Wayne State University last month became the first university in Michigan to receive a Michigan Breastfeeding-Friendly Gold Workplace Award, presented by The Michigan Breastfeeding Network in recognition of the university's evidence-based breastfeeding support for students, faculty and staff. The award signifies that the university has demonstrated the value it places on breastfeeding by establishing permanent lactation spaces on campus, providing better amenities for breastfeeding mothers and sharing the importance of breastfeeding with employees.

Wayne State's campaign to create a breastfeeding-friendly workplace was informed by a campuswide, multistakeholder study led by Wayne State medical student Margarita Abella under the mentorship of Dr. Beena Sood, professor with the Wayne State School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics. The study assessed the availability of lactation rooms, knowledge of men and women about breastfeeding in the workplace, and breastfeeding support to female employees. Social Work's Sarah Doyle contributed to the campus-wide response to make the university more breastfeeding-friendly. Read more here.

Below photo (left to right) Jennifer Day (Project Manager MiBFN), Sarah Doyle (WSU SSW Academic Advisor), Kaitlyn Moorhead-Hill (Project Manager MiBFN) , Shannon McKenney Shubert (Executive Director of MiBFN), Debra Williams (Assistant Vice President of Human Resources), Dr. Beana Sood (Professor), and Provost Keith Whitefield.

Below photo (left to right): Dr. Beana Sood (Professor), Sarah Doyle (Academic Advisor), Katrina Rouan (Librarian), Michelle Feactua (Executive Director of AAUP-AFT Local 6075), and Matthew Wisotsky (Associate Director of Libraries) are members of the Gender Equity's Lactation Committee being recognized for the study conducted on campus and those who assisted in creating lactation spaces around campus.

The School of Social Work co-sponsored the Presidential Sesquicentennial Symposium "Genes, Urban Environments and Health" along with Genomics Wayne, Researchers of Biobehavioral health in Urban Settings Today (RoBUST) and the Center for Urban Research and Environmental Science (CURES). Faculty and graduate students from the School of Social Work took part in the symposium. Kim Jaffee served as a committee planner and Joanne Sobeck (below, top photo, third from left) was a panelist addressing the effects of toxicants, social stress, health inequities and other urban environments on the life course of urban populations. MSW student Cat Zettner (Treading Water: Stress and Coping in the Wake of the Flint Water Crisis) and MSW/MPH Joint Degree student David Cicala (Utilizing an Interdisplinary Student-Run Clinic to Educate and Improve Diabetes Management of At-Risk Populations in Detroit) presented their research at the student poster session as part of the symposium (below, middle and bottom).