ECU Department of Public Health

Join us in giving a huge welcome to the new 2026 Ethnic and Rural Health Disparities (ERHD) Cohort!

ERHD Director of the Graduate Certificate Program, Dr. Eric J. Bailey, just announced 12 health professionals and Brody Medical students joining the program this year. They are Jordan Baccus, Charlotte Bickley, Lindsay Branch, Grace Erickson, Maysa Hilou, Kihyria Jones, Erin McCollum, Gage Outlaw, Lane Sabbagh, Vaishnavi Siripurapu, Alicia Spencer, and Elora Tickle. Each health professional and medical student was evaluated and approved by our ERHD Admissions Committee. In addition, some of these new 2026 ERHD cohorts have started taking their first course in the ERHD program this summer – MPH 6005 African American Health. So please WELCOME and give a CONGRATS to our new ERHD students at ECU and the Department of Public Health!

DPH faculty Dr. Sinan Sousan presented his recent publication on heat risk prediction and wearable devices in agricultural workers at the ISASH 2026 conference in Saskatoon, Canada!

In collaboration with researchers from ECU, KSU, and NCCU, this new open-access study in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine highlights how multi-sensor wearables can inform real-time alerts and individualized hydration for outdoor workers.

Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.70103

Today, Department of Public Health faculty and staff added their signatures to the final beam during the new Medical Education Building at the Brody School of Medicine’s Topping Out Ceremony. This symbolic tradition celebrates the progress made and the future impact this space will have on educating the next generation of public health professionals and serving communities throughout Eastern North Carolina

DPH faculty Drs. Sinan Sousan and Qiang Wu co-authored a paper titled “Assessing the Feasibility of Wearable Devices for Physiological Monitoring and Heat Risk Prediction in Outdoor Agricultural Workers” published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The study was conducted in collaboration with Drs. Elizabeth Mizelle, Jo Anne Balanay, Rui Wu, Guy Iverson, and Ciprian Popoviciu, along with several undergraduate student co-authors. This work spans the efforts of three universities: ECU, Kennesaw State University, and North Carolina Central University.

The study evaluated wearable devices for monitoring heat stress among outdoor agricultural workers in eastern North Carolina during summer 2025 fieldwork. Findings show that multi-sensor wearable systems can feasibly capture meaningful physiological responses to heat and support accurate prediction of heat strain. This study highlights the potential for wearable technology to inform real-time heat-risk alerts, individualized hydration and work-rest guidance, and future prevention strategies for heat-related illness among outdoor workers.

The study is open-access and available directly from this link:
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.70103

DPH faculty Dr. Sinan Sousan and Dr. David Tulis [Department of Physiology], serving together as Principal Investigators, along with Co-Investigator Dr. Nathan Hudson [Department of Physics], recently received a $70,921 pilot project grant from the Center for Human Health and the Environment (CHHE) for their project titled "GPR68: a promising new diagnostic tool to control vascular pathology from E-cig secondhand exposure". Based at NC State University, the CHHE Pilot Project Program fosters interdisciplinary collaborations and provides support for research aimed at understanding the adverse impacts of environmental factors on human health and disease.

This interdisciplinary project brings together two distinct fields of study to tackle the cardiovascular impacts of secondhand e-cigarette aerosols.

The research is driven by a novel biological concept originating from Dr. Tulis's laboratory. Dr. Tulis has extensive expertise characterizing the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying abnormal blood vessel growth in cardiovascular disease. His lab recently made exciting discoveries regarding the acid-sensing receptor GPR68 and its role in inhibiting vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cell proliferation.

By merging Dr. Tulis's innovative cellular models with Dr. Sousan's previous research, which quantified extreme secondhand fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure from e-cigarettes, the team can now test this pathway holistically. Using wild-type and knockout mice alongside human coronary cells, the study will analyze how different e-liquid aerosol mixtures activate the GPR68 receptor to identify new biomarkers and therapies for cardiovascular risks. Dr. Hudson will direct the quantitative confocal analysis of these cellular signals to evaluate biological sensing capacity.

Congratulations to the team on this exciting collaboration, which beautifully bridges environmental exposure science with cutting-edge cardiovascular physiology!

DrPH faculty Dr. Lok Pokhrel shared the following announcement:

Happy World Bee Day!

I am excited and honored to share that my team has received grant funding (over US$ 670,000; equivalent to NPR 10.377 crore) from NCInnovation to support large-scale field studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of a novel hive device designed to combat Varroa mites — one of the most devastating threats to honey bee health worldwide.
Honey bees are essential pollinators responsible for supporting nearly 75% of the world’s food crop types and contributing to approximately 35% of global crop production. Their pollination services are estimated to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars to global agriculture annually, making honey bee health critical for food security, biodiversity, and sustainable ecosystems. Unfortunately, last few years have seen dramatic decline (upward of 60%) in managed honeybee colonies, which is concerning for global food security and public health. Through this project, we aim to advance innovative, science-driven solutions to protect pollinators while supporting sustainable beekeeping and agriculture. The funded studies will focus on real-world field validation of the technology, including its effectiveness against Varroa infestations and its safety for managed honey bee colonies.
We are very grateful to NCInnovation for supporting our translational research that will help de-risk the technology and position us for future investment, company formation, and long-term agro-economic growth of North Carolina. Thanks to my collaborators, advisors and industry partners for supporting this critical work!

NCI News: https://www.ncinnovation.org/ncinnovation-approves-seven...

Dr. Greg Kearney has been appointed by the Chancellor to serve a 4-year term as an alternate Faculty Marshall- this is a distinguished honor as a leader of the faculty for the institution and reflects years of committed and effective service. Congratulations!

Dr. Lok Pokhrel has been awarded over $670,000 from NC Innovation for work over the next 2 years to mitigate mites in honey bee hives! This is a big next step in years of work and will fund a much larger trial of impactful work. Congratulations!

Dr. Stephanie Pitts and colleagues, Drs. Kasprzak, Paluch, and Leone to examine associations between Veggie Meter-assessed skin carotenoids and various dietary indicators. The team found that skin carotenoids were inversely associated with food security and positively associated with diet quality in this diverse community-based sample. The paper can be accessed directly from the following link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1499404626000758

Today, the Department of Public Health (DPH) celebrated its Spring 2026 MPH graduates. Brody School of Medicine Executive Dean Dr. Jason Higginson and the Graduate School Dean Dr. Debra L. Jackson attended the ceremony, along with distinguished speaker Dr. Rachel Keever. Congratulations to all the students for their hard work, efforts and achievements, and big thanks to the DPH faculty for their teaching, supervision, and mentorship.