Award-Winning Students: Excellence in Public Health Practice

Partner Organization: The AIDS Linked to the Intravenous Experience (ALIVE) Study 
BSPH Degree Program: PhD Student, Department of Mental Health 

Michael collaborated with The ALIVE Study to integrate longitudinal cohort data and electronic health records using nested case-control design, machine learning, and latent transition analysis to identify missed interventions, predict overdose mortality, and characterize evolving vulnerability profiles among people who inject drugs to inform data-driven public health strategies.

Partner Organization: Elon University 
BSPH Degree Program: MPH  

Callie collaborated with Elon University’s Department of Health Promotion to enhance campus opioid overdose prevention efforts. She developed a benchmarking matrix of peer institutions, a campus map of naloxone access points, and an educational factsheet covering fentanyl awareness, overdose signs, and response steps. These tools were created to increase student awareness, access to naloxone, and emergency preparedness. 

Partner Organization: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Near East (UNRWA) 
BSPH Degree Program: DrPH in Implementation Science 

Masako spearheaded the United Nations research agenda to test and scale up antenatal multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) to replace iron-folic acid in Palestine refugee communities in Jordan. The success of this effort is now being upscaled for use in pregnant refugees across the Middle East Region. 

Partner Organization: University of São Paulo Medical School and Sírio-Libanês Hospital, Brazil 
BSPH Degree Program: MPH  

Marlon collaborated with the University of São Paulo and Sírio-Libanês Hospital to coordinate the CHANGE Initiative, a multinational network across 43 hospitals in five countries. He developed a scalable geriatric assessment model and trained over 250 clinicians to improve the detection of frailty and dementia in hospitalized older adults.