First published on June 1, 2015 in observance of the COPH’s 30^th anniversary celebration.

It was the evening of May 2.  There was a slight chill in the air as fans gathered in Traditions Hall anxiously awaiting the event of the century.

No, not the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight.  The other event ….

The USF College of Public Health’s Inaugural Alumni Awards Ceremony.

More than 180 supporters of the college traveled from as far as Indonesia to celebrate 28 Bulls with significant impact in public health.  From research to practice to policy to teaching, the awardees have done it all and are doing it exceedingly well.

COPH 2015 alumni awardees

The celebration began with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and the ceremony.  The dynamic Dr. Joette Giovinco served as mistress of ceremony for the evening.  She’s the first physician to complete the COPH’s occupational medicine residency program, but is probably best known as Dr. Joe, the medical reporter for Fox News in Tampa.

Dr. Joe shared stories and relics from her days as a graduate student in 1988.  She even dusted off some vintage overhead sheets and her carousel replete with slides!

“We were so fortunate 30 years ago that visionary leaders like Sam Bell and Dr. Robert Hamlin believed that Florida deserved to have a school of public health and created the foundation for the first one in the state at the University of South Florida,” said Dr. Donna J. Petersen, COPH dean and senior associate vice president of USF Health.

“It is only fitting on the occasion of our 30^th anniversary that we recognize some of those alumni who, through their commitment to their profession, improve the health of communities around the world and reflect back so positively on our College of Public Health.”

Nominations were accepted through January.  A selection committee comprised of retired and current faculty, staff, alumni, students and community partners in public health had the arduous task of reviewing dozens of nomination packets.

Each alumni awardee received a stunning silver bull engraved with his or her name.

After dinner, Peggy Defay shared her experiences as a public health graduate student.

“As a first generation immigrant from Haiti,” she said, “higher education in any capacity is a priority for me.”

“I discovered my passion for public health through my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia.  Through this experience, I gained a better understanding of health issues at the grassroots level.  Being a volunteer in the Peace Corps helped me understand some of my weaknesses and the need to continue training in this field.”

“The past seven years have taken me to various corners of the world where I have been privileged to meet, live and be empowered by many people.  The last two years at the University of South Florida are no exception to that.  And, I can now say that I have once again lived and worked among amazing people!”

Then, it was time for the main event—presentation of the COPH Class of 2015 alumni awardees.  Each alumni award recipient was recognized during the ceremony, and all are listed here.  A few of their stories are included for those who weren’t present to hear them all on May 2.

Tabia Henry Akintobi, PhD, MPH
Director, Prevention Research Center
Director, Evaluation and Institutional Assessment
Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine
Associate Dean, Community Health
Morehouse School of Medicine
Atlanta, Ga.

“As a graduate student, I had the opportunity not just to learn how to conduct research, but how to lead it in partnership with experts who cared,” Dr. Tabia Akintobi said.  “They recognized the importance of students as significant contributors to their research as reflected in the number of co-authored papers and abstracts I had under my belt prior to graduation.”

“Among the wonderful colleagues, mentors and leaders I met during my tenure was the love of my life, professional confidante and partner in good Dr. Adebayo Akindele Akintobi [former student and husband].”

Abdel A. Alli, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Department of Physiology
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, Ga.

Philip T. Amuso, PhD, MS
Consultant
Clinical Laboratory Medicine and Public Health Preparedness

Retired Director
Bureau of Laboratories
Florida Department of Health
Tampa, Fla.

Roy W. Beck, MD, PhD
Executive Director
Jaeb Center for Health Research
Tampa, Fla.

Sherri Berger, MSPH
Chief Operating Officer
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Ga.

“My undergraduate degree was in political science, and I didn’t know exactly what to do with it after graduation,” Sherri Berger said.

Sherri Berger and son Jacob.

“Listening to my mother’s advice to ‘get more education,’ I did what other college kids do, and I followed my boyfriend to Tampa, where he had a job offer.  I was hoping to get a master’s degree in hospital administration.  However, in my first semester at the COPH, I fell in love with epidemiology.”

Arlene Calvo, PhD, MPH
Research Assistant Professor
Depts. of Community and Family Health & Global Health
USF College of Public Health
City of Knowledge, Panama

James R. Chastain, Jr., PhD, PE, MPH
President
Chastain-Skillman, Inc.
Tampa, Fla.

“Having an undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, I found public health a perfect complement to that training,” Dr. James Chastain said.  “While engineering is much more design and nuts-and-bolts execution-oriented, public health was more about the personal impacts and generally a systems-oriented and advocacy approach.  There certainly was a great overlap, but even the way that I had to study was different.  Public health provided fresh perspectives to design problems, and I enjoyed expanding my horizons with my studies.  In a word, public health tended to address the “why” questions, and engineering focused on the “how” questions.  I’ve found that very helpful in my practice.”

The Chastain Family celebrated James accomplishments. James is pictured far left.

“The COPH also was quite progressive at the time in terms of scheduling courses that allowed working professionals to take the courses while working at the same time.”

Chastain managed a company and family with three children while earning his degree.

“The time pressures were intense,” he said, “and would not have been possible without a very understanding and supportive wife.”

Stephen R. Cole, PhD, MPH
Professor of Epidemiology
Gillings School of Global Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, N.C.

Martha L. Daviglus, MD, PhD
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
Professor of Medicine
Director of the Institute for Minority Health Research
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Ill.

Hanifa M. Denny, PhD, MPH, BSPH
Dean
College of Public Health
Diponegoro University
Semarang, Indonesia

“One day, we were brought to new [medical] student orientation session.  After touring a hospital ward, I was not able to eat or sleep for some days due to seeing a diabetic patient with a severe wound,” Dr. Hanifa Denny recalled.

“I asked one professor if there is a program within the college of medicine without a requirement to visit patients in a hospital ward.  I also said that I wanted to help people to live in a healthy lifestyle without necessarily suffering from sickness.  I wanted to make people healthy and able to work without a fear of being sick.  The professor explained public health and how the science would meet my expectation.  After my second year of college, I fell in love with occupational and environmental health.”

Scott Dotson, PhD, MSC, CIH
Lead Health Scientist – Senior Team Coordinator
Education and Information Division
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Cincinnati, Ohio

Anthony Escobio, MPH, FHFMA, CHAM
Vice President
Patient Financial Services
Tampa General Hospital
Tampa, Fla.

“I wanted to be an MD.  I took a few of the pre-med “weed out” courses as an undergraduate and did not do very well,” Anthony Escobio recalled. “I had an entry-level job at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1990, and this is where I learned that there were many more opportunities in health care that did not involve practicing medicine.”

The Escobios couldn’t be more proud of Anthony (back row, second from right).

One of the more “interesting” events from Escobio’s COPH days involves a class with Dr. Alan Sear.

“I left a management position at University Community Hospital to be a senior analyst at Tampa General Hospital,” Escobio said.  “TGH was having a host of financial challenges at the time, and the leadership was being ridiculed in the press on a weekly basis.  One of my professors, Alan Sear, spent an entire lecture discussing the poor decisions that leadership at TGH was making.  I sat slouched in my chair knowing that I had just taken a job to be an analyst for these very leaders.  All I could think to myself was ‘what have I done?’  Little did I know that I would be at the center of one of the biggest hospital turnarounds in the country for this period of time.”

Ligia María Cruz Espinoza, MD, PhD, MPH
Associate Research Scientist
International Vaccine Institute
Leon, Nicaragua

Kathryn J. Gillette, MHA, FACHE
Market President and Chief Operating Officer
Bayfront Health-St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Fla.

Jan J. Gorrie, JD, MPH
Managing Partner
Ballard Partners
Tampa, Fla.

Richard T. Hartman, PhD, MS, CSP, CIH
Chief Health Strategist
PSI Inc.
Alexandria, Va.

Xiomara Zulay Hewitt, MPH
Director
Infection Prevention and Control
Adventist Health System
Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Winifred M. Holland, MPH, MA, LMHC
Administrator-Health Officer
Florida Department of Health in Clay County
Green Cove Springs, Fla.

Carol Ann Jenkins, MPH, FACHE
Director, Accreditation and Survey Readiness
All Children’s Hospital Inc.
St. Petersburg, Fla.

Claudia X. Aguado Loi, PhD, MPH, CHES
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Community and Family Health
USF College of Public Health
Tampa, Fla.

Christine McGuire-Wolfe, PhD, MPH, CPH
Firefighter/Paramedic and Infection Control Officer
Pasco County Fire Rescue

Adjunct Faculty
Department of Global Health
USF College of Public Health
Tampa, Fla.

Maj. (Dr.) James McKnight
Force Health Protection Officer
U.S. Central Command
Serving in Jordan

Maj. James McKnight’s children accepted his award since he is serving in Jordan.

Rachel Nuzum, MPH
Vice President
Federal and State Health Policy
The Commonwealth Fund
Washington, D.C.

Claudine M. Samanic, PhD, MSPH
Commander
U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

Environmental Health Scientist
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Research Region 5
Division of Community Health Investigations
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Chicago, Ill.

“Since 1999, when I graduated, I’ve been impressed with the expansion and creation of new institutes and centers, the college’s increasing role in global health, and announcements of various faculty accomplishments and impact,” said Dr. Claudine Samanic.  “It was humbling to be in the room with so many accomplished fellow COPH alumni.”

Angelia Sanders, MPH
Associate Director
Trachoma Control Program
The Carter Center
Atlanta, Ga.

Natalia Vargas, MPH
Public Health Analyst
Health Resources and Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Rockville, Md.

Angelica C. Williams, MPH
Disease Intervention Specialist
Florida Department of Health in Broward County
Pembroke Pines, Fla.

Lauren B. Zapata, PhD, MSPH
Commander
U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

Senior Research Scientist
Division of Reproductive Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Ga.

COPH Deans, from left: Drs. Peter Levin, Donna Petersen (current) and Charles Mahan.

Without question, the night was all about the alumni awardees, but there were a few other show-stoppers in the room. Namely, COPH Deans Drs. Peter Levin, Donna Petersen, and Charles Mahan (above) and COPH alumnus and USF Board Trustee Scott Hopes (below left).

USF Trustee Scott Hopes (on left) with Lesley and Rick Bateman.  Lesley was the college’s first public affairs and development officer.

Founded in July 1984, the USF College of Public Health is wrapping up a yearlong celebration of educating and training public health professionals.  Some of the 30^th anniversary year highlights include

• regional events in Orlando, New Orleans, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
• the Dean’s Lecture Series featuring alumni like Drs. Richard Hartman, Charlan Kroelinger and Hana Osman.
• community building activities like a tailgate and USF football game, fall networking social during homecoming, Super Bowl party and spring BBQ.
• Team #USFCOPHRocks with more than 50 public health Bulls participating in the Gasparilla Distance Classic.
• raising almost $70,000 in new commitments to student scholarships in the college.

“We are proud of the work we have done building on a solid foundation and creating an outstanding school of public health—one that just recently jumped in national rankings from 21 to 16,” Petersen said.  “In addition to our great champions and the consistent high performance of our faculty and staff, the reputation we have earned is due in no small measure to the incredible contributions of our alumni.”

The alumni awards ceremony was made possible with support from the COPH, as well as corporate sponsors USF Health and Bayfront Health-St. Petersburg, and individual sponsors Drs. Jay Wolfson and Phillip and Jean Amuso.

It takes a village to raise a family AND host an amazing alumni awards ceremony.  Salute!

Alumni awardee Dr. Abdel A. Alli (second from right) enjoyed the festivities with his family, as well as nominator and faculty mentor Dr. Donna Haiduven (center) and her husband, Michael Gronquist (far right).

Alumni awardee Dr. Arlene Calvo shares a special moment with fellow alumnus Dr. Clement Gwede.

Go, Bulls!

“I applaud the College of Public Health for recognizing alumni who not only have tremendous accomplishments, but who have made a difference in the lives of so many,” said Bill McCausland, executive director of the USF Alumni Association.

Story by Natalie D. Preston, College of Public Health.  Photos by Ashley Grant and Humberto Lopez Castillo.

Related media:
Alumni Awards photo gallery on Facebook

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In July, four USF College of Public Health (COPH) graduate students traveled to Indonesia to take part in the “Community Participation in Public Health” course offered by Diponegoro University in Semarang.

This is the first collaboration between the college and Diponegoro University, made possible by Dr. Hanifa Denny, a COPH alumna who’s now a faculty member at Diponegoro’s School of Public Health, Dr. Tom Mason, a COPH professor of epidemiology, and others at the COPH.

The college funded the students’ program fees, airfare and materials for the 10-day course.

“As a fully online student who does not get to interact with students or faculty on a day-to-day basis, a program centered on community participation in public health really appealed to me,” said Ashleigh Berke, a COPH MPH student. “I was also interested because, although my concentration is epidemiology, my professional background is in health education and community health. The course gave me an opportunity to merge by current interests with my experience.”

Semarang has a universal health care system with a heavy emphasis on community-run programs. Throughout the 10 days, students attended lectures and visited health care sites, such as community health centers, a regional health office and a tuberculosis clinic. They observed a prenatal class taught by community members, visited a health care center catering to mothers and their young children (called a posyandu) and toured a center that turns recycled plastic into products, such as key chains and water bottle holders, that are later sold.

They also took part in a mosquito-control surveillance project.

“We walked with volunteers around neighborhoods checking water sources for mosquito larvae, which can spread dengue fever,” said Grace Collins, who recently graduated with her MPH in epidemiology and global communicable disease. “It was beautiful to see how the community worked together to run different health care centers. To see the care within the community was inspiring.”

Community health care workers in Indonesia―who receive about a week’s training from the government―work as volunteers, with absolutely no financial incentive.

“That’s something that really stood out to me,” said Chinyere Reid, a PhD candidate studying community and family health. “These health workers are highly regarded by their community, so that’s one incentive. But it’s also a cultural thing.” “In Indonesia, they have this idea that health is a community responsibility,” added Dorothea Polk, who’s studying for her MPH in health care organizations and management. “Health is a group effort, and they take it seriously. Having healthy neighbors reflects well upon you. It was interesting to witness the impact a community can make in the way care is delivered.”

How will the experience help the students in their public health careers?

“My focus is on health care organizations,” explained Polk. “In the U.S., health care can be viewed as a business, but in Indonesia, the focus is on people. As I move forward, I’m going to see how I can apply the techniques and values I learned from this program to the U.S. health care system.”

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

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Dr. Hanifa Denny, a PhD graduate of the USF College of Public Health, has been elected dean of the College of Public Health at Diponegoro University in her home town of Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. She was chosen Nov. 27 from among seven candidates.

Denny earned her bachelor of science in public health at Diponegoro. She later earned a master of public health at the University of the Philippines in Manila before getting her public health doctorate and a graduate certificate in social marketing at COPH. She also holds graduate certificates from Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich, Germany, the National Institute of Working Life in Stockholm, Sweden, and the University of the Philippines.

Denny’s COPH studies were centered in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and all three of her degrees are in environmental and occupational health concentrations.

Hanifa M. Denny, PhD, MPH

Since earning her USF COPH doctorate, Denny has been teaching at Diponegoro as an associate professor of occupational health and directing public health undergraduate studies.

She also has been principal consultant for the Directorate of Occupational Health and Sports with the Ministry of Health in Indonesia, president of the Indonesian Public Health Union, vice president of the Indonesian Professional in Occupational Health Management Union. She is an occupational and safety consultant tovarious private-sector enterprises and hospitals and a speaker at World Health Organization and Institute of Medicine global occupational health partnership events.

Denny’s work has brought her a good deal of recognition, not the least of which is a Satya Lencana medal from the president of Indonesia. She also has received a James P. Keogh Scholarship from the American Public Health Association and Diponegoro University’s Distinguished College of Public Health Alumni Award.

During her USF years, she received a Student International Research Scholarship and a Student Honorary Award for Research and Practice (commonly known as the SHARP Award) from COPH and a Government Student Professional Council Award from the university.

Among the career goals she named in a Monday Letter graduate profile, Denny expressed a desire to be a director of occupational health at the World Health Organization. She applied last fall to become an expert in occupational health for the informal sector at the WHO office in Geneva, Switzerland, but canceled her candidacy for the position upon learning of her appointment as dean.

The COPH at Diponegoro annually serves about 4,000 students, of which undergraduate enrollment comprises 70 percent of the total. The college employs 70 full-time and 20 part-time faculty members and has an administrative staff of 60. The rapidly growing doctoral program, which had nine students last year, has received 30 applications this year. In 2013, the school received its second five-year accreditation, along with an “A” rating, from the Indonesian Accreditation Body for Higher Education.

Among her duties as dean, Denny will appoint the school’s graduate and undergraduate program directors.

“With the dean position along with my presidency in the Indonesian Public Health Union,” Denny said, “I am optimistic about being able to have a significant role in Indonesian public health.”

Story by David Brothers, College of Public Health.

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Since completing her public health doctorate at the USF College of Public Health, Dr. Hanifa M. Denny has been making her mark in the field domestically and abroad.  Among her successes as an associate professor at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Indonesia, she has secured research grants, mentored numerous students and become director of both the public health undergraduate and PhD programs.

Dr. Hanifa M. Denny pictured at the Institute of Medicine meeting in Washington, DC.

This summer, Denny was invited back to the States to speak in Washington, DC, at the Institute of Medicine at its meeting July 29-30. The meeting’s topic was “Approaches to Universal Health Coverage and Occupational Health and Safety for the Informal Workforce in Developing Countries.” Specifically, she served as a panelist on the effectiveness of occupational health interventions for informal sectors in Indonesia and the options for their delivery.

The workshop was part of ongoing activities at the IOM, the Forum on Public Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety, which seeks to foster a collaborative community of multi-sector health and safety leaders from multinational companies, as well as members from governments, foundations, humanitarian and professional organizations, academia and civil society to leverage the strengths of varying sectors and multiple disciplines to yield benefits for global health and safety.

A particular focus of the meeting was the informal workforce as defined by the International Labour Organization in Brazil, Ghana, India, Thailand, and South Africa. Overall goals are to illuminate best practices and lessons learned in the financing of health care for the informal workforce in low- and middle-income countries, as well as the best practices with respect to health care delivery models that are especially suitable to meet the needs of the informal workforce.

Using country-level experiences, speakers and participants examined multi-sector approaches, successes, challenges and lessons learned to identify innovative approaches and opportunities for partnerships aimed at improving equitable access to quality services that meet the needs of the informal workforce in resource-constrained settings. The Rockefeller Foundation, a founding member of the PPP forum, provided substantial funding support for the workshop.

Hanifa M. Denny, PhD, MPH

“I am grateful for my experience at USF, which has prepared me for my current position,” Denny said. “I truly would not be who I am or where I am today without the wonderful faculty and staff at the USF College of Public Health. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about my time as a doctoral student at USF and am grateful for the time I spent and the wonderful opportunities I was able to explore while I was there.”

Photos courtesy of Dr. Hanifa M. Denny.

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While Hanifa Denny isn’t in global health in the departmental sense, she undeniably is in it in the practical sense.

“As a farming couple with a big dream, my late parents once told me that I should explore the world,” she said. “In fact, their dream came true with so far 17 countries visited.”

But some of those many destinations were far more than a week or two here, a week or two there, and smiling snapshots in front of waterfalls and monuments.

Born in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia, Denny earned her bachelor of science in public health at Diponegoro University in her home town, a master of public health at the University of the Philippines in Manila, and her public health PhD at the USF College of Public Health.

Hanifa M. Denny, PhD, MPH

Add to that mix graduate certificates from Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich, Germany, the National Institute of Working Life in Stockholm, Sweden, USF and the University of the Philippines, and Denny’s version of “global health” begins to emerge.

“My passion is working with the underserved population worldwide to improve their long-term health status and productivity,” she said. “My hope is to educate and to promote and develop programs with transparency and integrity using local wisdom and practical approaches with emphasis on the social determinants of health.”

Anyone inferring a social marketing angle in that statement would be absolutely right. Denny earned a social marketing certificate from USF during her PhD studies.

It should be mentioned that her USF COPH studies were in fact centered in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and that all three of her degrees are firmly rooted in that major.

Since completing her doctorate, Denny has returned to her home town and the institution where she earned her bachelor’s degree, Diponegoro University. There, she teaches as an associate professor of occupational health and directs public health undergraduate studies.

She also is principal consultant for the Directorate of Occupational Health and Sports with the Ministry of Health in Indonesia, president of the Indonesian Public Health Union and vice president of the Indonesian Professional in Occupational Health Management Union, as well as an occupational and safety consultant tovarious private-sector enterprises and hospitals and a speaker at World Health Organization and Institute of Medicine global occupational health partnership events.

Denny’s work has brought her a good deal of recognition, not the least of which is a Satya Lencana medal from the president of Indonesia. She also has received Diponegoro University’s Distinguished College of Public Health Alumni Award and a James P. Keogh Scholarship from the American Public Health Association.

During her USF years, she received a Student International Research Scholarship and a Student Honorary Award for Research and Practice (SHARP) from the College of Public Health, and a Government Student Professional Council Award from the university.

“The doctoral program helped me greatly with international engagements and strengthened my resolve to achieve my goals,” she said.

To that end, she credits the college’s “progressive mission” and “innovative approach and passion toward improving health in society.”

As for her goals, Denny aspires to become a minister of health or a director of occupational health at the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank or the World Health Organization.

Given her global embrace of public health, it’s no surprise that she sees a world of possibilities.

Story by David Brothers, USF College of Public Health. Photo courtesy of Dr. Hanifa Denny.

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