Gillings School announces second annual Public Health Communications Fellows

December 14, 2023

Shriti Pant and Ethan Chupp

The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health has selected two first-year Master of Public Health (MPH) students for the 2023-24 Gillings School Public Health Communications Fellowship: Ethan Chupp, student in applied epidemiology, and Shriti Pant, student in maternal and child health.

The fellowship is a collaboration between the Gillings School and North Carolina’s Region 7, a group of local health departments (LHDs) in central N.C., led by Gillings alumna and adjunct assistant professor Lisa Macon Harrison, MPH and Associate Dean for Communications and Marketing Matthew Chamberlin. As a two-year pilot program, the fellowship will equip these students with the skills necessary to communicate effectively and with empathy in a broad range of public health settings.

The fellows will bring a student perspective to the Gillings School’s existing communications efforts, pitching research and project ideas based on their own interests combined with the top priorities of local health departments (LHD) partners in Region 7, which includes the counties of Franklin, Granville, Johnston, Nash, Vance, Wake, Warren and Wilson.

Chupp and Pant will join the inaugural fellows, Amma Agyemang-Duah and Rachel Morrow, as they explore science communication, social media campaigns, video production, strategic communication planning and more under the guidance of the Gillings School’s marketing and communications team.

This year’s goals include the development of a recruitment and retention campaign to support the local public health workforce, a storytelling project to highlight the importance of public health in addressing the opioid crisis, and support with LHD social media outreach.

“We’re so excited to welcome Ethan and Shriti to the team,” Chamberlin said. “Their unique perspectives and commitment to clear public health communications sets them up well for their careers beyond Gillings while at the same time broadening the reach and expertise of the communications and marketing unit.”

The fellowship launched in early 2023 with support from federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, which was awarded to Macon Harrison in her primary role as health director of the Granville-Vance District Health Department and representative for all seven LHDs within Region 7.

As part of the fellowship, students will also write about important public health news and topics for the Gillings School website. Their stories are available to read online.

Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.