Two ATOD Student Poster Awards Made at the 2008 San Diego APHA Meeting!
By Thomas Greenfield, PhD
The 2008 APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego inaugurated a new award, to be given annually by the ATOD Section of APHA.
All students making poster presentations in the Student Poster Showcase I and II sessions were eligible. It was decided that up to three could win, one each in alcohol, tobacco and other drugs areas; however, there were two winners of the ATOD Student Poster Award for the 2008 Meeting! Each received a cash award as well as one year’s free membership to APHA and the Section.
The judging panel was chaired by Doug Polcin, EdD, scientist at the Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute, and included Dr. Mike Prelip, Associate Professor and Acting Director, MPH for Health Professionals, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health; Doug Tipperman, MSW, Public Health Advisor, Drug-Free Communities Support Program, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention; and Kate Karriker-Jaffe, PhD, Associate Scientist and Postdoctoral Fellow, Alcohol Research Group. Posters were evaluated on a number of criteria, including: the importance of topic and aims, project design and quality, project implementation, innovation, contribution to knowledge and implications for practice, and quality of communication displayed by the poster.
Tom Greenfield, who organized the process, and the Section thank the four judges for their excellent efforts.
Two 2008 Student Poster Awards went to Deborah L McLellan, MHS, for her poster entitled “What are private health plans doing (or not) about smoking cessation?”; and Samrat Yeramaneni, MBBS, whose poster was entitled: “Predictors of alcohol use and binge drinking using social cognitive theory among Asian Indian international college students”.
Deborah is at the Heller School for Social Policy, Brandeis University, while Samrat is in the Health Promotion and Education program at the University of Cincinnati.
Tom presented the awards at the Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony. We congratulate both Deborah and Sam for being the 2008 Student poster Award winners!
We urge public health and other faculty to encourage students to submit posters and be considered for the ATOD Student Poster Awards at the 2009 Annual Meeting.