Surgeon General C. Everett Koop HIV/AIDS Research Grant
To honor the legacy of C. Everett Koop, M.D., former U.S. Surgeon General, RCAP established an endowed research grant that will support doctoral student research related to HIV/AIDS prevention. This grant was announced on the eve of Dr. Koop’s 95th birthday, October 14, 2011. Beginning in the 2012-2013 academic year this grant will be awarded annually by RCAP on a competitive basis to help support research of doctoral students nationally. Koop was the federal government’s chief spokesperson regarding AIDS while serving as U.S. Surgeon General in the 1980s. He was the recipient of the 2010 Ryan White Distinguished Leadership Award in 2010.
2012 Koop Grant Recipients
Junhan Cho
Junhan Cho is a doctoral student in the department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Georgia working under Dr. Steven Kogan. His research interests include the association of social contextual factors with sexual risk behavior among African American adolescents. His studies focus on psychosocial models that specify how contextual factors influence adolescents’ risky behavior and on protective mechanisms including family-centered prevention. Prior to entering the Ph.D. program, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Child and Family Studies at Yonsei University in South Korea.
STUDY TITLE: The influences of adverse rural environments on African American adolescents’ sexual risk behavior.
Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein
Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein is a third year PhD student in the Community Research and Action program at Peabody college at Vanderbilt University. Lauren’s primary research interests include investigating the social context of health, health equity and health policy specifically related to HIV. She has an educational background in sociology and social policy and practical research experience and specific training in public health research methodology. Lauren also has a research interest in exploring the impact of setting level determinants and community contexts (e.g. urban vs. rural) on individual health.
STUDY TITLE: Understanding the role of rural religious organizations in HIV prevention and intervention.
Ryan White Legacy Scholarship
RCAP and the IU School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation has created the Ryan White Legacy Scholarship in the honor of the 20th anniversary of the death of Ryan White, a rural Indiana teenager who died of AIDS, April 8, 1990. Income from these gifts will be used to support graduate scholarships to students pursuing a Master of Public Health degree at Indiana University-Bloomington, in the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, with preference to students studying AIDS/STD prevention or sexual health.
2012 White Scholarship Recipient
Christiana von Hippel
Christiana von Hippel is a second year MPH student in Behavioral, Social and Community Health at Indiana University. Her aim with all her contributions as a student and professional is to help advance sexual health communication and public health practice in the United States. She comes to IU with a BA in Psychology and the Study of Women & Gender from Smith College where she helped develop the college’s first course on women’s sexuality and launched the first research-based campaign for student sexual health and pleasure on campus entitled “Sexual Smithies, Pleasure is Power.” As a current MPH student and future doctoral student she will continue to pursue research on sexual health communication and pleasure with a focus on teens just beginning their education in sexual health as well as among senior women with a wizened perspective on sexual health across the life course to bridge the gap between scholarship and practice of sexual health promotion yet unaddressed in these communities.
