Gillings School announces third annual Public Health Communications Fellows
January 22, 2025
The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health has selected two first-year Master of Public Health (MPH) students for the 2024-25 Gillings School Public Health Communications Fellowship: Alana Austin, student in health behavior, and Khalanie Taylor, student in maternal and child health.
This academic year, the Gillings School is proud to partner with Burroughs Wellcome, which has graciously provided funding for the fellowship in order to equip these students with the skills necessary to communicate effectively and with empathy in a broad range of public health settings.
Left to right: Alana Austin, Khalanie Taylor, Shriti Pant and Ethan Chupp
“We’re so excited to welcome a new cohort of fellows,” said Matthew Chamberlin, associate dean for communications and marketing at the Gillings School. “Public health communications has never been more important than it is today. Meg Palmer, associate director for media and external communications, has led this program since its inception, and her steady leadership has made this program a tremendous success.”
The fellowship began in 2023 as 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.
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 practitioners in North Carolina.
Austin and Taylor will join second-year fellows Ethan Chupp, applied epidemiology student, and Shriti Pant, maternal and child health student, 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 a video and social media campaign addressing common topics of public health misinformation, a photo essay on a global public health practicum, a website that introduces public health to prospective students and a web-based expansion of a visual storytelling project that highlights the ways in which local community organizations work together to respond to opioid misuse.
“The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is proud to support the UNC Gillings School of Public Health Communications Fellowship,” said Mandeep Sekhon, senior communications officer for BWF. “At BWF, we recognize the critical role that effective health communication plays in improving public health outcomes, particularly here in North Carolina. By empowering students with the tools and expertise to address misinformation and collaborate with local health organizations, this fellowship exemplifies our commitment to fostering career development, innovation and community impact in public health.”
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.
