Doctoral students Jong Hyung (John) Lee and DaShaunda Taylor presented posters at the VDH Office of Health Equity conference on October 17th. The conference, “Sowing the Seeds of Health Equity: Growing Healthy Connected Communities,” offered an opportunity for students to present their work to the distinguished public health audience in attendance.

Both students presented on Virginia’s stress-related mortality rates: Ms. Taylor’s poster focused on the role of stress-related conditions in the rising mortality rates found in Virginia’s white population, while Mr. Lee’s presentation was a Bayesian spatial analysis of stress-related mortality in Virginia. Both students are mentored by Center Director Dr. Derek Chapman and drew from their time at the Center for their research.

The Center recently completed the Mortality Studies project, an analysis of death data from five different states as well as an analysis of causes of death across race and ethnicity in the US. Read more about the Mortality Studies on our webpage or learn more about our unprecedented analysis of midlife death rates across race and ethnicity on the BMJ.