May 03, 2006
Spring is awards season, and we’re excited about the significant work HBHE students, faculty, and alumni have been doing and the recognition they have received for their leadership in both scholarship and outreach. Read about some of our awardees below.The winners of the 2006 Lucy S. Morgan fellowships, given to first-year master’s students for leadership, scholarship and integrity, are Rebecca Davis, Karah Fazekas, and Juliette Muellner. Before coming to HBHE, Rebecca Davis had already distinguished herself in her work with substance abuse and mental health programs, including her work in establishing the innovative Strengthening Families Program in western NC. This program provided outreach and support for those with addiction problems as well as all their family members. In receiving this award, Rebecca is recognized for her passion for her work and her drive to improve her knowledge and skills so that, when she returns to the workplace, she will be even better prepared to tackle the challenges in front of her.

Karah Fazekas is recognized for being “hard working, deeply collegial, committed to health education practice, and phenomenally effective in enacting change.” As a case in point, she worked for a number of years at Ipas, an international family health organization based in Chapel Hill, as their Training and Service Delivery Improvement Coordinator. Here at UNC, she has been selected to serve as the Student Health Action Coalition’s HIV Coordinator and as a board member for the UNC Women’s Center Advisory Board. She is also currently a coordinator for a study examining the new Human Papilloma Virus vaccine in Person County. Our third Lucy Morgan scholar, Juliette Muellner, is recognized for her passionate dedication to sexual violence prevention and intimate partner violence prevention. Before coming to UNC, Juliette worked as program director for University of South Carolina’s Office for Sexual Health and Violence Prevention. She currently works with the Injury Prevention Research Center’s (IPRC) PREVENT Program. This summer she will start working at the UNC Women’s Center and for the Dean of Students office to create a sexual violence peer education group.

The winner of the Ethel Jean Jackson award for exemplary public health education practice is second year master’s student Emily Wurth. Before enrolling in our master’s program, Emily worked in Washington, DC for nonprofit organizations at the national and community levels to increase access to educational and health services, provide meaningful work opportunities, and develop advocacy skills in underrepresented populations. She also held a year-long position with AmeriCorps in the Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center, located in a predominantly Latino immigrant neighborhood. She is currently leading a research effort in Duplin County, a low income, largely minority county, to organize the community in opposition to a proposed landfill; she is carrying out interviews, focus groups, and building community capacity.

The winner of the Kathryn J. Kerr Scholarship, who is honored for her activism, leadership, and commitment to community health education practice, is second year master’s student Kim Chapman. Kim received acclaim from Time Magazine’s Global Health Summit when she accepted the Heroes of Global Health award (one of only 10) on behalf of Carolina for Kibera (CFK). CFK is a volunteer-driven organization operating out of Kibera, Kenya (but based here at Carolina) that aims to involve youth in their own community’s development. Kim, as chair of CFK’s board of directors, has overseen the organization’s development, program expansion, and financial stewardship.

The four recipients of the 2005-2006 Barnhill-Hatch awards are doctoral student Bahby Banks and first-year master’s students Andre Brown, Felicia Browne, and Marcus Johnson. Bahby Banks’ interests include program evaluation, minority health, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS prevention. Andre Brown’s interests include HIV/AIDS prevention and eliminating healthcare disparities; he is working with the UNC-based Project STYLE, an HIV/AIDS program for young men in North Carolina. Felicia Browne is interested in how cultural norms (gender roles, for example) play a role in the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in East Africa. She worked with HBHE Assistant Professor Deb Tate on her Health-E-life study, examining effects of Palm Pilot use and Internet-based resources on weight loss. Her research practicum will focus on gender-based HIV interventions in Raleigh/Durham and South Africa. Marcus Johnson is interested in the design and implementation of health intervention programs in disadvantaged communities. Before enrolling in HBHE, he worked as a social research coordinator with UNC’s Thurston Arthritis Research Center.

Doctoral student Christina Holub received the 2005-2006 Godfrey M. Hochbaum scholarship. Christina is interested in women’s health, particularly adolescent and women’s sexual and reproductive health. She was recently first author on a book chapter focused on strategies for parents to prevent adolescent smoking.

For excellence in public health education by an alumnus of HBHE who graduated at least 10 years ago, Katherine (Kat) Turner, MPH ’96, has received the Eunice N. Tyler award. Ms. Turner is a senior training and services advisor for Ipas in Chapel Hill.

The newest additions to the Theta Chapter of Delta Omega, the public health honorary society, are second year master’s students Colleen Blue, Emily Johnson, Michelle Ramos, Caroline Whalen, and Samantha Woo, and recent graduate Elizabeth Tolley. The Delta Omega Service Award goes to second year master’s student Kim Chapman, and the Delta Omega Book Award goes to second year master’s student Zulfiya Chariyeva. Special congratulations go to second year master’s student Jennifer Gard, whose entry into the School-wide Delta Omega Poster Competition was the one poster chosen to advance to the national competition.

Associate Professor Vangie Foshee is being recognized with the School’s prestigious Greenberg Award for her excellence in research, teaching, and public health outreach.

In addition, Professor Geni Eng – and all the students in her HBHE 240-241 class, Action Oriented Community Diagnosis – are being recognized with the Office of the Provost’s Engaged Scholarship Award for the excellence of that course.

This is only the tip of the iceberg for all the awards/recognitions given to our students, faculty, and alumni. For a more complete listing of HBHE student awards and activities for the 2005-2006 academic year, see http://www.sph.unc.edu/hbhe/alumni/Website_SRB_2005-2006.pdf. Congratulations to all!

For further information please contact Catherine Vorick either by phone at 919-966-3918 or by email at cvorick@email.unc.edu

 

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