From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu
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KU researchers win grant to study how young adults decide whether to get HPV vaccine
LAWRENCE — A team of University of Kansas researchers has received a two-year, $250,000 grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation to better understand the decision-making process of young adults about whether to get the HPV vaccine and how that can inform future health communication campaigns to encourage vaccination.
Science policy expert, author to give KU Self Graduate Fellowship Symposium Lecture
LAWRENCE — Bina Venkataraman, a journalist, science policy expert, author and futurist who has served as a presidential adviser, will deliver the Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship Symposium Lecture at the University of Kansas. Venkataraman will present “Climate Change and Thinking Ahead” at 3:30 p.m. April 8 in Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union. Her talk is free and open to the public.
KU professor receives Fulbright Specialist Award to Portugal
LAWRENCE — James Thompson, professor of special education at the University of Kansas, has received a Fulbright Specialist Award to lead a series of plenary presentations and workshops in Portugal this semester. Later this month, Thompson will travel overseas for a three-week project with FORMEM, a Portuguese nonprofit organization that develops professional training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
KU researchers win grant to study how young adults decide whether to get HPV vaccine
LAWRENCE — As vaccines have been politicized and people face pressures whether to receive them, one group is often overlooked. A group of University of Kansas researchers is launching an initiative to better understand how people ages 18-24 decide whether to receive the human papillomavirus vaccine.
The William Randolph Hearst Foundation has awarded KU a two-year, $250,000 grant to better understand the decision-making process of young adults about whether to get the HPV vaccine and how that can inform future health communication campaigns to encourage vaccination. The vaccines can prevent HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection, but CDC data has shown only 49% of teens between ages 13-17 have received the recommended dosage. That corresponds with a time when young people become more sexually active and are prone to contracting the virus, which can cause cervical and oropharyngeal cancers.
“It is a real honor to get this grant. What intrigued us is, in this era when vaccines have become controversial, how do young people make their decisions about them?” said Ann Brill, dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications and co-author of the grant. “The HPV vaccine has been proven to prevent cancers, but we want to look at variables influencing why people make these decisions. Is it for their health? Are there other social influences?”
Researchers in the journalism school will partner with the National Cancer Institute-designated University of Kansas Cancer Center and KU Medical Center to learn more about the target population’s decision making and to design a health communications campaign that delivers information on the topic in a way sample groups indicate is effective in reaching them.
Researchers, including students in The Agency, KU’s strategic communications student media organization, will gather data from young people ages 18-24 both on campus and throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The research team cited evidence, including media coverage of young adults defying their parents to get COVID-19 vaccines, as an example of newfound autonomy people in the target population have that needs to be better understood. Making one’s own medical decisions can be a rite of passage.
HPV vaccines were originally targeted to young women but are effective for men as well. Data shows men are vaccinated at lower rates, and researchers will address if and how gender influences young people’s decisions to make such health decisions. Ultimately, the team will hold a kickoff event for the campaign and share messages both informed and created by young people aimed at improving public health and training a new generation in effective health communications.
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Contact: Michelle Compton-Muñoz, Madison and Lila Self Graduate Programs, 785-864-2434, [email protected], @Selfgraduate
Science policy expert, author to give KU Self Graduate Fellowship Symposium Lecture
LAWRENCE — Bina Venkataraman, a journalist, science policy expert, author and futurist who has served as a presidential adviser and taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver the Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship Symposium Lecture at the University of Kansas.
Venkataraman is a thought leader on the topics of social progress, emerging technology and environmental change.
Venkataraman will present “Climate Change and Thinking Ahead” at 3:30 p.m. April 8 in Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union. Her talk is free and open to the public.
A former senior adviser for climate change innovation in former president Barack Obama’s administration, Venkataraman helped communities and businesses prepare for climate change, discovering firsthand why people resist thinking ahead — and how to change it. “The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age” is Venkataraman’s exploration of how to invest in the future in our lives, communities and society. With examples from ancient Pompeii to modern-day Fukushima, she dispels the myth that human nature is inherently reckless, highlighting surprising practices people can adopt and guiding readers through the greatest decisions confronting society. The result is a book brimming with ideas and insights for forging a better future.
Currently, Venkataraman is the editorial page editor of The Boston Globe and a fellow at New America. She previously taught science, technology and society at MIT and served as the director of global policy initiatives at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University. For the Obama administration, Venkataraman forged partnerships among communities, companies and governments to help prepare for climate disasters. She also advised the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in responding to the Ebola epidemic, promoting patient access to cancer therapies and reforming public school science education. Venkataraman is an alumna of Brown University and Harvard’s Kennedy School.
The Self Graduate Fellowship Symposium Lecture is sponsored by the Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship. The mission of the Self Graduate Fellowship is to identify, recruit and provide development opportunities for exceptional doctoral students in business, economics, engineering, mathematics, biological, biomedical, pharmaceutical and physical sciences who demonstrate the promise to make significant contributions to their fields of study and society as a whole.
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Contact: Christine Metz Howard, International Affairs, [email protected], @KUintlaffairs
KU professor receives Fulbright Specialist Award to Portugal
LAWRENCE — James Thompson, professor of special education at the University of Kansas, has received a Fulbright Specialist Award to lead a series of plenary presentations and workshops in Portugal this semester.
Later this month, Thompson will travel to Portugal for a three-week project with FORMEM, a Portuguese nonprofit organization that develops professional training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
Thompson’s presentations and workshops will focus on understanding people with developmental disabilities by their support needs, assessing the intensity of people’s support needs, and planning processes that can be used to identify and arrange personalized supports for children in schools and adults in society.
Thompson will also have the opportunity to meet with faculty members and graduate students at universities in Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon.
Thompson is one of more than 400 U.S. citizens selected each year to share their expertise with host institutions abroad through the Fulbright Specialist Program. Recipients are selected based on academic and professional achievement, demonstrated leadership in their field and their potential to foster long-term cooperation between institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Established in 2001, the Fulbright Specialist Program enables U.S. academics and professionals with significant expertise to complete short-term, project-based exchanges designed by institutions around the world.
Several years ago, Thompson connected with academics in the fields of special education and rehabilitation who saw his work in the U.S as applicable to the Portuguese context.
“Over the years we’ve kept up our dialogue. I was thrilled when they suggested pursuing a Fulbright Specialist award for me to work with them in Portugal,” Thompson said. “It was an honor to have been chosen by the Fulbright Scholarship Board for this award.”
Thompson is a senior scientist in the KU Beach Center on Disability and associate director of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities. He is a past president of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) and is on the board of directors for the Council for Exceptional Children’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Division as well as the Arc of Douglas County. He is the editor-in-chief of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, a professional journal of research, policy and practice that AAIDD publishes.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries.
Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has given more than 400,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
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