2020 Awarded Grants | Public Health | University of Nebraska Medical Center

	Name: Chandran Achutan, PhD Title: Developing, Implementing and Evaluating E-Learning Modules on Air Pollution Funding Agency: American Councils for International Education The purpose of this project is to enhance teaching and research activities in air pollution. The project will advance relations between UNMC and Kazakh partners through exchange of scholars and curriculum development in public health.
	Name: Matthew Beacom, MD Title: Nebraska Health Care Association Mentorship Project Funding Agency: Nebraska Health Care Association We provided mentorship to nursing, independent living, assisted living, and long term care facilities, as well as some hospice agencies, as they were navigating the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. This project transitioned into a longer ECHO project for facilities. For more information, contact Dr. Matt Beacom at matthew.beacom@unmc.edu.
	Name: Jesse Bell, PhD Title: Evaluation of Drought Indicators for Improved Decision Making in Public Health and Emergency Preparedness: Reducing Drought's Burden on Health Funding Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration This project aims to improve public health understanding of drought early warning and planning to reduce negative health impacts of at-risk populations in the United States. Specifically, the project will assist in the development of joint decision-making tools for public health stakeholders impacted by drought and improve connections between drought early warning and healthcare, leading to improvements in preparedness and climate resilience. For more information contact Dr. Jesse Bell at jesse.bell@unmc.edu.
	Name: Catherine Pratt, MS Title: COVID-19 Sequencing Support for INRB Funding Agency: Gates Foundation The aims of this project were to support the pathogen genomics lab at the Institut National Recherche Biomedical to sequence SARS-CoV-2-positive samples from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thereby retaining sequencing expertise in-country, improving global coverage of sequencing activities, and sharing crucial data for pandemic response. For more information contact Catherine Pratt at catherine.pratt@unmc.edu.
	Name: Catherine Pratt, MS Title: Field Sequencing Capacity to Improve the Response to the 11th EVD Outbreak in DRC Funding Agency: Gates Foundation The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has experienced multiple outbreaks of high consequence pathogens, including Ebola, polio, and monkeypox viruses. Genome sequencing makes it possible to confirm and characterize the circulating virus variants when new cases occur and can help support epidemiological contact tracing. Due to the significant geographical distance and poor road conditions, transporting samples from the outbreak areas to the national lab in Kinshasa remains challenging. This project aimed to establish a genome sequencing laboratory in the city of Goma in the east of DRC, close to the large Nord Kivu/Ituri Ebola virus disease outbreak area, and train local staff to perform genome sequencing to allow quicker processing of samples and expand the DRC’s sequencing capacity. For more information contact Catherine Pratt at catherine.pratt@unmc.edu.
	Name: Hilary A (Abbie) Raikes, PhD Title: Nebraska Piloting of the Global Scales of Early Development Funding Agency: Buffett Foundation Young children’s development in the first 1,000 days is critical for lifelong learning, health and development. Yet at present, there are no globally comparable, population-based tools available to measure young children’s development across cognitive, language, motor and social/emotional development. This project is a collaboration with the World Health Organization to measure children’s development at the population level, called the Global Scale for Early Development (GSED). This is the first use of this tool in the US. For more information contact Dr. Abbie Raikes at abbie.raikes@unmc.edu.
	Name: Hilary A (Abbie) Raikes, PhD Title: GSED Validation Project Funding Agencies: Overdeck Family Foundation Valhalla Charitable Foundation J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation The Omidyar Group Young children’s development in the first 1,000 days is critical for lifelong learning, health and development. Yet at present, there are no globally comparable, population-based tools available to measure young children’s development across cognitive, language, motor and social/emotional development. This project is a collaboration with the World Health Organization to measure children’s development at the population level, called the Global Scale for Early Development (GSED). This is the first use of this tool in the US. For more information contact Dr. Abbie Raikes at abbie.raikes@unmc.edu.
	Name: Hilary A (Abbie) Raikes, PhD Title: Harnessing the power of global data to support young children's learning and development: analyses, dissemination and implementation Funding Agency: Oxford University, UK Children exposed to poverty and adversity explore and learn less than children not exposed to these stresses; they learn less at school and achieve fewer school grades; earn less as adults; have more social problems, and poorer physical and mental health. Through a collaboration across several universities across the world, we will study barriers and accelerators to learning in low- and middle-income country early childhood programs, as well as associations between early learning and indicators of child development and school performance. We will estimate their longer-term effects on education and earnings in adulthood. We will use descriptive and statistical analyses of secondary data collected through representative country surveys and research studies. As an established group of multi-disciplinary and multi-country experts and collaborators, we build on prior success in sourcing and analyzing data from 91 LMICs by including early education and expanding to 137 countries. For more information contact Dr. Abbie Raikes at abbie.raikes@unmc.edu.
	Name: Hilary A (Abbie) Raikes, PhD Title: SCC-PG: Smart & Connected Childcare Funding Agency: National Science Foundation Measuring quality of young children’s child care environments is essential for ensuring their healthy development. This project, a collaboration across the College of Public Health, UNL’s College of Engineering, UNO, and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, explored the use of technology, including sensors and cameras, to measure indicators of quality in childcare settings. For more information contact Dr. Abbie Raikes at abbie.raikes@unmc.edu.
	Name: Dejun Su, PhD Title: Understanding and growing the role of CHW in improving outcomes for maternal and child populations Funding Agency: Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services The purpose of this project is to conduct secondary data analysis of the Community Health Worker (CHW) workforce statewide assessment data to understand how CHWs can improve maternal and child health in Nebraska and to assess rural-urban disparities in the CHW workforce. Two research reports have been submitted to Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services based on findings from this study. For more information contact Dr. Dejun Su at dejun.su@unmc.edu.