We are currently accepting applications

Read More

2019 Fellows Showcase and Awards Ceremony - PHI / CDC

  1. Home
  2. Program News
  3. 2019 Fellows Showcase and Awards Ceremony

August 9, 2019

ON JULY 22, 2019, THE PHI/CDC GLOBAL HEALTH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM HOSTED THE FIRST ANNUAL FELLOWS SHOWCASE AND AWARDS CEREMONY AT CDC IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA.

This past fellowship year, which ran from September 2018 to mid-August 2019, the PHI/CDC Global Health Fellowship program hosted 49 fellows supported by a team of CDC mentors in CDC offices in the U.S. and around the world. In an effort to recognize the many impressive accomplishments both fellows and mentors have contributed to the program, we called for presentations as well as nominations from fellows and mentors for our inaugural awards earlier this year.

AWARDS

The PHI/CDC Global Health Fellowship Team, along with our partner, Consortium of Universities for Global Health, reviewed an impressive list of nominations from a diverse pool of CDC locations and fellowship tracks. Congratulations to the following fellows and mentor who were the recipients of this year’s awards and thank you to all of our nominators:

  • Joshua Holmes: Outstanding Leadership Award
    • Surveillance Fellow; Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch; Atlanta, Georgia
  • Larisa Ozeryansky: Lasting Impact Award
    • Program Management Fellow; Laboratory Branch; Pretoria, South Africa
  • Joseph Konstanzer: Best Team Player Award
    • Strategic Information Fellow; Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy; Washington, D.C.
  • Jennifer Hegle: Outstanding Mentorship Award
    • Mentor and Public Health Advisor; Division of Global HIV & TB Prevention Branch; Atlanta, Georgia
PRESENTATIONS

Fellows also had the opportunity to present their work at CDC during the Fellows Showcase. The audience heard from several fellows regarding their work in the field:

  • Ariana Avila was the main presenter, and spoke candidly about her time as a Global Program Management Fellow in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ariana shared her unforgettable experience about close-knit bond with the CDC Haiti Office for 2.5 years in country, and her relocation in spring of 2019 to Atlanta, Georgia, due to civil unrest. While in Haiti, Ariana visited and reviewed 71 PEPFAR-funded health facilities,“marking the first time CDC Haiti completed such a high volume of administrative site visits in a single year.” This initiative helped “address immediate issues, which included accounting systems training needs and assessment of equipment needs” and ultimately motivated Ariana to pursue her PhD in medical anthropology this fall. You can read more about Ariana’s work here.
  • After accepting the Outstanding Leadership Award, Joshua Holmes also presented in person on his work in Atlanta, Georgia and Namibia as a Surveillance Fellow with TRACE (Tracking with Recency Assays to Control the Epidemic). Joshua is part of the Clinical Surveillance and Epidemiology Team (CSET) in the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch (ESB) in the Division of Global HIV and TB (DGHT). Josh noted that: “working at CDC headquarters (HQ) in Atlanta has been both an immensely educational and rewarding experience and has further solidified my interest and passion in working in global health disease surveillance.” 
  • While Larisa Ozeryansky was not able to attend the Fellows Showcase and Awards Ceremony in person to accept her Lasting Impact Award, she shared her acceptance statement in writing. A main focus of Larisa’s work has been improving the quality of HIV Testing in several sites across South Africa. In reflecting on the year, Larisa commented: “I am so grateful for this independence I’ve experienced in visiting rural sites and helping to design a national program to improve health.”
  • Several other fellows working abroad and unable to attend the event in person, recorded presentations or sent in posters for the audience about their work. Thank you to M. Nolana Woolfork, Leah Goeke, Christine Hara, Nikhil Kothegal, Courtney Drayton, and Vanessa Da Costa for sharing insight into their fellowship experience.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO HOSTING THE NEXT FELLOWS SHOWCASE AND AWARDS CEREMONY IN 2020 AND WELCOMING OUR NEW COHORT OF FELLOWS IN SEPTEMBER, 2019. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED AND CONTRIBUTED TO A SUCCESSFUL FELLOWS SHOWCASE AND AWARDS CEREMONY!

To learn more about the PHI/CDC Global Health Fellowship program, sign up for our mailing list, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

-Whitney Hall, Administration & Communications Specialist

Archives