Marie Lina Excellent, MD, MPH (She/Her/Hers/Elle/Ella)

About

Dr. Marie Lina Excellent (She/Her/Hers/Elle/Ella) is a physician by training who earned her Master of Public Health in May 2016 from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health at Chapel Hill thanks to a dual scholarship from Fulbright and UNC. Throughout her career, Dr. Excellent thrived and inspired others through her commitment to improving HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment and is a champion in continuous quality improvement (CQI). 

During her over a decade of experience, Dr. Excellent helped Haitian National AIDS Control Program with the development and updates of policies and tools related to HIV/AIDS. She co-authored two HIV/AIDS published articles and presented several posters on HIV/AIDS interventions and CQI at national and international conferences (IHI; BMJ; AIDS 2018, AIDS 2020 & AIDS 2022; ICASA-2019 & 2021; IAS-2021 & IAS 2023; USAID 2021 Annual Meeting; APHA 2022; IAS-2023). She served as a mentor for the International AIDS Society (IAS). Dr. Excellent is passionate about teaching, equity, global health, leadership, community engagement, and implementation science. Dr. Excellent currently serves as an Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of the Online Global Health Certificate in Public Health Leadership at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her philosophy is “Know to better serve others in need through teamwork!" Dr. Excellent is a core member of the PHLP Anti-racism Co-design Team and serves as an instructor for the following courses: Critical Issues in Global Health (PUBH711); HIV/AIDS Online Course (PUBH 725); Leading Quality Improvement in Public Health (PUBH 730) and my new course Applying Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) And Leadership in Public Health Practice (PUBH890). 

In 2016, Dr. Excellent conducted the evaluation of the reaccreditation of North Carolina Local Health Departments for improvement in collaboration with the North Carolina Institute of Public Health (NCIPH). 

Dr. Excellent is passionate about teaching, equity, global health, leadership, community engagement, and implementation science. Dr. Excellent currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Public Health Leadership Program (PHLP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her philosophy is “Know to better serve others in need through teamwork!". Dr. Excellent is a core member of the PHLP Anti-racism Co-design Team. Dr Excellent is also the Faculty Director of the Online Global Health Certificate administered by PHLP. She currently serves on the UNC Gillings Faculty Advisory Council and the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) Advisory Board. 

Marie Lina Excellent in the Gillings News

Honors and Awards

Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholar, Class IX
2023-2025, UNC-Chapel Hill

PHLP Director’s Award for Collaborative Leadership
2016, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

UNC-Graduate School Scholarship
2014-2016, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Fulbright Foreign Student Program Scholarship
2014-2016, US Department of State

BIARI (Brown International Advanced Research Institute) Scholarship
2013, Brown University and Santander Universities

Representative Courses

Co-teach PUBH 754 Research Methods for Public Health Practice | Syllabus

SPHG 713.404: Understanding Public Health Issues | Syllabus

PUBH 711: Critical Issues in Global Health | Syllabus

PUBH 730: Leading Quality Improvement in Public Health | Syllabus

PUBH 725 HIV/AIDS Course | Syllabus

PUBH 890 Applying Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) And Leadership in Public Health Practice  | Syllabus

Research Activities

Dr. Excellent conducted the evaluation of the reaccreditation of North Carolina Local Health Departments for improvement in collaboration with the North Carolina Institute of Public Health. She is also involved in the evaluation of the Culture of Health Initiative implemented at UNC-Gillings School of Global Public Health. 

• HIV/AIDS and other Infectious Diseases 

• Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) - Implementation science 

• Mental Health and Stigma/Discrimination 

• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) 

• Antimicrobial resistance 

Dr. Excellent also holds a Certificate from BIARI (Brown International Advanced Research Institute), for her research on 2013- 35 Years of Advances in HIV/AIDS: What has changed for women?, Brown University, 2013 

Service Activities

• Member of the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) Advisory Board – Fall 2023 to date (3 years); 

• Member of the UNC-Gillings Faculty Advisory Council (FAC) – June 2023 to date (2 Years); 

• Abstracts Reviewer for the UNC-Water Institute Annual Conference – May 2023; 

• Member of the First Destination Survey (FDS) Committee – Spring 2023 to date; 

• Chair of the MPH Global Health Concentration Admissions Committee for the 2022-2023 Cycle

Key Publications

The Contributions of Targeted HIV Testing Services (HTS) towards the First 95 UNAIDS Goal: Lessons Learned from the BRIDGE Project in Haiti. Marie Lina Excellent 1,2*, Estère Michel 1, Ammcise Apply 1, Emmlyne Emmanuel 1, Frantz Jean Louis 1,3, Stevens Thierry Oméro 1, Guéthina Galbaud 1, Daniel Lauture 1, Mariline Laguerre 1, Bernadine Neptune 1, Maureen Léonard 1, Emmanuel Péricles 1, Jean Wysler Domerçant (2022). Indian Society for the Study of Reproductive and Fertility (ISSRF).

Learning needs assessment for multi-stakeholder implementation science training in LMIC settings: findings and recommendations. Turner MW, Bogdewic S, Agha E, Blanchard C, Sturke R, Pettifor A, Salisbury K, Marques AH, Excellent ML, Rajagopal N, Ramaswamy R (2021). Implement Sci, 2.
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A program review of a PEPFAR-funded physician HIV training program for pediatric providers. Davey SE, Koster M, Excellent ML, Gautier J.  (2015). M J AID, 1(1), 1-10.
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Recommendations pour addresser la Resistance aux antimicrobiens en Haiti (translated into English as: Policy and practice recommendations for addressing antimicrobial resistance in Haiti. Excellent ML, Ramaswamy R, Honoré P.  (2016). Info-CHIR, Revue Haitienne de Chirurgie et d’ Anesthesiologie., 3(20), 16-22.

External quality assessment for HIV rapid tests: challenges and opportunities in Haiti. Frantz, J. L., Excellent, M. L., Anselme, R., Buteau, J., Stanislas, M., Boncy, J., & Domercant, J. W.  (2018). BMJ Global Health, 3(6).
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Education