebe,* biology, “The Role of Nonprofit Organizations in Improving the Health Outcomes of People with Sickle Cell Disease in Nigeria”

Maya Frommer,* government, “Increasing Influence: Can Domestic Pharmaceutical Organizations Have an International Impact?”

Olivia Gage, special concentration in anthropology and public health, “Motherland: Global and Social Contexts of Maternity in Mayan Immigrants to Western North Carolina”

Annika Giesbrecht, government, “Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and the HPV Vaccine: A Study of Harvard’s Undergraduates’ Awareness, Knowledge, and Uptake”

Jessica Harmon, history, “Criminal or Patient? The Redefinition of Drug Addiction and the Addict during the Methadone Maintenance Debate of the 1960s and the 1970s”

Emily Hogeland, neurobiology, “Sleep-Dependent Automation and Global Consolidation of Visual, Procedural Memory”

Jocelyn Hsu, economics, “The Effect of State Tax Incentives on the Market Penetration Rate of Private Long-Term Care Insurance”

Kyle Iacovina, economics, “Weight Matters”

Pimkwan Jaruampornpan, biochemistry, “HIV Vaccine Development: Issues and Policies”

Yi-An Ko, biology, “Improving Outpatient Care through Monitoring: A Comparison of Error Management across Inpatient and Outpatient Settings”

Sarah Rosanna Lieber, philosophy, “When Killing Constitutes Good Medical Care: An Argument for a Physician’s Duty to Kill”

Okechukwu Linton, economics, “Successful Implementation of a Pay-for-Performance Program”

Kristen Lynch, history and science, “A Powerful Division: AIDS and Control in Kenya”

Lauren Marziani, government, “In the Name of Innovation: An Examination of the States as Laboratories Metaphor in the Context of State-Level Medicaid Policy”

Palesa Melvin, government, “The Rise of an Epidemic: An Investigation into the Effects of Migration on HIV/AIDS in Lesotho”

Ijah Mondesire-Crump, biology, “Social Influences on the Onset of Type II Diabetes Mellitus”

Preethi Mukundan, psychology, “Electronic Medical Records and Shared Decision Making: An Exploratory Study on the Level of the Clinician”

Amy Ng, economics, “The Built Environment in Boston and Its Effects on Childhood Obesity”

Jennifer O’Brien, neurobiology, “Practice Makes Perfect: A Proposal for Understanding the Effects of Patient Clustering among Latinos on Access to Health Care”

Rachel Orler, biochemistry, “Can Anyone Actually Be as Perfect as the Model in Magazines? Organizational Characteristics of IPAs that Facilitate Implementation of the Chronic Care Model”

Julia Pederson, biology, “Case Management: A Potential Conflict of Interest between Patient Coordination and Utilization Management”

Alexis Pozen,* special concentrator in health policy, “Does the U.S. Get What It Pays for? A Comparison of Health Outcomes in the U.S. and Canada”

Robert Rogers,* economics, “State-Led Efforts at Expanding Health Insurance Coverage: Was the Funding Mechanism for Maine’s Dirigo Health Reform Viable?”

Andrea Spillman, history and science, “Pills, Prayers, and Pin-Pricks: Mainstream Biomedicine, Indigenous Healing, and Alternative Therapies in Chile”

Meghan Tieu,* economics, “Health Care Philanthropreneurs: Bridging the Gap between Philanthropic Endeavors and Sustainable Business Plans for Health Care Provision”

Laura Tom, sociology, “You Lift Your Hands and Put Your Palms Together: Culture in Cambodian Health Promotion”

Lisa Marie Wiese, sociology, “The Reality of Redistribution: Poverty and Health in the District of Columbia”

Sheri-Ann Wynter, biology, “Providing Health Care for Immigrant Populations: Comparing the Effectiveness of State Replacement Programs in Florida, California, and New York”

YiDing Yu, economics, “Declining Fecundity and Women’s Marriage Decisions: Evidence from State Infertility Insurance Mandates”

Ghia Zaatari, social anthropology, “Promoting Positive Mental Health among Youth in Palestinian Refugee Camps”

*Recipient of the Cordeiro Health Policy Summer Thesis Research Grant, 2006