Public Health - Class Notes

QUESTIONS SPARKED BY REVOLUTION

AN ANNIVERSARY TO REMEMBER

NEWS:
           1990s
           2000s
           DEATHS
           AWARDS

BORN TO: Christopher W. Holliday, 92MPH, and wife British, a daughter, Sheridan Bichette, on May 16. A PhD student in psychology at Georgia State University, Holliday is director of the Center for Community Health Transformation for the DeKalb County Board of Health. The family lives in Jonesboro, GA.

MARRIED: Lisa Carlson, 93MPH, and Johanna Hinman, 98MPH, on October 9, 2004 in Atlanta. Many RSPH faculty, staff, and alums were in attendance. Carlson is academic program director at the Emory Transplant Center at Emory Hospital. She was recently elected to the board of the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing and is chair-elect of the Public Health Education and Health Promotion section of the American Public Health Association.
Hinman is project director for the new Emory Prevention Research Center at the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH).

BORN TO: Cam Escoffery, 95MPH, and her husband, Rich, a daughter, Sarah Nicole Escoffery, on July 21, 2005. Sarah has a big brother, Michael, age 5.

Moses N. Katabarwa, 97MPH, was chosen last February as the 2005 Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award winner at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. Established by business professor Jagdish Sheth, the award recognizes international alumni who have gone on to achieve prominence in universities, governments, private sectors, and NGOs around the world. Katabarwa has served as medical epidemiologist for several Carter Center health programs. Originally from Uganda, Katabarwa served as country director for The Carter Center’s Uganda office from 1996 to 2003. He also directed the World Bank/WHO-sponsored program to control river blindness in Uganda.
The selection committee cited Katabarwa’s work to alleviate the suffering of people around the world who are afflicted by disease as exemplary of the principles of the Sheth Award.

BORN TO: Sonya Olson Mounts, 99MPH, and husband Jason, a son, Eli Alexander, on August 25, 2004. A claims and consulting analyst previously in Norfolk, VA, she recently relocated to Corpus Christi, TX, with her husband at the completion of his pediatrics residency.

BORN TO: Melissa (Parrino) Sheesley, 99MPH, and husband John, a son, Patrick Daniel, on September 23, 2004. The family lives in Gaithersburg, MD.

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Sarah Emerson Kurz, 00MPH, works in business and product development at a small biotech company, MacroGenics. She lives in Washington, DC.

Tomoko Sampson, 00MPH, is in his third year of medical school at the University of Iowa. He has recently taken up cycling as a hobby.

Steven W. Hunt, 01MPH, is an account executive for the Office of Insured Healthcare Facilities at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He administers the section 242 programs that insure mortgages for hospitals and lives in Washington, DC.

MARRIED: Tonya Thorsteinsson, 03MPH, and Michael Dixon II on October 16, 2004, in Atlanta. She is a project coordinator for the Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic Threats (SECEBT) at Emory.

Nancy Habarta, 04MPH, spent six months of the past year as a Crisis Corps volunteer in Kalundo, Zambia, in sub-Saharan Africa. She was developing programs for a new counseling, testing, and resource center to help counter the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Habarta is in the first group of Crisis Corps volunteers funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. She had previously worked in Zimbabwe for the Peace Corps, an experience that led her to Emory for an MPH. “The Crisis Corps was a good opportunity to work from the ground up, rather than the top down. I think it made me a better public health professional and gave me a chance to help improve a tragic situation,” Habarta says.
In June 2004, she married Canadian James Rhynold, who volunteers for the Zambian wildlife and conservation society.

Chip Barnett, 05MPH, lives in the Indian state of Gihar, collecting data for the development and implementation of a plan to distribute paromomycin, a drug developed for visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a parasitic disease that is usually fatal and caused by the bite of a sandfly. Barnett’s employer, the Institute for OneWorld Health, a new San Francisco-based non-profit company, develops drugs for neglected diseases. Barnett spends most of his time in the field to develop a drug-distribution plan that is affordable and accessible to people, even in remote villages.

Ramon Olene Parrish Jr., 81MD, 05MPH, is on the faculty of the Family Practice Residency at Floyd Medical Center in Rome, GA.

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William Hurley Daughtrey, 79MPH, of Snellville, GA, on January 25, 2005, after a stroke four months earlier. A captain in the U.S. Army, he served in Berlin, Germany, and Korea, and he retired from DeKalb County as a financial analyst after 25 years. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Monnie Elizabeth Roberson, three daughters, a son, two grandsons, a brother, and a sister.

Luann Rhodes, 96MPH, of Lilburn, GA, on July 8, 2004, at age 46. She was formerly of Mechanicsburg, PA. A CDC epidemiologist in the Center for Environmental Health, she was active in the Diabetes Association of Atlanta and served as co-chair for the Downtown Dash for Diabetes in 1998 and 1999. Survivors include her mother, Marylou A. Rhodes, and a sister.

Ty Chettra, Humphrey Fellow 2002-2003, on April 20, 2005, in Ho Chi Minh City, while undergoing surgery. Chettra was the country director of Cambodia for the Futures Group Policy Project, which according to a spokesman from the Future Group, Harry Cross, he led “with considerable energy and vision for more than two years. He thrived on the work and was proud to be a Khmer leading the Policy Project. He was well known in Cambodia and liked and admired by our staff, counterparts, and partners.” He is survived by his wife and two young children.

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The Alumni Association Board of the Rollins School of Public Health presented two awards this spring.

Hani Atrash, 85MPH, CDC associate director for program development of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, is the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award winner. Throughout his career, he has played an active role in the placement of epidemiologists in maternal child health programs around the country, and he is the founder of the Mother Infant Child Health Programs National Conference, which attracts more than 500 attendees each year. According to Atrash, pregnancy outcome improvements have been highlighted as one of the ten major achievements in public health in the United States. However, racial gaps continue and are worse today than in the 1940s. Since 1980, improvements have stagnated or declined. There has been almost no change in maternal mortality rates. Some rates, including preterm birth and low birthweight, have increased. Low birthweight, says Atrash, is an issue of increasing prevalence and concern.

Chanda Mobley, 96MPH, is the recipient of the 2004 Matthew Lee Girvin Award for selfless dedication to public health and significant contributions toward improving the lives and health of others. Mobley was recently promoted to director of pediatric programs at the American Lung Association’s southeast region, which includes Georgia’s Camp Breathe Easy program and other pediatric asthma initiatives. She provides expertise and training in asthma-related issues as well as HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and diabetes to community and state organizations. In June, she successfully defended her PhD dissertation in maternal and child health at the University of Alabama. The Girvin Award is given to a recent graduate of the RSPH and honors Matthew Girvin, 94MPH, who died in January 2001 while serving on a United Nations surveying mission.

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		An Anniversary to Remember



		In September, the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) celebrated 30 years of public health at Emory and the 15th anniversary of the founding of the school. The event, which drew more than 120 administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends, not only marked highlights of three decades of public health at Emory but also looked forward to future directions for the school. “It is hard for me to imagine Emory University without the Rollins School of Public Health because the school is a leader in so much of what Emory University is—and even more of what it will become,” President James Wagner said during the celebration. Since its founding in 1990, the RSPH has been not only the newest school at Emory but also the fastest growing. An integral part of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, it serves as an interdisciplinary catalyst, playing a role in the research and teaching programs of its fellow schools of medicine and nursing. In looking ahead, Michael Johns, executive vice president for health affairs and CEO of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, sees health care growing more reliant on the field of predictive health. “We know that the foundation and future of this approach lie in public health,” Johns told the anniversary crowd. Another increasing emphasis at the school is global health, a direction enhanced by a generous gift from the Hubert Foundation. The foundation already has endowed two chairs at the RSPH: the Ruth and O.C. Hubert Chair and the William H. Foege Chair in Global Health. At the anniversary event, Richard Hubert presented a check from the foundation to the RSPH, bringing its gifts to $5 million on the way to a $10 million commitment. To recognize the impact of this support, Dean James Curran announced the naming of the Hubert Department of Global Health. The history of the RSPH as well as its future is possible because of its supporters. “Because of so many of you in this room, we also are celebrating where we are going,” Curran said. “Your belief and investment in the RSPH and its programs have brought us further more rapidly than we could have dreamed possible 30 years ago, even 10 years ago. We must continue to redefine the unacceptable and work toward improving health of all people, in Atlanta, in Georgia, in the United States, and worldwide.”