The University of Louisville Alumni Magazine: for alumni, faculty, staff, students and anyone that is a UofL Cardinal fan.
Issue link: https://louisville.epubxp.com/i/705015
S U M M E R U O F L M A G A Z I N E | 4 5 A C R O S S C A M P U S Award honors social work leader Career achievements in his native South Africa — and his more recent Louisville home — have garnered Riaan van Zyl an award for those accomplishments. The MOSAIC (Multicultural Opportunities for Success and Achievement in our Community) award recognizes new or f rst- generation immigrants and refugees who are making a signif cant contribution in their professions and in the community. Louisville's Jewish Family and Career Services, which helps newcomers to America, bestowed the award in May. Since becoming the Kent School of Social Work's associate dean for research in 2000, van Zyl has helped its faculty and staff collaborate to solve community problems, and to position the school to be one of the fastest growing in the country in attracting federal research dollars. He continues to work on HIV/AIDS prevention programs for young people in South Africa, where he previously worked on issues such as alcohol safety, aging policy, epilepsy services, prison reform and educational standards. RAYMOND A. KENT SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK Riaan van Zyl, Kent School's associate dean for research, won a 2016 MOSAIC award for signifi cant contributions to his profession and community. A study published recently in Health Affairs found low-income Kentuckians without health insurance declined by 68 percent, from 35 percent uninsured at the end of 2013 to 11 percent in late 2014. Completed prior to Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin's decision to dismantle the state's health exchange, kynect, the data supports trends of similar studies published nationally showing a drop in the number of uninsured Americans. Study f ndings also revealed declines in the number of people lacking a regular source of health care and those with unmet medical needs. At the time of the study, Kentucky was one of two southern states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The expansion raised Medicaid eligibility up to 138 percent of the poverty level as a means to make coverage more accessible and affordable for those likely to experience f nancial barriers to medical care. The study was conducted by School of Public Health and Information Sciences' Department of Health Management and Systems Sciences faculty Joseph Benitez, PhD, Liza Creel, PhD, MPH, and J'Aime Jennings, PhD — all aff liates of the school's Commonwealth Institute of Kentucky, a transdisciplinary collaborative for population health improvement and health policy analysis. Using data from the 2006–14 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an annual survey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers focused on adults between the ages of 25 and 64 who reported an annual household income below $25,000, thus capturing a large segment of the population that could benef t from the expansion. Data from residents of Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia — three neighboring states that did not expand Medicaid eligibility — served as study controls. SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND INFORMATION SCIENCES J'Aime Jennings, PhD Joseph Benitez, PhD Liza Creel, PhD More of Kentucky's low-income adults enrolled in health coverage under the Affordable Care Act