IHSJ 2008 Summer Interns

PIH's Institute for Health and Social Justice (IHSJ) features an internship program each summer for a select number of students and professionals early in their careers who are interested in learning about current issues in health and social justice. The 2008 interns worked on a wide variety of PIH projects, including research, advocacy and program administration. Read more about them and their individual projects and accomplishments:

Angie Bengtson's internship focused on assisting with PIH's advocacy efforts. She worked with the Institute for Health and Social Justice, writing text for their webpage on current advocacy issues, helping to draft proposals for upcoming projects, and starting research on the public-health aspects of the right to food. Angie also helped to research and implement a reference-management system for the IHSJ, to be used by the rest of PIH. She is returning to Denver to complete her master's degree in international development, with a focus in global health, at the University of Denver.

Danielle Brown is a Master in Public Health student at the University of Virginia (UVA) with a background in Russian studies. Her internship focused on PIH's project in Tomsk, Russia. Her main task for the summer involved researching Russian laws governing non-governmental organizations, as well as determining potential partnerships and sources of funding for the Russia project, including emerging Russian corporate-social-responsibility initiatives. Danielle hopes to share the social-justice angle of PIH with her campus and collaborate with the newly founded UVA club supporting PIH.

Nikita Carney is a women's-studies major at Wellesley College. Her internship focused on researching suppliers of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) drugs. She also spent time researching various definitions of "quality assurance" with regard to MDR TB drugs and the WHO prequalification process, in hope of moving suppliers of second-line drugs toward quality assurance. She hopes to pursue a career in global health, possibly with a focus on women's health.

Juveeza Chadha is a final-year medical student at Uppsala University in Sweden, with a background in business administration and statistics. While interning at Partners In Health under Dr. Mary Kay Smith Fawzi, Juveeza co-wrote an NIH grant proposal for structural and psychosocial interventions for HIV-affected youth in Haiti, and worked on several projects in preparation for the 2008 International AIDS Conference. She is headed to Peru and Oxford for her last year of clinical rotations, and will return to the US for MPH studies on a Fulbright scholarship.

Isaac Kastenbaum is studying economics and public health at Boston University. As an intern with the electronic medical records (EMR) team, Isaac developed electronic forms for use in Rwanda, tested forms and systems for use throughout PIH's clinics, and drafted detailed instructions for developers interested in utilizing the OpenMRS medical-records system. In between his various projects, Isaac assisted in planning intern social activities. Isaac plans to travel the planet, mainly by foot, as well as pursue a career in medical policy and delivery.

Rebecca Dallman, MPH, is currently a medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School. This summer, she worked on a case series report using data from PIH and Socios En Salud in Peru. Her specific research project focused on the use of second-line medications to treat MDR TB in pregnant women. She hopes that this work will add to the growing research in MDR-TB treatment and help give women who become pregnant the option to continue treatment.

Liz Gardiner is majoring in English and history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She spent her internship working with the development team on individual giving. She created a Volunteer Tool Kit for Regional Representatives working with "communities of concern." The kit included background information about PIH, country fact sheets, recent appeal letters, event planning guides, and other resources. Liz also did extensive donor research on contributors already associated with PIH and contacted crafts distributors in order to connect artisan groups in Haiti and Rwanda to distributors in the United States. After college she plans to continue working in development and hopes to contribute to the public-health movement.

Jessica Hart, a 2008 graduate of Boston College, used her study of biology, human rights, and social justice to write a senior thesis about human-rights language and the global responses to HIV/AIDS and poverty. As an intern, she worked with Dr. Sonya Shin and the Peru team to research and write initial drafts of a meta-analytic review on the efficacy of directly observed therapy for highly active antiretroviral therapy. She aided the Peru team by helping to compile posters for presentation at the International AIDS Conference and is also performing preliminary research for a commentary about the necessity of developing and expanding mental-health services within HIV prevention and treatment programs. She is currently applying to medical school for 2009 matriculation and hopes to pursue a career in medicine in which she can continue to advocate for human rights and on behalf of the marginalized.

Melissa King served as the marketing manager of Lahey Clinic prior to interning with PIH's communications department. Here, she put her background in science journalism and her passion for global health policy to use in crafting an array of communications materials on topics such as women's health, drug-resistant tuberculosis and the Right To Health Care Program. Melissa became dedicated to issues of poverty and health care after studying abroad in Ecuador and visiting clinics in rural Ethiopia as a volunteer. She focused part of her summer on researching the role of HIV/AIDS programs in strengthening public health infrastructure in poor communities. Melissa will continue this research at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in Austin, Texas, where she is currently completing a master's program in public policy analysis and administration.

Dan Meltzer is concentrating in human biology at Brown University. This summer, he worked with Dr. Carole Mitnick in her research on TB treatment shortening, helped with follow-up relating to the Workshop on Clinical Trials for DR TB in June, and learned about second-line TB drug development and research. During his internship, he learned not only about the nature of TB, but also about movement-building centered on the search for solutions to the TB problem. At some point in the near future, he hopes to live and work abroad. Dan plans to look for a career in social justice.

Nadine Pardee focused her internship on an analysis of PIH's Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) program in Haiti. She also conducted several literature reviews and created presentation materials for the 2008 International AIDS Conference concerning attitudes toward HIV and HIV testing, the effects of food assistance on people living with HIV, and the PMTCT program itself. Nadine is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology at Brown University, and is currently working at the Rhode Island Hospital to establish a medical home for refugees. She plans on postgraduate study in medicine and/or public health. 

Rachel Pitek interned this summer in PIH's training department. She is finishing up her MPH in international health at Boston University School of Public Health and used the PIH internship to fulfill her practicum requirement. Rachel helped create a training library (documenting the multitude of training resources that are available on the Internet), edit the Accompagnateur's Handbook, create a training survey, and develop a new training unit for community health workers in Rwanda. Rachel found her experience at PIH a strong motivator to do all she can to further the movement to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care.

Sadie Richards graduated from the University of Vermont in 2007 with a self-designed major in global health. Having written a senior thesis on the disjunction between international health rhetoric and intervention realities on the ground in the developing world, she came to PIH interested in learning the keys to effective program implementation. After working for two months as a research assistant with PIH's Lesotho program, Sadie entered the summer internship program as one of three communications interns. This position allowed her to reflect and write about PIH's activities in the small, mountainous African country of Lesotho, which is struggling with an extremely high prevalence of HIV and a high rate of TB and HIV co-infection. During the internship, Sadie also produced materials for and articles about two international health gatherings: the International Aids Conference and a workshop in Cambridge focused on building an international movement to conduct clinical trials for drug-resistant tuberculosis. Upon completing the internship, Sadie will continue pursuing activities in the areas of global health, food security and social-change photography.

Alexander Schrobenhauser-Clonan worked on research relating to community-oriented primary health care and the possibilities for using disease-specific funding to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes across the board. By exploring the factors leading up to the famous 1978 Alma Ata Declaration, which helped to define health as a human right, and the subsequent stresses put on health-care personnel and infrastructure in the ensuing decades, he came to see the importance of global health organizations not only aspiring to do good but also firmly dedicating to do no harm. Alex is a recent graduate of Brown University, where he focused on health and social development. He hopes to remain active in the PIH community for years to come.

Sarah Shivers is majoring in international relations and community health at Tufts University. As an intern in the development department, Sarah spent the summer helping the foundations team identify new donors and build current donor relationships. Her tasks included researching prospective foundations, drafting grant proposals, writing letters of inquiry, and reporting project activity to past and present contributors. Next spring, Sarah will spend a semester abroad studying global health in Tanzania and Vietnam. She hopes to further her interest in public health by pursuing an MPH.

Tom Spoth is a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. As part of his work in PIH's communications department, he researched issues related to access for the poor to clean water and education, as part of a series of issue-oriented brochures for distribution to PIH donors and other interested parties. He also wrote articles about various PIH projects and helped to prepare and edit materials for the 2008 International AIDS Conference. Tom is concentrating in conflict management and hopes to investigate the role public health (and specifically water supply) can play in preventing and resolving conflicts.