Katie Pearce

Public health meets the AI moment

Mary Cunningham — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:08:44 +0000

Public health meets the AI moment Mary Cunningham Fri, 06/05/2026 - 10:08

Key Takeaways

91��’s College of Public Health convened academics, practitioners, industry leaders, and students from across the country to examine how public health can adapt to AI while keeping equity, ethics, and human judgment at the center
The inaugural AI in Public Health Summit centered on what generative AI could mean for the future of research, education, and practice.
Five main themes emerged from the event: (1) We must lead or risk being left behind. (2) AI can assist, but humans still decide. (3) AI is a new social determinant of health. (4) Classrooms are adapting in real time. (5) Bridge-builders, translators, and critical thinkers are in demand.

Topics

Artificial Intelligence

Public Health

College of Public Health

Machine Learning

Social Determinants of Health

Campus News

In This Story

Melissa J. Perry, Sc.D., MHS, MBA

Robert M. Weiler, PhD, MPH

91��’s AI in Public Health Summit examined what artificial intelligence (AI) could mean for health equity, education, and the future workforce.

The Future of Public Health in an AI-Enabled World with Dean Melissa Perry and Easan Selvan, National Director, Academic Medicine and Public Health, Microsoft. Photo by Heather Carroll/CPH

For a field built to prevent and respond to disruptions, public health now faces a defining new challenge: harnessing the rapidly evolving power of artificial intelligence.

“There are moments in every profession when it becomes clear that change is not simply coming, that it has already arrived,” said Robert Weiler, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the George Mason College of Public Health.

That urgency carried through George Mason’s inaugural AI in Public Health Summit, where conversations centered on what generative AI, machine learning, and large language models could mean for the future of research, education, and practice.

“Today’s meeting is not about AI,” said College of Public Health Dean Melissa Perry. “It’s about the future of public health.” The challenge, she argued, is not simply grasping AI, but preparing future public health professionals to leverage it in ways that benefit humanity.

To achieve that goal, the College of Public Health convened a brain trust of academics, practitioners, industry leaders, and students from across the country. Helping anchor the discussion was the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), whose AI task force is helping shape national conversations around responsible AI adoption in higher education and practice. According to ASPPH representatives, George Mason is “leading in this space” among its 150 member institutions.

Several themes emerged across the day:

We must lead or risk being left behind.

Keeping Public Health at the Center of AI: Reflections on the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Task Force Report. Photo by Heather Carroll/CPH

At this point, the debate has shifted from whether AI belongs in public health to how to use it responsibly and effectively.

“There’s no escaping it,” said Eduardo Ruiz, chief information officer for ASPPH, pointing to rapid adoption across health care systems, public health agencies, and higher education.

Arman Latif, chief information officer at the Virginia Department of Health, framed AI as “less of a tool, and more of a shift in mindset” for public health. While ethical, environmental, equity, and philosophical concerns abound, he argued that the field can't ignore a technology with such potential to improve operations and strengthen how agencies serve the public. “To not do it, in itself, is unethical,” he suggested.

In a field focused on prevention and “upstream thinking,” speakers pointed to the promise of AI to anticipate problems instead of reacting to them: forecasting outbreaks, detecting overdose trends earlier, identifying food insecurity patterns, and uncovering insights buried in massive datasets.

AI can assist, but humans still decide.

AI in Public Health Summit hosted by the College of Public Health at FUSE at Mason Square. Photo by Mary Cunningham/CPH

The summit’s optimism around AI came with a consistent caveat: the technology may support public health work, but it will never replace the people making decisions and serving communities.

Jamie Atchison, senior director of innovation and strategy at ASPPH, pointed to one of her group’s core recommendations: keep AI human-centered, using it as a tool for decision-makers rather than a replacement for human judgment.

In disease surveillance, for example, AI may help detect patterns and flag emerging outbreaks, but people still need to interpret findings and take action. AI may also help tailor public health messaging to specific populations, but humans remain responsible for judgment, nuance, and building trust.

“AI is a non-moral technology,” said Easan Selvan, national director of academic medicine and public health at Microsoft. “Whether or not we decide to use it for good … is incumbent upon” people and institutions, he said.

AI is a new social determinant of health.

Preparing the Public Health Workforce for an AI-Enabled Future: Practitioners' Perspectives panel with representatives from ICF, Virginia Department of Health, Fairfax County Health Department, and Association of State and Territory Health Officials. Photo by Heather Carroll/CPH

If public health gets AI right, speakers argued, the technology could help narrow longstanding health inequities. Get it wrong, and those gaps could deepen.

“The risks [are] that AI can be an inequity multiplier if we’re not careful, but in fact that is up to us,” Perry said.

AI is already influencing many drivers of health, from information access to employment and health services. “We’re really thinking of AI as a determinant of health,” Ruiz said.

Speakers repeatedly returned to one concern: AI systems reflect the data behind them. So, if that data excludes or underrepresents specific populations, the resulting tools risk reinforcing existing disparities.

AI could also improve equity, from identifying vulnerable populations earlier to helping smaller health departments and community organizations access tools and data once limited to better-funded institutions.

Classrooms are adapting in real time.

Banning AI outright in the classroom has become unrealistic, George Mason faculty and students emphasized during the summit’s student panel.

“People are going to be using it either way,” said biology major Anika Tahsin Siddiqui, arguing that faculty should set clearer expectations and encourage open conversation around AI use to reduce stigma.

Students described using AI to learn coding languages, organize notes, create visualizations and presentations, and study for exams. But they pushed back against AI as a substitute for learning itself.

Bridge-builders, translators, and critical thinkers are in demand.

Student Panel: Teach Us What We Need to Know: Student Voices on AI Skills for Public Health Practice. Photo by Heather Carroll/CPH

While AI literacy is quickly becoming nonnegotiable in public health roles, panelists repeatedly argued that deep technical mastery is not the end goal. Instead, they described a growing demand for “bridge professionals” who can move between worlds: understanding community needs, public health practice, and data systems well enough to connect them.

“The translator is really key,” said Tabatha Offutt-Powell, vice president for public health data modernization and informatics at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

“Those who are early to understand, early to use, early to adapt will be the best prepared,” Ruiz said.

Stay tuned to the College of Public Health for deeper insights from specific panels, as well as recordings of the sessions.

Nutrition support during pregnancy improves birth outcomes, global study finds

Heather Carroll — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:07:07 +0000

Nutrition support during pregnancy improves birth outcomes, global study finds Heather Carroll Thu, 05/14/2026 - 11:07

91��-led research finds that food-based prenatal supplements improve birth weights across Africa and South Asia.

Dongqing Wang of the 91�� College of Public Health

In parts of the world where daily nutrition is unstable, pregnancy and newborn health are more precarious. A new study led by epidemiologist Dongqing Wang of the 91�� College of Public Health adds to the evidence that improving maternal nutrition during pregnancy may be a key intervention to improve birth outcomes.

Looking across eight clinical trials across Africa and South Asia, the study finds that balanced energy and protein (BEP) supplements—food-based products like beverages or nutrient-dense pastes designed to increase calorie and protein intake—are associated with healthier birth weights and fewer high-risk newborns in low- and middle-income countries. The findings were published in PLOS Medicine.

“In settings where pregnant women can’t access sufficient calories and protein, it is important to act early,” said Wang, an assistant professor of epidemiology in the Department of Global and Community Health. “Improving maternal nutrition can reduce the risk of vulnerable birth outcomes.”

Why this matters

Maternal malnutrition puts infants at higher risk of death, illness, and developmental delays.

Interventions have often focused on micronutrient supplements, but this study shows that food-based approaches to increase calorie and protein intake may better support fetal growth. BEP supplements can also be delivered through existing maternal health programs, making them a practical solution to scale. Wang is also currently conducting further research in Ethiopia that examines the cost-effectiveness of different approaches to BEP supplementation.

Study details

Wang and his colleagues combined individual-level data from randomized controlled trials conducted in Nepal, The Gambia, Pakistan, and several other low- and middle-income settings. The team compared outcomes for pregnant individuals who received BEP supplements with those who did not.

Key findings include:

BEP supplements were associated with higher birth weights and a lower risk of babies being born with low birth weight or small for their gestational age.
The effects were particularly notable for babies small for their gestational age, a group with elevated risk of neonatal mortality.
Benefits appeared stronger among women who began supplementation earlier in pregnancy, particularly before 20 weeks.

Wang worked with a global network of researchers from institutions including Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Aga Khan University and partners across Europe, South Asia, and Africa.

Photo by Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash

In This Story

Dongqing Wang, PhD, MPH

Key Takeaways

• A George Mason–led global study finds that balanced energy and protein (BEP) supplements can improve birth outcomes, especially in regions where maternal nutrition is limited.

• The supplements are linked to higher birth weights and reduced risk of babies being born small or underweight, with the strongest benefits when started early in pregnancy.

• These supplements boost calorie and protein intake and can be delivered through existing maternal health programs, making them a scalable solution.

Topics

Prenatal Care

Global Health

Birth Outcomes

Maternal Child Health

Maternal Nutrition

GCH Research

public health research

CPH research

Research

College of Public Health

In the George

A future doctor finds a wider path with public health

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 11 May 2026 17:52:05 +0000

A future doctor finds a wider path with public health Mary Cunningham Mon, 05/11/2026 - 13:52

Emaan Emir, Bachelor of Science in Community Health graduate in May '26. Photo provided.

Emaan Amir started at George Mason on a straightforward trajectory toward medical school, studying forensic science. Within weeks, she knew she wanted to expand that path, turning to public health to better understand the forces that influence care.

“I realized early on that medicine extends far beyond the clinical setting,” she said. “So many structural factors affect health. I really appreciated how the College of Public Health helped me better understand how policy, access to care, and broader social factors shape health outcomes and patient experiences.”

Her early shift set the tone for her four years. An Honors College student, Amir majored in community health, pairing it with a clinical science concentration that keeps her on track for medical school while also honing experience in research and clinical settings.

She’s working toward a career that knits all these pieces together, in the clinic and beyond.

Public health, applied

One experience in particular was a turning point: her work with George Mason’s Learning Lab for Community Health through Mason and Partners Clinics' Empowered Communities.

The project began as a case challenge focused on chronic absenteeism in Virginia schools. Amir and her team were tasked with designing a solution with a hypothetical $1 million budget, presenting it to a panel of community leaders.

Their concept won.

“I think our team stood out because we approached the issue from a more holistic perspective,” Amir said. “We didn’t view physical health, mental health, and social support as separate issues.”

That project also led to an atypical opportunity for an undergraduate. Amir contacted her mentor in the case challenge, Lisa Gring-Pemble, associate professor in the Costello College of Business, about a graduate research assistant role connected to the Learning Lab, and Gring-Pemble welcomed Amir into the role.

Amir has worked on a case study examining Afghan refugees’ access to health care and services in Northern Virginia. The project identified gaps in insurance, housing, employment, and legal support, then translated that into a practical resource toolkit.

“One of the most meaningful aspects of the project was turning research into something practical and community-centered,” Emaan said. “We wanted the final product to be actionable and informed directly by the needs we identified through interviews with health providers and community organizations.”

Holistic prep for medical school

Alongside her pre-med requirements in biology and chemistry, Amir rounded out her public health education with classes that examine how social and historical forces shape medical care.

Outside the classroom, she’s gained hands-on experience through volunteering with pediatric patients and working as a medical assistant in urgent care settings.

The clinical work has affirmed what she sees in her research. “Seeing firsthand how financial and insurance limitations impact patients’ ability to access basic care has reinforced many of the inequities I studied in public health,” she said.

Looking ahead

This summer, Amir heads to the Mayo Clinic Summer Research Program, where she’ll study how voice-based artificial intelligence can be used to detect reflux disease.

Building on that line of interest, she next plans to complete the graduate certificate in AI and health care at George Mason while applying for medical schools.

The throughline is consistent: Amir is not choosing between public health and medicine, but blending the two.

“I hope to contribute not only through patient care, but also through research, policy, and innovation that improve health outcomes on a broader scale,” she said.

Learn more about the bachelor of science in community health.

Key Takeaways

• Graduating senior Emaan Amir combined a pre-med track with public health to better understand how policy, access, and social conditions impact patient care.

• Through George Mason’s Learning Lab for Community Health, Amir worked on projects involving chronic absenteeism in Virginia schools and barriers facing Afghan refugees.

• Amir will join the Mayo Clinic to study artificial intelligence tools for detecting disease before pursuing graduate training in AI and health care and applying to medical school.

Topics

bachelor of science in community health

Artificial Intelligence

Social work education and practicum lead to life‑changing client outcomes

Taylor Thomas — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:22:42 +0000

Social work education and practicum lead to life‑changing client outcomes Taylor Thomas Thu, 04/30/2026 - 09:22

Key Takeaways:

First-generation George Mason social work student Evelyn Carcamo is graduating after six years of balancing work, parenting, and school.
Through her practicum at Ayuda, she connects immigrants and refugee survivors with resources
Carcamo plans to pursue a master’s in social work and become a licensed clinical social worker serving underserved communities.

At the local nonprofit Ayuda, one client came to Evelyn Carcamo overwhelmed. With limited access to food and no clear way to get health care, he wasn’t sure how to provide for his family.

Carcamo, a social work student at 91��'s College of Public Health, helped him sort through his options. She connected him to food assistance and walked him through applying for Medicaid, linking him to medical and mental health services.

Evelyn Carcamo. Photo provided.

Over time, she saw a shift in the way he engaged. “He became more confident, more comfortable asking questions, and more involved in planning next steps for himself,” she said.

Carcamo is completing her practicum at Ayuda as part of her bachelor’s degree program at George Mason, conducting intakes and needs assessments for survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, and other crimes. Many of her clients are immigrants and refugees navigating systems that feel unfamiliar and intimidating to them.

“They’re high-need clients,” she said. “But it's very rewarding.”

It’s work she recognizes on a personal level. Carcamo grew up watching her parents, who came to the United States from El Salvador before she was born, teach themselves English and wade through resources without guidance.

In May, Carcamo will graduate as a first-generation college student. She wants to continue her work serving immigrant and underserved communities as a clinical social worker, with plans to start George Mason’s master of social work program next fall.

Shifting goals

For Carcamo, a career in social work marks a shift years in the making.

Growing up in Arlington, Virginia, Carcamo never saw higher education as a given. High school graduation was the milestone. After earning her diploma, she went straight into the workforce as a medical assistant and, at 25, gave birth to her son.

For three years at Mason and Partners Clinic, Carcamo served as an interpreter for largely uninsured, Spanish-speaking patients. Many of them revealed more than their symptoms.

“People would tell me their whole story,” she said. “And then they’d leave, and I’d still think about them, like, ‘Oh, I wonder if they got that resource they needed.’”

Moments like that changed how she thought about helping people. “That’s how I started to realize I wanted to do something beyond medical,” she said. “I wanted to make a difference in another way.”

At the same time, she’d hit a ceiling in her career. “I realized I had to go back to school or I wasn’t going to move forward,” she said.

Carcamo first enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College, then transferred to 91�� through the ADVANCE Program.

“As a medical assistant, I was very task-focused and centered on immediate physical needs,” Carcamo said. “Now, I take a more holistic and trauma-informed approach. I spend more time listening, building trust, and understanding each client’s lived experience. This shift has made my work feel more meaningful and more connected to the people I serve.”

Her coursework at George Mason has helped her appreciate more fully what her clients are up against. “They’re not just dealing with individual challenges, but also bigger systemic issues like language access, immigration concerns, and financial stress,” she said.

Finding her place

While raising her son, now 9 years old, on her own., Carcamo has earned Dean’s List recognition and received the Rose Rago Braddock Endowed Scholarship, awarded based on merit and financial need.

“It’s been overwhelming sometimes,” she said. “I have to make sure my job is flexible. I have to make sure I get my assignments turned in on time. I have to make sure I make it to practicum and get my hours. I have to be at my son’s events and make sure he’s well taken care of.”

She’s steadied herself by focusing on the long view. “It’s just temporary,” she would repeat. “The finish line is almost there.”

After six years of balancing work, parenting, and school at George Mason, Carcamo is now just weeks away from graduating. And her younger sister, now at Virginia Commonwealth University, is also hoping to pursue social work, following a path Carcamo helped clear.

"I always tell her, get it done now," Carcamo said. "It will be so much easier than what I did. If I can show her it's possible, that means everything to me.”

Topics

Bachelor of Social Work

CPH - Social Work

social work students

Social Work

Social Work Education

$1 million U.S. Department of Justice grant will support virtual reality training for domestic violence response

Taylor Thomas — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:05:16 +0000

$1 million U.S. Department of Justice grant will support virtual reality training for domestic violence response Taylor Thomas Mon, 04/13/2026 - 10:05

Domestic violence 911 calls often place first responders in the midst of crisis and confusion. The scene may involve conflicting stories, visible injuries, frightened children, and little clarity about what just happened.

At 91��, researchers have secured more than $1 million in federal funding to help frontline professionals prepare for these complex moments. The grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will help fund a novel virtual reality (VR) training program to strengthen interprofessional responses to domestic violence.

Social work professors Denise Hines and Holly Matto will co-lead the one-year project in the College of Public Health, partnering with local law enforcement, domestic violence organizations, and health care providers in Northern Virginia to design and pilot the training. The team also includes social work assistant professors Michelle Hand and Anna Parisi as co-investigators, and Bethany Cieslowski, chief innovation officer for immersive technologies.

The faculty members, as well as College of Public Health Dean Melissa J. Perry, expressed gratitude to U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia for their support of the congressional funding, and to the Department of Justice for administering the $1,026,029 award through its Byrne Justice Assistance Grants program.

VR headsets in the college's Lab for Immersive Technologies and Simulation.

“We’re thankful for the leadership and support to bring the power of virtual reality to improve health and safety,” Perry said. “Virginia will lead the way in coordinated, prevention-focused responses to domestic violence. Looking ahead, the model developed here can one day help communities across the country.”

Using technology and resources in the College of Public Health’s Lab for Immersive Technologies and Simulation, the project team will build VR case scenarios that reflect the complexities of domestic violence calls. The simulations will allow frontline professionals to practice coordinated responses and experiment with different approaches before facing similar situations in real life.

“The innovation here is bringing together professionals like law enforcement, social workers, and health care providers to co-design new VR cases that are relevant to challenges on the ground,” Matto said.

Domestic violence remains a public health and safety crisis. In Virginia alone, the statewide domestic and sexual violence hotline received more than 70,000 calls in 2023. Family and intimate partner violence accounts for roughly one-third of all homicides in the state annually. And for first responders, these calls can also be among the most volatile and unpredictable situations they encounter.

“Domestic violence calls are some of the toughest calls, but also some of the most common calls that law enforcement will come across,” said Hines, the Elisabeth Shirley Enochs Endowed Professor of Social Work. “They're often coming in at a precarious and dangerous moment.”

Thumbnail photo via Pexels.

Topics

federal funding

grants

Department of Justice

Intimate Partner Violence

Domestic Violence

CPH Faculty

Lab for Immersive Technologies and Simulation

virtual reality

Research

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

GCI-Health

In the George

Learn more about George Mason's Grand Challenge Initiative

Key Takeaways:

Domestic violence calls can be complex and dangerous situations for first responders.
George Mason researchers secured more than $1 million from the U.S. Department of Justice to develop a virtual reality training program to improve domestic violence response.
The VR simulations will allow law enforcement, health care providers, and social workers to practice coordinated responses to difficult domestic violence scenarios in a safe training environment.

In This Story

Denise Hines, PhD

Holly Matto, PhD, LCSW-C

Michelle D. Hand, PhD, MSW, LSW

Bethany Cieslowski, DNP

Melissa J. Perry, Sc.D., MHS, MBA

Five ways future health care leaders can tackle burnout in the workforce

Taylor Thomas — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:17:15 +0000

Five ways future health care leaders can tackle burnout in the workforce Taylor Thomas Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:17

Photo by Vladimir Fedotov via Unsplash.

The fight against widespread burnout in the health care workforce should begin with the training of future health care administrators, according to a new paper from the 91�� College of Public Health.

Published in the Journal of Health Administration Education, the paper examines how health administration programs can better prepare future leaders to address burnout by focusing on workplace factors, such as working conditions, leadership support, job design and workload, social connections, and opportunities for advancement. More than three-quarters of health care workers report feeling stressed or stretched thin, with burnout contributing to problems like higher turnover and staffing shortages that can affect patient care.

Drawing from existing research and national frameworks on workforce well-being, the principal investigator Debora Goetz Goldberg outlines several leadership strategies that can help counteract burnout, including:

Build workplaces where staff can speak up

Health care leaders must create environments where employees can report mistakes, raise concerns, and discuss safety issues without fear of punishment. Clear reporting policies, open communication, and a culture of trust are key for psychological safety.

Redesign jobs to reduce overload

Many health care roles involve long hours, heavy documentation, and clunky technology that add to daily stress. Leaders make decisions about staffing, scheduling, and tools that can either ease those pressures or make them worse.

Prevent violence and protect staff safety

Health care workers face some of the highest rates of workplace violence of any profession. Leaders can help reduce risks by establishing zero-tolerance policies, training staff to de-escalate tense situations, and putting safety measures in place before incidents occur.

Involve frontline staff in decisions

The people delivering care often know exactly where problems arise. When leaders directly involve nurses, physicians, and other staff in decisions about schedules, policies, and daily operations, the changes are more likely to succeed.

Measure and improve workforce well-being

Health care organizations routinely track patient outcomes and financial performance. Workforce well-being deserves the same attention. Leaders can measure burnout, engagement, and working conditions and use that data to steer improvements.

John Cantiello, also from George Mason's College of Public Health, and Riva Kamat from Lotus Clinician WellBeing, Inc., co-authored the paper.

In This Story

Debora Goetz Goldberg, PhD, MHA, MBA

This initiative supports the Improving human health, well-being, and preparedness solution of George Mason's Grand Challenge Initiative

Key Takeaways:

Burnout affects a majority of health care workers and contributes to turnover, staffing shortages, and risks to patient care.
A new paper from 91�� argues that health care administration programs should train future leaders to address burnout through organizational decisions and workplace design.
Leaders can help counter burnout with strategies like creating psychologically safe environments, preventing workplace violence, and involving frontline staff in decisions.

Topics

burnout

public health workforce

HAP Research

CPH research

Health Administration

Well-Being

Research

GCI-Health

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

In the George

$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports

Taylor Thomas — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:47:22 +0000

$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports Taylor Thomas Thu, 02/26/2026 - 07:47

Today, more than half of older Americans receive their Medicare coverage through private Medicare Advantage plans. In 2020, that program made a sweeping policy shift, allowing those plans to offer supplemental benefits beyond traditional medical care, including groceries, meal deliveries, utilities, transportation, pest control, and air filters.

Jeah Jung, professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Photo provided

Now, with an approximately $3 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging, 91�� health economist Jeah Jung will lead a national study to evaluate whether those benefits reduce adverse health events and improve functional outcomes.

“Health-related social needs, such as food security, housing quality, reliable transportation, and social support, are increasingly recognized as important contributors to individuals’ health,” said Jung, a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Despite the wide rollout of the new initiative to meet those needs, she said, “there is currently no information or evidence of how many people are using it, how they’re using it, and whether it’s actually bringing the intended outcomes.”

As of 2025, 55% of Medicare beneficiaries, or 34.4 million Americans, were enrolled in Medicare Advantage, the private alternative to traditional Medicare. According to Jung’s data analysis, more than 30% of Medicare Advantage plans adopted non-medical supplemental benefits by 2025. Meanwhile, she found that more than 90% of dual-eligible special needs plans—serving low-income beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid—adopted the benefits.

“This is a really large-scale initiative by Medicare to address unmet social needs and see whether that helps maintain and improve beneficiaries’ health outcomes as well,” Jung said. “With an investment of this size, we want to see evidence on how it’s working and who it’s reaching so the policy can be refined in the future.”

Using secure Medicare administrative data, Jung’s five-year project will examine whether the availability of non-medical benefits is associated with changes in emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and whether patient can remain in their homes and communities rather than enter nursing homes. The study will also analyze who uses the new benefits, and whether uptake differs by demographics, such as race, ethnicity, sex, health risks, and area-level socioeconomic factors.

The project will also include contributions from Emily Ihara, professor and chair of the Department of Social Work in the College of Public Health. Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University and Dartmouth College are serving as co-investigators.

In This Story

Jeah Jung, PhD, MPH

Emily Ihara, PhD, MSW, FGSA

Key Takeaways

A $3 million National Institute on Aging grant will fund a national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports such as food assistance, transportation, and other non-medical benefits.
Led by 91�� health economist Jeah Jung, the five-year study will use Medicare administrative data to examine whether these benefits reduce emergency visits, hospitalizations, and nursing home entry.
The findings will provide national evidence on who is using these benefits and whether this large-scale federal effort is working as intended.

Discover more Research at George Mason

Topics

National Institutes of Health

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

GCI-Health

Paid sick leave as disease prevention

Taylor Thomas — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:18:24 +0000

Paid sick leave as disease prevention Taylor Thomas Tue, 02/03/2026 - 12:18

In This Story

Suyoung Kwon

Key Takeaways:

New research from the 91�� College of Public Health suggests paid sick leave should be understood not only as an employee benefit, but as a preventive public health intervention.
Among home service workers who regularly enter private homes, such as home nurses and aides and appliance repair technicians, researchers found that stress and perceived infection risk rise before a confirmed diagnosis, when workers must decide whether to stay home sick or risk losing income.
When paid sick leave is unavailable, those pressures compound. The George Mason study links lack of paid sick leave to higher job stress and lower job satisfaction, effects that ripple beyond individual workers into public health.

Photo via Freepik.

Home service workers—those who provide care, inspections, or repairs inside private homes—can often lack paid sick leave, making illness a direct financial risk. New research from 91�� College of Public Health suggests paid sick leave should be understood not only as an employee benefit, but as a preventive health intervention.

In the study led by assistant nursing professor Suyoung Kwon, paid sick leave was linked to lower perceived infection risk, reduced job stress, and higher job satisfaction. During the early months of COVID-19, the research team surveyed more than 1,600 home service workers in South Korea, including home nurses, childcare workers, appliance repair technicians, and gas meter inspectors.

Notably, workers reported that their highest level of stress was not after a confirmed diagnosis of COVID, but during the window when workers are deciding whether to show up sick or stay home.

“Paid sick leave can function much like personal protective equipment or vaccination for workers in high-contact roles,” said Kwon. “It reduces exposure before harm occurs.”

The study was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Study findings

Workers with paid sick leave reported significantly lower perceived risk of COVID-19 exposure than those with unpaid leave or no leave at all.
Higher perceived risk of infection was associated with greater job stress, which in turn predicted lower job satisfaction. Paid sick leave interrupted that chain.
Workers with no access to sick leave experienced both direct and indirect drops in job satisfaction, suggesting compounded harms when workers lack any safety net.

Why it matters

Many home service workers enter multiple private homes each day. When paid sick leave is available only after a documented diagnosis (like a positive test for COVID-19), workers face a high-stakes choice during their most contagious period: lose income or risk exposing others.

The researchers contend that paid sick leave should be treated as a preventive mechanism that allows workers to stay home when symptoms first appear—before diagnosis or transmission. As policymakers revisit pandemic lessons and prepare for future public health emergencies, this study suggests that expanding paid sick leave is not only a worker protection, but a population-level prevention strategy.

Topics

From law to federal nutrition science: George Mason PhD alum carves out career at USDA

Taylor Thomas — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:26:45 +0000

From law to federal nutrition science: George Mason PhD alum carves out career at USDA Taylor Thomas Mon, 12/08/2025 - 09:26

Kelly Kogan. Photo provided.

At 91��, Kelly Kogan found the space to merge two growing interests—nutrition and data—into a new career direction. “My favorite part was the ability to really pursue my interests,” she said. “I’m very grateful they enabled me to do what I wanted to do.”

That direction wasn’t obvious at first. When Kogan left her two-decade D.C. law career, she didn’t yet know where she was headed. She just knew she needed change. “I wasn’t a happy lawyer,” she said. “I woke up one day and thought, I don’t want to do this for another decade.”

Food had always been a love: cooking for her family, food photography, thinking about nutrition. She followed that curiosity into an undergraduate Introduction to Nutrition class at 91��. “And I loved it,” she said.

One class led to another, then to the master’s program in Nutrition and Food Studies in 2021. As her interests sharpened, Kogan discovered a passion for working with data and pursued a PhD in Health Services Research, which she completed in 2023.

Today, Kogan works as a nutritionist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helping guide What We Eat in America, the dietary intake survey that captures a detailed portrait of Americans’ food habits. The survey serves as a cornerstone of U.S. nutrition science, informing decades of research and major public health decisions, such as the addition of folic acid to bread products to prevent birth defects.

“This work is important,” Kogan said. “Data is what informs evidence-based policymaking. We have to know how to collect it, clean it, and analyze it to identify problems and create solutions.”

What We Eat in America is the dietary interview component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, supported by USDA’s Food Surveys Research Group, where Kogan contributes to the data and methods that make this work possible.

Kogan’s work with the research group grew out of her dissertation at George Mason, a study of breastfeeding outcomes and food insecurity that probed how federal nutrition programs shape families’ decisions. That project opened the door to a USDA postdoctoral fellowship and ultimately to the role she holds now.

For Kogan, the shift from law to federal nutrition science wasn’t linear. George Mason gave her the room to develop a specialized focus on nutrition data, a focus that carried forward into her professional life. “You have to be incredibly focused and self-directed,” she said. “Every class project I did, I found the data and turned it into a nutrition question.”

Learn more about the Public Health PhD and Health Services Research PhD programs at the George Mason College of Public Health.

Topics

MS Nutrition

PhD in Health Services Research

With NIH grant, George Mason researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care

Taylor Thomas — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 12:50:12 +0000

With NIH grant, George Mason researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care Taylor Thomas Tue, 10/28/2025 - 08:50

In This Story

Kyeung Mi Oh, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN

For people living with early memory loss, recalling and sharing life stories can be a powerful act. It’s the idea behind “reminiscence therapy,” an approach for treating dementia that uses personal memories to boost mood, cognition, and connection.

Kyeung Mi Oh. Photo provided.

Now, 91�� nursing professor Kyeung Mi Oh is working to make that therapy more accessible for diverse communities. She’s serving as co-principal investigator on a new $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to refine the LifeBio Memory app, an artificial-intelligence platform that helps older adults capture their memories and share them with caregivers.

Earlier versions of the LifeBio Memory app have reached nursing homes and assisted-living facilities nationwide, with residents showing greater engagement and fewer symptoms of depression. The new phase brings the app into community settings—with older adults living at home with a caregiver—and expands to multiple languages and cultural contexts, including English, Spanish, and Korean.

A nurse scientist with expertise in gerontology, Oh leads the project’s community-based research arm. “We want to see how storytelling technology can improve quality of life and relationships for both the older adult and the caregiver,” she said. “When people talk about their past, they often smile. It strengthens social support and emotional closeness.”

Over the next three years, Oh’s team—including co-principal investigator Lisbeth Sanders, founder and CEO of LifeBio Inc.—will conduct usability testing followed by a randomized controlled trial with 84 caregiver–care recipient pairs.

While LifeBio’s engineers refine the app’s AI features, such as automatically generating digital life-story books and multimedia “memory videos,” Oh is studying what happens when people use it. The research will examine psychosocial outcomes such as loneliness, depression, and relationship quality, alongside overall quality of life.

“We’re working to make LifeBio Memory accessible for people of different languages and cultural backgrounds, so older adults can tell their life stories in their own voices,” Oh said. “By adapting the platform with AI to reflect cultural nuances, we hope to help a wide range of adults with early memory loss stay connected to family and caregivers, improve their quality of life, and ease feelings of loneliness or depression that can speed cognitive decline.”

If the project is successful, researchers say it could offer a widely scalable, affordable tool for dementia support that’s available for people to use in their own homes and in their own languages.

Topics

Dementia

Aging

Older Adults

Artificial Intelligence

Nursing Faculty

grants

NIH grant funding

National Institutes of Health

Research

Katie Pearce

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With NIH grant, George Mason researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care

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