During December’s commencement ceremonies, three faculty from West Chester University’s College of Health Sciences (CHS) were recognized for their excellence in the classroom and beyond. All three honorees teach both undergraduate and graduate courses.

The E. Riley Holman Memorial Faculty Award was presented to Chiwoneso Tinago, associate professor of public health sciences. The award recognizes her demonstration of innovative teaching techniques that foster student creativity.

In addition to teaching public health and gerontology courses, Tinago conducts community-based health promotion and education programs and participatory research focused on improving maternal and child health outcomes in this country as well as southeast Africa. In 2018, she was awarded a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Round 20 Grand Challenge Explorations Grant in the amount of $100,000 to support this work in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Tinago is also internship coordinator and faculty internship advisor for the public health program and chair of the CHS Global Health Research Team and the Global Initiatives Committee.

The Campus Diversity Award was jointly presented to Zeinab Baba, assistant professor of public health sciences, and Kimberly Johnson, associate professor of nutrition. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the spirit of diversity on campus.

Baba and Johnson developed and are co-facilitators of the CHS Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Learning Community (DIFLC), where CHS faculty participate in discussions, case studies, and readings and hear from invited speakers to support cultural competence in the development of inclusive learning environments. Launched for the fall 2020 semester, the work was supported by a WCU Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion grant. One outcome was creation of a collective document on strategies for inclusive practices.

For the academic year 2023-2024, the program has been opened to all faculty and is being co-sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Baba is the assessment coordinator for the MPH program. She has extensive experience managing and analyzing various healthcare datasets for pediatric and adult populations. Her quantitative and qualitative research focuses on prevention, health disparities, mental health, and perceptions of health, and particularly on the intersection of public health with other closely related fields including social work, migration, cultural anthropology, and others.

Johnson directs the Sustainable Food Systems Management concentration of the nutrition program. Her research includes social theory of food and nutrition, sustainable food systems, social determinants of health, food security, and public engagement in science and policy of food, health, and citizenship. Her work has been funded by an Allen Foundation grant.

Learn more at West Chester University.