St. David’s CHPR 23rd Annual Conference

Speakers

Keynote Speaker: Emily Mendenhall, PhD

Professor
Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service

Dr. Emily Mendenhall is a medical anthropologist, Guggenheim Fellow, and Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Mendenhall has published widely at the boundaries of anthropology, psychology, medicine, and public health. This work focuses on social and biological links between social trauma and diabetes, the theory and experience of syndemics, how and why people use idioms of distress, mental health and well-being, complex chronic illness, and the politics of pandemics. Her monographs include Syndemic Suffering: Social Distress, Depression, and Diabetes among Mexican Immigrant Women (2012), Rethinking Diabetes: Entanglements with Trauma, Poverty, and HIV (2019), and Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji (2022). Her new book, Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long Covid, will be published in 2025.

Sharon Horner, PhD, RN, FAAN

Professor
Associate Dean for Research
Director, St. David’s CHPR
The University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing

Dr. Sharon Horner is an Associate Dean for Research and Director of the UT Austin School of Nursing’s St. David’s Foundation Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations (CHPR). Dr. Horner's research focuses on improving the health of families with children. She has received approximately $3.7 million over 18 years in federal funding for her primary work with school-aged children with asthma and their families who live in rural areas. A recent study, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, tested her intervention in a stratified randomized control trial focused on improving asthma management behaviors of parents and children and reducing asthma symptom frequency and duration, and lung inflammation. The study found significant improvements in children’s asthma-related quality of life, asthma self-management behaviors, skill in using a metered dose inhaler, and reductions in asthma severity, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits.

Chelsi West Ohueri, PhD

Assistant Professor of Slavic & Eurasian Studies
The University of Texas at Austin, College of Liberal Arts

Dr. Chelsi West Ohueri is a sociocultural anthropologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies with appointments in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. Her scholarship and teaching are primarily concerned with the study of race and racialization, belonging, marginalization, and medical anthropology. She has conducted extensive ethnographic research throughout Albania and the Balkan region, and is interested in configurations of racial belonging among Albanian, Romani, and Egyptian communities, as well as the (re)productions of whiteness and blackness in this region and throughout Europe. West Ohueri is currently completing her ethnographic book project about this research.

Mary A. Steinhardt

Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
The University of Texas at Austin, College of Education

Dr. Mary Steinhardt is a professor in the College of Education and serves as Associate Vice President for Research & Research Integrity Officer. She previously served as the university Faculty Ombuds and as a Senior Provost Teaching Fellow. She is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers, and in 2017, received the Civitatis Award, the highest distinction made by the university in recognition of outstanding faculty citizenship. In 2020, she became a Fellow in the American Academy of Health behavior. Her research examines the behavioral and biological pathways by which resilience resources impact type 2 diabetes health outcomes among African Americans (NIH Award: R01DK123146).

Whitney Thurman, PhD, RN

Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing

Dr. Whitney Thurman is an Assistant Professor at the UT Austin School of Nursing. The substantive, sustained impact of Dr. Thurman’s work focuses on supporting community-led and community-based solutions that improve health and housing outcomes among adults with disabling health conditions and lived experience of homelessness. People with disabilities are at high-risk for poor health and social outcomes due to inaccessible healthcare, housing, and educational systems and are disproportionately over represented among homeless populations. Her research is aimed at solving the need for community-based long-term services and supports for disabled adults with lived experience of homelessness. This is a critically important area given that older adults are the fastest growing sub-population of people experiencing homelessness, and current systems of care and healthcare policy were not designed to meet the needs of this structurally vulnerable population. Dr. Thurman uses community-engaged and community-based participatory research methods to advance knowledge and develop practice and policy solutions to overcome barriers to person-centered, community-based health services for this population.

Shetal Vohra-Gupta, PhD, MSW

Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin, Steve Hicks School of Social Work

Dr. Shetal Vohra-Gupta is an Assistant Professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at UT Austin. Her research focuses on uncovering and addressing structural inequities in health policies and their impact on health outcomes. With a strong foundation in social justice and equity frameworks, Dr. Vohra-Gupta conducts critical policy analyses aimed at advancing health equity. Her collaborative work includes examining the intersection of neighborhood poverty and birth outcomes among Black and White women. Additionally, she is actively involved in projects exploring cultural determinants of health and their influence on health equity, particularly within Asian and Asian American communities. She is also working to validate a community-based social determinants of health (SDOH) and social needs survey for the People's Community Clinic.

Julie Zuñiga, PhD, RN, FAAN

Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing

Dr. Julie Zuñiga is an Associate Professor and Interim Director of the Center for Global Nursing and Health (CGNH) at the UT Austin School of Nursing. Her research interest includes self-management of stigmatized illnesses in conjunction with co-morbid conditions, with a focus on HIV and diabetes. Dr. Zuñiga received her doctorate in nursing at The University of Texas at Austin and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Call For Poster Presentations

The UT Austin School of Nursing’s St. David’s CHPR encourages faculty, community members, and graduate and undergraduate students to submit abstracts for review. Poster presentations are invited on the conference theme of health behavior change or other topics addressing ANY aspect of health disparities, health promotion, or disease prevention research in underserved populations. Posters may report preliminary results of work in progress. Presenters may submit a poster that has already been presented or will be presented at a national or international conference. Scholarly presentations consistent with the mission of St. David's CHPR will be selected, and the first author will be notified by February 6, 2025.

Important Timelines:

• Poster Abstract Submission Dates: December 1, 2024 to January 15, 2025.
• Winners Announcement Date: March 5, 2025, at the conference after the poster session (1:30 pm).

Please Note: The first author’s conference registration fee is covered by St. David’s CHPR. 

Abstract Submission Instructions

Download and Use Poster Abstract Template

• Poster Format: One page, single spaced, Times 11-pt, 1” margins, 500 words maximum
• Organization: Purpose; Methods; Findings; Conclusions
• First Author: First author can be selected only once; first author will be contact person.
• Cover Letter: Request to submit, author(s) name, credentials, affiliation, address, phone, email, indication of desire to be considered for Student Poster Award (and whether as Undergraduate or Graduate student), where previously presented (if appropriate) and a permission to publish statement as follows:
  • If selected, I agree to present a poster at the St. David's CHPR Conference on March 5, 2025. I give permission for the abstract and a photo of the poster to be used for distribution in all forms of media [print, electronic, website, video].

Submission: Submissions are accepted by email only. Application materials should be emailed to CHPR@mail.nur.utexas.edu. 

Student Research Poster Award Opportunities

The St. David’s CHPR will award $300 for the top student research poster, $150 for runner-up in both categories (undergraduate poster award; graduate poster award). Winners will be notified after the poster session (1:30pm) at the conference on March 5, 2025.

Eligibility for Student Poster Awards:

• Student must be first author on the poster abstract; 
• Student must be currently enrolled in a degree granting program at The University of Texas at Austin;
• Student author must present their research at the St. David’s CHPR conference; &
• The poster must reflect the student’s research question and not the work of their advisor.

Posters will be judged on the following:

• Identified Health Problem experienced by an underserved or vulnerable population,
• Methods and Approach (related to health promotion/disease prevention; rigorous approach, appropriate to answer research question),
• Results (appropriate analysis, clear, accurate findings),
• Conclusions and Implications (consistent with results, implications for practice, for future research).

Note: Late poster submissions will not be considered. Abstracts that are incomplete will be declined.

Poster Instructions

Poster Format: 

• Format: Maximum size to fit a poster display board space 44 in. (H) by 68 in. (W); hangers will be provided.
• Handouts are optional (25 copies suggested).

Poster Printing: 

• Printing services are available at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. Please email your information and file to Janet Ehle at jehle@nursing.utexas.edu before Friday, February 28, 2025. 
• You may submit a PDF, PowerPoint or Keynote file. JPGs are not accepted.
• For your convenience, you can download the poster templates. Each template file has several design options. 
• There is an $80 print charge for poster printing. Click here to make online payments before poster pick up in NUR 5.198. Posters will not be delivered to the conference directly. Poster printing is also available at different departments on campus.