January 27, 2017

Two graduate students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health are among those whose summer internship experiences have led to the promise of full-time employment, thanks to the Richard Bland Fellowship Professional Pathways Program, an innovative initiative offered through The Graduate School at UNC.

Sydney Jones, headshot

Sydney Jones

Mackenzie Herzog

Mackenzie Herzog

The Bland Fellowship awardees are Mackenzie Herzog and Sydney Jones, doctoral students in epidemiology.

Herzog, who expects to graduate between December 2017 and May 2018, focuses her research on sports injury epidemiology, particularly musculoskeletal injuries.

During summer 2016, she worked within the QuintilesIMS Real-World Insights Division on the Sports Injury Surveillance and Analytics team. She was hired permanently after the internship was completed and now works 25 hours each week as an associate epidemiologist while finishing her dissertation.

“Mackenzie was able to quickly come on board and add fresh perspective to the complex methodological questions we are asking within the context of sports injuries,” said Christina Mack, PhD, director of epidemiology at QuintilesIMS. Mack, Herzog’s mentor and a Gillings School alumna, is an adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School.

Herzog had clinical and academic experience, but the internship was her first experience working within industry. The training influenced how she will focus her dissertation, she said, and taught her the importance of clearly communicating with stakeholders.

“My dissertation work has been influenced by my internship in that it has made me more confident in my analytic skills and applying the concepts that I’ve learned in the classroom,” she said.

Sydney Jones interned with nonprofit Active Living By Design (ALBD), a Chapel Hill-based organization that was launched within the Gillings School’s North Carolina Institute for Public Health. Jones examined the impact of ALBD’s work with funders and communities across the country.

“She helped us really understand ourselves better and the potential impact we could have across the various different clients and communities that we serve,” said Phil Bors, technical assistance director with the nonprofit.

ALBD helps communities make healthy changes by providing consultation and assistance to local leaders, government agencies, coalitions, nonprofits and health funders. For example, ALBD designs, manages and evaluates grant initiatives to advance healthy communities.

“A lot of my academic research is related to how community structures impact health,” Jones said. “Working with ALBD allowed me to see how these structures are being changed by community members to promote health and wellbeing.”

The Bland Fellowship Program provides students with a stipend to fund a summer internship in a non-faculty career path. To receive the grant, students must articulate clear learning objectives for their experience and identify a willing professional mentor who will support them.

A version of this article appeared in the UNC Graduate School’s newsletter, Carolina Chronicle.


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Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu

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