Jessica Keralis, MPH; Blog Editor: I am a public health professional with an active interest in international health. I earned my MPH in December of 2008. I worked for the CDC in a fellowship in pesticide poisoning surveillance from 2009-2010 and am currently coordinating a surveillance project for neuromuscular disorders at the state level. I began blogging when I joined the international health section APHA in the fall of 2009, and I currently serve the International Health Section as its Communications Committee Chair. I am currently developing my skills as a public health professional and look forward to pursuing a career in international health. You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Eckhard Kleinau, MD; Blog Co-Editor: I have enjoyed working as a public health physician and epidemiologist on global health issues throughout my career. Starting in a tiny village in Burkina Faso where malaria was common, I treated leprosy and tuberculosis in Sierra Leone, and helped to bring Primary Health Care to hundreds of thousands villagers in Cameroon. I like the challenges of exploring ways to improve human health at the same time as conserving our environment. Caring for both seems to make perfect sense, because our health depends so much on clean water and air, and on a diverse plant and animal life. Beside all this, I have a passion for working with numbers, especially to find out whether the programs we implement in the developing world really improve the lives of families, how they work and why. I have been a member of the APHA International Health Section since 1990.
Vani Nanda; Weekly News Editor: I am a dentist from India and am currently pursuing Masters in Public Health (Community Health Track) from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Apart from having three years of clinical experience in dentistry, I also have one and a half years’ teaching experience in India. I have experience in grant writing and have received grant and award for one of the studies I did in MPH program. I am a full time graduate assistant and an international student representative of MPH Advisory Student Board of West Chester University. During my MPH study, I have received many awards, including Women Grant for academic year 2011-2012.
I have presented many national and international papers related to my research in the field of public health (some of my works highlight health disparities across the nations). I have a keen interest in field of Global Public Health and want to work in future in this field to remove public health disparities across nations.
Samir Banoob, MD, PhD, DrPH; Content Contributor: I work at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, serving as professor of health policy & management and director of its international health programs. I have worked as a consultant in national health planning, health reform, human resources development, public health education and management training, primary care and quality of care, in 76 countries with governments, organizations, and universities. I served as the IH Section Chair twice, most recently from 2006-2008.
Amy Hagopian, Ph.D.; Content Contributor: Dr. Hagopian teaches community development, evaluation, policy and international health at the University of Washington. She also conducts research on international health workforce issues, especially the area of health worker migration from low-income countries to wealthy countries. Before entering the global health arena, Hagopian worked for 15 years in the area of rural health and community development, traveling the five-state region served by the University of Washington School of Medicine. She focused on strengthening and expanding rural health systems, as she worked with administrators, boards and communities in the settings of hospitals, clinics and public health departments. Dr. Hagopian has served as secretary and section councilor for the IH section, and has chaired the Advocacy/Policy Committee. She is currently a governing councilor and the Chair of the Nominations Committee.
Karen Nielsen, MBA, MPA; Content Contributor: For 20 years I have worked in the health care field, predominately focused on collaborative efforts between private and public organizations. I entered the world of blogging during the spring of 2008 to document the challenges of health care delivery in terms of women, children, the HIV-positive and intravenous drugs users in urban and rural India. As we all know, public health professionals bring passion and creative solutions to some of the most challenging environments all over the world. I look forward to sharing their triumphs and challenges with you in “Stories from the Field.”
