UCLA PUBLICHEALTH SPRING 2000 - UCLA School of Public Health

ALUMNA LOOKS TO INSTILL HEALTHY HABITS IN MINORITY CHILDREN
As a pediatrician, Andriette Ward
(M.D., M.P.H. ’99) has seen for
herself the problem of obesity in
children, particularly minorities.
An estimated 25 percent of
school-age boys and girls in the United
States are overweight. “It’s very difficult
to develop healthier eating habits
and levels of physical activity as an
adult when you have a lifetime’s worth
of bad habits to change,” she says.
Ward also was convinced that even pediatricians’
best efforts at persuasion
were falling on deaf ears. “It’s silly to
think that any kind of behavioral
11
modification is going to be successful if
ALUMNI
you’re seeing a patient no more than
once a month for a 10-minute visit,”
she contends.
Dr. Andriette Ward (far left) hopes to convince children of the rewards of
The desire to affect larger numbers
healthy eating and physical activity before they develop bad habits.
of children than would be possible in
clinical practice motivated Ward to
pursue a research fellowship through
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA
and, concurrently, an M.P.H. at the
UCLA School of Public Health. Now,
through the Division of Cancer Prevention
and Control Research and the
UCLA School of Public Health, Ward
is a co-investigator on a project that
tests a more intensive behavioral intervention.
“Community Steps to Minority
Youth Fitness” will examine the impact
of modifying students’ home and
school environments. At two middle
schools with predominantly African
American and Mexican-American student
bodies, the researchers are working
with the school cafeterias, the
physical education faculty and parents
to convince the students of the rewards
of healthy eating and physical activity.
Says Ward: “We think that because
we’re introducing these kids to activities
and behaviors that they can sustain
for the rest of their lives, they will
have a better chance of continuing with
these healthy habits even after the intervention
is over.”
APHA CAUCUS CHAIR CYNTHIA MOJICA AIMS
TO ADVANCE LATINO HEALTH INTERESTS
For as long as she can remember,
Cynthia Mojica (M.P.H. ’95) has
been interested in serving the
Latino community. In the early
’90s, when she attended the school’s
Public Health Leadership Conference
as an undergraduate, Mojica decided
that public health would provide the
best avenue for fulfilling her career
objectives. And by the end of the
decade, Mojica was already positioned
to make a difference: armed
with an M.P.H. from UCLA and a national
leadership role as chair of the
American Public Health Association’s
Latino Caucus.
Mojica first attended the annual
meeting of the APHA as a student in
1994, and became increasingly active
with the caucus over the next several
years. She served as secretary of the
executive board last year, and was
Cynthia Mojica
elected to a two-year term as chair last
November. “Our purpose is to advocate,
both within and outside of
APHA, for the health interests of the
Latino community,” she explains.
Mojica has remained at UCLA since
receiving her M.P.H., working as a
project director on two cancer-control
studies headed by Dr. Roshan Bastani,
associate professor of health services.
She will enroll in the Ph.D. program in
the school’s Department of Health Services
this fall, and plans to pursue an
academic career that will enable her to
make a contribution in identifying and
eliminating health disparities, particularly
affecting Latinos. While she prepares
for an important new phase in
her education, she continues to gain invaluable
education in the field. “My involvement
with the caucus is exposing
me to a lot of the issues affecting Latino
communities across the country, and
I’m making great contacts,” Mojica
says. “It’s a tremendous experience.”