School of Public Health

West Virginia ranks first for fentanyl-related deaths, but it also leads the nation in a more optimistic way: its medical examiners pinpoint the cause of every drug-related death, and the relevant facts populate a unique statewide database. An interdisciplinary research team—involving the WVU School of Pharmacy, the WVU School of Public Health and the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner—analyzed data and found that fentanyl deaths are up 122 percent in the state.

In a weekend of commencement events May 9-12, West Virginia University’s nearly 4,600 graduates will hear from a host of speakers whose pasts have earned them a Pulitzer Prize, an Emmy, a spot as a cyber-security top cop — and one whose career has begun before she leaves middle school.

An effort to expand a multi-use rail-to-trail network throughout the Industrial Heartland is drawing on the expertise and work of faculty at the West Virginia University Health Research Center.

West Virginia University’s master’s program in public administration jumped 41 spots in the latest rankings of graduate programs by U.S. News and World Report released Tuesday (March 12), the most significant move among the nine programs and more than 10 specialties included in the rankings.

A West Virginia University expert in the social determinants of health is exploring barriers that keep many West Virginians from eating healthy diets that can help protect against chronic disease.

As West Virginia University works toward becoming the world’s first Blue Zones Certified university, a graduate-student researcher in the WVU School of Public Health is exploring how one of the Blue Zone Project’s tenets—eating an abundance of vegetables—can make individuals with diabetes, and those at-risk of developing the condition, healthier.

Elizabeth Claydon, an assistant professor in the West Virginia University School of Public Health, is parsing how eating disorders may affect women’s experience of—and attitudes toward—pregnancy. The journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth has published her study’s findings.

West Virginia University students who walked across the commencement stage Saturday (Dec. 15) may feel the world they’re entering is uncertain, but the sure thing in their lives is that their Morgantown experience has changed them.

Amna Umer, an epidemiologist in the West Virginia University Department of Pediatrics, and her research team are working to circumvent barriers to effective healthcare for infants with neonatal-abstinence syndrome. In a recent project, they evaluated a new tool to collect real-time information on statewide NAS diagnoses and cases of fetal substance exposure. Their goal is to help make West Virginia the first state with such a system.

West Virginia University School of Public Health students recently had the opportunity to join their peers and health experts from across the country to share ideas and solutions for our nation’s most pressing health issues.