Two BUSPH Professors to Receive National ASPH/Pfizer Awards for Teaching and Research

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Published on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 16:42

Lauren A. Wise, an associate professor of epidemiology, and Sophie Godley, a clinical assistant professor of community health sciences, have won national teaching and research honors from the Association of Schools of Public Health.   

The awards will be presented at the annual meeting of the ASPH in Washington, DC, Oct. 29-Nov. 2, held in conjunction with the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, the world's oldest and largest gathering of public health professionals.

Godley Receives National Award for Teaching Excellence

Sophie Godley, a clinical assistant professor of community health sciences at BUSPH, has been chosen to receive the 2011 ASPH/Pfizer Early Career in Public Health Teaching Award.

The award recognizes one full-time public health faculty member from an accredited school of public health who is early in his or her career and notable for teaching excellence. In particular, the award supports junior faculty who are outstanding in teaching and mentoring students toward distinction in public health research, teaching, and practice.

Godley, who has worked in the public health field since 1993, joined the BUSPH faculty in July 2010. She previously was an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Community Health Sciences, where she taught courses on adolescent health and sexual health. Her areas of expertise include implementing science-based prevention programs and incorporating popular media, such as TV shows, into public health education.

"Sophie is a skilled educator and mentor," said Lisa Sullivan, BUSPH associate dean for education and chair of biostatistics, who nominated Godley for the award. "On course evaluations, her undergraduate and graduate students state that she brings real-world, practical examples into the classroom and clearly explains the complexities of improving the public's health. Her extensive experience working in public health departments and organizations inspires her to teach theory -- but more importantly, how to apply theory to solve public health problems."

Sullivan recalled attending an 8 a.m. lecture by Godley in spring 2009, when she was trying to recruit Godley to the faculty. "Sophie was great! She was organized, clear, engaging, respectful, open and exciting," Sullivan said. "I can honestly say that Sophie is among the best I have ever seen."

Godley served as the deputy director of the AIDS Action Committee in Massachusetts for six years, overseeing prevention and education programs, while also offering practicum opportunities to BUSPH students. In 2010, she received BUSPH's Gail Douglas Award for Public Health Practice, presented annually to a practitioner who has made an outstanding contribution to public health in the areas of education, research, and service.

Prior to her work at the AIDS Action Committee, she was director of the Office of Adolescent Health and Youth Development at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health from 1999 to 2004. She received her B.A. from Smith College and her Master's degree in public health from the University of Washington.

Godley said she was honored to be recognized by ASPH and grateful for the chance to teach "in such a wonderful setting with such wonderful colleagues – and most of all, wonderful students.

"The students at BUSPH challenge me. They make me laugh, and they make me want to work harder," she said. "Most of my career has been working in government and nonprofits, and I know firsthand that we desperately need a skilled and prepared public health work force. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do this important work."

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ASPH Honors Lauren Wise with Distinguished Research Award

Lauren A. Wise, an associate professor of epidemiology, has been selected to receive the 2011 ASPH/Pfizer Young Investigator's Award for Distinguished Research in Public Health.

The award honors a single, outstanding research paper published in 2010 by a full-time, young investigator, faculty member from a full ASPH-member, CEPH-accredited school of public health. The research must have promising implications for improving a population's health.

"Dr. Wise is a young investigator who has, in a very short time, established herself as a world expert on the epidemiology of uterine leiomyomata (UL), commonly known as uterine fibroids," said Roberta White, professor and chair of environmental health, who nominated Wise's paper, "A prospective study of dairy intake and risk of uterine leiomyomata."

The paper, based on more than 22,000 premenopausal participants from the Black Women's Health Study, documented an inverse association between dairy consumption and risk of uterine fibroids. "Because dairy consumption is a modifiable risk factor, the results from this study have high potential to influence primary prevention of the disease and public health practice," White wrote.

Dr. Wise joined the Department of Epidemiology in 2004 after completing her ScD at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her previous research in reproroductive epidemiology has involved the study of early pregnancy loss, benign gynecologic tumors, and menopause in women.

Wise is co-investigator of the Black Women's Health Study, a nationwide prospective cohort study of more than 59,000 African-American women, and the Snart Gravid Study, an internet-based prospective cohort study of fertility in Denmark. She is a past receipent of a Hood Foundation Child Health grant to investigate the role of prepregnancy obesity and gestational weight gain on preterm birth and macrosomia. She teaches "EP857: Design and Conduct of Cohort Studies," and also serves on both the Department of Epidemiology Doctoral Committee and the Boston University Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology Training Grant.