Written by Juliet Enow, DrPH candidate, Jackson State University and participant in the 2019 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program – Public & Global Health Track
The past four weeks of the Institute of Public Health Summer Research Program – Public and Global Health Track have been an enriching and rewarding professional experience and I am glad I accepted the offer to work here.
This opportunity is foreshadowing my future career, and I am delighted to be a part of it. Thus far, I have learned the intricacies involved in large scale, multi-site research projects and interventions, and the complexities of resolving and clarifying concepts when working with multiple experts. It has been fascinating to learn about eating disorders, its myriad health impacts and sequelae. I also look forward, with much excitement, to prepare and present an abstract, which would lay the foundation for the publication of a manuscript with my mentor.
I work at the Center for Healthy Weight and Wellness in the Department of Psychiatry with Dr. Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft. It currently houses multiple grant-funded projects aimed at improving access to mental disorder treatments (eating disorder, anxiety and depression) through mobile technology among college students. The Center also works towards reducing childhood obesity through family-based programs and education among others.
Using mobile technology to improve access to mental health treatment or any other health care service is an avenue which has the prospect to revolutionize, bridge access gaps and decrease disparities in service provision. It is also relatively affordable, available and effective.
My research lab team includes colleagues who are not only some of the best and brightest minds in the profession but equally possess affable personalities. Working with them has expanded my scope of research interests. It has been intimidating and equally fulfilling to have the opportunity to collaborate with professors whose work I have read and cited in class papers and presentations. In sum, I anxiously look forward to the second phase of this program and the knowledge to be acquired.