Projects related to nutrition, infectious disease and health measurements all part of student experience.
Lora Iannotti, PhD, assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School, has been working in Haiti since 1990 and has returned every year since the earthquake to continue her research into improving health conditions and nutrition, especially for children, and examining how major infectious diseases spread.
14 students — seven from the Master of Public Health program, five from the Master of Social Work program and two dual-degree students — joined Iannotti on a trip to the country as part of a course, “Transdisciplinary Problem-solving in Haiti: Public Health Interventions in Developing Countries.”
The goal: Give students firsthand experience in issues related to global health, including: health policy, epidemiology, biostatistics and program planning.
“My hope is that this experience in Haiti gives students a better understanding of the realities there — the limited food, the infections, the heat and the fatigue,” Iannotti said. “The students experienced all of that. And I think it was important for them to see those realities of a developing country.”
Read the full story in The Source: Social work, public health students get firsthand global health experience in Haiti this summer