Caitlin Kleiboer (Fall, 2011)
December 27, 2011
Master’s student
Health Behavior and Health Education
Kleiboer at work in Kenya
“I have a long-standing passion for two things: public health and photojournalism,” says Caitlin Kleiboer, Master of Public Health candidate in health behavior and health education at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. “At Carolina, I am exploring the intersection of these two disciplines.”
Kleiboer, an Americorps VISTA volunteer in 2009-2010, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan. It was there she became interested in social justice and began to use photography as a tool for change.
“Through domestic and international work, I kept returning to the nagging questions in my head about the links between poverty and disease,” she says.
She credits her public health class in qualitative research methods with teaching her how to develop interview questions that get to the heart of individuals’ experiences with their health. In her photojournalism class, she gains firsthand experience in long-term documentary projects. As a research assistant in the dean’s office, she has explored how social media can help students and educators, artists and scientists across the globe connect on important issues.
“Photography is not going to end war or poverty,” Kleiboer says. “It will not cure disease. But time and time again, it has made a difference. I want to make a difference in the field of global health through my photographs.”
Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. To view previous issues, please visit www.sph.unc.edu/cph.
