College of Health Solutions’ faculty, researchers gather to share ideas, reconnect with colleagues

College of Health Solutions faculty were able to shake off years of restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic at the 2023 Faculty Research Day.

The event took place Jan. 25 at the Health Futures Center in north Phoenix. It offered the college’s faculty, students, staff and invited guests a chance to catch up with world-renowned researchers and find out what’s going on at the innovative institution.

“This is a chance to show how we’re making a difference in the community and share how we’re working together to address health issues in the community,” said Professor Matthew Scotch, assistant dean of research.

The College of Health Solutions focuses much of its efforts on research in these key areas:

• Systems of health care and the health needs of populations.

• Health and human performance of individuals across the life span.

• Personalized interventions through precision health.

More than 150 people turned out to learn about the latest research at the college through poster presentations, interactive demonstrations and panel discussions. The panel discussion topics were an update on precision health research in the college and a discussion about Project ECHO: Increasing the Capacity of Arizona’s Healthcare Workforce.

For many of those presenting, the event offered a chance to reconnect — or in some cases make first-time connections — with colleagues that they haven’t had a chance to spend much time face to face with in recent years.

COVID-19 has been a factor in such connections for Assistant Professor of nutrition Min-Hyun Kim. He joined the college in 2022 while some limitations were still in place.

“Because of COVID I didn’t really have many opportunities to hang out with my colleagues,” Kim said. “I haven’t had as many chances as normal to learn about their research and what they’re doing and to talk about mine. I’m getting a chance to do that today and I love it.”

Kim was showing a poster related to his work focusing on understanding cellular and nutrient metabolism in obesity.

The event also offers a chance to open new avenues of collaboration.

Tameka Sama serves in a variety of staff roles at the Center for Health Information and Research (CHiR). She said having a chance to showcase some of the work of the center could pay off in new opportunities.

“This college is so diverse and there are people who do so many things — there is a lot of room for collaboration,” Sama said. “This is a good opportunity to see who we can collaborate with.”