Today, I got word that Dr. Marcella Nunez Smith from Yale University was awarded more than $5 million from the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (National Institute of Health) grant to study the risk factors and prevalence of heart disease, cancer and diabetes in the eastern Caribbean.
This news made me smile. Part of why I am happy about projects such as these is because they are the basis for much health communication and social marketing interventions. We have to understand the risk factors for certain diseases if we are to effectively address them in our community. This is great news for the advancement of public health research across the region! (And at this point, I have to give a nod to Soroya to keep going. Many in my family still don’t understand what I do, but I have to remind myself to keep at it.)
As someone who aspires to be a health communication researcher, I can envision myself working with Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network (ECHORN) started by the grant to address health outcomes across the region. This grant creates a collaboration between Yale University, The University of the Virgin Islands (my alma matter), The University of Puerto Rico and the University of the West Indies. News like these makes me think that ‘oh, I can do a postdoc there’.
Source: Yale Daily Bulletin
Caribbean Health Communication Blog 