Douglas Passaro Global Horizons Scholarship

The applicant must:

• Be a graduate or professional student enrolled at the UIC School of Public Health.
• Have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better (4.0 scale).
• Not receive alternate funding from the Global Health Program.

The scholarship recipient must:

• Purchase emergency evacuation insurance if traveling abroad.
• Provide a post-experience report within two weeks of return.
• Attend the SPH Annual Research and Awards Day during the spring 2022.
• Prepare and present a poster on the Applied Practice Experience at the annual SPH Global Health Poster Competition at Research and Awards Week.

Applicants must complete the SPH Global Health Scholarships application form.

The applicant’s personal statement should discuss:

• The proposed international experience in detail and a statement, including expected learning objectives, of the potential or the proposed experience to enrich the applicant’s exposure to global health.
• Students must also briefly describe previous international experience.
• The letter must include the name and contact information of the International Host Organization.

Name: Shatabdi Das
Project Location: Hyderabad, India
Project: Shatabdi is an MPH student in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics enrolled in the Certificate in Global Public Health Certificate Program. Shatabdi traveled to Hyderabad, India, to work with experts from UIC School of Public Health and SHARE India on a project evaluating a mobile phone-based health intervention for HIV education and anti-retroviral (ART) adherence among low socioeconomic, low health literacy individuals. Over eight weeks, Shatabdi conducted interviews in Hindi and reviewed global literature on similar mobile health interventions for ART adherence.

Name: Alyssa Debra
Project Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Project: Alyssa Debra, an MD/PhD student, is in her third year of a PhD in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Alyssa’s dissertation examines the link between mental health distress and sexual risk behavior among South African adolescent girls and young women, focusing on the role of caregiver communication and experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV). She will conduct qualitative research in Cape Town, training local staff to perform interviews, and gaining hands-on experience in global health research in high HIV-burden communities.

Name: Allison Huske
Project Location: Munich, Germany
Project: Allison is an MS student in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, presented her research at the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich. Her study evaluated the effectiveness of an avatar-based app, “My Personal Health Guide,” in enhancing HIV knowledge among young, Black MSM in the U.S. Preliminary results from the six-month trial showed improved understanding of key topics related to medication adherence.

Name: Elise Dressel
Project Location: Chicago, IL
Project: Elise is an MPH student in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics enrolled in the Global Health Curriculum. Elise partnered with UIC College of Medicine faculty on research in an NIH-funded trial comparing two tuberculosis screening strategies for people living with HIV and newly entering HIV care in Kampala, Uganda.

Name: Elijah Marder
Project Location: Antioquia, Colombia
Project: Elijah is an MPH student in the Division of Community Health Sciences and enrolled in the Global Health Curriculum. Elijah worked with faculty from La Universidad de Antioquia assisting in psychosocial and youth development activities with at-risk adolescents who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and other rights abuses.

Name: Tigist Mersha
Project Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Project: Tigist is an MPH student in the Division of Community Health Sciences. Tigist worked with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and Maternal and Child Health Department to survey the extent of preconception care education and develop a family planning toolkit in the native Amharic language.

Name: Sandra Morales-Mirque
Project Location: Guatemala
Project: Sandra is an MPH student in the Division of Community Health Sciences enrolled in the Global Health Curriculum. Sandra collaborated with Guatemala Village Health to develop an intervention to address domestic violence in indigenous communities.

Name: Thea Santiago
Project Location: Alcantara, Cebu, Philippines
Project: Thea is an MPH student in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics enrolled in the Global Health Program. Thea worked with Child Family Health International, collecting data on epidemiological surveillance capacity and facilitating discussions on factors and barriers affecting capacity.

Name: Samantha Smith
Project Location: Lalitpur, Nepal
Project: Samantha is an MS student in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Samantha will be partnering with the Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Laboratory on a study to improve understanding of water quality issues in low- and middle-income countries, identify sources of fecal pollution and improving laboratory methods for analyzing water quality.

Name: Rawan Alkhateeb
Project Location: Haiti and the Philippines
Project: Rawan is an MPH student in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences enrolled in the Global Health Program. Rawan will be conducting her applied practice experience with Surge for Water working on research reports, data analyis, and grant proposals for water and sanitation projects in Haiti and the Philippines.

Name: Bhagya Galkissa-Dewage
Project Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Bhagya is a PhD student in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Bhagya will be working a project with the Safe Water and AIDS Project (SWAP) on the strengths and weakness of wastewater based epidemiological surveillance in comparison to the conventional techniques in Kisumu, Kenya.

Name: Megan Kowalcyk
Project Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Megan is a PhD student in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Megan will be working a project with the Safe Water and AIDS Project (SWAP) on a scoping evaluation of the readiness of the public health infrastructure in Kenya to adapt to climate change.

Name: Kara Nitti
Project Location: Hyderabad, India
Project: Kara is a PhD student in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Kara will be working on a project with SHARE India to to study factors associated with adherence and a detectable viral load among a population of women living with HIV in Hyderabad, India.

Name: Samara Reigh
Project Location: Sub-Saharan Africa
Project: Samara is an MPH student in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics enrolled in the Global Health Program. Samara will be conducting her applied practice experience with the Environmental Protection Agency studying health outcomes of air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa.

Name: Tanner Shull
Project Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Project: Tanner is an MPH student in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics enrolled in the Global Health Program. Tanner will be participating in the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan.

Name: Lily Zheng
Project Location: Bangalore, India
Project: Lily is an MPH student in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences enrolled in the Global Health Program and a medical student in the Global Medicine Program at the UIC College of Medicine. Lily will be working on a project with the Ramaiah International Centre for Public Health Innovation investigating the role of peer support groups in patients’ long-term management of chronic illness in Bangalore, India.

Name: Casey Luc
Project Location: Hyderabad, India
Project: Casey is an MPH student in Epidemiology who will be conducting his experience in Hyderabad, India. Casey will work with Dr. Mark Dworkin and the Society For Health Allied Research & Education (SHARE) India on development of an mHealth Education Intervention to improve the prevalence of viral suppression among persons living with HIV and low literacy in India.

Name: Sierra Upton
Project Location: Hyderabad, India
Project:  Sierra is a DrPH student in Epidemiology who will be conducting her experience in Hyderabad, India. Sierra will work with Dr. Mark Dworkin and the Society For Health Allied Research & Education (SHARE) India on development of an mHealth Education Intervention to improve the prevalence of viral suppression among persons living with HIV and low literacy in India.

Name: Kendall Lucero
Project Location: Niger
Project: Kendall is an MPH student in Community Health Sciences, as well as a  Global Health and Maternal and Child Health student. Kendall will be working with OASIS, a non-profit based in Berkeley, California whose work focuses on the West African Sahel. Kendall will be working in support of the OASIS Sister Schools Program, which aims to engage students in Niger and build workforce capacity in the areas of family planning and education.

Name: Cheyanne Helms
Project Location: Indonesia
Project: Cheyanne is an MPH student in Community Health Sciences enrolled in the Global Health Program. Cheyanne will be working with Dr. Gabriel Culbert from UIC, on research focused on determining factors of adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) on prison populations in Indonesia.

Name: Colin Hendrickson
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Colin is an MPH student in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences enrolled in the Global Health Program who will be traveling to Kisumu, Kenya and will work with the Safe Water and AIDS Project on acceptability and use of a solar powered ozonation water treatment device.

Name: Briona Phillips
Location: Jamkhed, India
Project:  Briona is an MPH student in Community Health Sciences enrolled in the Global  Health Program who is traveling to Jamkhed, India, where she will work with the Comprehensive Rural Health Project on establishing an oral health curriculum for children ages 4-11.

Name: Mae Ysabelle Burgos
Location: Philippines
Project:  Ysabelle is an MPH student in Health Policy and Administration who is traveling to the Philippines to work with Child Family Health International where she will learn about the local healthcare system and its challenges.

Name: Gina Chapman
Location: St. Kitt’s
Project:  Gina is an MPH student in Community Health Sciences who is traveling to St. Kitt’s this summer to develop and evaluate culturally appropriate, evidence-based interventions to improve disaster risk reduction.

Name: Cindy Berumen
Location: Tena, Napo, Ecuador
Project: Cindy is a first year MPH student in Community Health Sciences who will be working with Runa Foundation in Ecuador. Cindy will be working with local communities to engage in participatory community health work by assisting with a community health needs assessment while learning about the intersection of traditional medicine with Western practices. Cindy will use her knowledge to develop and evaluate culturally appropriate, evidence-based interventions to improve the health of indigenous populations.

Name: Daniel Drzewiecki
Location: Managua, Nicaragua
Project: Daniel is a first year MPH student in Epidemiology enrolled in the Global Health Program who will be working with Amos Health and Hope in Managua, Nicaragua. Daniel will be working to increase access to clean water by analyzing levels of E Coli in existing water sources and installing water filters to counteract aquatic parasites. He will also be working with Community Health Workers to promote youth health with a focus on access to primary care.

Name: Katharine Ozenberger
Location: Amman, Jordan
Project: Katharine is a first year MS student in Epidemiology who will be working with United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Amman, Jordan. Katharine will be working to identify barriers in access and use of essential medicines in refugee communities. She will specifically be working with primary health care and pharmacy teams to develop a data collection instrument to map out locations of primary care clinics and pharmacies while identifying specific refugee camps that lack these resources.

Name: Kendall Anderson
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Kendall is a doctoral candidate in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences who will be working with the Safe Water and AIDS Project (SWAP) in Kisumu, Kenya. Kendall will be comparing solar microplasma ozonation devices (SMOD) to chlorination packets as a method for disinfecting drinking water and improving water quality in Western Kenya.

Name: Jessica Chepp
Location: La Paz & Torewa, Bolivia
Project: Jessica is a first year MPH student in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences who will be working to improve local water and health needs in the very remote, indigenous community of Torewa, Bolivia. Jessica will be working with Engineers in Action and Engineers Without Borders on a water treatment system that is portable, easy to use and includes locally sourced materials.

Name: Alyson Klausing
Location: Phalombe, Malawi
Project: Alyson is a first year MPH student in Community Health Sciences enrolled in the Global Health Program who will be completing her Applied Practice Experience at the Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi. Alyson will be working on an HIV prevention study called A Community-Based Model for HIV Prevention and Testing in Malawi where a peer group intervention for adolescent women in secondary school will be evaluated.

Name: Mayuko Takamiya
Location: Hyderabad, India
Project: Mayuko is a first year MPH student in Epidemiology and will be studying food insecurity and medication adherence among female sex workers with HIV in Hyderabad, India. This project will include performing a case control study of 70 HIV-positive female sex workers to determine factors associated with poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

Name: Peggy Sue Batterton
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Peggy Sue Batterton is currently finishing her first year at the School of Public Health. She is pursuing an MPH in epidemiology enrolled in the Global Health Program. She will spend the summer in Kisumu, Kenya to work on an ongoing project through UIC that works in conjunction with a teaching hospital located in Kisumu. She will be focus on emergency medicine capacity building and will conduct research on the HIV testing and care continuum.

Name: Jenny Guadamuz
Location: Jordan
Project: Jenny Guadamuz is a MS student in the division of health policy and administration. This summer she will conduct field research focusing on the utilization of cardiovascular medications in Palestine refugee camps in Jordan. The objective of the project is to examine the prescribing patterns of antihypertensive medications at the prescriber and patient-level throughout various United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) refugee populations in Jordan. This project will inform the provision and prescribing of essential medicines in UNRWA refugee communities.

Name: Nicole Laramee
Location: Haiti
Project: Nicole Laramee is a first year MPH student in health policy and administration and enrolled in the Global Health Program. This summer, Nicole will be completing her Applied Practice Experience in Haiti where she will be working on the scale-up process of a community-based disaster risk reduction training program. The disaster risk reduction program seeks to build local capacity and engage community members at the grassroots level, thereby introducing sustainability and services which can be better targeted and tailored towards local needs.

Name: Mary Otoo
Location: Ghana
Project: Mary is a second year MPH student in the division of epidemiology and biostatistics enrolled in the Global Health Program. Mary will be volunteering in Ghana with Unite for Sight (UFS) this summer. While abroad, she will work with UFS partner doctors in rural communities, providing free vision care and eye restoring surgeries for the impoverished. She will also work on a research study that characterizes maternal perceptions on child vision care.

Name: Kathryn Vivirito
Location: Siaya, Kenya
Project: Kathryn Vivirito is a first year MPH student in Epidemiology and Global Health. She will be working on an ongoing One Health project in Siaya, Kenya this summer, exploring the health outcomes of families and children related to livestock ownership and socioeconomic status.

Name: Courtney Babb
Location: Ahero District, Nyanza Province, Kenya
Project: Courtney will be returning to Nyando, Kenya to lead a project to evaluate the effectiveness of a latrine intervention on childhood diarrheal health. She will be partnering with the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation where she will conduct a cross sectional survey to compare the incidence of diarrhea in children in communities with and without the latrine intervention. Risk factors for diarrheal illness will be identified. Water quality analysis techniques will measure water safety between communities; in addition, height and weight measures will serve as a child health indicator.

Name: Zabin S. Patel
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Project: Zabin will be conducting a cross-sectional study. She will investigating the Quality-of-Life (QoL) of Turkish patients receiving head and neck therapy. Zabin will also be examining if QoL is related to sociodemographic variables, including age, educational level, marital status, area of residence, monthly income, and employment status or clinical variables such as pain, type of surgical treatment, stages of disease, and time since surgery.

Name: Miguel Rodriguez
Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Project: Miguel will immerse himself in the local culture and engage with clinics, community organizations, and individuals, to better understand the barriers and strategies that HIV-infected individuals have towards a healthy lifestyle and adherence to treatment.

Name: Paula Rusca
Location: Managua, Nicaragua
Project: Paula will be working to improve Nicaragua’s Clean Water Program, collecting and analyzing data to help AMOS to continually provide communities with safe drinking water. Paula will also be learning how household water filters create safe water and how this in turn improves the health of the people in rural Nicaraguan communities.

Name: Krista Schaefer
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Krista will work with the Nyanza Reproductive Health Society (NRHS) on the Sexual Health and Preserving the Environment (SHAPE) project. She will be collecting data and making observations to answer questions about access to care in rural, resource-constrained areas.

Name: Kirsten Almberg
Location: Antioquia, Colombia
Project: Kirsten’s project sought to characterize exposure to coal dust and estimated the prevalence of respiratory disease among coal miners.

Name: Sweta Basnet
Location: Bajura, Nepal
Project: Sweta’s research explored the association between STIs in women and their husband’s migration status.

Name: Darci Cabezas
Location: Ddegeya, Uganda
Project: Darci evaluated current diagnosis and antibiotic-prescribing habits for typhoid fever and treatment in order to reduce antibiotic resistance.

Name: Jiana Calixto
Location: Iganga, Uganda
Project: Jiana worked  with the Uganda Village Projects Monitoring and Evaluation team.  Jiana conducted follow-up with community members who have bought malaria nets to see how the nets are actually being used and to test malaria knowledge.

Name: Sheewin Pananookooln
Location: Dominican Republic
Project: Sheewin worked under the supervision of Dr. Max Brito on a project that surveys sexual risk behaviors of men and women to inform HIV prevention in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Name:  Adrienne Banks
Location:  Panajachel, Guatemala
Project:  Adrienne will be pursuing an Applied Practice Experience with the Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health organization to assist with field surveillance duties, working closely with a community-based primary health clinic including gathering and analyzing population specific information to capture determinants of health, risk factors, population needs, and health delivery outcomes in an underserved indigenous Mayan population.  She will learn about traditional Mayan medicine as well as naturopathic approaches to global public health.

Name:  Alyssa Budoff
Location:  Delmas, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Project:  Alyssa will be working on a community Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) project.  She will be developing an evaluation strategy for a Training of Trainers program in community engagement.  Utilizing the CBPR approach, Alyssa will seek to understand the successes and challenges of this training in different seasonal contexts and will analyze qualitative date to inform future program development.

Name:  Unnati Patel
Location:  Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Project:  Unnati will be collaborating with an NGO called Bal Sansar Sanstha which works directly with female sex workers in a rural village to promote HIV/AIDS prevention methods approved by the National AIDS Control Organization in India.  She will conduct a cross-sectional study of the female sex worker population and on the behavioral and social determinants correlated with HIV/AIDS prevalence in female sex workers in rural settings in India.  Unnati plans to analyze data collected using descriptive statistics, logistic regression models, and other quantitative analysis methods to abstract data from her survey.

Name:  Evan Sorley
Location:  Hyderabad, India
Project:  Evan will be leading a project at SHARE India.  The project will be a case-control study designed to estimate prevalence of immunization for diphtheria among diphtheria patients, compared to prevalence of immunizations of controls; assess the degree of knowledge, awareness and attitudes about diphtheria immunization among patients; and determine factors associated with low knowledge, awareness, and negative attitudes.  Evan will observe interviews, help create a database, conduct data entry, and perform preliminary analysis.

Name:  Sally Berko
Location:  Amansie-West District, Ghana
Project:  Sally worked on a Millennium Villages Project in rural Ghana to reduce postpartum hemmorhage in women after childbirth.  Sally worked with the community liaison and the data coordinator during field visits at seven community health facilities. She also met with community health education workers and traditional birth attendants to validate and review data collected at the sites.

Name:  Kelley Brown
Location:  Suchitepequez, Guatemala
Project:  Kelley interned with Wuqu’ Kawoa, a nongovernmental health service organization that works to develop nutrition and health programming initiatives in rural Guatemala.  She identified feeding practices of infants and young children, as well as the determinants of chronic malnutrition in order to facilitate new or improved practices.

Name:  Manpreet Grewal
Location:  Rajasthan, India
Project:  Manpreet worked with Marie Stopes International, an organization that delivers family planning and reproductive healthcare to millions of vulnerable women worldwide.  MSI is expanding sexual reproductive health services in thirteen of Rajasthan’s districts. Manpreet assisted with services implementation by conducting program evaluation for the organization.

Name:  Maggie Kaufmann
Location:  Moscow, Russia
Project:  Maggie worked on developing a pilot HIV/AIDS prevention intervention targeted at sexually active female migrants from Central Asia who currently reside in Moscow.  These women are at increased risk of HIV infection due to increasing migration from Central Asia.

Name:  Marc Rosen
Location:  Buenos Aires, Argentina
Project:  Marc worked with Argentina’s Ministry of Health National Tobacco Control Program to compile a report that identifies stakeholder needs in relation to recently passed smoke-free legislation as well as pending smoke-free lislation.  The report served to identify potential next steps for tobacco control policy in Argentina.

Name: Rebecca Duerst
Location: Hyderabad, India
Project: Rebecca worked to address family planning issues, to provide immunization services and update vaccination data, and she conducted research related to diphtheria vaccination.

Name: Lauren Hooberman
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Project: Lauren conducted research as part of a public health project to address Thai migrant workers’ exposure to pesticides.  She interviewed key stakeholders, Thai agricultural employees and agricultural employers.

Name: Sarah Kammerer
Location: Chakradharpur, India
Project: Sarah worked on a study to address infant mortality, maternal depression and barriers to family planning through a participatory community-level intervention.

Name: Shana Salik
Location: Durban, South Africa and Lilongwe, Malawi
Project: Shana participated in the International Confederation of Midwives Triennial Congress, held in Durban, South Africa.  As part of her research in Malawi, she interviewed peer group leaders who participated in a community-based HIV prevention program.

Name: Danielle Dorr-Niro
Location: India
Project: Danielle worked on a project with the Foundation for Sustainable Development that focused on child malnutrition prevention and identification programming.

Name: Ashley Gilbert
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Ashley conducted a study to explore the potential association between perceptions of stigmatization related to HIV testing and intention or past history of utilization of prenatal and delivery services among the study population.

Name: Ada Moadsiri
Location: Tonga, South Pacific
Project: Ada worked with the Tongan Ministry of Health to reduce the burden of nutritionally related chronic disease.

Name: Kelly Shulz
Location: Nepal, India
Project: Kelly worked on a project with Save the Children to document successes, challenges, and lessons learned in their pre-service health education initiative.

Name: Sara Test
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Project: Sara studied HIV infected teens and their knowledge, understanding of and misconceptions about sex and safer sex practices.

Name: Christopher Zabrocki
Location: Moscow, Russia
Project: Chris participated in a pilot project to determine HIV/AIDS risks and protective factors of Central-Asian migrants in Moscow.

Name: Theodore Hufstader
Location: Santiago, Chile
Project: Ted analyzed existing qualitative research data relating to the stigmas, perceptions, and beliefs surrounding HIV/AIDS among Chilean men as part of a five-year, multi-faceted HIV/AIDS study funded by NIH.

Name: Albert Plenty
Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Project: Albert worked for the Kisumu Initiative for Positive Empowerment to collect demographic and behavioral data to identify risk factors and facilitators for HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM).

Name: Katherine Heiman
Location: Peten, Guatemala
Project: Katherine participated in the International Health Immersion Program through Concern America, a “hands-on” learning opportunity in which participants learn about local health problems and local solutions.

Name: Lora Oswald
Location: Dominican Republic
Project: Lora assisted in the testing of the effectiveness of the Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) model to address health issues from a public health infrastructure perspective using the case of San Jose de Ocoa.