People in the News - August 2009

Four receive NIH Director’s Awards

Dr. Flora Katz, the program officer who coordinates the successful Framework program that supports universities broadening their global health curricula, and three members of Fogarty's visa and passport staff received the NIH Director's Award, which recognizes "superior performance ... significantly beyond the regular duty requirements." Marcia Smith, Sandra Fuentes and Jeff Chen were cited for their work in supporting international travel for all of NIH.

Dr. Ariel Pablos-
Mendez

Advisory board member leads project

Fogarty advisory board member Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez is leading the Rockefeller Foundation's new $100 million project that shifts emphasis from disease-fighting to bolstering health systems in developing countries. The first three countries targeted by the foundation's "Transforming Health Systems" program are Ghana, Rwanda and Vietnam.

Fogarty trainees cited for AIDS research

One former and one current Fogarty trainee were honored at the recent International AIDS Society meeting in Cape Town. Dr. Agnes Moses (left), whose medical training was partially supported by Fogarty won the prestigious Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation International Leadership Award for her work in Malawi to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Current trainee Dr. Linnet N. Masese (right), supported by the Center's AIDS International Training and Research Program, was awarded the IAS Young Investigator Prize: Women, Girls and HIV for an abstract on the effect of antiretroviral therapy on sexual risk behavior in a cohort of Kenyan women.

Dr. Alan Berkman

Grantee, social activist Alan Berkman dies

Dr. Alan Berkman, codirector of the Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program in South Africa, died June 5 of cancer at age 63. He was associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and a founding member of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa.