Newswise — Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has appointed Kiara Alvarez, PhD, arsenic a Bloomberg Assistant Professor of American Health successful the country of teen wellness successful the Department of Health, Behavior and Society. This is an endowed presumption supported by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative with backing from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Alvarez is simply a wellness services researcher and scientist whose enactment focuses connected intelligence wellness equity for adolescents and young adults. Alvarez besides holds a associated assignment successful the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She has peculiar interests successful the prevention of younker suicidal behavior, the intelligence wellness and well-being of Latinx and migrant younker and their families, and the integration of behavioral wellness attraction crossed objective and assemblage settings serving youth.
“We are thrilled to person Dr. Kiara Alvarez articulation our faculty,” says Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, ScM. “Her work represents a almighty operation of probe and signifier that makes an interaction connected young people, families, and communities."
Among her projects, Alvarez is presently piloting an involution to amended screening and follow-up for suicidal behaviour among Latinx younker successful superior attraction settings. This enactment is based successful Baltimore and successful collaboration with Centro SOL (Salud/Health and Opportunities for Latinos), based astatine Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Alvarez is besides examining however structural racism impacts children’s intelligence wellness work systems, including termination prevention practices, and what signifier and argumentation strategies tin pass systems transformation.
“Dr. Alvarez’s enactment connected intelligence wellness adopts assemblage engagement principles successful innovative ways, and we are excited to further fortify this country of assistance and signifier successful our Department,” says Rajiv Rimal, PhD, seat of the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health, Behavior and Society.
Prior to joining the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Alvarez had concurrent appointments astatine Massachusetts General Hospital: teacher astatine Harvard Medical School, probe idiosyncratic successful the Disparities Research Unit successful the Department of Medicine, and scientist successful the Department of Psychiatry. She is simply a subordinate of the Board of Directors of the Society for Prevention Research and the steering committee of the Youth Suicide Research Consortium. She is besides a chap of the American Psychological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program successful Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
“Dr. Alvarez focuses her enactment connected young radical successful the Latinx and migrant communities facing tremendous stress,” says Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD, manager of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. “She volition enactment intimately with the fellows and collaborating organizations of the Initiative to bring astir much-needed change.”
Alvarez completed her science grooming astatine Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and received her doctorate successful School Psychology from the University of Texas astatine Austin. She holds an EdM successful Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a BA successful Literature from Harvard University.
She was besides a 2018 student successful the Bloomberg School’s Mixed Methods Research Training Program for the Health Sciences. “The assignment of Dr. Kiara Alvarez arsenic a caller Bloomberg Assistant Professor of American Health is large quality for students and for the migrant communities she has served implicit the people of her career,” says Michael R. Bloomberg, laminitis of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. “Her expertise volition assistance the assemblage further the captious nationalist wellness enactment being done with immigrants crossed the country, and we are looking guardant to seeing the contributions she volition make."
This professorship endowment is portion of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, which provides endowment enactment to astatine slightest 25 positions. The Initiative focuses connected addressing large wellness challenges facing the nation, including obesity and the nutrient system, biology challenges, addiction and overdose, violence, and teen health.
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