Ketnie Aristide takes public health’s message to Botswana

Ms. Ketnie Aristide recently received the biggest assignment of her life—in August she reports to Botswana for a two-year placement with the Peace Corps. As a member of the Clinic and Health Team, Aristide works directly with the HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Project. According to her official assignment notification, she’ll work in partnership with local health professionals to “address needs in community health and HIV/AIDS, especially through clinic health education outreach, district-level research, data analysis, and coordination.” “I look forward to my hands-on experience abroad, applying what I learned here [College [...]

Executive MPH Program Traveled to Panama

Ten students from the Public Health Practice Program traveled to Panama City, Panama on for a group field experience opportunity under the guidance of Dr. Hana Osman and Somer Burke. Aracely Quintero, Director of the USF Health Program in Panama, tailored an immersive experience for the students consisting of three parts: Introduction and history of the Panama Canal, evaluation of the Panama’s health system, and cultural immersion with an indigenous group. The USF Health Panama Program faculty and staff delivered interesting lectures for the students. Dr. Arlene Calvo, Community and [...]

Dr. Rosanna Ianiro participates in internationally renowned tropical medicine course

Dr. Rosanna Ianiro is currently pursuing a master of public health in global communicable diseases at the University of South Florida College of Public Health.  Before commencing her studies in public health, she worked for several years as a primary care physician in Costa Rica after earning her medical degree from Universidad Autónoma de Centro America. Because of her passion and commitment to medicine and her genuine interest in global health, Rosanna excelled in her coursework and became very knowledgeable in the areas of immunology, parasitology, emerging infectious, tropical, and [...]

COPH Graduate Student Invited to Peace Corps Service in Guatemala

College of Public Health (COPH) graduate student Christine Meister has been invited to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala. Christine will join six other COPH graduate students who are currently serving in the Peace Corps, including Jennifer Burges (who left for Uganda last week), Jessica Chambless (Botswana), Stephen Cormier (Cameroon), Aditi Desai (Uganda), Mezelle Moore (Mongolia), and Folashade Osibanjo (Zambia). These students are all serving as Volunteers through the Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) program. The PCMI program is a unique opportunity which allows these students to carry [...]

World Malaria Day 2013 – Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria

On April 25, people across the globe will take part in a wide range of activities to mark World Malaria Day 2013. These activities will no doubt look back at the remarkable progress that the global development community has made in combatting malaria and indeed other infectious diseases over the years. However, one of the key lessons other infectious disease control has shown is that when there is an opportunity to control the spread of disease, it must be taken. Therefore now is the time for the malaria community to [...]

IHSC Spends Spring Break Providing Service in Chicá, Panama

International Health Service Collaborative (IHSC) members spent their spring break in Chicá, Panama. The IHSC consists of students from all across USF Health, including the Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Public Health, and the School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences. The multidisciplinary group was busy in the short time that they were in Panama. The students began their visit by conducting a participatory health assessment of the community to identify priority health issues and possible interventions for this and [...]

A Second Chance to Get Things Right

The following is an excerpt from a recent blog on the topic of the new State Department Office of Global Health Diplomacy written by J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other foundation and corporate contributors, the Center seeks to advance a long-term strategic U.S. approach to global health, cultivate new global health champions, enrich our understanding of the security and foreign [...]

April 7 is World Health Day 2013

  World Health Day is celebrated on 7 April to mark the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948. Each year a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights a priority area of public health concern in the world. The theme for 2013 is high blood pressure. About high blood pressure High blood pressure – also known as raised blood pressure or hypertension – increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. If left uncontrolled, high blood pressure can also cause blindness, irregularities of the [...]

Update from Botswana: Global Health Student Reports on Peace Corps Assignment

Global Health graduate student and Peace Corps Volunteer Jessica Chambless recently reported from Makopong, Botswana, a village in the Kalahari Desert on the South African border of Botswana where she is serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Jessica is serving in the Peace Corps through the Peace Corps Masters International (PCMI) program, along with six other COPH graduate students. In a recent blog posting, Jessica discussed her first experience as a camp counselor at a GLOW camp:  This past weekend a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer organized a GLOW (Girls Leading [...]

USF Receives NAFSA’s Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization

  The University of South Florida is a recipient of the 2013 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization, an honor presented by NAFSA: The Association of International Educators. The Paul Simon Award is a comprehensive recognition based on   international engagement, student programming, faculty development, and partnerships. The award is presented to a limited number of institutions each year, usually no more than five, and typically of a range of institution type. Previous award winners to research universities include Duke University, University of Michigan, Northeastern University, and Purdue University. In [...]