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At the 2021 APHA Annual Meeting and Expo last week, Dr. Jingwen Zhang was presented with this year’s Ayman EI-Mohandes Professional Public Health Innovation Award for her research on communication and emerging media technologies that promote healthy lifestyles and preventive behaviors across diverse populations.
The award, founded in 2019, recognizes a public health professional, age 40 or younger, who is using an innovative solution to address a complex public health issue.
Zhang is assistant professor in the Department of Communication and the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Her work includes social media-based interventions and the development of mobile app technologies and artificial intelligent chatbots designed to increase physical activity, contraceptive use and cancer prevention in underserved populations.
She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Adolescent Health, Annals of Behavior Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Prevention Science.
Zhang’s work has been supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“I’m deeply honored to receive the Ayman El-Mohandes Young Professional Public Health Innovation Award,” Zhang said. “I thank APHA’s recognition of my work on digital technologies for public health and the tremendous importance of researching their impact on health equity for all.”
