\n\tBy MARTY LEVINE<\/p>\n
\n\tMonica Love started her undergraduate degree at Pitt in 1997 and never left, thanks to a student job at the School of Public Health in the spring of 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI’ve been in epidemiology ever since,\u201d says Love, \u201cand I never looked back,\u201d though she had once planned to study law. \u201cI’m glad my life worked out this way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tNow Love has won a Chancellor\u2019s Distinguished Service Award\u00a0for Staff. Her award, in the research support category, noted that she has served \u201cas the trusted administrative partner\u201d to Pitt Public Health Professor Emeritus Lewis H. Kuller who, when he died in 2022, was hailed as the \u201cFather of Preventive Cardiology\u201d for his research on reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors and for discovering the connection between menopause and heart disease. Kuller formed the modern epidemiology department as chair (1972-2002).<\/p>\n
\n\tKuller hired Love for her student job and then onto the Pitt staff the year he stepped down as chair, when his research expanded. \u201cHe was old school \u2013 all paper,\u201d Love recalls. \u201cHis office was just piles and piles of paper. I would be able to go into his office and find\u201d whatever was requested \u2013 or at least find it online as a last resort. \u201cI called myself an information detective in those days.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\tKuller would also dictate papers for her to transcribe, and \u201cI miss it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s a skill not many have. I love typing. The faster I type the better I can type what I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShe also helped Kuller with submitting Institutional Review Board documents and manuscripts. In 2015, she took on the same function for epidemiology faculty member Akira Sekikawa, who conducts large studies on cardiovascular health in the US and Japan. Love became a project coordinator in 2021 of the Integrative Models of Metabolites, Equol and Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease study, which aims to understand the causes of low rates of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease deaths in Japan in the hope of developing new preventive and therapeutic strategies for the disease in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\n\tShe writes service agreements between Pitt and two Japanese universities, processing study invoices and making sure work is being done on time, alongside editing manuscripts for submission.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese are studies that have made worldwide changes in health initiatives,\u201d she says of her work. However, Love adds, \u201cthe participants in our research studies are the backbone of all we do in epidemiology.\u201d Helping those who come to the school for the local portion of studies is tremendously satisfying, she explains. \u201cThe participants come first \u2013 that’s what Dr. Kuller taught me since day one. Everything I do, there in the back of my head is their safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHer department’s Health Studies Research Center\u00a0has seen more than 20,000 research participants over the years. Parts of the studies have involved people aged 60-plus years: \u201cSome of our participants will tell us this is the only health care they receive,\u201d she notes, describing her relationships with participants as \u201cvery rewarding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tLove says she received the news of her award with surprise when Sekikawa told her he was nominating her. \u201cFirst thing I said, \u2018Oh no, I don’t qualify for something like that.\u2019\u201d But looking at her path \u2013 from student worker making deliveries around campus in the days before email to published author \u2013 she clearly qualifies.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was just such an honor,\u201d she says now. \u201cIt’s just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tMarty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times.\u00a0Reach him at\u00a0martyl@pitt.edu<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0412-758-4859.<\/p>\n \n\tHave a story idea or news to share?\u00a0Share<\/a>\u00a0it with the University Times.<\/p>\n