The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF) is proud to announce the following recipients, finalists, and semi-finalists of the 2012 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship (KEMS).
Recipients:
- Zaida Maya Botello (Harvard School of Public Health). Zaida will work this summer to promote the healthy cognitive and emotional development of adolescent survivors of the civil war in Sierra Leone, including child soldiers.
- Leah Jarvis (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health). This summer, Leah will travel to Burkina Faso to implement and evaluate an educational program for young women migrating to Ouagadougou, in search of work. The program will increase health and hygiene knowledge, improve reproductive health, and develop financial literacy and life skills.
- Kristin Van De Griend (University of South Carolina School of Public Health). This summer, Kristin will work with the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh, through a partnership with the University of South Carolina. Van De Griend will work to determine how and why victims of sexual violence choose to seek or not seek services after an assault, with the goal of improving services for victims and increasing service-seeking behavior.
Finalists:
- Erin M. Byrt (Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition)
- Garland Castaneda (University of Colorado Medical School)
- Isabella L. Chan (University of South Florida School of Anthropology)
- Bonnie Chien (Stanford University School of Medicine)
- Emily E. Hotchkiss (University of Arizona College of Public Health)
- Katherine King (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health)
- Matthew Kyle Leroue (University of Colorado School of Medicine)
Semi-Finalists:
- Kristin Elizabeth Banek (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
- Haddi Cham (University of Michigan School of Public Health)
- Kathryn A. Doane (Columbia University Teacher’s College)
- Bradley David Hoath (University of Michigan School of Public Health)
- Sarah Ju (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
- Jonathon Platt (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health)
- Katie M. Roders (University of South Florida School of Public Health)
- Jessica Watson (Boston University School of Public Health)
Thank you to all of our applicants, and to the committee of volunteers and public health experts who participated in this year’s review process.
The competition for the scholarship this year was keen, and 2012 was in many ways our most ambitious year yet. Please check our website in the fall of 2012 to learn more about and apply for the 2013 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship. You can also learn about and apply for our ongoing Leadership Grants program at the website.
(2010 KEMS Recipient Norah Meyerson takes a break while working at a Birth-Friendly Facility in Timor-Leste, where she worked to encourage healthy practices regarding maternal and child health.)
The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF) is proud to announce that Lee Van Iderstine (MPH, Tulane University) is the recipient of the 2011 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship. This summer, Lee will work at a community health clinic that provides free care for the children of HIV-positive mothers in the Manica Province of Mozambique. The clinic supports more than 800 children and their caretakers by providing basic foodstuffs every two weeks. The clinic treats most health problems presented, providing prescribed medications and also referring patients to the local hospital when necessary. Lee will spearhead the education arm of the clinic’s nutrition program, with the goals of preventing acute presentations in the clinic and improving the health of the community. She will do this by developing an intensive 9-week health and wellness curriculum, teaching the curriculum to workers and caretakers in health and hygiene classes, and training a clinic assistant to continue these classes after she has left. Lee has also outlined clear strategies for the long-term updating and development of the curriculum.
The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF) is pleased to announce four finalists for this year’s scholarship:
- Jesse Greenspan (MPH, The Johns Hopkins University)
- Jana Smith (MPH, Columbia University)
- Kriti Jain (MPH, The Johns Hopkins University)
- Katie Stetler (MPH, Yale University)
Thank you to all of our applicants, and to the committee of volunteers and public health experts who participated in this year’s review process. The competition for the scholarship was keen, and 2011 was in many ways our most ambitious year yet. Please check back in the fall of 2011 to learn more about and apply for The 2012 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship.
The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF) is proud to announce three recipients of the 2010 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship. They are:
Mara K. Hansen (Harvard University)
Mara K. Hansen will spend parts of the next year working in India and Morocco to design a comprehensive program to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) in Morocco.
Specifically, Mara will study the success of The
Corridors
Project, an
internationally
renowned
project
, supported by the Gates Foundation, that has
been
working
on
the
reduction
of
STI
and
HIV/AIDS
transmission
among
commercial
sex
workers
in
three
districts
of
Karnataka,
India
since
2005.
Mara intends to use the Corridors Project as a template for a similarly successful program that she will design for and present to her Moroccan colleagues. As
a Peace Corps
volunteer
working previously with
the
Moroccan
Ministry
of
Health, Mara created
educational,
prevention
, and
testing
programs
to
protect
the
health
of sex workers in the city of Boumia.
She is currently a master
of
science degree candidate
in
global
health
and population
studies at the School of Public Health at Harvard University.
Norah Herzog Meyerson (The University of Washington)
Norah Herzog Meyerson will work with Health Alliance International (HAI) in the newly independent country of Timor-Leste, to encourage healthy practices regarding maternal and child health at HAI’s Birth-Friendly Facilities. Birth-Friendly Facilities (BFF’s) are culturally competent, effective and sustainable medical facilities that provide an institutional alternative to home-births. In Timor-Leste, roughly 90% of women deliver at home, where medical complications are not handled safely – leading to one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Norah’s program will ultimately expand the function of BFF’s to include use as a women’s community center for education, discussion, and access to family planning methods in addition to offering mentorship to women in becoming champions of health in their own households and communities at large. Norah was previously a health care professional in Seattle, WA and Brooklyn, NY and a graduate of Pitzer College, where she received a scholarship based on leadership and community service. She is currently enrolled as a master of public health degree candidate at the School of Public Health at the University of Washington.
Megan C. Slaughter (The University of Minnesota)
Megan C. Slaughter will work this summer with the Uganda Village Project to improve preventative health education and healthcare provisions related to malaria, safe water, hygiene and sanitation, reproductive health, and immunizations in the marginalized Iganga district. Megan will serve as the leader of a team that develops partnerships with local community members and other organizations to facilitate collaboration in reducing health disparities, while increasing the sustainability of community health programs. Megan has worked previously with Americorps, the Independent Medico Legal Unit in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis. She is currently a master of public health degree candidate in community health education, with a concentration in global health and human rights, at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
The finalists, and semi-finalists for this year’s scholarship are:
FINALISTS
Michelle Desmond, University of Washington
Devina Kuo, University of California, Berkeley
Jesse McKenna, Boston University School of Public Health
Brooke Nichols, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Kimberlee Roxburgh, University of South Florida
David Sanders, Oregon Health and Science University
SEMI-FINALISTS
Elizabeth Bunde, Tulane University
Patrick Ercole, Saint Louis University
Kathleen Maloney, Tulane University
Krystal Rampalli, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Kimberlee Roxburgh, University of South Florida
Sean Trafficante, Tulane University
This year’s applications were reviewed by multiple board members, KMF volunteers, and public health experts, in a six-stage evaluation process. Among many impressive applicants, we feel that this year’s recipients and their projects embody those qualities of leadership, innovation, and sustainability that we are especially keen to recognize with Katie Evans Memorial Scholarships.
(Community members from the Island Food Community of Pohnpei take a break from a community health meeting led by Alyssa Bittenbender, far left. Alyssa Bittenbender is a recipient of KMF’s 2009 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship.)
The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF) is pleased to announce that the recipients of The 2009 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship are Alyssa Bittenbender, candidate for the Master’s of Public Health degree (MPH) in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, and Kirsten Unfried, candidate for the Master’s of Health Science degree (MHS) in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University.
Alyssa Bittenbender will spend this summer evaluating a nutrition intervention in Pohnpei, FSM. Working with a local NGO, the Island Food Community of Pohnpei (IFCP), Alyssa will evaluate the use of indigenous foods as an alternative to energy-dense, nutrient-deficient, imported food. She will also hold community meetings, train and retrain IFCP workers, administer surveys, and conduct a literature review about nutrition in Micronesia. As she stated in her project proposal, “Understanding the lasting effectiveness of an intervention is imperative as much time, money, and energy is put into developing it. The results of [this project] will inform efforts both in FSM and internationally.” Alyssa is a former Peace Corps Zambia volunteer.
(KMF 2009 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship recipient Kirsten Unfried poses with staff at the Global Access Health Program in Mae Sot, Thailand.)
Kirsten Unfried will spend this summer and fall in Mae Sot, Thailand, working with the Global Health Access Program to improve the well-being of internally displaced Burmese communities through the provision of health and public health services, capacity building and resource enhancement. Kirsten will conduct cross-border reproductive health care programs on the Thai, Chinese, and Indian borders with Burma. She will also conduct trainings, work with partner organizations, and generally help to coordinate and standardize local health programs, with a special emphasis on issues related to child and maternal health. Formerly a Peace Corps The Gambia volunteer, Kirsten is a candidate for the Master’s of Health Science degree (MHS) in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University.
KMF has also identified five finalists and twenty-seven semi-finalists for the 2009 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship. They are listed below.
In only our second year offering this scholarship, received an overwhelming national response to the scholarship. More than 250 applications were submitted, from students, doctors, anthropologists, and epidemiologists studying at 78 national colleges and universities. During the application period, the application materials were downloaded more than 1,000 times from our website, where we received between 200-900 visits on a daily basis.
Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Alison Chopel (School of Public Health, The University of California, Berkeley)
Victoria Fort (Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University)
Michaela Kerrissey (Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University)
Sumit Shah (Stanford University School of Medicine & Harvard University School of Public Health)
Karthik Srinivasan (School of Public Health, University of Minnesota)
Semi-Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Meghan Althoff (School of Public Health, The University of California, Berkeley)
Sofia Arriola (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University)
Fayola Autry (School of Public Health, The University of California, Berkeley)
Casey Branchini (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University)
Eden Brand (Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University)
Meg Bruening (School of Public Health, University of Minnesota)
Leah Burn(Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University)
Tegan Callahan (School of Public Health, University of Washington
David Citrin (College of Arts and Sciences, University of Washington)
Kelli Clifton (College of Public Health, The Ohio State University)
Amy Anne Conroy (Health and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Colorado, Denver)
Daragh Gibson (Department of Public Health, University of South Florida)
Husain Gulamhusein (Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University)
Mary Hardy (School of Public Health, The University of California, Berkeley)
James Hicks (School of Acupuncture, Northwestern Health Sciences University)
Allison Ingalls (Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University)
Jenna Klink (School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University)
Anna Maria Barry Jester (Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University)
Rachel Kauffman, (Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University)
Jeffrey McCullough (School of Public Health, University of Minnesota)
Michael Melchior (Stempel School of Public Health, Florida International University)
Oriana Nolan (School of Public Health, The University of California, Berkeley)
Selina Osei (School of Public Health, SUNY Albany)
Lauren Pring (Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona)
Ashley Ryckman (School of Public Health, Tufts University)
Cherrie Smith (Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver)
Stephen Sullivan (Department of Plastic Surgery, Children’s Hospital Boston)
Purpose
The Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship was established to support outstanding work in international public health by providing a one-time scholarship of up to $3,000 towards a fieldwork project proposed by a qualified graduate student.
The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF) is pleased to announce that the recipient of The 2008 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship is Nicole Kellier, Ph.D candidate in Epidemiology at the Robert Stempel School of Public Health at Florida International University (SSPH). On March 7, 2008, Nicole was publicly recognized by KMF and FIU as the scholarship recipient at a March 7th FIU alumni event in Miami, FL.
(Nicole Kellier (right, in blue scrubs) with South Florida care providers participating in the 2008 Jamaica Medical Mission Trip. Nicole is the recipient of the KMF 2008 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship.)
From June through August of 2008, Nicole supervised a group of public health students in Jamaica, as part of The 2008 Jamaica Medical Mission Trip, an annual medical mission trip to provide free health service to those in need who cannot afford to pay for care. Additionally, the group studied the incidence of prostate cancer in Jamaica, which is the highest in the world, as well as two other chronic diseases, diabetes and hypertension, which contribute heavily to the health burden among Jamaicans.
(The 2008 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship partially funded this cancer-screening activity in a low-income community in Jamaica.)
Of her experience, Nicole told KMF:
The 2008 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship supplemented the cost of my group’s travel to Jamaica, the printing of our education materials, and our delivery of cancer-screening activities. My group implemented an educational program that addresses lifestyle changes to promote better health. We put together a diet and exercise intervention for underserved communities.
(Nicole Kellier, recipient of the 2008 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship, presents a nutritional poster designed and distributed to low-income communities in Jamaica. The poster’s production and distribution was funded by the scholarship.)
While carrying out this intervention we made a point of assessing current dietary intake, current physical activity levels, and barriers to adopting recommended activities. The majority of the population served included low income communities with limited resources. Rather than recommend that our clients obtain foods that they cannot afford, we discussed ways of modifying or being creative with foods they normally eat, while incorporating exercise into their daily routine. We also recommended initiation of leisure physical activity for those who were not physically active and also discussed ways to incorporate ‘exercise’ into their daily activities. Finally, we scheduled the Jamaican Cancer Society (JCS) to come to one of our sites and provide free cancer screening and cancer-related educational activities.
(Nicole Kellier, second from right, with FIU participants and professors during the 2008 Jamaica Medical Mission Trip.)
Nicole Kellier currently works as a teaching assistant in the epidemiology and biostatistics department of SSPH. Previously, she has worked as a nursing administrator, pediatric oncology research coordinator, cancer epidemiology associate, and infectious diseases research assistant. Since 2005, she has served as the research coordinator for the Annual Jamaica Medical Mission. She is a volunteer for the American Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society, and Southeast Florida Cancer Control Collaborative. Nicole received her master’s degree in public health (epidemiology) from George Washington University in 2003.
You can contact Nicole via email.
The Katie Memorial Foundation is a 501( c )(3) federally tax-exempt charitable nonprofit organization. The KMF taypayer identification number is 74-3250765.