Health and Wellness

Natalie Sampson named Distinguished Professor of the Year

lblouin — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 12:32:16 +0000

Natalie Sampson named Distinguished Professor of the Year lblouin Wed, 04/16/2025 - 08:32

Anyone who knows Natalie Sampson knows one of her more endearing (and perhaps Midwestern) traits is her reluctance to be in the spotlight — even when the attention is obviously due. Whenever we interview her about her work, which often has some connection to grassroots community organizations, she is quick to play up others’ hard work and contributions and lower the volume on her own. So it’s unsurprising that it's been a little uncomfortable for Sampson since the Michigan Association of State Universities shared that she had been selected as one of three Distinguished Professors of the Year for 2025. The news wasn't even public yet and Sampson was already sweating whether the invitations for her allotted guest list of seven for the Lansing awards ceremony should include her colleagues. "I didn’t want to bug them — ask them to drive to Lansing. They’re busy!” Sampson says, laughing. Luckily, her longtime friend and collaborator, the straight-talking Associate Professor of Sociology Carmel Price, told her to get over it. "She was, like, ‘They’re going to be upset if you don’t ask them.’”

Sampson’s aversion to attention is perhaps amplified a bit by the fact that, for much of her life, she’s not always been exactly comfortable in the world of academia. She says she definitely did not grow up with an eye on becoming an academic. Her father, who was an airline mechanic, and her mother, who was a customer service representative, grew up in an era where college degrees weren’t necessarily seen as prerequisites for solid, well-paying jobs. But both she and her older sister excelled in school, and their parents were huge cheerleaders when their daughters landed at the University of Michigan. In retrospect, Sampson sees it as a moment of generational transition in her own family — and one that also says something about the region. “My parents grew up at a time when it was Papa Ford and Papa Chevrolet, and people did quite well for a very long time without going to college,” Sampson says. “So for my family, this college thing was a different trajectory — especially because my sister studied sociology and I did environmental studies. I was lucky because my family was always very supportive. But I think there was this curiosity about what this would translate to.”

It took a little exploration during her undergraduate years at U-M to find her niche. Sampson says she gravitated to her major because she liked the outdoors, but not all of the coursework clicked: “I remember taking the woody plants class and memorizing all the different Latin names and the different kinds of acorns and thought, ‘Well, I’m definitely not going to be a conservationist,’” she says. However, through U-M’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, which is akin to 51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, she found something that was a little more her speed. She got paired with a faculty member who was doing research around the health impacts of truck traffic on people living in neighborhoods near Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge. During her assignment, she got to talk with dozens of people in the neighborhood and witness some of the inner workings of grassroots community organizations. “I remember thinking, ‘This is research? If this is research, then I like research,’” she says.

It was indeed research — or a particular brand of research that was coming of age in the public health discipline at that time. Sampson says beginning in the late 1980s, some academics in the field were going through a bit of a what-is-it-all-for moment. There was an impulse to not simply use research to document, say, epidemiological trends, but to try to more deliberately use the data to actually improve, well, the public’s health. This sometimes meant interacting more directly with community organizations who were taking on big corporations or government agencies, or interrogating long-held assumptions about academic research, like the value or validity of “objectivity.” During her master’s program at Portland State University, Sampson got exposed to more examples of this kind of “action-oriented research.” During one of her internships, she collaborated closely with a small nonprofit that was working with residents on issues related to asthma. “I saw faculty listening to residents, and their experiences were shaping the research. I started to see, ‘Oh, this is how it works,’” she says.

Today, it’s easy to see the imprint of this approach on Sampson’s work. Along with Price and several partners, she co-created Environmental Health Research-to-Action, the flagship program of which is a summer academy that teaches high school students to do things like air and water quality monitoring, and to understand how environmental health science can support policy work. She’s also been working with community organizations and other academics on a plain language initiative, which is pushing government agencies like the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to use language that is understandable to everyday people, so they don’t feel alienated from decision making processes. And a few years back, during the planning stages of the Gordie Howe International Bridge — a project that promised to bring a vast amount of truck traffic to a neighborhood already burdened by poor air quality — her team’s community health survey of residents in Southwest Detroit helped push the city and state to agree to a landmark $45 million community benefits package. That agreement included an unprecedented relocation program that provided some residents of Detroit’s Delray neighborhood with the option of moving to a renovated Detroit Land Bank home. In typical Sampson fashion, she’s quick to point out that, in her opinion, her work made an impact because the timing was right. “This result is 100% due to the fact that this group had been organizing for 10 or 20 years, but they took that data and used that to support their argument for this community benefits agreement,” she says. “At that moment, the data just fit into that story.” Now, she says, another group, which is trying to get the city to design truck routes that don’t go through residential neighborhoods is using similar data that their community-academic teams are continuing to collect. The organizers’ work recently prompted the city to propose a new truck route ordinance.

Several years ago, Valeria Cossyleon, right, and Janine Hussein, left, were among the students who helped Sampson collect door-to-door health surveys in Detroit's Delray neighborhood. Photo by Lou Blouin

That community organizations, who are good at community organizing, and academics, who are good at collecting and presenting data, could collaborate in practical ways to improve the public’s health is something that makes intuitive sense. But in practice, Sampson says it doesn’t always work smoothly. As she sees it, the key ingredient is trust: University researchers who aren’t from the community, and who might speak in technical jargon, are often greeted with a healthy degree of skepticism by local residents, who don’t know how durable or broad their allyship is. Sampson says there were plenty of times early in her career where her status as an academic made her feel out of place in community meetings. But that has changed over time — and because of time. Trust, she says, is built through relationships, and relationships don’t arise out of thin air. Nowadays, she rarely feels that kind of awkwardness, namely because she’s been working with the same communities for years, sometimes decades. “That’s one reason I feel like it’s been a blessing for me to come to 51��Ƶ-Dearborn. I got to come back and work with people that I worked with as an undergrad when I was 20 years old,” she says. “Simone Sagovac, who now runs the Southwest Detroit Community Benefits Coalition, I know I have a picture of us somewhere at some meeting and I’m 20 years old, and I have an eyebrow pierced, and I’m not dressed professionally. And now here we are, a couple decades later, and we’re older ladies, some of us with gray hair, still working together, still trying to collect the data, because there’s so much frickin’ work to do.”

In the classroom, Sampson is always nudging her students to think about the practical applications of environmental health science too. She says she’s benefited greatly from teaching the same two courses — Community Organizing and Introduction to Environmental Health — for years now, which has enabled her to continually refine the curriculum. One of her go-to assignments in her environmental health class is to ask each student to bring in their municipal drinking water quality report, which local utilities are required to provide to residents. It’s a simple but powerful prompt. For one, many students discover for the first time things about their drinking water that aren’t great. And even the sheer challenge of deciphering these technical reports reveals that government documents aren’t always presenting important scientific data in ways that are easily understood — which in turns, stunts residents’ abilities to push their public officials when there is a problem. And for many semesters in her community organizing course, it’s been a staple assignment for students to partner with community groups on practical projects, like a collaboration a few years ago where students helped a group in south Dearborn write a grant proposal to support their work around air quality. She also recently did something she thought she’d never do: create a textbook. It has a benign sounding name: “Environmental Health: Foundations for Public Health.” But the content, featuring contributions from a diverse range of leading voices in the field, is far edgier, emphasizing the broad scope of the discipline, including the community-based approaches that originally inspired her.

Now a couple decades into her own public health journey, Sampson senses she might be entering a moment of transition. She says it’s a little weird to look around and see that she’s now one of three senior faculty members in the Health and Human Services Department. One of her colleagues, who’s just a little younger than her, recently recoiled when she casually referred to them both as “middle age.” And she’s also increasingly interested in exploring other approaches in her quest to make environmental health science universally accessible, including ones that utilize the arts. She’s also feeling more of a generational divide in the classroom, especially the past few years. In particular, she’s observing an increasing reluctance of students to talk — “like, at all” — in class, something she attributes a little bit to COVID, but mostly to the fact that young people’s lives are increasingly lived online. It’s something she can sort of relate to. “I never talked in class as an undergrad,” she says. “And I’m definitely sympathetic to students who are feeling anxiety about that. But many of them are going to be clinicians. A huge part of their jobs is going to be talking to people. So you have to practice. Definitely, one of my biggest priorities as an instructor is just creating any opportunity to make them talk.”

She also tries to keep their spirits up. Public health can, frankly, be a depressing subject much of the time, and she does feel like younger generations are living with a different kind of weight on their shoulders as they realize most of their lives will be lived in the climate change era. During her periodic efforts to bring them up to speed on current events, she makes sure to find at least some good news from the world. And it’s now one of her standard assignments to challenge them to do something for their mental health. (This semester, they are listening to a playlist of songs, crowd-sourced from the class, that get them pumped up.) She concedes that this kind of positivity can sometimes be a “performance.” But it’s also something that keeps her own motor going. “It’s funny: Sometimes I feel like I’m just getting started. And some days I feel like I’m ready to retire!” she says. “But there are always opportunities to reinvent.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Health and Human Services

Off

Wed, 04/16/2025 - 12:30

The associate professor of public health talks about her sometimes uncomfortable relationship with academia, the politics of community-centered research and the challenge of getting today’s students to talk in class.

Associate Professor of Public Health Natalie Sampson, far right, says she loves that she's been able to teach the same two courses for much of her career, which has allowed her to both experiment with and refine the curriculum. Photo by Annie Barker

The new class that's giving students a crash course in personal health and wellness

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 20:11:39 +0000

The new class that's giving students a crash course in personal health and wellness Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/01/2023 - 16:11

Department of Health and Human Services Chair Patricia Wren lovingly refers to her department’s new HHS 100 class and as the “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” of the catalog. It’s a decent shorthand given the material: Browse the syllabus and you get a picture of a semester-long tour through a gauntlet of health and wellness topics — from sexual health and addiction to cardiovascular disease and stress management.

The hope, among other things, is to deliver a timely dose of practical wisdom at a time when many students are developing some consequential lifestyle habits. And for Lecturer Bonnie McIntosh, the public health instructor shepherding about 40 students through the course’s debut semester, the logical place to start was with the latest science.

“Making good decisions obviously depends on having accurate information,” McIntosh said. “And the thing about the health fields is that the information is constantly evolving. We are continuously learning about new treatments, new ways to diagnose diseases, risk factors, new guidelines — and even how that new information is leading to new policies.”

In fact, McIntosh’s approach to the course challenges students to see health issues through a number of scientific lenses. Join her at the start of a lecture, and the clinical sounding definitions and discussions of the latest medical research may leave you feeling like you’ve stumbled into a course for pre-med students. From there, things often get more personal, with discussions of things like risk factors and personal behaviors that can lead to better health. And by the end, students are living fully in the public health universe — exploring how the disease issues they’ve learned about are shaped by multiple factors.

The result is a nuanced portrait of health as something that’s at once objectively medical, highly personal and often social. It’s an interesting approach in its own right, but McIntosh said it’s also a great fit for intro courses, which tend to attract students from many different academic backgrounds. “When you have a class this diverse, you try to create lots of entry points so there’s something for everyone,” she said. In this case the pre-med students get their dose of hard science; the public health students can get their epidemiology fix; and everyone benefits from practical ideas for living healthier lives.

For freshman Dina Kanso, some of those ideas arrived right on time. The 18-year-old has had a busy first semester balancing 15 credits with her first job, which piles on another 20 hours a week in obligations. She said she’s picked up some valuable time management skills in the class. And the section on stress is helping her not get overwhelmed when it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

“One of the dimensions of wellness we learned about is spiritual wellness, and for me, that’s helped me stay positive,” Kanso said. “ Like, say, if I wasn’t able to study as much for a test as I wanted to, I’m getting better at not dwelling on it. Back in high school, I felt like that would keep me down for a week. But I’ve learned to say ‘this is the best I can do, given the time that I have, and I can’t change what’s already done."

For junior Tamera Smith, the biggest takeaways have also been the ones that hit close to home. Type II diabetes runs on her mother’s side of the family, and the class discussion of diabetes has led to some interesting conversations with her mother about managing her several interconnected medical conditions.

“I even decided to go to the doctor recently and get some tests done to see if I had any early warning signs,” Smith said. “So I’ve learned a lot in class about how I can cut my own risks by making sure I’m eating right and getting enough exercise. For me, and my health, I want things to be a lot different.”

Health and Wellness

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Off

Mon, 11/12/2018 - 21:10

The Health and Human Services department debuted several new classes this semester. We drop in on a new intro course that's putting students in control of their own health.

HHS 100 lecturer Bonnie McIntosh puts in some after-class time with biology senior Sadé Lemons.

Everything you need to know about Moses the therapy dog

lblouin — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 16:18:06 +0000

Everything you need to know about Moses the therapy dog lblouin Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:18

This year’s State of the University event featured a diverse lineup of guests, though we’ll forgive you if all you remember a year from now is it was the day you met Moses. The debut of Counseling and Psychological Services’ new therapy dog drew plenty of “awwwws,” and the laid-back black goldendoodle handled the resulting onslaught of hands-on affection in stride. Since Moses’ introduction, CAPS Director Sara Byczek says the enthusiasm hasn’t subsided. “I had no idea how popular he’d be,” she says. “The day he was on social media, people were stopping by, asking ‘Where's Moses? Can I get an appointment with Moses?’ People just really relate to dogs, and it’s obviously great to see this is a new way to reduce stigma and help people come in the door.”

While Byczek loves that people are excited about Moses — and the spotlight he seems to be drawing to mental health — it’s important to remember that he is a working dog. Moses’ role as a therapy dog means that most of his time on campus will be spent interacting with CAPS clients in confidential, private therapy sessions. CAPS Counselor Carmen Bell, who is Moses’ caregiver and handler, says he received specialized training designed to make him a valuable therapeutic partner for folks dealing with trauma, anxiety or stress. “Moses is super chill and soft and fluffy, and he loves cuddling,” Bell says. “The idea with using a dog in a therapy session is that someone would get to cuddle and hold him, and that would help them feel comforted and centered as they talk about their trauma or anxiety.”

Moses' official role means that he’s not really available for appointments or drop-in cuddle sessions that don't have an explicit therapeutic purpose. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities for the broader campus community to interact with him. Bell says that if you see Moses out and about, talking a walk, it’s totally OK to say hi, though if you notice he’s wearing his red therapy dog vest, that means he’s on the clock and heading to an appointment. The CAPS team is also planning to have Moses attend campus events with a mental health component, like the end-of-semester exam cram sessions at the library or Take Back the Night, where survivors of sexual or relationship violence often share intimate stories. “In settings like that, we think Moses could bring a lot of comfort to people and help reduce stress,” Byczek says.

Carmen Bell with her main man, Moses

A couple more fun facts about Moses:

The 15-month-old pup is a goldendoodle, which is a golden retriever and poodle hybrid breed known for their smarts, affectionate personality and (mostly) hypoallergenic coats. But you may have noticed that Moses is black — not golden — owing to his poodle heritage. Bell said she specifically sought out a chocolate or black dog, due to the stigma associated with pets with darker colorations.
Bell chose Moses because he was the chillest of the litter. “When we went to the breeder to check him out, a lot of the puppies were running around playing, another dog peed on the carpet, and Moses was just sitting there very relaxed. We looked at him and he laid down and then he fell asleep, so I knew he was the one. That’s the kind of temperament you want in a therapy dog.”
Bell named Moses after the prophet who features prominently in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other faiths. “In the Bible, Moses helps set people free from bondage, and Moses the therapy dog is going to help set people free from emotional bondage.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

Health and Wellness

Student Success

Counseling Services

Off

Mon, 03/13/2023 - 16:15

Counseling and Psychological Services added a new team member back in February. But don’t confuse this pup for a mascot. He has a job to do.

Credit: Michigan Photography

Gardeners can score free seeds at this new seed library

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:05:33 +0000

Gardeners can score free seeds at this new seed library Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/30/2022 - 13:05

If you haven’t visited your local library recently, you might be surprised at what all you can haul away from the checkout desk. You’ll still find all the library staples, of course, like books, movies and music. But many local branches have started lending non-media items like telescopes, camping gear and power tools. One Ann Arbor location even offers everything you’ll need for a game of Kubb—a traditional Scandinavian lawn game that’s sort of a hybrid between bowling and horseshoes.

This spring, the Dearborn Public Library’s Henry Ford Centennial branch got in on the unusual items trend with a program that offers patrons free garden seeds. Walk up toward the second floor reference desk, look to your right, and you’ll spot a simple, two-drawer wooden cabinet that houses the branch’s new “seed library.”

The idea is pretty simple: Anyone from the community can browse through the hundreds of small, yellow, hand-stuffed seed packets and take whatever they want to plant in their home gardens. It’s totally free. You don’t even have to have a library card.

The project is one of the latest from Healthy Dearborn—a community coalition that’s promoting healthy living in the greater Dearborn community. The effort has drawn the talents and volunteer hours of dozens of 51��Ƶ-Dearborn students, staff and faculty—including for the new seed library, an idea university volunteers and their library partners cooked up to promote access to fresh foods.

“It’s a really fun concept, but we were kind of anxious to see if people would jump in and start using it,” said Patty Podzikowski, who helps look after the seed library from her post at the reference desk. “But Dearborn has this newsletter—The Back Fence—that goes out to every single resident. And in March, right there on the front page, was a story about the seed library. When that hit people's mailboxes, our phone just blew up. And we didn’t even have it officially up and running yet.”

At that point, Podzikowski called in the rest of the seed library team, which included a small group of students and staff from 51��Ƶ-Dearborn and a student from Wayne State University. Within just a few days, they packaged, labeled and stocked the library with more than 100 different kinds of flower and vegetable seeds—all of which were non-GMO and non-hybrid.

That last fact is important to one of the other things the project hopes to promote: seed saving. In true library fashion, the team ideally wants seed library patrons to “borrow” the materials and then “return” them for others to use. With seeds, that will mean taking them from the library in early spring and summer; then, in the fall, gardeners will collect and return seeds from the plants they’ve grown in order to replenish the supply. This kind of seed saving is easiest to do with non-hybrid varieties, which produce seeds and plants that are the same from year to year.

“I think what makes the seed library so interesting is that, if we can get people to participate in the seed saving part of it, it’s essentially self-sustaining,” said 51��Ƶ-Dearborn senior Adam Khanafer. “All we need is the initial input of those seeds we distributed in year one, and from there, the participants can keep it going sort of indefinitely.”

While Khanafer said they’re still probably a few years away from that goal, the team wants to support any seed savers who want to start this season. There’s already some basic takeaway literature on seed saving right at the seed library, along with a list of titles you can check out from the Dearborn Public Library. But given the level of interest, the team is also planning some community workshops, which will not only teach more advanced seed saving techniques, but will allow the gardeners who have rallied around this project to meet each other.

In the meantime, Khanafer will be adding more fuel to the first-year fire. He said the seed library has been such a hit, the cabinet full of little yellow envelopes is already due for a mid-summer restocking.

Health and Wellness

Nature or Environment

Sustainability

Metropolitan Impact

Student Life

Off

Mon, 07/23/2018 - 05:00

51��Ƶ-Dearborn staff and students helped launch the pilot project that encourages healthy eating and seed saving.

Helping people heal

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 14:24:43 +0000

Helping people heal Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/08/2022 - 10:24

This article was originally published on October 14, 2019.

Ever wonder why people who are in difficult situations may have difficulty in making choices that could lead to more opportunity?

Assistant Professor Jessica K. Camp gives an answer: Trauma. The College of Education, Health, and Human Services educator says trauma exposure has the ability to physically change our brain and influence our cognition, particularly in the area responsible for emotional recognition, emotional regulation, empathy, decision making, and many other skills necessary for maintaining relationships and connections.

“So when we might wonder why someone who has repeatedly experienced trauma makes a choice that doesn’t align with their best interest, makes a decision that leads to a negative life outcome, or disconnects from important life opportunities or experiences, this may be the answer,” says Camp projecting a PET scan of a brain affected by trauma, showing diminished neuronal activity in the cortex of the frontal lobe.

Knowing this, what are the next steps?

Camp, along with other researchers, are combining discoveries like the neurobiological impact with an understanding of trauma exposure from medical, healthcare, psychology, and social work fields and are working to figure out what events are important to consider when examining the connection between trauma exposure and adverse outcomes in adulthood.

Helping lead the way in the area of trauma recovery, Camp is finding success with an approach that teaches others how to view trauma through a Trauma-Informed Care and Restorative Practice lens — Healing Centered Restorative Engagement (HCRE). This approach encourages people to recognize the impact of trauma exposure as a disconnecting force from life opportunities that are critical for attaining well-being.

“Many systems punish through exclusion, if you show up for work late you may lose your job, act out in high school and you may be suspended, do poorly in a college course and drop the class or lose critical financial aid,” Camp says. “What if, instead of excluding as a punishment we reformed systems to be inclusive as support?”

She gives another example to show how re-phrasing can still get the message across, but use the HCRE approach to ensure the problem outcome is identified as the problem, rather than making the person feel like a problem.

“For example, if someone is late, instead of harshly saying, ‘You’re late. What’s wrong with you?’, ask, ‘What happened today? Let’s talk about it.’ It’s still important to hold people accountable, but you can do it in a way that helps find solutions to problems. That’s what’s best for everyone involved,” Camp says. “Trauma survivors will be more sensitive to feelings of threat and lack of belonging, as the brain has been developed to be amazing at ‘survive’ at the cost of ‘thrive.’”

For the record, Camp’s not discounting the traditional model of trauma-informed care. But with the large number of people in need, it doesn’t always work as intended — the approach is reactive instead of proactive and it is only engaged once a problem has been clearly defined.

With trauma so widespread, there aren’t enough specialists available to handle the demand. By creating systems that heal and include, there is more of an opportunity to create pathways to recovery, facilitate resiliency, and include people in their future well-being.

“Healing Centered Restorative Engagement is something everyone can practice or can be trained to practice,” Camp says. “It’s not about diagnosing a problem — after all, most of us don’t have access to PET scan imaging or the credentials to diagnose. Rather, it’s an empathetic approach that can be used to build stronger connections in an effort to build relationships, trust and feelings of belonging: All are healing practices associated with trauma recovery.”

With the prevalence of trauma, its impact on society — for example, there’s a $2 trillion lifetime cost when looking at the impact of only one type of trauma, childhood maltreatment, on the U.S. economy, according to 2018 research done by the National Center for Injury Prevention — and the promising antidotal evidence of healing and recovery with this new approach, Camp, along with Office of Metropolitan Impact (OMI) Executive Director Tracy Hall and OMI Assistant Director Molly Manley, have come up with a plan of action.

They are going out into the community to teach community leaders, healthcare associates, nonprofit workers, educators and more about Healing Centered Restorative Engagement. To help with training needs and to track the impact of their work, U-M’s Poverty Solutions awarded a 2019 grant to them.

“We believe that the trauma-informed care theory holds water, but to work with all of the organizations and schools who have approached us to come in and educate their staff, we needed funding. But in order to get the funding, we needed to analyze existing data to demonstrate that trauma and adverse childhood experiences are a disconnecting force,” Hall says. “We have been doing this work for nearly two years and have seen very positive outcomes. We are very grateful because the grant gives us access to the evidence we need to continue to move forward in our work.”

And they are working tirelessly to do that.

They are featured speakers at this month’s Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, the longest-running and largest organization committed to serving and connecting the world’s urban and metropolitan universities and their partners; they also presented at the University of Michigan School of Social Work’s annual Fedele F. and Iris M. Fauri Memorial Conference on Oct. 11.

They also provided the first of several trainings to Greater Detroit’s Centers for Working Families Network, a United Way of Southeastern Michigan organized event where Camp spoke to a group of nearly 100 workforce development practitioners and public servants who focus on supporting low- to moderate-income individuals and families achieve goals and greater economic prosperity.

United Way of Southeastern Michigan’s Economic Mobility Initiatives Director Megan Thibos says many of United Way’s Centers for Working Families partners work with clients who have grown up in impoverished neighborhoods and have experienced multiple forms of trauma.

Aware of Trauma-Informed Care and Restorative Practices, Thibos reached out to U-M’s School of Social Work to find an authority in the field. They recommended Camp and her team.

“The team provided a training that was grounded in the latest clinical research but adapted to the unique needs of a non-clinical workforce development and financial empowerment setting,” Thibos says. “Being cognizant of the impacts of trauma can make it easier to connect with others and to truly meet people where they are — in any circumstance, for any purpose.”

Camp, Hall and Manley are pleased with the amount of interest in their work. And more importantly, they are hopeful for the effect it may have in trauma recovery.

“Trauma can be healed at any point in the life course by improving safety and belonging, developing social connections, and creating supportive, inclusive, systems,” Camp says. “By building on that and building on the strengths and resiliencies that people naturally have, we can help people re-engage with life, opportunity and challenge the negative impact of trauma exposure on well-being.”

Faculty Research

Health and Wellness

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Metropolitan Impact

Off

Mon, 10/14/2019 - 05:00

51��Ƶ-Dearborn educators are leading the way in creating pathways to opportunity for those with trauma exposure through a new promising approach.

To serve and protect

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 17:35:31 +0000

To serve and protect Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/18/2022 - 13:35

This article was originally published on December 19, 2019.

Dearborn Police Corporal Foyid Mockbil has Special Weapons and Tactics training. He’s been the first person into a building during a standoff with an armed suspect. Mockbil’s learned about working undercover with a special task force many citizens credit with reducing Dearborn’s crimes.

But he’s never — and he’s been an officer for 23 years — taken a training course like 51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s Alternatives to Violent Force.

“It raised awareness for officers that there is an opposing viewpoint out that that comes from a deeper place than a news article or someone’s one-time bad experience with an officer,” Mockbil said.

Speaking quite frankly — Mockbil said officers have a habit of that — he wasn’t thrilled to take the class at first.

“You never know if you’re going to get lectured by someone who doesn’t understand police work. And it seems that there is so much tension these days about police, politics, just about everything really, that productive conversations are hard to have.”

But Mockbil said it wasn’t like that at all.

“It was hearing from people who have worked in or with law enforcement. They’d share their experiences and how citizens might have viewed what they did when talking about different reasons there’s disconnect between police and the people we serve. Instead of talking at us about it, we talked it out. It was more like the beginning of a healing process.”

Alternatives to Violent Force, a Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES)-certified program, addresses topics like how the public views police action and force, the voices behind behind the Black Lives Matter movement, ways to approach citizens with mental illness, and other areas that lead to healthy discussions that address the us vs. them narrative and why it exists in the media and in communities.

The program is part of the Justice Reform Project and Current Policing Curriculum Series (CPCS). The Justice Reform Project and the CPCS were developed under the leadership of Public Policy Professor Julie Roddy and the Hon. Donald Shelton, 51��Ƶ-Dearborn Criminology and Criminal Justice Program director and a 25-year veteran of the Washtenaw County trial courts.

“We have turned our police officers into warriors — this idea that they are soldiers in a battle to preserve order. But at the same time, they have to be guardians, treating civilians with respect and with safety. You have to be both, and that’s hard work,” said Shelton on why he wanted to create the program.

Sociology Associate Professor Paul Draus and 51��Ƶ-Dearborn 2018 Alumna Omitra Gates, who is pursuing law school, are also heavily involved in organizing each cohort.

At a Tuesday night class, Draus — teaching the group about empathetic thinking — pushed for participation from the officers to give examples where they used discretion while on the job and then talk about the result of that choice.

One officer shared how he was called to arrest a homeless man outside of a store. Seeing the man wasn’t a nuisance, but was underdressed for the cold temperatures, he bought the man warm clothing, got him a meal and drove him to a homeless shelter.

When Draus asked the officer why he empathized with the man, the officer said he was concerned for the man’s health because it was cold and he wouldn’t want any of his family or friends out in weather like this.

The Draus asked: “Are you glad you used discretion?”

After a pause, the officer replied yes. But explained that he’s since seen the man out on the streets and underdressed for the weather again. “Even if I helped him over and over again, he’d be in the same spot again. But at least I know for a little while he had warm clothes and food.”

This sparked a discussion among the officers on both sides of the fence on if giving breaks or going the extra mile benefits people in the long term. Draus then redirected the conversation back to understanding the meaning of empathy.

“Don’t get empathy confused with being emotional and not strategic. Sympathy is an emotional reaction. Empathy is a thought process to see the situation from someone else’s point of view. It’s more about trying to understand someone’s situation when coming to the most beneficial decision,” Draus said. “And I want to be clear that you can still empathize and still give someone a ticket or take someone to jail. It’s not about being soft. It’s about taking a moment — when you can — to do this thought exercise.”

In addition to 51��Ƶ-Dearborn members, several guest educators are involved with the program. For example, Harold J. Love, a retired Michigan State Police officer and licensed mental health therapist, spoke about crisis intervention, de-escalation and communication training specific to people with mental illness; Daryl Harris, a minister/community organizer who is an honorary member of the Detroit Police Department talked about the sanctity of life and the importance of justice and respect from all parties. And Vincent Dalfonzo, a retired 30-plus-year FBI agent, spoke about how law interprets force and how the public views police action.

Educators like Daryl Harris, a minister/community organizer who is an honorary member of the Detroit Police Department, spoke to police at the Alternatives to Violent Force training

Mockbil — at the end of the seven-week session that met for three hours each Tuesday night — said once the group of 20 officers finished AVF, the Dearborn Police Department would have 100-percent completion among the officers.

Mockbil says he appreciated the educators’ views and liked having open, honest discussions in the sessions. But he’d like to see the work go a step further by bringing in members of the community. Maybe it wouldn’t work in this particular program, but he feels there’s a bridge-building opportunity.

“We are all adults, but it can be uncomfortable having real conversations with people we have preconceived notions about or who we don’t understand. But to get to a place of understanding, conversations need to take place. I’ve gained a lot by learning how I can be seen by someone who doesn’t know me,” Mockbil said. “Maybe one way to continue the healing process is to bring in community members to learn about police pressures and then have us work together — when we have an understanding of each other — on ways we can do things better. If that happens, sign me up.”

Health and Wellness

Leadership

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Thu, 12/19/2019 - 06:00

With hashtags and history at times grouping authority and the public on opposing sides, what can be done to bring everyone back together? Police officers are working with educators to understand the public point of view during the campus-created Alternatives to Violent Force training.

Associate Professor Paul Draus speaks about empathetic thinking with officers and listens while officers share examples of showing empathy on the job.

New Health Communication Certificate offers personal and professional benefits

stuxbury — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 01:28:08 +0000

New Health Communication Certificate offers personal and professional benefits stuxbury Mon, 08/08/2022 - 21:28

Health is a central part of life. Whether you are a caregiver, medical professional or just want answers to a health concern, nearly everyone seeks information to keep ourselves and our loved ones in the best health possible.

But, even with its importance in nearly everything we do, communication surrounding health can be confusing, difficult and ineffective.

So 51��Ƶ-Dearborn professors designed a new Health Communication Certificate to promote professional competence and personal confidence.

Associate Professor Nick Iannarino

“Quality health communication is crucial to success in healthcare encounters. It can affect policy, save time and money in an already unwieldy healthcare system, and provide a critical source of confidence and coping ability among patients, healthcare providers and family caregivers,” said Health Communication Associate Professor Nick Iannarino, who is the certificate’s faculty adviser.

The 16-credit program, which begins this fall, focuses on helping people become better producers and consumers of messages about health and wellness. Students in the program can choose from a wide variety of courses that include risk and crisis communication, psychology of aging, medical ethics, community organizing for health, environmental filmmaking, and more.

The certificate can be added to any student’s major. Iannarino said the appeal goes beyond the obvious medical career — it will prepare people who want to work in marketing, public relations, journalism, public health or public policy. “With a society that continues to become older and more diverse, our healthcare needs and the job market in health-related fields will continue to grow.”

Additionally, he said the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) was recently updated to have a larger focus on social sciences — like self identity and social economic impacts — because of the roles those play in health outcomes. “This certificate provides students with a range of psychosocial health courses, which can help better prepare 51��Ƶ-Dearborn graduates for post-graduate medical programs.”

Guest students who are not enrolled in a 51��Ƶ-Dearborn program can also earn the certificate if they have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.

Iannarino said that the past 15 years has brought forth necessary conversations about health in the United States — like healthcare reform, climate change, racial/socioeconomic inequality, the proliferation of social media, healthcare technology, an aging society and beyond. But no event has demonstrated the need for effective health communication quite like COVID-19.

“From a health communication perspective, COVID-19 and the information surrounding it showed us the importance of good communication and the dangers of ineffective communication across all areas — interpersonal, organizational, community, intercultural and mass/social media,” he said. “Effective communication surrounding health can provide benefits at individual, family and community levels. Better communication creates trusting, strong relationships, and that leads to better health outcomes. That’s why we want to get this certificate in front of as many people as possible.”

Interested in more information regarding the Health Communication Certificate? Reach out to Professor Iannarino.

In addition to Iannarino, Interim Chair of the Department of Health and Human Services Lisa Martin was involved in creating the certificate.

Article by Sarah Tuxbury.

Academic Excellence

Health and Wellness

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Language, Culture, and the Arts

College of Business

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Off

Tue, 08/09/2022 - 01:27

The 16-credit program, which begins this fall, focuses on helping students become better producers and consumers of messages about health and wellness.

Inside the child welfare course that’s changing students’ lives

lblouin — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 14:12:50 +0000

Inside the child welfare course that’s changing students’ lives lblouin Wed, 01/12/2022 - 09:12

Lecturer Lacea Zavala’s Child Maltreatment and Trauma course carries the burden of having too much material to cover in a single semester. Yet before diving into any of her topical lectures, she begins the course with a student self-care assessment. The goal is to check and see how things are going both in their personal and academic lives, how they’re feeling about their mental health, and assess what kinds of things they’ll need to sustain themselves during the semester. This isn’t something new Zavala has introduced since COVID, when self-care routines have become more common in college classrooms. It’s always been part of her course, and in fact she sees it as essential. In teaching about childhood trauma, she has to be aware that many students may be drawn to the course because of some personal experience. As such, she needs to be extra attentive to the fact that talking about almost any subject, even in an academic sense, can have emotional impacts.

In fact, it’s actually quite common for Zavala’s students to share their own personal childhood traumas, both more publicly during class time and privately in assignments that are for her eyes only. In one way, that actually aids one of her early goals of the course, namely to remove some of the stigma by demonstrating the statistical prevalence of childhood maltreatment and trauma. However, as an instructor, she also has to be prepared to respond appropriately to the students putting themselves out there like that. “First, I always acknowledge it and the courage it takes to share their experiences,” Zavala says. “But it’s also sort of a heads up to me that if I see a student struggling — like, maybe not turn in an assignment on time — to check in and see if something we’re talking about in class has been triggering. That’s when you can respond as an instructor by maybe being more flexible with a deadline. Or in some cases, you can connect them with a mental health professional, if that’s what they need.”

Special care like this is essential because the material is indeed heavy. Zavala, who created this course for the College of Education, Health, and Human Services, says one of the primary purposes was to cover the mandated reporting regulatory framework as it applies to educators, social workers and other professionals. But within that context, EDC 439/539 covers a range of topics, including divorce and family separation, domestic violence, substance abuse, foster care and adoption, and the impacts of systemic poverty and racism on children's mental health. Students also get to do a deep dive into a subject of their choice with a special project that asks them to interview either a professional who works in a relevant field or someone who has experienced a childhood trauma. And to both bolster the curriculum and give the students a peek at their career options, Zavala takes the students on field trips to social service agencies, where they can hear directly from experienced child welfare professionals. (Since the pandemic, the format has shifted from in-person visits to recorded guest lectures from folks working in those agencies.)

51��Ƶ-Dearborn alumna Laurel Smith, who took Zavala’s course in 2018 and is now enrolled in Wayne State University's social work master’s program, credits one of those field experiences with bringing some clarity to her career aspirations. That semester, the class visited a child advocacy center that helps suspected victims of abuse and trauma through the investigation, assessment, treatment and prevention process. The featured speaker was a forensic investigator who specializes in getting children to open up about their experiences and often collaborates with law enforcement or child protective services. “I knew I wanted to be an advocate for children in some way, and I was originally thinking about a career as a child life specialist,” Smith remembers. “But seeing that advocacy center and hearing from the forensic investigator, something clicked. I come from a family of law enforcement, and to see those two worlds come together made me feel like that was something that could really work for me.”

Smith says Zavala’s course also brought some clarity to her own life experiences. Her parents divorced when she was one, and she describes her mom and dad’s subsequent relationship as “tumultuous.” “I remember the screaming and the fighting, and the being shuffled from house to house. I always felt stuck in the middle,” Smith says. At the time, and even as a young adult, she says she didn’t really think of that time as a trauma experience. It was just what her life was. Taking Zavala’s course, however, gave her a new “vocabulary” to think about her experience. “As a kid, I remember feeling like I didn’t want to burden my mom with my own feelings, because she was a single mom and was dealing with a lot. But I wonder if I had someone like a school counselor looking out for me, would it have been different? So the course definitely brings up a lot of stuff. But for me, that’s ultimately been a good thing and I think it’s only strengthened my passion for helping kids.”

Zavala loves hearing that the course has this kind of impact on her students. Over the years, she’s seen many go into work in fields like social work, foster care, adoption, and child abuse prevention, and it’s personally rewarding to be part of their journeys. “I’ve always liked the imagery of the ripple effect,” Zavala says. “We all struggle with feeling like we’re making an impact, especially when you work in the field for a long time. But being an instructor, you do feel like you’re making a difference. You have this opportunity to change the lives and careers of people whose actions will have their own ripple effects.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

Health and Wellness

Student Success

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Education

Off

Wed, 01/12/2022 - 14:05

Teaching about child maltreatment and trauma takes a special awareness for how close to home the topic can hit for many students.

Lecturer Lacea Zavala (left), who teaches a Child Maltreatment and Trauma course, which alumna Laurel Smith (right) took back in 2018. Graphic by Violet Dashi

Giving kids safe routes to school

stuxbury — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 00:36:26 +0000

Giving kids safe routes to school stuxbury Mon, 10/04/2021 - 20:36

Graphic illustrating the Safe Routes to School program

Looking out her home’s picture window, Associate Professor Carmel Price sees children riding bikes, skipping and walking to school.

“It’s great seeing the kids so active first thing in the morning,” said Price, a Dearborn resident. “This year, I’ve seen more kids biking and walking in the morning than in past years. I’m hoping this is a trend that continues.”

In addition to seeing friends when they returned to school, there’s another reason why kids are excited this fall: The Safe Routes to School Program (SRTS). SRTS is a federal program that makes it safe, convenient and fun for children to roll — on bikes, skates or wheelchairs; children with physical differences are encouraged to participate too — and walk to school.

The national program was brought into the community by Healthy Dearborn — that’s the coalition that encourages a culture of health in Dearborn through promoting active living and healthy eating strategies and programming. Price serves on Healthy Dearborn’s Steering Committee and is chair of Healthy Dearborn’s research team, which helped secure the nearly $100,000 Michigan Fitness Foundation funding, through the Michigan Department of Transportation, to implement the national health-focused program for Dearborn Public Schools. Price worked closely on the grant with Susan Grasso, Healthy Dearborn Steering Committee member and Healthy Environments Action Team co-chair.

As part of the SRTS program, there’s a "Walk N Roll Junior Challenge" this academic year. Here’s how the contest works: Dearborn Public School students who participate will log how many days per week they walked or rolled to school. The school with the highest amount of participation among their students will be selected to win prizes and other schools will win prizes too, based on random drawings. Top awards include new bicycles. Bicycle racks will be provided to two schools based on need. And participation prizes include helmets and water bottles. The grant will be used to pay for prizes and stipends for physical education teachers and program coordinators.

Participating Dearborn Public Schools are Haigh Elementary, Howard Elementary, Lindbergh Elementary, McCullough-Unis School, McDonald Elementary, Oakman Elementary, O.L. Smith Middle School, Saline Elementary, Salina Intermediate and Whitmore-Bolles Elementary. The selected schools represent all areas of the city and are in close proximity to the streets used for the Dearborn Healthy Streets program. In the future, the plan is to have all elementary and middle schools participate if they choose.

“I live and work in Dearborn and I care a lot about this community. The SRTS program works well in Dearborn because we have neighborhood schools. The goal is to encourage kids, when they are able, to walk or bike with friends or family,” Price said.

The SRTS program in Dearborn is possible because of partnerships. The team of people working on the project include representation from the City of Dearborn, Dearborn Public Schools, Beaumont’s Healthy Dearborn Coalition, Leaders Advancing & Helping Communities and the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Through Price’s grant, 51��Ƶ-Dearborn secured the funding for the program.

Ryan Lazar, who is from the Dearborn Public Schools and helps coordinate the program, is pleased with the grant’s support and looks forward to seeing active change in the community. “An added benefit is that it alleviates vehicular traffic in areas around school, making the streets safer and less congested, but the ultimate goal is to encourage health and physical activity among our students,” Lazar said.

And — just a couple weeks into the program — the results are encouraging. Not only can Price see the increased biking and walking out her window, 823 students have enrolled in the SRTS program and 2081 walking or biking trips to school have been logged.

Article by Sarah Tuxbury.

Health and Wellness

Volunteer or Community Service

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Social Sciences

Off

Tue, 10/05/2021 - 00:34

To encourage physical activities and healthy habits for elementary and middle school students, 51��Ƶ-Dearborn helped land a $100,000 grant to implement the Safe Routes to School Program.

HVAC tweaks are adding an extra layer of COVID safety

lblouin — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 14:09:18 +0000

HVAC tweaks are adding an extra layer of COVID safety lblouin Mon, 04/12/2021 - 10:09

Beyond engaging in the pastime of griping about the thermostat setting, you probably never used to think much about your office HVAC system. Now, with more faculty and staff returning to work and teach on campus this fall, those systems that move air around our buildings suddenly have our attention. In fact, whether the campus’ HVAC systems are up to the challenge of keeping our office environments “safe” is one of the most asked questions about our return to campus planning. So we wanted to take a minute and break down the key issues, including some of the big steps our facilities teams have taken to make the indoor environment safer.

While indoors, your most important layers of protection have nothing to do with HVAC

Before we get into the weeds of MERV filter ratings and how many “air exchanges per hour” is enough, it’s worth pointing out that HVAC systems aren’t our most powerful tools to fight transmission of coronavirus. The combination of social distancing, mask wearing and widespread vaccination is far more relevant to reducing transmission, namely because coronavirus spreads mostly through close personal contact. So if you’re in the office and you and your colleagues are all masked and socially distanced, you’ve already greatly reduced your risk. Get a vaccination and your safety outlook is even better, as the CDC is now saying it’s OK for fully vaccinated folks to gather indoors as long as everyone is wearing a mask and social distancing. Now, imagine this all happening in an environment where case numbers are way down from where they are today, which is expected once vaccination rates hit a certain threshold. (At the current pace of vaccination, we’re on track to have every adult in the U.S. vaccinated by June 26.) Taken together, that starts to make returning to campus look much more comfortable. This isn’t to say that HVAC systems can’t still play a role, but in the context of all the tools we have to fight transmission, they’re more of a supplemental layer of protection.

Facilities teams have improved ventilation and filtration in every campus building

That said, every layer of protection makes a difference, and campus facilities teams have taken numerous steps to improve indoor air safety in campus buildings. As you probably know, outdoor air can be a big help when it comes to safety, and the CDC has recommended increasing “outside air” ratios in HVAC systems when possible. On our campus, our lab buildings already run on 100 percent outside air. This means that air inside the building is continually pumped out and replaced with all new air drawn from the outside that is then filtered and conditioned. In some of our buildings, using 100 percent outside air is not possible most times of the year, simply because their heating and cooling systems weren’t designed to condition and continually turn over such large volumes of air while still maintaining desired temperature and humidity levels. However, some outside air is always part of the intake mix in every campus building. And perhaps most importantly, 100 percent of the air circulating in every single building is filtered using MERV-15 filters. That’s one to two levels higher than the current CDC recommendation. Moreover, the number of “air changes per hour” has been increased to 5 to 6, in line with CDC recommendations. That means all the air that ends up inside your office is being fully filtered and replaced every 10 to 12 minutes. As an additional step, facilities teams are also firing up ventilation systems to 100 percent capacity a full two hours before building openings.

What about opening windows and personal air purifiers?

So if more outside air is a good thing, does that mean we should all be opening windows in our offices if the weather is nice? This is a little counterintuitive, but the answer is definitely not. The reason is that HVAC building systems are designed to run with the windows closed, and introducing variables — like a bunch of open windows — can actually make their sophisticated ventilation and filtration systems less effective. Personal air purifiers are also a hot topic right now, but their use during the pandemic is most relevant in spaces that are poorly ventilated or don’t have any ventilation at all. So with our building HVAC systems now operating at or above recommended standards, personal air purifiers aren’t necessary.

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Want to learn more? Check out the full set of COVID-19 HVAC Guidelines we’re following to keep our facilities healthy and safe.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Communications

Health and Wellness

University-wide

Facilities Operations

Off

Mon, 04/12/2021 - 14:02

51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s facilities teams are going beyond recommended standards in some cases to ease folks' nerves about returning to the office.