A message from our community
Happy 2024! I am delighted to share the UC Merced Public Health Department’s second biannual newsletter with our students, colleagues, and the San Joaquin Valley community. Since our inaugural Fall 2023 newsletter, there have been many exciting developments for Public Health and our partners in the San Joaquin Valley and beyond. Most notably, we have:
- Launched our new Bachelor’s of Science (B.Sc.) degree program with a Pre-Med option that is very popular;
- Received U.C. Regents’ approval for construction of a new building housing Public Health, Medical Education , and related campus entities;
- Published papers on topics ranging from residential mobility and later-life health to neonatal exposure to volatile organic compounds , and received several new grants including a CPR3 -funded text-messaging intervention focused on mental health, stress reduction, and self-care for Chinese, Vietnamese, and Hmong Californians.
We are also excited to announce the UC Merced Conference on Air Quality and Health, happening on campus October 17-18, 2024. Sponsored by a $1.2 million grant from the California Department of Justice as well as UC Merced’s Health Sciences Research Institute, this meeting will bring together a diverse group of community members and organizations, university and government scientists, policymakers and regulators, and senior leadership from local and state health agencies working on air quality across the San Joaquin Valley and California. We will share our current research, discuss new research directions, and discuss what policies, actions, and education are needed to improve air quality and public health in our region. Interested in attending? Register here !
None of our efforts could have happened without our growing community of colleagues and collaborators in local community-based organizations, other universities, and state and local public health departments. Thank you all!
We look forward to continuing to build the UC Merced Public Health community and connecting with each of you — whether in spaces here at UC Merced, community meetings in the SJV, or gatherings elsewhere across the state, nation, and globe.
- Asa Bradman, Professor and Chair, Public Health Department
