Description
To commemorate National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, APHA and CDC will host a panel discussion to highlight key aspects of the mental health challenges that racial and ethnic communities are currently facing and what CDC and its partners are doing to support communities in need.
To set the stage, Dr. Anjel Vahratian of CDC will share data on recent mental and behavioral health trends. Additionally, we will hear from the How Right Now/Qué Hacer Ahora (HRN) communications campaign, which is supported by CDC and CDC Foundation on its latest formative work that has informed new campaign messages and materials. The event will be moderated by Dr. Hazel Dean, Editor-in-Chief of Public Health Reports, the official scientific journal of the Office of the US Surgeon General and U.S. Public Health Service. This session will allow ample time for questions and discussion.
Contributors
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Hazel D. Dean, SCD, DrPH (Hon), FACE
Dr. Hazel D. Dean is the Editor-in-Chief of Public Health Reports (PHR), the official, scientific journal of the US Public Health Service and the Office of the Surgeon General.
Dr. Dean is internationally recognized for her work in health disparities and health equity research and policy and has worked in public health at the local, state, federal, and international levels and at nonprofit organizations. She has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, policy reports, and other publications about infectious and chronic diseases, public health surveillance, applied epidemiologic methods, social and structural determinants of health, and public health workforce development. She frequently serves on national and international advisory groups and committees addressing infectious and chronic diseases among underserved populations and public health workforce diversity.
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Amelia Burke-Garcia, PhD
Dr. Amelia Burke-Garcia is a seasoned health communications professional with nearly 20 years of experience in health communication program planning, implementation and evaluation, with specific expertise in developing and evaluating digital and social media communication and research. She designs and implements strategies that leverage the power of digital media to influence behavior. She currently oversees the award-winning How Right Now/Que Hacer Ahora campaign, which aims to increase people’s ability to cope and be resilient amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. She also currently leads two grants focused on exploring vaccine hesitancy amongst communities of color that build on her earlier work exploring messages and motivations of vaccine-hesitant or -refusing social media influencers (findings from which were published in Vaccine in 2020). She holds a PhD in Communication from George Mason University, a Master’s degree in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University, and a joint honors Bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies and Humanistic Studies from McGill University.
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Asha Ivey-Stephenson, PhD, MA
Dr. Asha Ivey-Stephenson sits on the Suicide Prevention Team as a senior scientist and subject matter expert. She also currently serves as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Public Health Service. While at CDC, she has worked as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in the Injury Center and as an Interdisciplinary Behavioral Scientist in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Division of State and Local Readiness. Prior to working at CDC she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Ivey-Stephenson completed her post-doctoral work at Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; received her Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan; and her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Spelman College.
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Anjel Vahratian, PhD, MPH
Dr. Anjel Vahratian is the Associate Director for Science in the Division of Health Interview Statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics. In this role, she serves as the science advisor for the National Health Interview Survey, the nation’s longest-running household-based health survey. In addition, Dr. Vahratian is involved in the dissemination of health-related data from the Household Pulse Survey (through a partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau). Her April 2021 article in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described trends in the percentage of adults with symptoms of an anxiety or a depressive disorder and those who sought mental health services, using data from the Household Pulse Survey collected from August 2020 – February 2021. Prior to joining NCHS in 2012, she was on faculty in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Vahratian holds a Ph.D. in Maternal and Child Health and Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master’s degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Statistics and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan.