Twenty-three Yale students prepare for international health research this summer.
Twenty-three Downs Fellows from four Yale graduate schools and an academic program have been named for 2014 and will soon travel to destinations around the world to conduct original research in public health, medicine and health care.
The Fellows come from the Yale schools of public health, medicine, nursing, forestry and the anthropology department. The students comprise the largest group of Fellows in recent memory and will put their education and training to use this summer throughout Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and on the island of Fiji.
“This latest crop of Fellows will be dealing with a wide range of public health problems not often encountered in the United States; they will have to deal with these problems with the concomitant challenges of language, social behaviors and often limited resources. The experience will not only test their ingenuity and broaden cultural appreciation, but also permit them to view U.S. health care from an outside perspective,” said Leonard E. Munsterman, a senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health and acting chair of the Down’s Fellowship Committee.
The Downs Fellowship application process and rigorous selection has made it a model for funding summer internships for international health research in underdeveloped country settings. In addition, the increased support by the Fellowship fund in assisting students to prepare the research application has induced an increased interest and produced an increased number of quality applications, Munsterman said. As a consequence, this year’s class is amongst the largest to be supported thus far.
The Downs International Health Student Travel Fellowship is named after Wilbur G. Downs (1913-1991), M.D., M.P.H., a former professor at Yale who counseled students to get outside the classroom and away from home and travel to where pressing public health and medical problems exist. Since 1966, the Downs Fellowship has provided opportunities for almost 400 students to live, learn, work and do research in overseas settings. Downs Fellows are challenged with conducting research in the context of their host countries’ culture, health problems and resources.
One of this year’s Fellows, Wan Nurul Naszeerah, a School of Public Health student, will travel to southern Bhutan to contribute to a study on malaria vectors.
It is currently not know which mosquito species is responsible for transmitting the disease in Bhutan, something that needs to be addressed if the disease is to be controlled and managed in the future. She will collaborate on the project with the Vector-born Disease Control Program at the Ministry of Health of the Royal Government of Bhutan.
“I hope to be able to advance the current knowledge of malaria in this region as well as to further my eco-epidemiologal skills for my future vector-borne and zoonotic diseases research endeavors in my home country, Brunei,” Naszeerah said. “I have chosen this project largely because I have been inspired by mentors and professors at Yale as well as the large research gap in Brunei.”
Eleven of the Fellows come from the School of Public Health. In addition to Naszeerah they are Gili M. Hrusa (leptospirosis in Brazil), Forrest K. Jones (typhoid fever on Fiji), Nirupama Krishnamurthi (Chagas disease in Colombia), Luis E. Maldonado (nutrition and hookworm in Ghana), Trena I. Mukherjee (prison drug use Malaysia), Katharine A. Owers (leptospirosis in Brazil), Michelle Roh (malaria in Uganda), Andrew G. Schneider (leptospirosis in Brazil), Pauline N. Trinh (Chagas disease in Mexico) and Kimberly S. Vasquez (HIV in Nicaragua).
The eight Fellows from the School of Medicine are Adeolu Aromolaran (prison TB in Brazil), Tambudzai Kudze (HIV in Ghana), Thomas A. Lazzarini (suicide in Brazil), Kelsey B. Loeliger (HIV in South Africa), Julia Raney (drug use in Ukraine), Ronnye Rutledge (transgender issues in Malaysia), David N. Suwondo (gang violence in South Africa) and Ava Yap (drug use in Malaysia). There are also two Fellows from the Yale School of Nursing, Gabriella Adjapon-Yamoah (nursing education in Nigeria) and Jose Gutierrez (malnutrition in Ecuador); one from Forestry & Environmental Studies, Alder Keleman (nutrition in Bolivia); and one from the School of Anthropology, Aalyia Sadruddin (aging in Rwanda).
Paul D. Cleary, dean at the School of Public Health, said that Fellows have contributed to an increased understanding of epidemiological, genetic, molecular, biological, clinical and sociologic patterns in health and medicine. Many past Fellows have gone on the establish careers in global health, but virtually all Fellows have been influenced profoundly by their experiences abroad.
“This year’s 23 Fellows and their projects exemplify the types of individuals and projects that I think Dr. Downs envisioned supporting and encouraging,” Cleary said. “He was a truly prescient scholar and educator and it is wonderful to see his vision being realized so fully.”