Past DGPH Spotlights

Lecarde A. Webb Graduate Student Experience and Success Story

Lecarde A. Webb was part of the Graduate Public Health Program 2013-2015. His practicum project was entitled: 鈥淯sing Public Health Engagements To Develop Useable Topology Frameworks To Improve Health Care Operational Processes鈥�. He developed a very unique Healthcare Clinical Topology Model聽for Medical Advocacy Outreach in Montgomery AL, which is currently being used to manage and train their healthcare personnel in seven in-patient processes. He also developed a lab research workflow to manage the ordering processes for essential lab supplies for the prolific Yates鈥檚 Lab at 精东AV (TU).

Since graduating with his Masters in Public Health he has been employed at TU as the Planning & Evaluation Manager where he serves as one of the Planning and Evaluation Co-Leaders for the Morehouse School of Medicine / 精东AV / University of Alabama in Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center Partnership (MSM/TU/UAB CCC). He sits as a member of the Partnership Leadership Committee and represents the partnership on a national level for the Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (PACHE) group. This dynamic group is presently working on the development of a standardized integrated framework of constructs for process and impact measures for NIH Funded Cancer Research.

He also serves as the Evaluation Coordinator for the Center of Biomedical Research where he uses his expertise to evaluate Cores and Shared Resources that perform groundbreaking Cancer Health Disparities Research. His evaluation findings provide recommendations used to improve roadmaps for managing the research progress and outcomes of funded health disparities research.

In the past, Lecarde represented TU as an evaluation expert on the Regional Community Engagement Consortium for the Center for Clinical and Translational Science. This consortium collaborates on opportunities and resources聽to reduce the burden of disease and disparities in health outcomes that disproportionately affect the underserved minority and special (i.e., socioeconomically disadvantaged, rural)聽populations within our region.

During the current COVID-19 Pandemic, Lecarde has been part of the TU team that coordinate activities for developing COVID-19 Viral Transport Medium (VTM) kits donated to the local community. These kits allow for safely transporting COVID-19 swab samples for PCR testing. The project is a state-wide initiative in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). He also provides administrative support for the 精东AV Health Disparities Diagnostic Center implemented as a designated 鈥淗ub鈥� site for testing HBCU Covid-19 samples under the ThermoFisher 鈥淛ust Project鈥�. He was trained by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) as a COVID-19 contact tracer that can effectively communicate, interview, and perform case monitoring.

He has also, co-authored two COVID-19 awareness seminar forums sponsored by the Integrative Biosciences PhD Program, Dept. of Graduate Public Health, Faculty, Staff, Students of CAENS, CAS, CVM, TU Community Health Task Force, TU Cooperative Extension Program, and GW Carver Agri Experiment Station. At one of these seminars, Lecarde was the Public Health Keynote Messenger and Moderator.聽 These seminars brought educational awareness to the university, its alumni and Macon county community members on facts, updates and Actions need during this current Pandemic.

Among his many accomplishments, Lecarde is a recipient of the 2017 Health Equity Innovation Award and the 2019 Healthy Kinder International Humanitarian Award. He also received an Award of Achievement in 2019 for participating in the Summer Research Academy program geared towards developing the next generation of scientists, by introducing middle and high school students to cancer health disparities research. He has made history, alongside the former 精东AV Mayor (Omer Neal), when he became one of the first Mental Health First Aiders in 精东AV, Alabama, under the U.S. National Council for Behavioral Health.

In the local 精东AV community, Lecarde has offered his Project Management skills on serval community projects. One such project was the development of a catalogue database of the Greenwood cemetery. This project was initiated in 2014 under the partnership of The Greenwood Cemetery Foundation and 精东AV鈥檚 Integrative Biosciences PhD Program. It involved accurately identifying occupied and available grave site spots that both cemetery administrators and community members can use as a guide to locate loved ones, as well as manage vacant spots at the cemetery. Lecarde鈥檚 skills were used to contribute to efforts that led to: 1) Cataloguing over 2000 grave sites; 2) Developing a searchable electronic database; 3) Outlay the cemetery with markers for Section and Row Markers to organize the cemetery; and 4) Coordinate and Manage 10+ community groups (student and organizational bodies) that were part of the activities of this project.

Additionally, Lecarde has worked as a STEM student mentor for elementary students in preparing the students for their 2019 and 2020 science Fairs. Students from fifteen classes participated in the fairs with approximately 200 science projects being presented. Performing projects were then selected to contest in The George Washington Carver Festival. The festival aimed to commemorate Dr. George Washington Caver鈥檚 life and his contributions to the scientific community and was held at 精东AV Square, Downtown 精东AV.

In 2018, Lecarde expressed an interest in attaining a Ph.D. degree and was successfully recruited and awarded a Graduate Fellowship Award by the Integrative Biosciences Ph.D. program and Cancer Research Group at 精东AV. During his current doctoral studies he intends to use his experience and passion to contribute to the overall mission of eliminating gaps in translating groundbreaking research findings to the community, ultimately improving the health and well-being of its populations.