Kyaien Conner, PhD, along with her co-investigators Dr. Jennifer Bugos from the School of Music and Nicole Crawford from the College of Public Heath, were recently awarded a grant from the Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer's Disease Research Institute for their project to investigate the impact of an African Drumming for Dementia Intervention on psychosocial outcomes in African Americans with Alzheimer's Disease and their caregivers. Dr. Conner was awarded $95,000 for this grant which covers a two-year grant period scheduled to begin on March 1st 2019. The project will involve an open trial whereby they will pilot test and determine the feasibility of the African Drumming for Dementia intervention for community dwelling African Americans with early stage AD (N= 30) and their caregivers (N=30). The aims of this novel pilot project are to: 1.) assess the feasibility and acceptability of the African Drumming for Dementia intervention; 2.) assess psychosocial outcomes for persons living with early-stage AD including: mood, quality of life, self-esteem and self-efficacy; and 3.) assess the following psychosocial outcomes for caregivers: caregiver burden, mood, quality of life, self-esteem and self-efficacy.

For many youngsters around the world, Christmas is not a time for receiving and sharing gifts. Many children in Cité Soleil grow up having never celebrated Christmas due to the extreme poverty in their neighborhood. Drs. Rahill and Joshi's Krik Krak: Mental Health for Pregnant Haitian Teens grant, funded by the Grand Challenges Exploration Round 20 of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, targets pregnant teens in Haiti's Cité Soleil. Their first round of focus groups revealed several challenges faced by pregnant teens in Cité Soleil, including the need for clothing for the young women and supplies for newborn infants, such as clothing, bottles, washable diapers, and toys. Thus, Cameron Burris, an MSW student and Project Coordinator for the Krik Krak grant and Alexandra Pellot, an MSW student and Graduate assistant, spearheaded a clothing and non-perishable food drive in collaboration with Jenifer Ollis, president of the USF Social Work Society in, a student-run organization.

During the second phase of the grant, when Drs. Rahill and Joshi returned to Cité Soleil to film video interventions that address the biopsychosocial challenges which the identified teens had shared in the first focus groups, they brought clothing and food for mothers and babies, some of whom had been born since the previous trip. They gave those donations to community-based colleagues at Cité Soleil's OREZON. Colleagues at OREZON sorted through and organized the donations two days before Christmas, providing mothers with gifts for themselves and their children. Mothers even enjoyed blowing balloons, something they never had as children. We were grateful to be able to share clothing drive items with mothers in the community and not just those from our focus groups. We extend our deepest gratitude to the Social Work Society for their willingness to collaborate with us in meeting the essential needs of young mothers in Haiti.

The Tampa Bay History Center, which is in the process of becoming a CARD-USF "Autism Friendly" business site, is offering families a multi-sensory approach to learning about Florida's past. The 60,000 square-foot facility on Tampa's Riverwalk includes three floors of permanent and temporary exhibition galleries focusing on 12,000 years of Florida's history. On Sensory-Friendly Saturdays, which are offered every other Saturday, galleries will open an hour early at 9am and will offer touch carts and learning stations for visitors to see, touch and smell as they explore the museum's three floors of exhibits.

Martica H. Hall, PhD, will present "Sleep as a Pillar of Health Aging" on Friday, February 1, 2019 at 10:30am in USF College of Public Health Auditorium, 1023C. Dr. is Co-Director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Sleep and Circadian Science and its Translational Research Training in Sleep Medicine Program. Her research focuses on the pathways through which psychological and social factors affect sleep and their downstream consequences to health and functioning, with an emphasis on cardiometabolic disease risk.

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