Graduate and Postdoctoral Training

(DECEMBER 11, 2020) William Raszka, M.D., professor of pediatrics, commented on COVID-19 transmission among schoolchildren in a National Review article, titled "The New York Times’ Shifting Narrative on School COVID Closures."

This fall, Larner College of Medicine Class of 2023 medical students participated in the largest and most comprehensive public health project ever completed by a University of Vermont medical student class – an unprecedented activity during an unprecedented pandemic. On December 10 and 11, 17 Public Health Projects featuring findings from a statewide survey were shared at a Virtual Poster Session and Community Celebration.

Dr. Elias Klemperer, a VCBH Project Leader and UVM assistant professor of psychiatry, has been awarded a Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network Rapid Innovation Grant (JCOIN) (J-RIG), a mechanism that supports small research studies on newly emerging policies, practices or interventions that address prevention and treatment of opioid use disorder in justice settings. Dr. Richard Rawson, professor of psychiatry at VCBH will be a co-investigator with Dr. Klemperer on the two-year study.

(DECEMBER 7, 2020) Mercedes Avila, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the Vermont Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (VT LEND) Program, discussed vaccine distribution among underserved communities in a story on local CBS affiliate WCAX-TV.

Marissa N. Coleman, Psy.D., has been appointed as a wellbeing advisor at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont.

University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Professor of Medicine, Associate Dean for Public Health and Health Policy, and Senior Advisor to the Dean, Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., has been named the University of Vermont's 2019–2020 recipient of the President’s Distinguished University Citizenship and Service Award in recognition of her innovative teaching, creative leadership and service to the University of Vermont community.

This week, the University of Vermont's Dana Medical Library, in conjunction with representatives from the UVM Larner College of Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, the Office of Medical Communications, and medical students from the College's Student National Medical Association, Latino Medical Student Association, Social Justice Coalition, and the gender & Sexuality Alliance launched a digital resource collection called "Together We Learn."

The November 2020 Special Issue of Preventive Medicine is the seventh in a series that focuses on behavior change, health, and health disparities. Edited by VCBH Director Stephen T. Higgins, PhD, this year's issue highlights some current challenges in tobacco control and regulatory science and features researchers that participated in the VCBH 7th Annual Conference held in October 2019.

(NOVEMBER 27, 2020) Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for public health and health policy and professor of medicine, was quoted in a Boston Globe article, titled "Vermont has now been hard hit by the coronavirus. What happened?"

Three University of Vermont professors, include Professor of Biochemistry Christopher Francklyn, Ph.D., have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society, for their outstanding contributions to science.

The Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering formally inducted Larner College of Medicine Dean and Professor of Medicine Richard L. Page, M.D., Professor of Pharmacology Frances Carr, Ph.D., and Professor of Biochemistry Christopher Francklyn, Ph.D., at the Academy's annual meeting on October 26, 2020.

(NOVEMBER 23, 2020) Benjamin Lee, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, discusses when it is safe to begin opening schools in an interview with WCAX-TV anchor Darren Perron in a segment, titled "What goes into deciding when it’s safe to open schools."

Andrea Villanti, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of psychiatry and psychological science at the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH), Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont, has been named to Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers™ list of the world’s most influential researchers, based on the number of times her published studies have been cited by other researchers over the past decade.

Can schools safely remain open or reopen during periods of significant community spread of COVID-19? According to predictions from a UVM model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the school setting, yes – if appropriate precautions are followed both in school and in the community.

UVM faculty members Andrea Villanti, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of psychiatry, and William Copeland, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, have been named to a list of the world’s most influential researchers - the Highly Cited Researchers list is compiled and published annually by Clarivate Analytics.

An internationally recognized physician-scientist, Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., has a decades-long history of leadership in the field of vaccine testing and development. In 2001, she launched the UVM Vaccine Testing Center (VTC), and since then, the VTC has grown to assume a prominent role in the development and evaluation of vaccines for globally important infectious diseases. The VTC has garnered support from the National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Defense, among others. Kirkpatrick is also principal investigator and director of UVM’s Translational Global Infectious Disease Research Center of Biomedical Research Excellence and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

University of Vermont Professor of Medicine Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., has been selected to receive one of the inaugural American Lung Association COVID-19 Action Initiative's COVID-19 and Respiratory Virus Research Award.

(NOVEMBER 6, 2020) James Hudziak, M.D., Director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families, creator and director of the UVM Wellness Environment (WE), and professor of psychiatry, was quoted in a National Geographic article, titled "Why Music Might be the Perfect Tool to Decrease Kids' Pandemic Stress."