Dr. Ayman El Mohandes

Dr. El-Mohandes is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and academician with a deep commitment to public service. He has served as Dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center since 2009. He has also been professor of epidemiology at the College of Public Health, and professor of pediatrics and of obstetrics/gynecology at the College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center. He played a central role in supporting public health practice in the state of Nebraska, in collaboration with the local departments of health.

Dr. El-Mohandes is an established researcher in the field of infant mortality reduction in minority populations, supported by the NIH between 1994 and 2009 to conduct community-based interventions with pregnant women and new mothers in underserved communities. He has more than 100 citations published in the peer-reviewed literature, including published works on infant mortality in African-Americans and American Indians and Alaska Natives, preterm births, and the environmental effects of tobacco smoke on pregnancy outcomes.

Chancellor Goldstein stated: “Dr. El-Mohandes is a leader in the public health field, including collaborative efforts to reduce infant mortality and increase maternal and child health in the U.S. and abroad. He has also demonstrated a long-term commitment to work with the public health practice community and to provide access to non-traditional learners and students from under-represented communities.”

During Dr. El-Mohandes’ tenure at UNMC, the College of Public Health received its first accreditation, the faculty doubled, the student body grew tenfold, and the research portfolio increased from $5 million to exceed $15 million in annual expenditures. Under his leadership, several new concentrations in the master of public health program were developed, including Community-Oriented Primary Care; Health Policy; Maternal and Child Health; Public Health Practice; and Social Marketing and Health Communication. Additionally, new doctoral programs in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and dual-degree programs including the JD/MPH, MBA/MPH, MPAS/MPH, MSW/MPH, PharmD/MPH were developed.

Dr. El-Mohandes was one of the founding faculty of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. From 2002-2009 he was chair of the department of prevention and community health of the GWU School of Public Health and Health Services. He was associate dean for research from 1999-2001, and was also attending neonatologist at George Washington University Hospital from 1985-2009. Dr. El-Mohandes founded and served as director of the maternal and child health concentration in the master of public health program at GWU from 1993-1996. His teaching has included basic and advanced courses in maternal child health, including in-utero growth retardation, perinatal statistics, school-age child health, and childhood injuries. He has lectured on maternal and child focus in public health, epidemiological benchmarks and public health interventions in maternal and child health.

Dr. El-Mohandes has served as a senior consultant to John Snow International between 1995 and 2011 on multiple global health programs, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). These projects included the Healthy Mother Healthy Child program in Egypt, to upgrade obstetric and neonatal services in the districts with the highest infant mortality, as well as a health services program in Indonesia, to reform and upgrade services to pregnant women, infants and children. He played a leading role in designing research projects to monitor the quality of services in perinatal and neonatal departments in district hospitals in Western Java, as well as a prospective and retrospective hospital-based study of biological and socio-demographic risk factors of hospitalized pregnant women and their infants.

In 1998, Dr. El-Mohandes established a new distance education certificate in community oriented primary care in collaboration with the Hadassah School of Public Health, Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, which was attended by international students. The following year he organized and implemented the first workshop on “Basic Neonatal Care” in Egypt, funded by USAID and conducted in Cairo and Luxor, which was attended by 85 neonatologists. Dr. El-Mohandes also supervised community-based physicians in South Africa via distance learning methods towards completion of their field projects in community oriented primary care.

As director of the maternal and child heath track in the MPH program at George Washington University from 1993 – 1996 he established the curriculum and developed syllabi for introductory and advanced courses; recruited faculty for the reproductive health, women’s health and adolescent health courses; and integrated the curriculum to meet the program’s missions and goals. He also played a key role in curriculum development for a new track in Global Health as part of the MPH program. In addition, he participated in the GWU/Egypt Advanced Program in Child Survival, sponsored by USAID, for senior and mid-level officials from the Egyptian Ministry of Public Health concerning perinatal epidemiology, outcomes evaluation and technology transfer in health care.

Dr. El-Mohandes received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the GWU Medical Center, and was elected to the Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society. He was awarded the French Government State Scholarship for Clinical Research Scientists, including a fellowship in Lyon, France.
An honors graduate in medicine and surgery from Cairo University in 1974, Dr. El-Mohandes also earned his MSc in pediatrics and his MD in pediatrics, with honors, from Cairo University in 1978 and 1981, respectively. He received his MPH in epidemiology/biostatistics from George Washington University, summa cum laude, in 1991.

Dr. El-Mohandes was elected to the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association in 2012, serves as Chair of the Association’s Development Committee, and is a member of its Social Responsibility Committee. He was also elected to the American Pediatric Society, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others.

The CUNY School of Public Health, which is located in Harlem, is the only public institution of its kind in the New York region and the only one in the nation to focus on urban public health. The School conducts research and creates new models of public health education and practice to solve urban health problems.

About The City University of New York:
The City University of New York is the nation’s leading urban public university. Founded in New York City in 1847, the University is comprised of 24 institutions: 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the CUNY Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the CUNY School of Public Health. The University serves more than 269,000 degree credit students and 218,083 adult, continuing and professional education students.College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and an individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree. Nearly 3 million unique visitors and 10 million page views are served each month via www.cuny.edu, the University’s website.

See article here

Dear Faculty and Students,

I am pleased to invite you to the CUNY SPH’s first Student Project Week and Research Symposium to be held at the Silberman Campus from May 8^th through May 15^th.  The event will showcase projects done by many graduating MPH/MS and Doctoral students from across all four campuses.  This will be a great opportunity for faculty and students to learn about some of the exciting work being done by colleagues, to get ideas for future collaborations and projects and to view projects in process or completed by our students.  In addition, it will illustrate the capacity for research that exists within our community.

Posters will be on display in the Lobby from May 8^th through the 15^th and students will be available to speak about their projects on May 8^th from 6p.m. to 8p.m. and on May 15^th from 4p.m. to 5:30p.m.  Posters will remain on display throughout the week so that many will have a chance to view them.  At 4:30p.m. on May 15^th, awards will be presented for the best projects.

The culmination of the Student Project Week will be a Research Symposium which will be held on May 15^th in Room 115 from 5:15p.m. to 6:15p.m..  The winning projects will be discussed by a panel of esteemed SPH faculty who will relate these projects to the broader research agenda.  Following this session, from 6:30p.m. to 7:30p.m., a group of DPH students will discuss their dissertation or other research projects.  All are welcome to attend both sessions.

Finally, we will conclude with a Reception in the Lobby.   Please mark your calendars and plan to stop by to see the work of the SPH Student Community, to interact with students and faculty from each of our campuses, to celebrate the accomplishments of our student body and to hear about the exciting research opportunities that exist.  I sincerely hope that many of you will be able to attend and view the outstanding work of our students.

We hope this will be the start of an exciting tradition and anticipate that others will have the opportunity to participate in the future.

Sincerely,

Neal Cohen

Neal Cohen, MD

Interim Dean

CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College

See attached flyer below

CUNY SPH Student Project Week

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/108/abstract

Link to Research Study (abstract or article): http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/bfm.2011.0149

Dr C Mary Schooling and colleagues publish in BMC Medicine: The effects of statins on testosterone in men and women: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Statins have revolutionized the treatment of cardiovascular disease, whilst other cholesterol modulating drugs, such as estrogen, niacin and CETP-inhibitors, have been less effective. Thus, the possibility exists that statins protect against cardiovascular disease not only by affecting cholesterol but also by other means. Statins also reduce inflammation and slightly increase the risk of diabetes. As a unifying theory for the positive and negative health effects of statins, Dr Schooling hypothesized that statins also lower testosterone. This publication shows, based on “gold-standard evidence”, that statins do indeed lower testosterone. Given cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, whether statins are uniquely protective against cardiovascular disease because they lower testosterone is a key question that needs to be investigated urgently.

See:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23448151

See:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDv7w-r9Gzs

Some basic pointers on proper N95 particulate filtering facemask respirators used by volunteers, workers and residents for Hurricane Sandy cleanup. Professor Jack Caravano

See:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBNrToMF_yg

Additionally, Dr. Caravanos will be providing 3 hour Mold Awareness and Safety Training sessions throughout the affected areas of NYC.

Link Research Study (abstract or article): http://jcm.asm.org/content/51/3/1037.abstract

Funding Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)