Global health has become an inextricable component of modern-day medical, public health, and nursing practices. There are increasing demands for health professionals who can function competently in a global marketplace, who have research or service interests in health problems of developing countries, or who wish to address global manpower inequities through training or service. This interdisciplinary graduate-level certificate program in the study of global health is a vital step in initiating and promoting joint training opportunities in global health between various departments and schools at Vanderbilt. Students fulfilling all requirements will be granted a global health certificate at the time of graduation.
Learn more about the Graduate Certificate in Global Health
Class of 2015
Jonathan Andereck, M.D., M.B.A., designed and executed a research study on the prevalence of and risk factors for parasitic infections in adults living in Lwala, Kenya for his Global Health certificate practicum. This built off of his previous medical school research projects. Jonathan took a year off from medical school to attend business school, where he had the opportunity to study global health from a social enterprise perspective and explore possibly starting his own social enterprise aimed at addressing non-communicable disease in urban slums. This summer, he will enter residency training in Emergency Medicine.
Jordan Cohen, M.D., completed his medical education at Vanderbilt from 2010 to 2015. During his time at Vanderbilt, Jordan pursued his interest in global health through two projects abroad. As a first year, Jordan spent 3 months in coastal Kenya working with an empowerment program for single mothers. After completing his third year, Jordan took a year to complete a research project working with a combined HIV monitoring study and empowerment program for young women living in the Umlazi township of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Jordan is pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine and hopes to continue his work abroad through resident education using simulation and ultrasound.
Morgan De Kleine, M.S.N., is a certified nurse midwife and family nurse practitioner. She earned her undergraduate degree at Calvin College, where she studied nursing and international development. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, she worked as a labor and delivery nurse near the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. For her global health practicum, she worked with the Centering Pregnancy program at La Clinica Nueva Vida in Nashville, where she explored the benefits and challenges of implementing group prenatal care within a Spanish-speaking immigrant population. She remains committed to caring for underserved populations, and her long-term career goal is to help train midwives internationally.
Kathleen Doherty, M.D., served on Global Health Committee as chair for the Student Seminar Series and was the distribution coordinator for REMEDY (Redistributing Medical Equipment to the Developing world) during her first two years of medical school. She was also awarded an Overall Fellowship to spend the summer after her first year in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, studying the effects of a traditional medicine on cortisol secretion. This early experience cemented Kathleen’s desire to take a full year to pursue global health research after her third year of medical school. She returned to South Africa to study the effects of vaginal drying products on risk for HIV-acquisition in high-risk young women. Kathleen is pursuing residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and hopes to make global health an integral part of her training and future career.
Sarah Elizabeth Eckhardt, M.D., is preparing to graduate from Vanderbilt School of Medicine and enter a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Sarah has wanted to go into Ob-Gyn since her public health work in Latin America throughout college, where she noted significant gender inequality between men and women. Her Emphasis Research Project during her first two years of medical school focused on knowledge, attitude, and practice of family planning methods in rural Kenya. She then returned to Kenya for a global health immersion where she again focused largely on women’s health. Sarah will continue to do global health as a physician and looks forward to a career of working to empower women through health and education in developing nations.
Gretchen Edwards, M.D., she performed her medical school research looking at the impact of immigration upon the development of resilience among Latina immigrant mothers. As part of the Certificate in Global Health, she worked at Primeros Pasos Clinic in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. She is a member of AOA and plans to pursue a career in general surgery with an emphasis on working with immigrant populations domestically.
Nchelem Diedre Ehule, M.S.P.H. (Meharry Medical College), worked with Siloam Family Health Center for her practicum. She was a recipient of the Title III Federally Funded Scholarship that fully funds students for a year of graduate work. Diedre’s long-term goal is to become a clinician who works with the elderly population across the globe to improve their system of health.
Gabriella Isabel Flynn, M.Ed., graduated from Peabody College’s Community Development and Action program. Her Global Health certificate practicum had her assisting in evaluating a nutrition curriculum for Niños Primeros en Salud (NPS) program in Consuelo, Dominican Republic. During her second year, she participated in global health projects in Xela, Guatemala at Primeros Pasos Clinic through the Owen Graduate School of Management’s Project Pyramid Course. After graduation, Gabriella will work at Clínica de la Familia in La Romana, Dominican Republic conducting monitoring and evaluation for their community education to gain more global health field experience.
Inyoung Kang, M.Ed., graduated from Peabody College’s International Education Policy and Management program. She worked as an ESL to Go’s special programs intern for her Global Health certificate practicum, and developed a health survey and nutrition education program for Burmese women and their families to attend ESL to Go mobile classes. She participated in 2014 Vanderbilt Global Health case competition and won second place. In her home country of South Korea, she worked as a journalist and covered social and education issues from 2006 to 2011. She is particularly interested in health and inclusive education for immigrants and refugees.
Renée Martin-Willett, M.A., graduated from the Medicine, Health, and Society program. Her global health practicum was a pilot study leveraging technology to quantify psychosocial wellbeing among resettled refugees in Middle Tennessee. She was named the 2014-15 Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Research Scholar in recognition of this research, as well as received the VIGH Anne Potter Wilson award. This year, Renée was invited to speak on transparency in healthcare by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Washington D.C., presented a paper on refugee mental health and methodology to the Society for Applied Anthropology, and presented a poster at the North American Refugee Health Conference. The National Science Foundation’s Graduate Fellowship Competition also recognized her for honorable mention. Her future plans include a recent appointment as Research Coordinator at the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center, and eventual application for PhD in clinical psychology.
Irène P. Mathieu, M.D., researched intimate partner violence and childhood obesity prevention in Nashville’s Latino community and through medical rotations in North Carolina with the Lumbee indigenous community and Guatemala with indigenous and Ladino populations for her Global Health certificate practicum. Irène is interested in community-engaged research, plans to have a residency in pediatrics, and pursue academic primacy care.
Afraja G. McLeod, M.T.S., completed his Global Health certificate practicum at Siloam Family Health Center where he studied refugee and immigrant health as a medical case manager. To satisfy his ever-increasing passion to serve marginalized and underserved populations, Arfraja sees himself attending medical school with goals of practicing medicine that is religiously and theologically informed in order to combat global health issues.
Ashley Scott, M.A., will be graduating from the Vanderbilt Graduate Program in Economic Development. Her undergraduate education was a Mount Holyoke College where she studied Biochemistry. During her first year at Vanderbilt, Ashley was involved in health-related projects in Cambodia through the Owen Graduate School of Management’s Project Pyramid and the Global Health Case Competition. In her second year, Ashley was a member of the VIGH Student Advisory Council, assisting in the logistics and marketing for the Global Health Case Competition. Prior to Vanderbilt, Ashley worked procuring infectious disease state material through global suppliers to be used in Phase I clinical trials. After graduation, Ashley hopes to work with an organization that promotes quality accessible global healthcare continuing her passion for innovation and technology.
Priya G. Sivasubramaniam, M.D., has done neonatal intensive care research in Amman, Jordan as well as research in Beijing, China pertaining to breast, cervical, and gastric cancer during her medical school career. She is a former recipient of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Student National Award. She plans on conducting a residency in pediatrics beginning in 2015 and pursuing a subsequent fellowship in either pediatric critical care or emergency medicine.
Wenting Wang, M.Ed., graduated from Peabody College’s International Education Policy and Management program. She completed her Global Health certificate practicum through work done at VIGH where she helped develop global health coursework at Vanderbilt and helped lay the foundation for the 2014 global health case competition. Wenting plans to focus on preventive interventions for maternal and children health in low resources settings, especially for the left-behind children (LBC) in rural China.
Jessica Jade Van Meter, D.N.P., completed her practicum in Georgetown, Guyana and focused on implementation of a disaster preparedness plan in the Accident and Emergency Department at Georgetown Public Hospital. She received the VUSN Alumni Award for Service and Leadership to the Community as well as the Sigma Theta Tau International Professional Development Award. Jessica is currently a flight nurse with Vanderbilt LifeFlight and plans to continue to participate in medical and disaster aid mission trips following graduation.