First published on May 14, 2015 in observance of the COPH’s 30^th anniversary celebration.

Long before the deluge of online learning became a given of modern education replete with a glut of overnight “universities,” USF’s College of Public Health launched a distance-learning presence that was formidable before online classes even existed.

From 1990-93, 45 state health department employees in Tallahassee earned master of public health degrees from USF via the old-fashioned method of distance learning.  Every Tuesday, a COPH professor would journey to Tallahassee to teach a three-hour course that evening, said Dr. Charles Mahan, at that time state health officer, and later COPH dean.

Dr. Charles Mahan

“We gave them Tuesday afternoon off, and they gave up their evening,” Mahan explained.  “One professor would come up for a month and do the whole core segment of epidemiology and biostatistics, and then somebody else would come up and do the whole core of community and family health.

“When people in practice throughout the state at the health departments saw what we were doing up there, they came to the college and said, ‘Please, do that for our staff.’  That’s when we began the distance-learning program.”

Technology offered a more efficient means by 1994, when COPH began beaming public health courses via satellite to 33 host sites at state and local health departments across Florida.

Answering a mandate

“USF College of Public Health had a very good partnership with the Florida Department of Health,” recalled Sandhya Srinivasan, COPH director of educational technology and assessment, “and through this partnership, we were able to deliver public health education while utilizing health department meeting space and satellite equipment that was already part of the Florida Department of Health satellite network.  We were able to piggyback on that and beam our classes to busy health professionals.”

Sandhya Srinivasan, MPH, MEd

WUSF-TV had an uplink facility, Srinivasan explained, which enabled COPH to buy satellite time at the discounted educational rate.  The telecasts were cabled to the uplink facility in Clearwater, then beamed to the satellite from there.

As part of the founding of the college a decade earlier, USF and COPH had a legislative mandate to train public health employees statewide, Srinivasan said.  A needs assessment at the time signaled the need when it found that very few public health workers had had any formal public health training.

“They had come to public health through medicine or nursing or sociology, but they were not trained in public health,” she said, “and so the college had a huge challenge in front of it.”

Two evening courses were initiated to meet that challenge, she said.  Each met once a week for three hours, and each had an on-site technical point person should the satellite or any link in the technology fail.  Technical and material needs were communicated via phone or fax in those days before the advent of personal computers and e-mail.

Given those limitations, early growth was slow, but within a few years, the need for more courses and faster, easier means of delivery coincided well with the PC age.  In 2001, Srinivasan said, technical advances and growing interest in the program sparked its rapid expansion.

“We started incrementally,” she said, “moving our classes from satellite to a blended online-and-satellite format.”

The Department of Education weighed in with a $3-million grant for instruction in technology.  That IIT grant, as it was known (standing for Innovations in Technology and Training), enabled the college to hire instructional designers who brought in multi-media components that completed the transition from satellite-online hybrid to a fully online operation.

From online courses to online degrees

With all classes delivered entirely via Internet, geographic limitations were gone.  Anyone, anywhere could take courses on the World Wide Web, and host sites were things of the past.  It wouldn’t be long before the state’s first public health college conferred the state’s first fully online public health degrees.

According to figures supplied by David Hogeboom, statistical data analyst for COPH, the online degree program has conferred 383 MPH degrees in various concentrations since spring 2001.  The total represents more than one-fifth of all MPH degrees and more than one-eighth of all degrees awarded by COPH in that timeframe.  Srinivasan said nine students graduating on Dec. 13, 1998, from the Public Health Practice program were the first to earn their degrees via satellite.

COPH distance learning’s first nine MPH graduates made headlines in 1998.

“Today, in addition to public health practice, we have five other master’s concentrations online and 11 online graduate certificates,” Srinivasan said.

Unlike other classrooms, the virtual variety requires technical design specifically geared to disseminating educational materials.  Accordingly, full-time instructional designers are a big part of the picture at COPH online.

“Our office consists of six full-time instructional designers and a graphics designer,” Srinivasan said.  “The designers are assigned to particular courses and work hand-in-hand with faculty in preparing course materials and assessments.  They are able to parse down a lesson to bare essentials and match the right technology that can deliver that content efficiently to the students.”

Today’s COPH online learning team.  Back row, from left: Thomas Reilly, James Taylor, Andres Abril, Carlos Montoya, Samantha Lopez.  Front row, from left: Ana Vizcaino, Jung Lim, Sandhya Srinivasan, Trudian Trail-Constant.

Srinivasan said one of the concerns the designers address is interaction.

“It is less than ideal to listen to a talking head for three hours, so we use different types of interactive technologies that enable and even encourage student interaction,” she said.

Much of that interaction involves typed responses, she said, but even that is rapidly changing.

“As part of Canvas, the learning management system at USF, we now have access to an interactive virtual tool called Blackboard Collaborate.  Students and instructor log in at a given time and date, and the tools within that virtual classroom allow for interaction.  Students and faculty are able to interact via audio, video and whiteboard tools to do everything they could do in a traditional classroom.”

Alison Oberne, MA, MPH, CPH, an instructor in the USF College of Public Health, narrates a lecture for an undergraduate public health course using the recording space in COPH used for recording content for the lectures and modules of most of the college’s online degree programs.

It doesn’t take an instructional designer to appreciate the brightness of COPH’s online future.

When the college launched its online master’s program, Mahan said, deans at other colleges of public health told him it would never work.  In fact, he said, deans from the older schools of public health at revered institutions like Harvard and Johns Hopkins flat-out swore they would never do it.

“Now, of course, they all do it,” he said.  “Absolutely, we were the first to do it.  We were a couple of years ahead of everybody else in offering the full MPH by distance.”

“The tools from the beginning to now have undergone tremendous change,” Srinivasan said.  “We are committed to remaining on the cutting edge, so the future of our program will be wherever virtual classroom technology will allow us to go.”

Story by David Brothers, College of Public Health.

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Angela Makris, a December USF College of Public Health (COPH) grad who received her MPH with a concentration in social marketing, says that from the time she was a child, she knew she always wanted to help people.

And she hasn’t stopped since.

Born in Sydney, Australia, to Greek parents, Makris got her BA in communications from Australia’s Macquarie University and later earned a master’s in marketing management.

She started out her public health career in Australia, working as a marketing manager for a water association that advocated for sustainable drinking habits in Sydney. She followed that up with a series of jobs, the first working at an advertising agency promoting public health and behavior change issues, then a government agency that focused on preventing child abuse and getting kids into foster care. Curious about her heritage, she wound up in Greece, working in health communications and medication compliance.

Makris moved to Tampa in 2015 with her husband, who had a business here. She knew if she wanted to continue working in a public health capacity, she would have to learn how the American health care system works.

She decided to go back to school as a “mature student” and the USF COPH, she said, was an obvious choice.

“Even though I did my coursework online, one of the main reasons I chose USF was because it was local. When it comes to health care, every state has its own set of rules and funding issues,” Makris said. “I knew that if I was going to live and work in Florida, I’d have to learn how the Florida system operates.”

Another reason the USF COPH was a top pick was its social marketing program, led by Dr. Carol Bryant (now retired). “I had been following her work as a subscriber to the Social Marketing Quarterly for many years,” Makris said. “I was so excited to have her as a teacher.”

Makris, in fact, was the recipient of the inaugural Carol A. Bryant Social Marketing Scholarship for outstanding academic achievement and leadership within social marketing.

Angela Makris, MPH, stands with the poster she presented at this year’s European Social Marketing Conference, held in Belgium. “Having my poster accepted was recognition of all the work and effort that I have put into my degree and the support given to me by the COPH faculty,” the recent grad said. (Photo courtesy of Makris)

Even though there wasn’t a language barrier, Makris—who works at the COPH as a grad assistant in the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health—does note that cultural differences did, at times, make her work challenging.

“In addition to some spelling differences [colour vs. color, recognise vs. recognize], which gave me problems when I was proofreading, Australia doesn’t really focus on race,” she explained. “We deal with people’s ethnic backgrounds. So a lot of my thinking is shaped this way, and it is in stark contrast to the very rigid race construct that exists here when looking at solving public health problems.”

Makris hopes to continue her public health education with a PhD from the USF COPH. “I want to continue my work in social marketing and research the health disparities of people with disabilities. Ultimately I’d like to develop public health curriculums that decrease stigma for people with disabilities, who are the largest minority group in the U.S. I want to help people treat others better and be better advocates for themselves and their health.”

Read more about Angela Makris’ public health journey and work here.

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

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“As a completely online MPH program student, I was proud of myself that I could earn my degree while working full-time,” said USF College of Public Health alumna Sydney Henderson.

Born and raised in Loveland, Colo., Henderson attended Colorado State University and earned her BS in microbiology in 2009 and then a BS in clinical laboratory science from University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2011.

Henderson was introduced to the field of public health during her undergraduate career.

Alumna Sydney Henderson, MPH (Photo courtesy of Henderson).

“The preventative nature of public health is what really interests me. Trying to protect individuals in our communities, hospitals, and areas worldwide from various public health problems is crucial,” she said.

After working in a clinical microbiology laboratory she realized she wanted to get into the field of infection prevention and found the COPH’s MPH program with a concentration in infection control.

“I didn’t find any other programs that had a concentration in infection control, so I became really interested the COPH’s program for that specific reason. The program matched up perfectly with my goal of becoming an infection preventionist and becoming CIC certified,” Henderson said.

“I loved that it was all online and could work full-time while completing the program. It’s really geared towards individuals who are already working professionals and are looking to further their career or change careers,” she said. “The program really prepared me to become an infection preventionist.”

During her time in the program, Henderson said that her advisor Dr. Donna Haiduven, associate professor in the Department of Global Health, inspired her the most.

“She showed me that while the field of infection prevention has been geared towards nursing that I could also break into the field of infection prevention without a nursing degree” she said. “Dr. Haiduven’s classes were also incredibly helpful and contributed most to my knowledge base that I have now.”

Dr. Donna Haiduven and Sydney Henderson in Denver (Photo courtesy of Haiduven).

After graduating in 2015, Henderson was hired as an infection preventionist at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center and Rocky Mountain Hospital fro Children in Denver.

As an infection preventionist, she is responsible for disease surveillance throughout the hospital. She monitors hospital-acquired infections, reports diseases of interest to local and state health departments, and serves as an infection prevention subject matter expert for the entire hospital.

“I was attracted to the preventative nature of it. We work hard to implement best practices to make sure that our patients don’t get an infection in the hospital that they didn’t come in with,” she said. “These policies, procedures and practices keep patients as safe as possible during their stay.”

One of her proudest professional achievements to date was her team and hospital staff’s response to a child admitted to the hospital with measles.

“We were able to get the child isolated immediately upon admission,” Henderson said. “Because of our immediate actions we didn’t have any ill effects from the case, such as associated staff or patient exposures.”

Sydney Henderson and her Infection Prevention team at the 2017 National Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology conference in Portland, Oregon. (Photo courtesy of Henderson).

Henderson said that in the future she would like to be in a managerial or director of infection prevention position. She would also like the opportunity to present a verbal abstract or presentation at the annual national Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology conference.

Story by Caitlin Keough, USF College of Public Health

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USF College of Public Health alumna Nancy Lashway’s key ingredients for success combine her passion for public health and healthy eating.

As a clinical dietitian working for more than 30 years in the health care field for hospitals like Forsyth Memorial Hospital in Salem, N.C., and Bayfront Medical Center in St. Pete, Fla., she said was ready to expand upon her role as a health care professional and found public health was the answer.

Already an alumna of Douglass College in New Brunswick, N.J., where she earned her bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition in 1976, Lashway decided to obtain her MPH in public health practice from the COPH in 2003 after learning about the distance learning public health program.

Nancy Lashway, DrPH, MPH, Rd, LD/N. (Photo courtesy of Lashway)

“Preventative medicine saves lives, money and pain and suffering,” Lashway said. “I was interested in the global aspect of reaching the population in a proactive way as opposed to a reactive approach.”

She said the professors in the COPH continuously inspired her drive for public health, along with the time she spent as a student during her field experience abroad in Costa Rica.

“The language, culture and contributions of USF towards reaching those in a remote location were lessons that no book could provide,” she said.

However, her time at the COPH was not without challenges. She said starting the program years after starting her professional career presented her with some learning curves.

“Being an older student, my age presented some unique challenges. I have learned that success in education is not about ability but persistence. Never give up,” she said.

Her persistence in education is also evident in her career, where she’s earned the status as a licensed and registered dietitian in the states of Florida and Nevada.

Nancy Lashway stopping for a photo at Disney World with Mickey Mouse in Orlando, Fla. (Photo courtesy of Lashway)

Upon graduating from the COPH, she decided to continue her public health path and earned her DrPH in environmental occupational health from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

She said she is proud to see that the COPH has since expanded to offer a DrPH program.

Lashway is currently serving as a practice manager and dietetic consultant across the state of Florida and recalls her time at the COPH as being so fulfilling that she persuades all she comes into contact with to consider the USF COPH as their first choice for expanding upon their public health education.

Nancy with her son Christopher, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering at FIU. (Photo courtesy of Nancy Lashway)

“I have encouraged many students to pursue their education at USF,” she said. “I am proud to say that a couple of professionals took my advice, enrolled and completed degrees.”

Lashway said as a consultant she hopes to spread the message of the significant relationship between dietetics and public health.

“I plan to lecture to the dietetic community about the importance of public health and the need to expand career choices to integrate dietetics into other disciplines,” she said.

***

COPH Alumni Fast Five:

What did you dream of becoming when you were young?

A researcher.

Where would we find you on the weekend?

At home doing homework or writing papers/articles.

What is the last book you read?

Jodi Picoult’s “Small Great Things.”

What superpower would you like to have?

Telepathy.

What’s your all-time favorite movie?

“The Godfather.”  My uncle appears in the movie.

Story by Anna Mayor, USF College of Public Health

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USF College of Public Health graduate student Jillian Edge received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant to explore flooding in Malaysia in order to better understand the impacts of flooding on access to public service in the state of Sarawak.

She’s earning her MPH from the Department of Global Health in global disaster management and humanitarian relief from USF’s distance learning program. Prior to joining the COPH, she earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and worked in emergency management in Seattle and a public health department in California.

Jillian Edge is in Sarawak, Malaysia for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. (Photo courtesy of Edge)

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to help build relationships between the U.S. and other nations to solve global problems.

Edge is one of 1,900 U.S. citizens participating in the program for the academic year 2016-17.

“Initially, like arriving in any new place, it was hard to find context for a lot of what I was seeing,” she said. “But, if there is anything I have learned in public health, it is to observe and ask questions.”

In Sarawak, Edge has been examining ways that the population’s access to government services can be influenced by extreme weather events like flooding.

Because Sarawak is located on a river delta, flooding and extreme weather frequently disrupts public and social services, according to Edge.

During her time in Malaysia, Edge said she’s also experienced unexpected opportunities outside of her research, such as volunteering in the tuberculosis investigation unit as well as meeting several other academics, who are now good friends, from around town.

“Every time I said yes to something—whether it was an opportunity to volunteer, a dinner with friends, or chance to give a talk—it was an education, and broadened my perspective not only of my work, but my worldview as well,” Edge said.

A traditional Malaysian meal Edge has consumed during her time abroad. (Photo courtesy of Edge)

Edge is spending the duration of her Fulbright Student Researcher Scholarship in Kuching, the capital of the Malaysia’s largest state, Sarawak.

According to Edge, Sarawak is in East Malaysia—the part on the island of Borneo—and is very different than Kuala Lumpur and the more populated peninsular side of the country.

“While my focus is urban flooding and analyzing local attitudes and coping strategies in the capital, Sarawak as a state is mostly uninhabited jungle. So like I said, very different from the U.S.,” she said.

Some of the jungle in Sarawak. (Photo courtesy of Edge)

This grant will allow for a better understanding of how increasing extreme weather conditions can cause everyday interferences for more vulnerable populations, Edge said.

She has been in Sarawak since September and said being abroad during the past year has led her to view the U.S. through a new lens.

“I, as another Fulbrighter mentioned the other day, am going home to a different country. My field of public health is threatened, my focus on humanitarian aid is deemed unfundable, and my own health care plan may no longer exist when I return,” Edge said. “On one hand, it has been a surreal ride to hear about ‘fake news’ and see clips of hate speeches from the other side of the Pacific. But more than that, it has been empowering to see men and especially women standing up and choosing to take responsibility in the wake of everything that has happened in the last six months.”

A health clinic in Sarawak where Edge has been volunteering some of her time. (Photo courtesy of Edge)

Edge said her experience abroad has validated her belief that it’s the men and women at the local level who are choosing to make a difference in quiet ways, something she said she has witnessed often during her time abroad.

“To me, this has reflected something universal I’ve seen in Malaysia and elsewhere: policies may say one thing, but it’s the people choosing to be generous and kind and supportive that make these systems work,” she said. “And I think that revelation—that it’s the people, stupid—will stay at the center of my own work as I continue my career going forward as a reminder of what we are all capable of achieving.”

She said she hopes all public health students consider travel abroad during their time as students.

“Being in public health gives us a privileged insight into the disparity and impacts of policies on the health of our neighbors across the nation,” she said. “But, more importantly, it gives us the tools to step up and do something about it. I think being abroad for so long reminds you of your own skills and what you have to offer, and I hope each of you has that opportunity to realize what amazing things you can accomplish when you step up and put your mind to it.”

Story by Jillian Edge and AnnaMarie Koehler-Shepley, USF College of Public Health

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USF College of Public Health MPH student Andrea Johnston began her career in marketing but soon learned that she had a passion for public health.

Born and raised in Chino, California, Johnston earned her BA in business marketing from San Francisco State University in 2010.

After graduating college, Johnston moved back to the Los Angeles area and started working at NBCUniversal utilizing her business writing skills for the vice president of environmental, health and safety (EHS).

After nine months of working for the VP she was offered the opportunity to work in New York City for the facilities based EHS team and accepted the role after she realized she enjoyed working in an EHS capacity and for the company.

Andrea Johnston on the set of “The Voice” at NBCUniversal (Photo courtesy of Johnston).

Five years later Johnston is now an EHS specialist with the NBCUniversal Owned Station group for the two Los Angeles based television stations. She oversees EHS for all aspects of both stations including but not limited to the main facility, the field shop where the station vehicles are housed and two transmitter locations.

Her day to day work includes but is not limited to injury and  illness prevention and investigations, training, procedure writing, ensuring environmental regulations are maintained, ensuring their Department of Transportation drivers are kept qualified and have submitted required qualification documentation, conducting inspections and ergonomics.

“I say this all the time – that no day is ever the same. I am not one for sitting at a desk and doing the same thing day after day. I love how my job is a mix of interacting with people, sitting at my desk writing/emailing and being out in the field,” Johnston said.

There are over 50 topics in which there is an EHS program required to be created and maintained for their operations; Johnston manages all of them.

Johnston became a certified ergonomics evaluator in 2014, took the OSHA 30-hour industry course in 2015 and is expecting to graduate from the COPH with a MPH in health, safety and environment from the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in May 2017.

Johnston is an online student and said that she was proud of her accomplishment of being able to manage working full-time in addition to being a part-time master’s student.

During her time in the field and in the COPH, Johnston said that there are many things that still surprise her with environmental and health safety.

“What is always surprising and changes in every work environment is how people accept and adopt safety,” Johnston said. “There are those who have done something for so long that changing an attitude or practice is hard to do. On the other hand, those who are new who you would think can adopt the right practices can find it sometimes hard to do as they feel or believe another way is better.”

Story by Caitlin Keough, USF College of Public Health

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The USF College of Public Health is once again ranking high among U.S. programs. The College’s Master of Public Health degree program was recently ranked #2 in the country by Nonprofit Colleges Online, a website that helps students find offerings in affordable online degree programs.

The ranking places the USF public health program second among 50 such programs, and ahead of programs at such universities as the University of South Carolina, University of Nebraska, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of Florida.

The schools ranked are all accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health and offer their degrees online or almost entirely online.

The USF COPH Master of Public Health degree is among several online degree and graduate certificate programs offered by the College and part of a long-standing effort to help meet public health workforce needs by providing online academic offerings to help accommodate busy professional and personal schedules of students.

Reposted from USF Health News.

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From a young age, Desiree VanBurger knew that she wanted to help people help themselves.

“What I wanted to do when I grew up was stand on top of the world with a megaphone and tell everyone what to do,” VanBurger said. “So, the idea of being involved with the general welfare of the public has always been with me.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in health science education from the University of Florida in 2001, VanBurger flipped the script, and went from student to educator and began working as an English teacher in the public school system.

“As I finished undergrad, I was looking at graduate programs in public health. At the time, I was focused on global health and/or maternal and child health,” she said.

Associate Safety Professional alumna Desiree VanBurger at Walt Disney World Safety Services and Industrial Hygiene. (Photo courtesy of Desiree VanBurger)

VanBurger worked in high needs schools as a literacy advocate in the Orange County public school system, in Orlando, Fla., corralling 25 or more teenagers at a time.

“I considered this an extension of my background in health,” Vanburger said. “Literacy is a life skill and the lack of literacy is powerfully correlated with negative outcomes in a person’s life.”

After more than ten years as a teacher, VanBurger pulled what she refers to as “a complete 180.”

As public schools shifted curriculum to focus on standardized testing, she again found herself looking for public health graduate programs and decided on the USF College of Public Health. Despite living in Orlando, VanBurger chose USF for its extensive online offerings and the variety of programs.

As a student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, VanBurger earned her master of science in public health (MSPH) with a concentration in industrial hygiene in 2015, and ultimately considers her successful leap from English to public health something she is most proud of accomplishing during her time at the COPH.

“I quit my job and decided to pursue a career most people have never heard of, that required math and science skills that I either didn’t have, or hadn’t used in years,” she said. “People doubted whether I could or should do that, I was anxious too…but I did it. I went from being the most underprepared student in my cohort to being one of the best.”

VanBurger said that positions such as hers were limited and the fact that she’s employed at Disney is one of her proudest professional achievements to date. (Photo courtesy of  Desiree VanBurger)

VanBurger drew a wealth of support from faculty at the COPH, including Drs. Steve Mlynarek and Tom Bernard, which helped her accomplish her scholastic goals. She also notes that without the funding of the Sunshine Education and Research Center and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, she could not have managed to do this.

Currently, VanBurger works as associate safety professional at Walt Disney World’s Safety Services and Industrial Hygiene. Her team serves as the internal consultants for industrial hygiene issues at the parks and resorts.

“No two days are exactly the same. Some days I sit at my desk and read safety data sheets, some days I watch parades at the happiest place on Earth, and some days I am getting a backstage tour of the largest commercial laundry facility in the word, or a six million gallon aquarium,” VanBurger said. “Some days I spend talking with and observing the people who do the work you never see when you come here as a guest, and these people work so hard. I am proud to be positive proof that their employer is looking out for them and doing the right thing with regard to their occupational health and safety.”

VanBurger puts the skills she learned at the COPH to practice on a daily basis: she asks questions, gathers information, reads and researches, makes decisions, collaborates with others and manages data.

“The main thing I learned at the COPH is that yes, it’s hard. Sometimes the reading or thinking that’s necessary to figure something out is not the most exciting thing, nor the most obvious or simple. But the only way out is through, so you have to keep at it until you figure it out,” VanBurger said.

Happy at work, her current plans are to learn as much as she can, continue working, and eventually sit for and the Certified Industrial Hygienist exam.

Outside of public health, VanBurger describes herself as a woman of simple interests—recently married, she enjoys hanging out with her husband, cooking, watching her son play basketball and crafting.

“I’m a little bit artsy-crafty,” VanBurger said. “I like painting my nails and doing other creative things—paper crafts, and so on. I also have pets, so one of my hobbies is sweeping up hair. Just kidding, I know that’s not a real hobby!”

Whether working in education or public health, there’s always been a common, connecting thread in VanBurger’s work—her dedication to providing service to others.

“I believe we are here to love each other and do what we can to help those in need,” she said. “I don’t see a lot of purpose in pursuit of profits; for me, it’s important to be of service to others. It makes me feel like I am doing something worthwhile and good.”

***

Fast Five for COPH Alumni:

What did you dream of becoming when you were young?

THE BOSS.  Of what?  Anything and everything.

Where would we find you on the weekend?

For about the next five weekends, on my couch, I hope.  I just got married, and a wedding and having tons of guests from out of town was exhausting.

What is the last book you read?

“Flood of Fire,” by Amitav Ghosh.

What superpower would you like to have?

I’d like to be able to sleep like a normal person, at night, all night long.

What’s your all-time favorite movie?

I don’t really watch too many movies, I can’t be quiet for that many minutes in a row.

Story by Shelby Bourgeois, USF College of Public Health

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“Being a student never stops,” said USF College of Public Health graduate student Montray Smith.  “I was still doing homework in one of my classes while I was in the Netherlands.  I was on vacation, and I had the class PowerPoints and the textbook spread all over the hotel room, and I had to use the hotel computer for Internet service.”

A master of public health candidate enrolled in the Public Health Practice program, Smith’s public health passion is manifest in a pair of poster presentations at international conferences this spring and summer.

COPH grad student Montray Smith presented a poster in Cape Town, South Africa, in April.

She presented “Coordination of Transportation to Special Needs Shelters in an EOC Level II Activation During a Tropical Storm” at the 19th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine in Cape Town, South Africa, in April.  She also has been chosen to present “Duval County Special Needs Coordination during EOC Activation during Tropical Storm Andrea” at Sigma Theta Tau International’s 26th International Nursing Research Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in July.

Smith is no stranger to graduate school or international health endeavors.  A registered nurse for the past 24 years, she already holds a master of science in nursing from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, as well as USF COPH graduate certificates in disaster management and humanitarian assistance from the Department of Global Health.  She has been a nursing instructor for 12 years.

Her nursing experience includes adult medical/surgical, intensive care, post-trauma and disaster relief/disaster management.  As a member of the North-East Florida Disaster Medical Assistance Team since 2002 and a member of the U.S. Disaster Medical System, she has been deployed on numerous national and international medical missions.

A growing interest in public health drew the Jacksonville native southwest to Tampa, USF and COPH.  She said she particularly was drawn to the flexibility of online graduate studies in disaster management/humanitarian assistance and public health practice, and she especially liked the concept of using public health principles in disaster management and relief.

“The program is convenient and affordable,” she said.  “It is an excellent program, and I am very grateful to be a student at USF.  We have some truly great faculty, staff and students, and I am grateful to be a part of the Bulls family.”

Evidently, the student who said that “being a student never stops” meant it in more ways than one.

“I will be pursuing a doctorate in nursing,” she said, “and continuing to do my work in disaster management and humanitarian assistance.”

Story by David Brothers, College of Public Health.

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Joshua Lorenzo has always felt drawn to infectious disease research, although if you had asked him at age 7, he would have said he was destined for the NBA.

“I’ve always had a genuine interest,” said Lorenzo.  “I was fascinated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s.  I was too young at the time to be impacted directly but was interested in the social and political ramifications that resulted from the early days of the epidemic.”

The Maryland native completed his master of public health online through the USF College of Public Health and now works as a clinical protocol coordinator with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Institutional Review Board.  There, Lorenzo can put both his practice and passion to work helping investigators understand the mechanisms of infectious diseases and protecting the rights of human subjects in disease research.

When Lorenzo first saw USF’s sprawling campus, he was working with the National Cancer Institute at Moffitt Cancer Center.

“I took part in a site audit for a National Lung Cancer Screening study and fell in love,” said Lorenzo.  “I decided to apply the following semester.”

Josh Lorenzo pictured with wife Stacey, daughter Abby and son Jackson.

Family played a huge role in his educational success.  Lorenzo credits his wife, Stacey, for providing him with endless support during his educational journey.  As a father of two working full-time, peaceful opportunities to study were hard to come by, but thanks to his wife “bravely taking the kids to the park every day,” Lorenzo was able to devote hours every weekend to his textbooks.

“She inspired me to pursue my MPH at USF in the first place,” he said.

Stacey also works in the public health field, for the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the NCI.  When Lorenzo isn’t spending time with his wife and children or “honing his sarcasm,” he enjoys photography and exploring new places.

Although being an online student presented its fair share of challenges, Lorenzo considers the time he spent with USF the “best three years of [his] educational career.”  The COPH online MPH program allowed him to balance his work, his family and his educational pursuits.

Josh Lorenzo proudly represents the USF Bulls (see lanyard) in his NIAID office.

“I learned so many things and met so many interesting people,” said Lorenzo.  “I met amazing professors, staff and students along the way.  Somer Goad Burke was so patient and willing to answer my questions, and Natalie Preston was also a great resource!”

However, one major standout during his time with the COPH was Professor Amy Borenstein, his favorite professor.

“Professor Borenstein was amazing,” Lorenzo said.  “I learned so much in epidemiology and appreciated her desire to teach.”

Lorenzo may have completed his MPH, but he is not yet finished with USF.  The education he received and the relationships he built with students and staff during his time as a student will last his entire life, he said.

“I am forever indebted to the campus, to the teachers and to the students,” said Lorenzo.  “I am a Bull, and I am happy about that every day of my life!”

Story by Shelby Bourgeois, College of Public Health writing intern. Photos courtesy of Josh Lorenzo.

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