Health Access and Quality
Investigating and improving access to care and opportunities for healthy living.
In 2024, Department of Physical Therapy faculty Shane Koppenhaver, PT, PhD, Clinical Professor and Associate Chair, and Laurel Proulx, PT, DPT, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, received a four-year $2.5 million grant award from the Department of Defense to test a novel intervention for female service members suffering from debilitating chronic pelvic pain. The potential outcomes of this research could include better access to care and rapid yet effective treatment, expediting service members’ return to duty.
Each academic semester, the Public Health Fair takes place underneath the Interstate 35 overpass near Baylor’s campus—utilizing the same unassuming concrete where Church Under the Bridge holds outdoor worship services on Sundays. The fair’s outreach serves as an opportunity for Waco’s underserved residents to gain vital information about their own health, and it provides real-world immersive learning through a blend of academics and service for Public Health students.
Congratulations to the 2024-2025 Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences internal seed funding award recipients! In addition to the Robbins College Research Program, this year saw the introduction of two new internal funding programs: the Pedagogical Scholarship Award Program and the Dr. Mike and Mrs. Micki Maris Endowed Seed Fund for Student Research.
As the Christmas season inspires a spirit of generosity, Kathryn Janda-Thomte, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health, shares information about food insecurity mitigation and advice for those interested in improving healthy food access to promote health equity in underserved communities.
Matt Asare, PhD, MPH, MBA, CHES, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health, has received a five-year, $2.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cooperative Agreement Award (U01) award in partnership with Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah, PhD, Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and Nadia Sam-Agudu, MD, Professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana, Pro Mundo. The addition of those last two words to Baylor’s longstanding motto mirrors the university’s mission statement (“for worldwide leadership and service”), and highlights Baylor’s global impact as a Christian research university.
Baylor faculty have long conducted groundbreaking research with a worldwide bent, and that continues today. For a few examples, let’s take a trip across campus and around the globe:
Chemical Insights Research Institute (CIRI) has established the Protecting Community Health (PCH) Task Force—to be led by Baylor University's Debra Harris, PhD—to generate guidance for populations in the wildland urban interface (WUI). The guidance will inform on environmental health hazards associated with wildfires and outline strategies for reducing human health risks before, during, and after a fire.
Matt Asare, PhD, MPH, MBA, CHES, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health in Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R21) award through the Fogarty International Center for his proposal, “Development of Implementation Toolkits to Promote HPV Self-sampling Behavior among Women Living with HIV in Ghana.”