Faculty from all 3 SOPH departments lead or co-lead 3 of @UMMC_MCCTR’s 6 cores: Drs. David Buys (Health Research), Seth Lirette (Research Design/Data) and Caroline Compretta (Community Engagement). MCCTR has entered Phase III with renewed NIH support.

Today's SOPH Research Roundtable featured Haley Bender James, MPH, CHES, presenting research on COVID-19 and risky sexual behaviors among U.S. high school students. Haley also successfully defended her doctoral dissertation Oct. 8!

Congratulations to PHS doctoral candidate Kerri Ivey, MSN, RN, who presented at the IAPHS Annual Meeting on maternal health legislation in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Great work representing SOPH on the national stage!

Preventive Medicine resident Dr. Alex Tomar kicked off SOPH’s inaugural Pop Health Pointer with “Good Enough: Lifestyle Medicine Principles That Are Sustainable for Busy Students.” Practical strategies for putting lifestyle medicine into practice.

Last week, SOPH celebrated National Postdoc Appreciation Week with popcorn and plenty of appreciation. 🍿 We were proud to recognize our postdoctoral scholars Hanqi Li, Rifath Barsha, and Chisa Lanier and their contributions to population health.

Research is better when we do it together. At this week’s SOPH Research Roundtable, Dr. Sumedha Chhatre shared her work in health services and outcomes research. The school-wide series creates space to share ideas, connect across disciplines, and start new collaborations.

Proud of one of our newest PhD graduates! Dr. Sabrina Alam, who earned her PhD in Population Health Science this spring, recently presented on Louisiana’s evolving maternal health policy landscape and its impact on access, care and protections. Way to represent, Dr. Alam!

Six schools. One mission: better health through teamwork. 🚀 Yesterday’s IPE Campus Welcome & Well-being Block Party brought UMMC students together across disciplines. SOPH stayed in orbit with our space-explorers theme—because population health is a team mission.

Community health in action at @JacksonStateU. At the 2026 BIG HBCU Wellness Festival, UMMC teams engaged 80+ students, provided 31 HIV tests and distributed 1,000+ condoms and hygiene kits. Prevention. Education. Connection to care.

Want AI and data science skills employers are looking for? SOPH professor Yufeng Zheng, PhD, teaches them — from prompt engineering and LangChain to LLM workflows and AI agents. Learn from experts. Become one.

Mississippi’s goal: 80% colorectal cancer screening among adults 45–59 by 2030. SOPH’s Dr. Manju George, chair of the Mississippi Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, helped lead this week’s statewide meeting at @msdh and the launch of #MS80By2030.

A doctoral journey can begin with one simple question: What is population health science? SOPH PhD students in Dr. Rachel Tyrone’s Essentials of Population Health class put their first definitions on paper — a baseline for seeing how their understanding of the field grows.

Congratulations to Brittany Byrd, Janika Alexander and Dr. Charles Adedara on presenting their Executive MS in Population Health Management capstone projects! 🎓👏 Congratulations on an outstanding milestone!

Better health doesn’t begin and end in the exam room. MPB News spotlights UMMC’s new MD-MPH pathway, where future physicians are pairing medical education with population health training to better understand and improve the health of entire communities. mpbonline.org/blogs/news/new…

SOPH students are contributing to the population health literature. Graduate student Minhazul Abedin’s research on stroke burden, social vulnerability and health equity in Mississippi has been accepted by Population Health Management.

SOPH students, faculty and staff recently visited the Mississippi State Capitol to learn about the legislative process, tour the Capitol and meet with Rep. Grace Butler-Washington of House District 69. Thank you to Rep. Washington and Capitol staff for welcoming us!

The summer issue of the Bower Buzz is live! 📷 umc.edu/SoPH/newsletters/202… Catch up and see what’s been happening across SOPH by subscribing to The Buzz! 📷 bit.ly/SOPH-BBnews If you love what we do at SOPH, like and share to spread the word!

Dr. Justin Turner, assistant professor-education in Preventive Medicine, volunteered and provided medical oversight at the #JefferySimmons Football camp!

SOPH was proud to host the 2026 UMMC Group on Women in Medicine and Science board retreat. Congratulations to Dr. Rachel Tyrone, who serves as GWIMS mentorship chair and represents our school in this leadership role.

SOPH was proud to attend Mississippi Health Disparities 2026, joining academic, community and health professionals committed to eliminating health disparities and building healthier communities across Mississippi.