Jennifer Green Moore, Ph.D., M.P.H., the other inaugural Hud- son Fellow at the Hudson Col- lege of Public Health, currently serves as administrative director and local health officer of the Ri- ley County Health Department in Manhattan, Kansas. Her interest in improving the pub- lic health of young people as well as narrowing the gap in health dis- parities began in her senior year as an undergraduate student. At the time, she volunteered with a local non-profit organization, working with youth in under- resourced neighborhoods, encour- aging children in the area to come to the park to play games and get exercise. She began to notice high levels of obesity, smoking, mal- nourishment, accidental injuries and unplanned pregnancy and realized it would take more than backyard clubs to diminish health disparities. So, she first earned her master’s degree in public health and then decided to pur- sue her doctorate. As a doctoral candidate at OU, Green Moore focused on adoles- cent health and health disparities, specifically teen and unplanned pregnancy prevention. As a re- search assistant working on the Power Through Choices Project, she helped evaluate the effective- ness of pregnancy prevention pro- grams available to at-risk youth. She credits the College and the Hudson fellowship with helping her land a position that aligns with her ultimate goal of improv- ing the health of underserved and at-risk populations. OU Public Health | Fall 2018 11 Serving the Underserved Mowls Carroll also is examining chang- es in DNA that can be readily measured in cells from the mouth, which ulti- mately can result in genetic changes in a smoker’s lungs that block normal cell growth control mechanisms. “We know that social, cultural, histori- cal, environmental and regulatory fac- tors all contribute to tobacco use, in- cluding poverty, lack of access to health care, social norms and tobacco indus- try marketing. However, biological fac- tors arising from our genetic makeup or DNA also influences tobacco use,” she said. One biological factor of particular in- terest to Mowls Carroll is nicotine me- tabolism or the speed at which nico- tine, the addictive drug in cigarettes, is cleared from the body. Nicotine me- tabolism is highly variable from one smoker to the next. “It has been shown that smokers who metabolize nicotine more quickly con- sume more cigarettes, have higher lev- els of harmful chemicals in their body and have a more difficult time quitting than those who metabolize nicotine slowly. Interestingly, it has also been shown that faster metabolizers of nic- otine have better success quitting on non-nicotine medications for smoking cessation; whereas the nicotine patch is recommended for slower metabolizers of nicotine. However, very few studies have ever looked at nicotine metabolism and its impact on smoking cessation in American Indians,” she explained. Mowls Carroll hopes her work will lead to a better understanding of the causes of tobacco-related disparities, ways to reduce those disparities and new in- sights for both smoking and cancer pre- vention strategies. Although her work focuses on American Indian popula- tions, she believes her findings will ulti- mately help contribute to the reduction of tobacco-related disease and death in the United States and the world. The dream of making a difference drives Mowls Carroll in her work dai- ly, but she says her success as a public health scientist is firmly rooted in the education and research opportunities she was provided at the OU Hudson College of Public Health as one of the first two Hudson Fellows. “When I was new to the doctoral pro- gram, I was shy and not fully confi- dent that I would ever be able to for- mulate my own research questions, apply for grants or provide expertise on a research team – all of which are second nature to scientists,” she said. “But working alongside my wonder- ful mentor, Dr. Laura Beebe, and in the supportive learning environment of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, I developed the leader- ship skills, subject matter knowledge and the confidence that would result not only in my ability to develop re- search protocols and to write grants, but also in my ability to conduct re- search that could have a significant public health impact.”