over 2 years ago

11 days left!

Dear All,

As a reminder, submissions for this Hackathon are due on Oct 30, 2023 @ 8:00pm EDT. If you would like to receive feedback on your solution or ask questions, there are still some mentor slots available! See below for mentor bios and sign-up links.

Please be sure to read the eligibility criteria and rules (reminder, this competition is only open to Individuals who are 18 years of age or older and U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents who are currently domiciled in the U.S as of the time of entry), and the submission criteria. The judges are looking forward to seeing what you develop!

Mentor #1:

José Arturo Bauermeister, MPH, PhD (he/him) is Chair of the Department of Family and Community Health. His research integrates perspectives from public health, social science, medicine and human sexuality to create behavior change interventions that can reduce the health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minority adolescents and young adults. His work has been published in over 250 scientific publications and book chapters in the areas of HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+ health, behavioral health, and cognitive and emotional well-being. He has received over $40 million in funding as principal investigator and over $200 million as co-investigator in federally-funded research. Dr. Bauermeister is Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow, and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Sign up to meet with Dr. Bauermeister: https://calendly.com/ageller-zt8/sti-hackathon-mentor-meeting-jose-bauermeister?month=2023-10

Mentor #2:
Jen Hecht, MPH, has worked in sexual health and substance use for over 20 years. She is co-founder & director of Building Healthy Online Communities, partnering public health and dating apps to further HIV/STI prevention. She has worked on or developed a number of technologies to increase access to health resources and information, including: revamp of tweaker.org (information for queer meth users), tellyourpartner.org (an STI partner notification tool), mpoxvaxmap.org (mpox vaccine locator tool now run by CDC) and takemehome.org (a home testing ordering platform). She is Executive Director at Springboard HealthLab, a new organization that fosters bold ideas in public health to advance health equity.
• Sign up to meet with Jen: https://calendly.com/ageller-zt8/sti-hackathon-mentor-meeting-jen-hecht?month=2023-10&date=2023-10-16

Mentor #3

Allysha C. Maragh-Bass, PhD, MPH, is a Scientist II in the Behavioral, Epidemiological, and Clinical Sciences (BECS) Division at FHI 360. She is a Social/Behavioral Scientist and former Scholar with the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN). Dr. Maragh-Bass has nearly 20 years of research experience in HIV/AIDS, substance use, qualitative, and quantitative methods in clinical and community-based research and programs. She is on the editorial board for the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse and has led numerous NIH, CDC, and USAID-funded projects focused on HIV prevention in communities minoritized by race, gender, and sexual orientation. Since late 2019, Dr. Maragh-Bass has led decolonization and global equity work at FHI 360. She is also a 2021 Social Lab and Systems Innovator, as awarded by the Reimagination of the INGO and Global Civil Society (RINGO) Project. In addition to her scientist and applied nonprofit work, Dr. Maragh-Bass is also a highly experienced educator, who has held adjunct faculty positions for over a decade. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of California San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, and an Adjunct Professor at the Duke Global Health Institute.

Sign up to meet with Dr. Maragh-Bass: https://calendly.com/ageller-zt8/sti-hackathon-mentor-meeting-allysha-maragh-bass

Mentor #4

Alok Patra, MPH, is the Public Health Informatics Branch Director at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). Before joining NACCHO, Alok worked for the past eight years as an Immunization Information System (IIS) Manager/Coordinator, establishing the Immunization Information Systems (IIS) for New Jersey in 2019 and New Hampshire in 2020. In addition, during his time in NH, he led the Vaccine Documentation/Technology Branch during the COVID-19 pandemic and MPX outbreaks. Alok received his Master of Public Health from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). He has been in the US Army Reserve since 2015 and is currently in school to become an Army Officer. Alok was born and raised in India. He enjoys playing cricket, running, hiking, and spending time with family and friends.

Mentor #5

Jessica Willoughby, PhD, MA, is an associate professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Dr. Willoughby’s research focuses on how media, including digital media, can have a positive impact on health. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to health communication, drawing from the communication, psychology, health behavior and public health disciplines. She is especially interested in conducting research that has a positive impact on participants and the community. She has collaborated on a number of projects that have effectively used theory to benefit the health of adolescents and young adults. For such work, she has received awards including the Science Matters award from the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (now SHIFT NC) and the Graduate Education Advancement Board Impact Award from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her two research tracks focus on: (1) the potential for communication strategies to improve adolescent and young adult health, and (2) the processes through which media impacts health outcomes as a precursor to intervention. She is experienced in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. She was a member of the National Academies committee that authored the report Sexually Transmitted Infections: Adopting a Sexual Health Paradigm.

Sign up to meet with Dr. Willoughby: All Sessions have been filled. Please email us at STIHackathon@nas.edu and we will see if we can arrange a time.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the hackathon, please post on the discussion forum.