Alumni

2010-11

Below are selected alumni who received their certificates in Global Health Affairs during the 2010-2011 school year.

Click on their names to learn more about what they are doing now and how the GHA program helped them get to where they are today.

Casey Russel

Degree Program

MA International Development

What are you doing now?

I am a Presidential Management Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Within CDC, I work in the Division of Global HIV/AIDS as a Country Officer with a portfolio that included DRC, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Cote d'Ivoire. Currently, as part of the fellowship, I am rotating through the State Department's Office of Global Health Diplomacy.

How did the GHA program prepare you for your current position?

In general, the Korbel program made me dangerous enough to think through how anything can be connected to the health of a person. Specifically, Health Data for Decision Making and Introduction to GIS were courses that prepared me to contribute to the diverse world of Global Health.

Were there any projects you worked on while at GHA?

I was fortunate enough to work with the 2010 Kibera Water and Sanitation team. This exposure to ground level truth informs my decision-making today. I was also able to learn a lot from our counterparts at the Mass Communications school and Daniels.

Lisa Caputo

Degree

MA in international development

What aspects of global health are you interested in?

I am very interested in maternal and child health issues and solutions in water and sanitation, particularly in the urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa.

What projects or passions are you involved with?

Traveling with the University of Denver on the Kibera Water and Sanitation Project was a great opportunity to expand on my interests in water and sanitation issues and child health. It also exposed me to the great challenges - and potentials - faced to improve the human condition within the urban slums of the developing world.

What were you doing before coming to Korbel?

Before coming to JKSIS, I worked for a volunteer travel company for four years, in which I advised American college students and worked with community organizers in developing countries to develop short-term international trips that would be meaningful to both the volunteer and the project. I was also a city coordinator for UNICEF's Tap Project, a grassroots fundraising campaign that provides children with access to safe drinking water. I recruited and trained volunteers and also worked with a local marketing firm to raise awareness about the project.

Mark Janko

Degree

MA in international studies

What aspects of global health are you interested in?

Health and human rights, medicine and pediatric infectious disease—particularly tuberculosis and the BCG vaccine. I have also developed an interest in measuring stuff, so stats and GIS have become big foci as well.

What projects or passions are you involved with?

I'm a co-principal investigator on the obstetric fistula project that GHA has been working on for a couple years. Since I'm interested in economic development as well, and because I have a data set, I'm writing my master's thesis on the effects of competition on the health of microfinance institutions and the well-being of their clients. I also take no small amount of pride in my ability to annoy the GHA program assistant, whether in personal or professional contexts (though there is considerable reciprocity in this).

What were you doing before coming to Korbel?

I had been working in Cambodia for a microfinance institution. I came back to the United States before graduate school and returned to my old job as a historian to finish a project.