Healthy Exchanges (HE) are weekly  research seminars organized by the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Research and Evaluation (CIHRE) within the College of Health Sciences, which provide an interdisciplinary forum for the diffusion of health-related research. HE presentations take place every Wednesday, from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. at the HSN building, room 211, located across from the UTEP main library.

Healthy Exchange seminars offer a unique opportunity for graduate students, faculty, and researchers from UTEP and from other US and international universities to share their health-related research, and provide a venue to the diffusion of research information to El Paso and Cd. Juarez's academic and general community. Attendance is free and open to the public.

Louis Brown, Ph.D., is a community psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health. His research examines how to improve the implementation quality of community-based interventions that promote mental and behavioral health. Dr. Brown is very interested in empowering residents within in our border community in order to collaborate in improving their lives. His interests have led to a line of research focused on two types of group-based collaborative strategies for health promotion: community coalitions and self-help/mutual support initiatives.

Dr. Brown talked about the complicated issue of establishing community coalitions in the U.S. and Mexico order to reduce the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. He pointed out that, despite the progress achieved, efforts to establish community collaborations in Mexico face several contextual challenges such as low sense of community and the violence prevalent in certain areas. Another problem has been the lack of support from local authorities in some parts of Mexico, as well as the community's lack of trust in governmental authorities, especially the police. Nevertheless, community coalitions in Mexico demonstrate higher levels of multi-sector collaboration than coalitions in the U.S. and appear to be functioning effectively.

Dr. Ximena Burgos was interviewed by Armando González-Stuart, Ph.D., from the Center for interdisciplinary Health Research and Evaluation (CIHRE).

AGS: What persuaded you to enroll into Interdisciplinary Health Research doctoral program?
XB: Back in 2008, when I started the program, I saw it as an opportunity to work with colleagues from different disciplines. I have a background in nutrition but I wanted to learn more about how to work with different disciplines in order to better serve patients and conduct research.

AGS: In your opinion, does the interdisciplinary approach offer an advantage for your doctoral research?
XB: Yes, nowadays there are more opportunities for people who have a background in interdisciplinary health sciences. I think that one of our challenges is to expand our research interests by working with faculty from different fields. This is a great opportunity for doctoral students.

AGS: Where are you doing research now?
XB: I am working in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the College of Health Sciences with Dr. María Duarte-Gardea and involved in the HEART (Health Education Awareness Research Team) project, analyzing data and preparing a manuscript related to the results of the study. I am also working on getting my dissertation The mediating role of dietary patterns on the relation between acculturation, psychosocial factors, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in the U.S.- Mexico border published. Additionally, I am teaching a course in the Department of Public Health on Nutritional Assessment

AGS: Could you tell us more about the importance of the HEART study?
XB: The study was an 8-year NIH funded community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that employed a Community Health Worker/Promotoras de Salud (CHS/PS) model that implemented risk-reduction strategies to improve and promote cardiovascular health among the Hispanic community living on the U.S.-Mexico border.

AGS: Is this a collaborative effort between UTEP and other institutions?
XB: Yes, as part of the CBPR, we are working in partnership with UT-Houston School of Public Health, the El Paso Community College, Centro San Vicente Clinic, the City of El Paso Parks and Recreation, and the local YWCA.

AGS: What are your plans for the future regarding your research?
XB: Well, I plan to continue doing cardiovascular disease risk prevention. I have a background in nutrition, so I want to focus my research on health promotion, specifically improving eating behaviors. I've also been reading about mindful eating techniques and their effects on prevention of chronic diseases. This is an area I would like to include in my research to prevent risk factors, especially with regards to obesity, and cardiovascular diseases in our border population.

AGS: Thank you for sharing your views with us.

Stephanie Anguiano, CLS Graduate of 2013 has been accepted into the Mayo Clinic Graduate school in Rochester MN. She will be in the Clinical and Translational Science Program.

The Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) Ph.D. Program is built upon Mayo Clinic's extensive interdisciplinary research and medical environment. It prepares graduates to lead the biomedical research teams of the future that will rapidly translate discovery to new treatments and change the paradigms of how biomedical research is conducted. Congratulations, Stephanie! 

Dr. Sudip Bajpeyi, in the College of Health Sciences, is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers from UTEP and Stanford University who have been awarded a seed grant from the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP) as part of the UTEP Grand Challenge Competition, which provides funds to spark new research ventures aligned with a national research Grand Challenge. In this case, the challenge is the BRAIN Initiative announced by President Obama last year, which is asking researchers to develop bold and novel ways to understand the structure and function the central and peripheral nervous system. As Co-PI of the winning UTEP proposal, "High-Throughput 3D-Visualization of the Mammalian Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems", Dr. Bajpeyi will work closely with Drs. Arshad M. Khan (Dept. of Biology) and Dr. Eric MacDonald (Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering) to utilize a method called CLARITY, a new tissue processing technology developed at Stanford University, to study the 3-D organization of the neuromuscular junction in animal models of obesity and diabetes. The $20K seed grant will also provide funds to support undergraduate research assistants, 3-D printing technology at the W. M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation at UTEP, and high resolution imaging tools developed by Dr. Khan and which are also being used in the Cytometry, Screening and Imaging Core Facility at UTEP's Border Biomedical Research Center.

Dr.Thenral Mangadu along with her Community Academic Partnership for Health Sciences Research (CAPHSR) team members Ms. Stephanie Karr, Executive Director, Center Against Family Violence (CAFV) and Ms.Virginia Rueda, Sexual Assault Services Coordinator, CAFV presented at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) 32nd annual conference in Irving, Texas on March 12th. The 2014 TAASA conference theme was "Break the Box: Collective Action Against Sexual Violence". The Center Against Family Violence in El Paso and Dr. Mangadu established their core team for community-based sexual violence program evaluation research in 2012. They conducted a 90 minute workshop titled "Empowering Partnerships: A Community-based Approach Against Sexual Violence" for a multidisciplinary audience at the TAASA conference during which they discussed the strategies which enhanced their community-academic partnership outcomes and engaged the audience in examining their community contexts of sexual violence and potential community-academic partnerships to address the same. In addition, they shared the findings from their 2013 exploratory study funded by the University Research Institute (URI) on factors shaping sexual violence and support services-seeking for the same in the El Paso, TX region. Workshop participants included sexual assault victim service providers, victim advocates, health care providers, law enforcement officers, students, U.S. military personnel, administrators and researchers.

On February 14, 2014, UTEP celebrated Valentine's Day and American Heart Month with a mini health fair for faculty, staff and students. The UTEP Wellness program and UTEP Human Resource Services, Employee Benefits and Retirement Programs Office partnered with Texas Tech University, American Heart Association, UTEP Student Health Center, UTEP Speech Language Pathology Department and UTEP Social Work Department to offer free blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, cognitive and oral screenings, heart healthy educational information and an opportunity to fill out the UTEP Living Well online health assessment. A ribbon cutting ceremony took place at noon, where Dean Curtis from the College of Health Sciences and representatives from the UTEP Student Health Center and Human Resources cut the ribbon on a new blood pressure machine that will make it easy for faculty, staff and student to check their blood pressure and weight at no cost. Over eighty students, faculty, and staff participated in the event. Centennial salsa, yoga mats and gift certificates to P3 health and wellness classes were raffled off.

UTEP celebrated National Nutrition Month with a mini health fair for faculty, staff and students from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 26 in UTEP's El Paso Natural Gas Conference Center. The mini health fair was the second of six that the UTEP Wellness program and UTEP Human Resource Services, Employee Benefits and Retirement Programs Office offers during the spring and summer semesters. Free blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose screenings and nutrition information was available for UTEP faculty, staff and students. Participants who completed an online health assessment received a customized UTEP Centennial portion plate. Other activities included raffles, free healthy snacks and oral and cognitive screenings.

The Doctor of Physical Therapy Program has been working diligently to seat the Class of 2016 at the end of May. There was a total of 160 applicants, of which 106 were qualified. Sixty four prospective students were interviewed in either December or February. The DPT Program extended offers of admission to 36 students for the Class of 2016! This will be the largest DPT class admitted and will help to address our regional shortage of physical therapists.