From the Alumni President
Another School Year has begun. The classrooms at the RSPH are overflowing. The plaza level of the Grace Crum Rollins Building is crowded with students (and their laptops, backpacks, and seemingly bottomless travel mugs). The newest class at the RSPH, numbering 374 master's and 21 doctoral students, has just begun its public health journey.
For those of us who have completed our formal MPH education, this season has a different feel. It is a season of new projects, new proposals, training new employees, and scouting out potential new funding sources. It may feel far removed from school.
This, however, is the season for taking yourself "back to school" in a new way—by sharing of your time and talents. As RSPH alumni, each of has received remarkable training and education, and now is the time to give back to the institution that provided you with that knowledge. The Alumni Association offers a number of ways to get involved with current RSPH students, and I encourage you to consider becoming a mentor or participating in Networking Night or the 2007 Public Health Fair. Your experience in the real world of public health—local or international, academic or grassroot, research, or practice—is a gift worth sharing with current students and other alumni.
Please consider how you might like to get involved and contact me at jhinman@sph.emory.edu or Karla Daniels in the RSPH Office of Development at 404-712-8687 or kdaniel@sph.emory.edu. Tell us how you would like to celebrate heading back to school this year!

Johanna M. Hinman

Johanna M. Hinman, 98MPH, CHES
President, RSPH Alumni Association
Project Director, Emory Prevention Research CenterFor information on Alumni Association activities in collaboration with RSPH Career Services, check out the Career Services website.

To help RSPH students get back to school, please give to the Emory Annual Fund. You can designate your contribution for public health students or one of a number of named funds designated for the RSPH. Click here for more information or to donate online.

1980s
LUCY C. WILLIS, 87MPH/MN, was elected to a three-year term on the executive board of the South Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution. She works in nursing administration at Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, AL.

1990s
CARLINDA F. BACON, 92MPH, is now a self-employed realtor in Atlanta.

AMRI JOHNSON, 96MPH, has joined Cook Ross Inc., a diversity consulting and training firm in Silver Springs, MD, as executive vice president and partner.

Married: LYNN HUTSKO, 97MPH, to Kambiz Khosrowshahi, on April 23, 2005. Lynn is a statistician with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in New York City.

THOMAS HOFF PROL, 97MPH, has joined the Lyndhurst, NJ, office of Scarinci & Hollenbeck as a senior associate in the law firm's environmental department.

Married: TAMMY WOODRING, 97MPH, and Jonathan K. Turner, on May 14, 2006, at Tybee Island, GA. She works as a health educator at Georgia State University. The couple lives in Austell, GA.

Born to: JENNA CULBERTSON CARPINELLO, 98MPH/ MSN, and her husband, Chris, a son, Joshua Logan, on April 14, 2006.

Born to: JENNIFER GRASS DURBIN, 98MPH, 98N, and her husband, RANDY, 97MPH, a daughter, Joanna, on Nov. 18, 2005. She joins siblings Audrey and Riley.

Born to: JENN BALLENTINE, 99MPH, and Scott Kelsey, a daughter, Lila Isabel, on Feb. 3, 2006. She joins big brother Jack.

MICHAEL HENSLE, 99MPH, is a special agent for the FBI and lives in Lebanon, NJ.

AMY METZGER, 99MPH, serves as an international health specialist with Compassion International in Colorado Springs, CO, as an international health specialist.

Cultivating the Future
Former Humphrey Fellow plants seeds to end hunger and HIV/AIDS in Malawi

This is the first in a series of articles highlighting RSPH alumni, students, faculty, and staff who are using their gifts to make a difference in public health.

WISE CHAULUKA HAS A GIFT for growing things. By planting vegetables in his village in southern Malawi, he is cultivating a better life for local women and children and a brighter future for his country.
     The gardens he is teaching others how to grow are rooted in the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH), where Chauluka completed a Humphrey Fellowship in spring 2005. Upon returning home, he found Malawi in the midst of a severe drought and famine. The conditions proved especially dire for families already struggling against the hardships brought about by HIV/AIDS.
     "The challenge I faced was simply the way HIV/AIDS
prevention has been managed since 1985, when Malawi had its first reported HIV case," says Chauluka, who works locally and nationally to educate others about the disease. "I had to do something about hunger, which affected many women and children in my village."
     Intent on taking advantage of water from the nearby Thondwe River, Chauluka set about "empowering women and children to meet basic food requirements. I opened a demonstration garden with support from my Emory friends."
     Support came through donations raised by RSPH faculty, staff, and students, enabling Chauluka to buy vegetable seeds and fertilizer for women and children to plant their own gardens. As the drought continued, Chauluka sought funds to buy a water pump to increase their crop yields from one to three times a year.
     Last spring, RSPH faculty, staff, and students fasted for a day and donated the money they would have spent on food to the Malawi Pump Fund, raising about $2,000. "It's great to see what an impact can be made with our contributions," says Kris King, co-president of Emory Global Health Organization, the student group that organized the fast.
     "Wise was a fabulous Humphrey Fellow who is very devoted to his family and his community," says Philip Brachman, coordinator for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, which targets mid-career public service professionals from developing countries. During his fellowship, Chauluka spoke to numerous groups about HIV/AIDS in Malawi, where 25% of the population is affected, including Chauluka's family. All three of his brothers have succumbed to HIV/AIDS, and Chauluka is raising their children.
     During his training sessions on HIV/AIDS prevention, Chauluka uses various strategies to encourage Malawi citizens to change how they think about the disease. "The best part of the experience is the realization that HIV/AIDS is a public health issue where all players are invited to take part," he says. "My training slogan is, ‘Fight HIV/AIDS, not people. Use people to fight HIV/AIDS.'"

2000s
DR. CARA D. BIDDLE, 00MPH, recently moved to Washington, DC, to join the Children's National Medical Center, where she is a pediatrician and teaches medical students and residents. She also works in a clinic to coordinate care for children with complex health needs.

M arried: KATHY BOAZ, 00MPH, and HIMAL DOHTRE, 03MPH, on March 4, 2006. Kathy is an epidemiologist specializing in viral hepatitis at the CDC, and Himal is an epidemiology doctoral student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Their primary residence is in Stone Mountain, GA.

Married: RYAN ALLEN MADDOX, 00MPH, and KATHRYN E. WILSON, 01MPH, on May 22, 2005. They both work for the CDC, where Kathryn is a health educator and Ryan is an epidemiologist. Ryan is pursuing a doctorate in epidemiology at the RSPH.

BRUCE MOORE BROWN, 01MPH, has been named vice president of Cera Products Inc., which produces high-performance, proprietary, rice-based oral rehydration solutions. He manages sales and marketing efforts and supports operations and corporate strategy development.

Married: AMY ROSE COPPETO, 01MPH, and Todd Stuckey, on March 25, 2006. The couple resides in Atlanta, where Amy works as a public health analyst with the CDC.

KATHERINE McELROY, 01MPH, is a public health analyst for the Health Resources and Services Administration in Washington, DC.

TOLTON PACE, 02MPH, of Atlanta is dean of admissions and director of multicultural recruitment for Emory's Office of Undergraduate Admissions. He previously was employed by the Atlanta Public Schools as an English Speakers of Other Languages teacher and interpreter and by the CDC as a prevention specialist with the Public Health Prevention Service.

PAUL V. PETRARO, 02MPH, is a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health and lives in East Rockaway, NY.

Married: ASHLEY PULEO, 02MPH, and David Edward Schaaf, on May 7, 2005, at Duke University Chapel. They live in Chapel Hill, NC, where Ashley is a third-year dental student at the University of North Carolina.

Married: CLAIRE SCHUSTER, 02MPH, and Haroot Hakopian, in Washington, DC, on Sept. 4, 2005. Claire is a network community coordinator for the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group at Social and Scientific Systems Inc. They live in Gaithersburg, MD.

Married: LENEE HILLARIE BROWNE, 03MPH, and JESSE DEAN BLANTON, 03MPH, in April 2005. They both work at the CDC, where Lenee focuses on influenza and Jesse specializes in rabies.

ANITA KURIAN, 03MPH, of Plano, TX, received the Leon Brachman Community Service Award from the University of North Texas Health Science Center. She is a doctoral student in the UNT School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics. The award is given to the public health student who exemplifies academic excellence, leadership, and community service.

MARK MUELLER, 03MPH, serves on the first STOP (Stop Transmission of Polio) team in Indonesia. He is completing his third and final year with the CDC's Public Health Prevention Service. He and his wife, Sara, welcomed a son, Grant, born Jan. 1, 2005. The family lives in Santa Fe, NM.

DAVID BRAY, 04MPH, received the 2005 CDC Director's Award for Information Services and was promoted to associate director of informatics.

Married: CAMMIE PILLER, 04MPH, and high school sweetheart, Jack Edson, in December 2005, on the beach in Mexico with 55 family members and friends present. The couple lives in Westminster, CO.

GABRIEL RAINISCH, 04MPH, is an epidemiologist with Northrop Grumman in Atlanta.

Married: TUNISIA HARGRAVE, 05MPH, and Christopher Frye, on Jan. 9, 2006, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. They live in Atlanta.

ASHLEY LAND SCHOENFISCH, 05MPH, is a research analyst for Duke University Medical Center in Chapel Hill, NC.

PAULA DENISE MARTIN, 06MPH, is a training and compliance coordinator at Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory. Paula previously was a lead research specialist at Yerkes, where she has served since 2003.

Commencement 2006
Peter Bell, president of CARE USA, remembers Sunday visits with his grandmother, who used to tell him, "Your health is the most important thing."
     "You've done my grandmother one better," Bell told the Class of 2006 in his commencement address. The graduates—more than 300 in all from 36 states and 36 countries—face a world of challenges, from terrorism, AIDS, to avian flu. Bell counseled graduates to face such uncertainties by envisioning a better world. "Idealism is an inexhaustive source of inspiration," he said. "Remember, the actions of individuals do matter."
     Among those receiving recognition this year were Jose Binongo, biostatistics instructor, and Robert Stephenson, assistant professor of global health. Both were named as Student Government Professor of the Year. Also honored was the late Richard Letz, professor and former chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education (BSHE) and former president of the University Senate. The Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) presented the Thomas F. Sellers Jr. Award, recognizing the best qualities of collegiality, to Letz in his memory. Letz died of cancer at age 54 in April. Those wishing to honor him may contribute to the Richard E. Letz Endowment Fund for Dissertation Research in the RSPH. This new fund annually supports the research needs of doctoral students in BSHE.

Alumni Deaths
1980s
GLORIA JEAN McCORMICK-DAVIS, 81MPH/MN, of Decatur, GA, on March 6, 2005, at age 52.

2000s
DEBORAH LYNN KUBISIAK, 04MPH, of Atlanta on March 25, 2006. Debby was one of the first students in the school's new Global Environmental Health Program. In summer 2003, she completed her global field experience in Guatemala, where she studied the epidemiology of diarrheal disease, the incidence of acute respiratory infection, and the implications for intervention in San Maeteo Ixtatán. She worked for the CDC as a prevention specialist with the Public Health Prevention Service, where she collaborated with many state and national agencies. Before studying at Emory, she was a Fulbright Scholar in 2000-2001 at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Germany. Survivors include two sisters and many friends.

Staff Deaths
CAROL CUMMINGS, in April 2006 at her home in El Salvador. Upon joining Emory in 1983, she helped Eugene Gangarosa and Genie DeHaan produce the second MPH program accreditation self-study. In 1985, Carol joined the staff full time, providing administrative support for the public health program's emerging international focus. And in 1988, she began working with the newly funded AIDS Education and Training Center. Carol retired from the RSPH in 2001.