Accomplishments: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health

Dagmawit Teka and Francisco Sy (both Environmental and Occupational Health) presented "Career Advancement and Faculty Retention of Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Pilot Grant Awardees" at the 9th Biennial National IDeA Symposium for Biomedical Research Excellence, June 17-19, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Lorraine Evangelista, Joseph Guerrero Lopez, and Francisco Sy (all Environmental and Occupational Health) and Reimund Serafica (Nursing) received the first-place award for the "Best Overall Scientific Poster" out of 517 posters presented at the 9th Biennial National IDeA Symposium on Biomedical Research Excellence', June 17-19, 2024, in Washington…
Lorraine Evangelista, Joseph Guerrero Lopez, and Francisco Sy (all Environmental and Occupational Health) and Reimund Serafica (Nursing) presented "Promoting Community Engagement and Capacity-Building to Address Health Disparities in Diverse Communities: Experiences of a Community Engagement and Outreach Team" at the 9th Biennial National IDeA…
Louisa Messenger (Environmental and Occupational Health) was interviewed by KTNV Channel 13 about "Vets reminding pet owners about heartworm risks as more mosquitoes show up across Southern Nevada."  Messenger explains that in the last few years, Las Vegas has seen a massive uptick in mosquitoes, partially due to the weather.  The…
Chad Cross (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Louisa Messenger, Miklo Alcala (both Environmental and Occupational Health), and Bryson Carrier (Integrated Health Sciences) presented "Soil-transmitted helminths in the United States: using big data to characterize patients and analyze disease trends" during the 100th anniversary annual meeting of the…
Louisa Messenger (Environmental and Occupational Health) co-published an article on "Uncovering the genetic diversity in Aedes aegypti insecticide resistance genes through global comparative genomics" in the journal Scientific Reports. Aedes aegypti is a vector of many arboviruses including Zika, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile and Chikungunya.…
Lung-Chang Chien (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Erika Marquez, Samantha Smith, Tiana Tu (all Environmental and Occupational Health), and Amanda Haboush-Deloye (Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy) co-published an article titled, "Exploring the role of the social vulnerability index in understanding COVID-19 immunization rates,"…
Dr. Francisco S. Sy (Environmental and Occupational Health), professor and chair, serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women’s Health for the "Health of Women of U3 Populations Data Book," which was launched by NIH on May 15, 2024, during National Women’s Health Week.…
Jennifer Pharr (Environmental and Occupational Health) was a guest on KNPR's State of Nevada for a segment on "New UNLV program helps young girls with mental health, body image." Pharr talks about the Raiders, UNLV, Sports and Health (RUSH) program, which uses sports to help middle school-aged girls cope with mental health and body image issues.
Louisa Messenger (Environmental and Occupational Health) co-published a paper on "Genetic surveillance of insecticide resistance in African Anopheles populations to inform malaria vector control" in the journal Trends in Parasitology. Insecticide resistance in malaria vector populations poses a major threat to malaria control, which relies…
Chad Cross (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Louisa Messenger (Environmental and Occupational Health), and Sean Neiswenter (Life Sciences) were selected to receive a UNLV 2024 Faculty Opportunity Award for their project titled, "Emerging Parasitic & Vector-Borne Diseases: Disease Ecology from a One Health Perspective." The Faculty…
Jennifer Pharr (Environmental and Occupational Health) was featured as a guest on City Cast Las Vegas' podcast on the episode: "Is Flag Football The Future of High School Sports in Vegas?" Flag football has grown a lot as a sport since it reached Clark County high schools in 2012. Recently approved to debut at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles,…