Fair, alumni publish articles in public health journals

Cindy Fair, chair of the Department of Public Health Studies, has co-authored three journal articles with recent graduates relating to the maturing cohort of adolescents and young adults with perinatally acquired HIV. 

Cindy Fair, chair of the Department of Public Health Studies, and recent alumni have co-authored three journal articles that stem from multiple projects involving adolescents and young adults who acquired HIV when their mothers were pregnant or immediately after their birth. 

Fair, a professor of human service studies, worked with Hannah Allen ’15 as well as Connie Trexler from Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and Larry D’Angelo, P’02 and founder of the D’Angelo Family Scholarship, on “The experiences of young parents with perinatally acquired HIV,” which will appear in the journal “AIDS Patient Care and STDs. 

Allen was among the first cohort of the Elon-Alamance Health Partners and is now a second-year student at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. The publication is based in part on Allen’s Elon College Fellows research project and was in collaboration with Fair’s colleagues and the Children’s National Health Center, where she completed an internship. 

Meredith Berk ’15 and Fair paired on “Provider perceptions of stigma and discrimination experienced by adolescents and young adults with PHIV while accessing sexual and reproductive health care,” which will appear in the journal AIDS Care. Berk was a public health studies and human service studies double-major who is now in the Occupational Therapy graduate degree program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

The article originated with a project Berk completed during her senior seminar that included interviews and an online survey of providers who care for adolescents and young adults with HIV, with a focus on experiences of stigma and discrimination. 

Appearing in Rehabilitation Career Bulletin is “‘I’m not limited’: Career aspirations of adolescents and young adults living with perinatally acquired HIV,” which was co-authored by Fair, Sophie Rupp ’16, Joanna Mitchell ’14 and Amy Gatto ’09. Rupp was a Lumen Scholar while at Elon, Mitchell is now enrolled in the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine and Gatto is now pursuing her doctorate at the University of South Florida after receiving her master’s of public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.