Liese receives Arnold School 2011 Research Award

Dr. Angela Liese, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, received the Arnold School of Public Health (ASPH) 2011 Research Award. The award recognizes a faculty member's outstanding scholarly research achievement; their impact on the discipline; and their creativity in research. Nominations for the awards are made by ASPH faculty members. "I am very honored to have received this award. The kind of public health research we do is really team science. So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the colleagues, staff, and students who are contributing to the success of our research," said Liese. Liese's research falls into three broad, overlapping areas, including nutritional epidemiology, diabetes epidemiology, and food access and the built food environment. "My research interests include understanding the interrelationship of nutrition with obesity-related health outcomes from an ecological perspective, including individual behaviors, social relationships in households, neighborhoods and communities," said Liese. Liese's most current research efforts focus on so called "food deserts." Several US federal and policy-relevant agencies have recently initiated efforts to combat poor access to healthy food choices in the country. Liese's research focuses on the key measures of access used for identification of food deserts. This research builds on projects funded by NIH/ NCI (National Institutes of Health/ National Cancer Institute). Access to food retail outlets is increasingly being thought of as a potentially significant determinant of dietary behaviors. Since 2000, Liese has been involved with SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth, which is a multi-center study funded by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and NIDDK (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases). Liese said, "The SEARCH study has greatly contributed to understanding the burden of diabetes in children and adolescents, including in all major race/ethnic groups in the US. SEARCH is likely the largest epidemiologic study of diabetes in the US." The SEARCH study developed a unique surveillance system for pediatric diabetes, designed explicitly to assess prevalence and incidence of all types of diabetes (including type 1 and type 2) in children and youth through data collected in six centers across the nation, including South Carolina. "The SEARCH data present a truly unique resource for student and faculty-led research. Being part of the SEARCH study effort has allowed not only my own diabetes research to flourish, but several colleagues at the Arnold School with opportunities to receive federal grants and students with publication and fellowship opportunities," said Liese. Liese values her opportunity to advise, mentor, and collaborate with as many junior colleagues as possible. "I regularly review grant applications and have held various workshops on grant writing and budget development for my colleagues. I'm also always available for individual meetings. If there is a way for others to use my research as a springboard for their own research, I'm all for it," said Liese. Since 2008, Liese has served as the Director of the Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities, part of the ASPH. The Center is comprised of an increasing number of Affiliated Scholars, which are invited colleagues interested in nutrition and health disparities. To engage Affiliated Scholars, USC faculty, staff, and students, the Center hosts monthly seminar series featuring expert speakers, and this past spring Liese organized a scientific symposium entitled "Healthy Eating in Context: The Role of the Political, Physical, Economic, and Social Structures in Nutrition." "Opportunities for USC researchers to network around nutrition and health disparities issues are an important asset for the University. The symposium and seminar series facilitate an exchange of new ideas that have led to multi-disciplinary collaborations, which is essential for the development of innovative approaches to address public health concerns," said Liese. Liese now joins other Affiliated Scholars that are previous recipients of the ASPH Faculty Research Award: Drs. Russell Pate (1995), Beth Mayer-Davis (2002), James Hébert (2004), Andrew B. Lawson (2005); and Sara Wilcox (2007).

Project director and faculty member from the College of Social Work, Dr. Darcy Freedman and colleagues have designed the project to include various strategies aimed to improve community access.

“We are putting the farmers market in the very place that people are most likely to think about health. In addition to increasing physical access, we will also address economic access. To reduce the financial burden of buying fresh produce, we will have a voucher program that doubles the value of food stamps,” said Freedman.

Health care providers at the FQHC will also encourage their patients to utilize the market. Providers will write “prescriptions” to be filled at the market for patients that are not eating enough fruits and vegetables.

“We are looking at the farmers’ market as a pseudo-pharmacy to encourage the users of this program to think about fruits and vegetables as the first line of medication people should be taking in terms of improving their health. It’s very much about primary prevention.”

Freedman and colleagues are committed to working with community members to create a farmers’ market to be opened May 2011, with a goal that the market will operate long after the conclusion of the current project. Freedman’s previous work serves as a model for the current project, which included starting several farmers markets in low income neighborhoods in Nashville, TN that are still operating today.

“The community is involved in every step of the process, so when the researchers go away the market is sustained by the community,” said Freedman.

One of the main goals of the current project is to develop a model for starting farmers’ markets at FQHCs that can be expanded across the country.

Currently, Freedman and Dr. Ronald Pitner from the USC College of Social Work have a project featured at the USC McKissick Museum in a photovoice exhibit entitled, From Snapshot to Civic Action: Creating Healthy Environments through Community Engagement. Photographs and related stories are displayed that capture residents’ perspectives of strengths and concerns of life in a public housing community. The exhibit can be previewed from January 8- March 26, 2011.

Healthy Eating in Context

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Puett and Shervette awarded 2011 Nutrition Center
seed grants for manuscript writing groups


Congratulations to Dr. Robin Puett and Dr. Virginia Shervette, each received a 2011 Nutrition Center award for manuscript writing groups!

The purpose of the awards is to provide junior faculty the opportunity to establish research teams to create a collaborative publication track record. Successful team publications are key steps to the development of research portfolios and competitive grant applications. Puett's and Shervette's proposals were selected on the basis their research addresses nutrition, health disparities, and utilizes existing South Carolina data.

Puett is a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and is with the Arnold School's Cancer Prevention and Control Program. Her research will use existing data on South Carolinians to examine the relationship of the built nutritional environment with stroke hospitalizations and mortality. The study will also explore the impact of racial and socioeconomic status on these relationships.

Shervette is a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Director of the Wetland/Estuarine Health and Ecology Lab and the Assistant Director of the Geographic Information Processing (GIP) lab under the directorship of Dr. Dwayne Porter.

Shervette will examine the nutritional benefits of a diet rich in seafood, and identify health disparities related to seafood consumption benefits and risks. She will review current United States guidelines to determine effectiveness in curtailing consumption of seafood species high in mercury levels. She will also evaluate if the consumption patterns of seafood in South Carolina and the United States as a whole warrant stringent consumption guidelines.

The Nutrition Center supports and encourages the interdisciplinary nature of nutrition research, which is reflected in the diversity of Puett's and Shervette's projects.

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