编者注：为了庆祝黑人历史月（2月1日至3月1日），休斯敦乌西顿（Uthealth Houston）邀请了我们社区的杰出成员。

Kymberle Sterling，DRPH，MPH，她的职业生涯与烟草业吸引新吸烟者的努力作斗争。

斯特林是一种反市场的，正在寻找与烟草营销努力作斗争的方法，以使其产品对青少年以及在包括非裔美国人，西班牙裔和LGTBQ+在内的少数民族社区内出售某些产品的目标努力。

She is a tenured associate professor at UTHealth School of Public Health-Dallas, a public health behavioral scientist, and a tobacco-related health disparities researcher. Sterling is also the first African American woman to be awarded tenure at the school.

斯特林说：“我为我的研究团队进行的工作感到自豪。”beplay苹果手机能用吗“我们已经了解了该行业如何将其产品推广到这些社区，以及这些社区中的青年和年轻人如何看待这些产品。我们使用研究发现来开发beplay苹果手机能用吗沟通工具，以帮助年轻人在接触烟草广告时抵制烟草广告。”

斯特林说，她喜欢研究，因为它使她能够具有分析性和beplay苹果手机能用吗创造力。

“For me, it’s a perfect marriage between problem-solving, creativity, and the ability to help someone. It taps into what my purpose is on this Earth — to help people,” Sterling said.

“Applied public health research works to develop interventions and programs to help people. I have many tools at my disposal, and the creative part of that is deciding which tools are best to use to address a public health problem. I have community-based participatory research strategies in my toolbox to help me engage and collaborate with my target population. Along with input from my target population, I have behavioral science theories and frameworks to help me better understand the motivations of human behavior. I have the processes for developing a health promotion intervention or program and evaluating how effective that program is. To me, it’s like an artist having their paint and canvas in front of them, waiting to create their next piece. I’m able to use all of these tools to figure out what sort of program to create to best answer my research question, and I’m able to create something that hopefully benefits people.”

Sterling said she started her journey at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in cell and molecular biology. Initially, her goal was to become a pediatrician, but her experiences at the institution steered her toward public health. Her roommate attended an information session on public health and excitedly shared the news.

“这是我们正在寻找的一切》l career,” Sterling said. “I began my studies at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and I absolutely loved it.”

斯特林（Sterling）在杜兰（Tulane）赢得了公共卫生硕士学位时，遇到了一位基础导师，她将她引导到研究中，贝蒂娜·比奇（Bettina M. Beech），德尔夫（Drph），MPH，曾在Uthealth公共卫beplay苹果手机能用吗生学院获得博士学位。

“She was a phenomenal researcher and person. In her course, I was bit by the research bug. I was able to realize my love of writing, problem-solving, public health, and helping people and how they intersected,” Sterling said.

比奇的指导还指导斯特林到公共卫生学院的休斯顿校园，在那里她获得了社区健康科学的DRPH。

“博士Beech是我在杜兰（Tulane）唯一的非裔美国教练。看到一个看起来像我当教授的人是如此鼓舞人心。她告诉我她在休斯敦的博士生的旅程，我想尝试一下。”斯特林说。

Sterling found her passion for helping combat tobacco use through a research project with Alfred McAlister, PhD, professor emeritus with the School of Public Health. The project included developing sections of the Texas Tobacco Prevention Initiative, a statewide initiative funded in the early 2000s through a settlement with the tobacco industry. It created tobacco prevention programs for children, including a school curriculum and a public service campaign.

“Through that project, I learned about the tobacco industry’s predatory practices and their recruitment of new users, youth and young adults, which the industry calls ‘replacement smokers,’” Sterling said. “The industry has a long history of targeting vulnerable populations: youth, African Americans, Hispanics, and LGBTQ+.”

Sterling continued in tobacco research, eventually returning to UTHealth Houston in 2018, where she teaches in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences. She recently completed a $1.3 million NIH grant to evaluate predictors of flavored cigar and cigarillo use. She plans to continue this work through 2027 through another NIH grant to assess the abuse liability of the industry for flavored cigar and cigarillo use.

两种产品在非裔美国人社区中都很受欢迎。

她说：“该行业开发了针对少数社区的特定营销活动。”“学习很有趣。烟草行业文件显示了该行业将如何研究人群，了解他们的文化，规范和信念，并系统地将使用烟草产品作为团体实践的一部分进行正常化。”

知道这使得斯特林的工作更加有意义。

“We know that if smoking onset is prevented by the age of 30, then we’ve prevented most tobacco-related cancer deaths,” she said. “We may not be able to reach all youth, but if we prevent smoking among some, then we’re moving in the right direction. If we can provide current smokers with the tools they need to begin the quitting process, we’re working toward avoiding or reducing many of the adverse health effects that come from smoking.”

斯特林说，她认为不仅要练习良好的科学，而且有助于培训和激励下一代专业人士是她的责任。

她说：“我很幸运能够在我的生活中拥有强大的女性榜样来塑造我。”“课堂内外最有意义的经历是那些人花时间与我分享他们的故事或花时间给我建议以帮助我更好地帮助我。这些互动经常发生在女性身上，而且通常是有色女性发生的。如果我能像我的榜样一样涌入某人，那我朝着正确的方向前进。”

斯特林说，她特别荣幸地指导有色人种，致力于进入公共卫生。

“As a Black woman in public health, I had very few mentors who understood what it was like to be Black in an academic space,” she said. “There aren’t many women of color conducting public health research. It’s an honor and a privilege to give back to all of my students, particularly to students with backgrounds like mine. That’s one of the reasons why mentoring is so important.”

斯特林（Sterling）是公共卫生学院的包容，多样性，公平和倡导（思想）委员会的团队的一员，他们申请了罗伯特·伍德·约翰逊基金会（Robert Wood Johnson Foundation）的赠款，以提高学校的多样性努力。

Sterling said her career has been rewarding beyond measure.

她说：“我一直想与年轻人一起工作并帮助年轻人。”“早期，我想成为一名儿科医生，但我从未想象过我可以进行公共卫生研究的影响。beplay苹果手机能用吗我为团队的研究及其对人们生活的影响而感到自豪。”beplay苹果手机能用吗