GSDM, SPH Faculty Appointments and Promotions
Congratulations to the following Medical Campus faculty on their recent appointment or promotion.
Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine
Professor
Mary Tavares, DMD, MPH, Health Policy & Health Services Research, joined the faculty of the department of health policy & health services research in 2020 as clinical professor and program director of the school’s Advanced Education Program in Dental Public Health. She also serves as director for the school’s HRSA-funded training grant on “Team-based Oral Health Care for Vulnerable Populations: Integrated Training, Practice and Leadership” in collaboration with GSDM’s department of pediatric dentistry. Dr. Tavares’ expertise and research focuses on risk factors for obesity in children and improving oral health outcomes for children in both urban and rural areas. Dr. Tavares is recognized internationally as a leader in dental public health, serving as a co-investigator on the nationwide study in Kuwait, “The Kuwait Healthy Lifestyle Study,” of The Kuwait National Programme for Healthy Living. She collaborates on public health initiatives for Kuwaiti children through the “School Oral Health Program for Kuwait,” a partnership between the Kuwait Ministry of Health and the Forsyth Dental Institute in Cambridge, Mass. In 2023, Dr. Tavares was named dental director of the “ForsythKids School-Based Oral Health Program” supported by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of Oral Health. Also in 2023, she was appointed program director of the Kuwait school oral health program. Over a career of more than 40 years, Dr. Tavares’ contributions to dental public health service in the U.S. have had a major impact on reducing oral heath disparities in children. She has served as chair of the Dental Public Health Residency Directors Group, president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, president of the Behavioral, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research Group of the International and American Associations for Dental Research. Dr. Tavares currently serves as a director of the American Board of Dental Public Health, which will culminate in her appointment as president and chair of that organization during her seven-year term.
BU School of Public Health
Research Associate Professor
Maureen Stewart, PhD, Health Law, Policy & Management, is a behavioral health services and policy researcher whose work has sought to improve access to and quality of substance use and mental health treatment. Her work examines state law and regulatory policy regarding Medicaid health plans, often using economic theory and causal inference methods. She joins BU from Brandeis University and has seven active grants, including several RO1s. She has mentored students in her department and for the addiction health services research field, advising PhD students and including undergraduate, master’s and PhD students in her research projects. She has co-led the mentoring activities for the Brandeis-Harvard SPIRE Center, a program that has recruited more than 100 senior and mid-career researchers to provide mentoring and guidance to emerging scholars.
Nafisa Halim, PhD, Global Health, is an applied sociologist with research interests in developing and testing interventions to improve pregnancy and childbirth outcomes among women with a history of abuse. Her current work focuses on the effect of antenatal screening for sickle cell disease on intimate partner violence (IPV) in central India. In recent work, Dr. Halim led a systematic review documenting evidence of IPV effects on maternal mental health during pregnancy and the postnatal period; led a formative evaluation study using qualitative methods, which aims to inform the development of an intervention for men to prevent women’s IPV victimization in Bangladesh; and examined using a cluster randomized controlled trial the efficacy of a gender-training intervention targeting men and community leaders to improve gender attitudes and reduce IPV perpetration in men in Tanzania.