Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy awards certificates

The Harvard Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy recognized 39 seniors at its annual certificate ceremony during graduation week. The students, who come from 16 academic departments, completed either the certificate program or the secondary field (minor) in health policy, which was available to students for the first time this year. In both programs, students complete interdisciplinary health policy course work and research as part of their work toward the A.B. degree.

The 2008 Health Policy Certificate/Minor recipients, including their field of study and thesis/research project title, are as follows:

Carrie Andersen, government, “Assessing the Impact of the Christian Right on Federal Embryonic Stem Cell Research Policy”

Amadi Anene, environmental science and public policy, “Cholera & Rainfall in Nigeria: A Predictive Decision-Support Model for Severe Outbreaks”

Chethan Bachireddy, economics, “Increasing Harvard’s Role in Neglected Diseases Research”

Michael Bowen, anthropology, “The Status of Nutrition in U.S. Medical Schools”

Jeffrey Bramson, economics, “Micronutrient Malnutrition: An Examination of Current Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Benefit Analysis Methodologies for Evaluating Program Efficacy”

John Byun, neurobiology, “A Proposal for School-Based Parental Intervention in Childhood Obesity”

Debbie Chang, biology, “Health + Education = ? Prevalence and Characteristics of Health-Promoting Programs in Boston Public Schools”

Connie Chen, economics, “Who Becomes a Sex Worker? Participation and Return to Transactional Sex in Kenya”

Alissa Clarke, psychology, “The Diffusion of Integration? The Development of Integrative Medical Centers in Boston”

Kathleen Demers, government, “Toward a Healthier Generation: An Alumni Engagement Strategy for Project HEALTH”

Denise Díaz-Arenas,* history and science, “Salubrity, Hygiene, and Public Health in Revolutionary Mexico (1910-1940)”

Teresa Doerre, biology, “Retail Health Clinics: An Analysis of Providers’ Opinions”

Ashley-Kay Fryer, special concentration, “‘From Boyhood to Manhood to HIV-hood’: The Impact of Black South African Masculinity Constructions on the Transmission of HIV in South Africa”

Gretchen Guo, economics, “Cluttering the Health Care Landscape: Location Determinants of Retail Clinics”

Muneer Hameer, biology, “Teachers’ Role in Addressing the Social and Medical Needs of Students with Sickle Cell Disease: Perceptions of Teachers and School Nurses”

Xuan Huong Hoang, biochemical sciences, “Cervical Cancer and the HPV Vaccine: Physicians’ Perceptions of the Factors That Affect Awareness, Screening, and Access in Vietnamese-American Females”

Amy Kabaria, biology, “Civil Society Perceptions of the HIV/AIDS Situation among MSM in Asia”

Mojdeh Sheila Kappus, economics, “The Role of Religion in the Spread and Prevention of HIV/AIDS”

Elizabeth Kolbe,* special concentration, “Framing Disability: A Content Analysis on Media Agenda-Setting of Disability Issues in a Political Context”

Ivan Kotchetkov, neurobiology, “Developmental Anatomy and Molecular Identity of Intra-Telencephalic Corticostriatal Projection Neurons”

Nicholas La Fiura, economics, “Physician Perceptions of Financial Incentive Models: Gainsharing and Pay-for-Performance”

John Lin,* economics, “Health Insurance for the Homeless: Why Medicaid May Not Be Enough”

Aditi Mallick,* social studies, “Making Motherhood Safer: An Analysis of Maternal Health Care Initiatives in Nepal”

Sergio Martinez, biology, “The Experience of Local Programs in Miami and Boston with the Undocumented”

Amanda McCoy, chemistry and physics, “Evaluating Trends in Underrepresented Minorities’ Application and Matriculation Rates into American Medical Schools”

Karezhe Mersha, sociology, “For Better or for Worse: The Influence of Economic and Gender-Based Dependence on Married Women’s Knowledge of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia”

Michael Miltenberger,* special concentration, “Pay for Performance and Practice Transformation: How Financial Incentives Drive the Process Changes That Generate Better Quality”

Neil Murthy, psychology, “Battling the Bulge: Examining the Barriers of Implementing Fitness Programs in Public Schools”

Folasade Odeniyi, history and science, “Trimming the Fat: A Historical Discourse of Obesity in the Twentieth Century”

Laura Powers, sociology, “The Next Generation: Moving Towards a Safer Medical Culture”

Angelico Razon, biochemical sciences, “Sharing, Daring, and Caring: Organizational Climate and Process Quality of Community Health Centers”

Brian Rose,* economics, “A ‘Poison Pill’? Explanations for Black/White Differentials in the Prevalence of Severe Hypertension from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS)”

Johanna Ruiz, economics, “An Examination of the Roles of Socioeconomic Status and Malnutrition in the Cognitive Development of Children in Rural Mexico”

Laura Ann Schoenherr, chemistry, “Analyzing the Massachusetts Experiment: An Investigation of the Efficacy of Individual Mandates”

Vivien Sun, chemistry, “Hepatitis B Knowledge and Prevention in Boston’s Chinese Communities”

Arjun Suri, social studies, “A Right to What? The Quality of Participatory Primary Health Care in Andean Peru”

Anna Swenson, classics/Latin, “Naturalism and Authority in Pliny the Elder’s Writings on Medicine”

Arun Thottumkara, chemistry, “The Effect of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on the Elderly”

William Werbel, human evolutionary biology, “Shoes: The Arch Enemy? Contrasting the Kinetics and Kinematics of Habitually Shod and Habitually Barefoot Distance Runners”

*Recipient of the Cordeiro Health Policy Summer Thesis Research Grant, 2007