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.
