TUXCOE Staff
DIRECTOR
Dr. Magnus earned both her MD and PhD from University of Tromso in Norway. Her PhD was in clinical basic science research characterizing connective tissue components associated with amyloid fibrils isolated from human tissues. Through her backgrounds and experience, she bridges bedside clinical medicine, clinical basic science, Epidemiology, as well as public health and community research. This makes her uniquely positioned to serve as the Director of the Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. This Center is one of the few United States Health Services designated Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health and the first one in the Southern United States. The mission of the Center is; to facilitate access to health care services; to foster an interdisciplinary research agenda; to promote a Women’s Health curriculum in conjunction with professional training and leadership of women in academic medicine; and to advance the knowledge of Women’s Health issues in the community. Dr. Magnus has extensive clinical experience in rheumatology and internal medicine. She has a keen interest and experience in clinical research and is currently the Co-PI and Program Director of the NIH funded Tulane Building Interdisciplinary Career in Women’s Health Program. Dr. Magnus has extensive experience in network building and coordination of research projects that involved scientists with different background. In 1992 she developed and initiated a large population-based study on Osteoporosis and fracture risk in 8,000 men and women, where all eligible inhabitants of the community older than 50 years were included. In connection with this study she worked with a team of researchers from rheumatology, radiology, endocrinology, geriatrics, clinical biochemistry, epidemiology, preventive medicine, biostatistics, clinical pathology and gynecology. The study evolved with several clinic arms as well; a random sample representing fifteen percent of the community population was analyzed and serum bone markers studied; a fracture register was established at the hospital and linked to survey data for 21,441 community subjects; forty consecutive stroke patients got their bone mineral density (BMD) measured and were followed for twelve months, to mention a few. Upon her 1999 arrival in the United States, Dr. Magnus put her energy into integrating Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health with the pertinent activities within the Tulane Health Sciences Center. Dr. Magnus developed and established the Tulane Total Woman Health Care Center in 2000, a clinic providing primary and specialty care for women that provide unique opportunities for clinical trials across the lifespan of women, and across the medical spectrum. Dr. Magnus’ many years of clinical service, research expertise, as well as her proven dedication to generating excellence in future women’s health researchers, makes her a sought after as a collaborator. She was also recently able to secure a major endowment from the Frost Foundation to name the Mary-Amelia Douglas-Withed Community Women’s Health Education Center for which she also serves as director. This Center provides culturally and age appropriate health communication and education to community women in Louisiana.
Aiesha Volow Aiesha is working with the Mary Amelia Center. She is finishing up her last semester of coursework on her MPH at the SPHTM. She is from the department of international health and development and focused on reproductive health and infectious disease in her time at Tulane. She is leaving for Peace Corps service in Swaziland this June where she will serve as a health and HIV educator until the fall of 2010.
Anne Rapin Anne is a student at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the International Health and Development Department. Her interest in public health was sparked while she was teaching science as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. After graduation Anne hopes to work internationally to promote women’s and children’s health and also to address gender equality issues in disaster prevention and recovery settings. Anne is a community assessment team member with the Environmental Scan Project at the Mary Amelia Center. She is happy to be involved with many parts of the project and learning a lot about the process of community assessments. She is also enjoying getting a more in-depth feel for New Orleans.
Arika Wadley Arika is a student at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She is working on a Masters of Public Health in Parasitology. She graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology/Pre-Med. She hopes to attend Tulane University's School of Medicine to become a psychiatrist. Currently she is working on data mining with the Mary Amelia Center by finding out information on 3 neighborhoods of interest: Treme, Algiers and St. Bernard Parish. This includes information about health care providers in the areas, what health services are provided to residents in the neighborhoods, number of schools and churches in the neighborhoods, if there are any other social services in the neighborhoods and if so, what these services provide and resident perceptions of the neighborhoods.
Florence Mpundu Mwanza Mpundu is an International student from Zambia attending Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the Department of International Health. Mpundu did her undergraduate in Journalism in Zambia and Psychology in Arizona. Mpundu worked as a Media and Public Affairs Specialist for Population Services International (PSI) in the Zambian office for eight years where she was involved in the social marketing of health products for low income vulnerable populations. She Initiated and implemented collaboration of church leaders and political leaders to form a committee to reduce HIV infection among couples and the Christian community in Zambia .She was Influential in having the first President of Zambia Dr Kaunda to speak on the first church leaders conference on HIV. In her capacity Mpundu drafted speeches. She also led a tour of PSI project sites in the Southern Province of Zambia for the US Ambassador to Zambia David Dann. In her career at PSI Mpundu was also involved in Analyzing and interpreting test data to identify issues for policy action. Mpundu succeeded in establishing the first Peer Education Program in Zambia for the youth. Among other things Mpundu has been involved in, is the Better Health Campaign which received the Population Institute Global Award for Media Excellence. Mpundu is focusing on infectious diseases and reproductive health. After graduation Mpundu plans to work in a developing country where she will invest her public health skills to improve reproductive health issues among girls and women. Mpundu is currently doing voluntary work at Mary Amelia Women’s Center conducting an environmental scan in Algiers.
Katie Robinette Katie is an MPH student in the Department of International Health and Development, focusing on Population and Reproductive Health. She is particularly interested in women's health and putting an end to violence against women. She performed "I Was There In the Room" in the SPHTM production of the Vagina Monologues this year.
Miranda Beckman Miranda is an International Health and Development student at Tulane University SPHTM. She is originally from Utah and served in the Peace Corps in Bangladesh (2002-2005). She remained in Bangladesh upon completing Peace Corps and worked with an international NGO promoting economic development, higher education and gender equity. Her experiences there inspired her pursue her MPH. She earned a bachelor of science in Behavioral Science and Health from the University of Utah. After completing her MPH, Miranda hopes to work with agencies focusing on reproductive health, reproductive rights and the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. Miranda is one of four team leaders designing and overseeing MAC’s Environmental Scan project. The project will examine three neighborhoods in the New Orleans area (Algiers, St. Bernard Parish and Treme), and examine each neighborhood’s assets and concerns through a process of surveys, focus groups and key informant interviews. The information collected during this environmental scan will enable MAC to refocus their efforts in promoting health, and particularly in promoting health for community action. As the team leader for the Treme neighborhood, this is Miranda’s first opportunity to be involved with all stages of such a project, conducting extensive formative research on community assets, design of the survey tools, carrying out the data collection and data analysis and she’s excited for such a valuable learning experience against the backdrop of a city with such a rich cultural heritage. She is particularly interested in the survey design. Miranda is also excited to analyze the data upon completion of the surveying, and identify potential new collaborations for MAC.
Sofiat Makanjuola-Akinola Sofiat is currently in the last semester of her master’s degree in Public Health in the department of International Health and Development with a concentration in Reproductive Health at Tulane University. Her interests are in issues pertaining to gender and health that primarily focus on women and children. Sofiat worked in the Mary Amelia Center in 2007 on focus groups and transcriptions for a stress and depression study. Currently, she is volunteering at MAC for the Environmental Scan Project (Team Treme).
Sun Yu Sun is a member of the Algiers Community Assessment Team. She is currently a MPH student at Tulane University's SPHTM in the International Health and Development department with a focus on Reproductive Health. Sun is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and pursued her undergraduate degree at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She majored in Rhetoric & Media Studies and Art Studio with a minor in Women's Studies. Soon after college, she served as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in rural Uzbekistan. Her passion for public health, particularly reproductive health, was solidified during her Peace Corps service. In the future, she hopes to live overseas and work with marginalized communities such as commercial sex workers, orphans, street children, refugees, among other disadvantaged populations. Meanwhile, she feels fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute to the New Orleans community through the Mary Amelia Center. Through fostering close interpersonal relationships with enthusiasm, extroversion, openness, she hopes to help bridge the gap between organizations and the people they serve.
Thi Nguyen Thi is from Vietnam. Before coming to Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, she worked for four years at the Health Information and Education Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. She have experience working with street children in a project that aimed at preventing HIV/AIDS through health education activities. As a health education professional, she wrote educational materials such as leaflets and booklets about Dengue Fever and HIV/AIDS prevention, and smoking cessation. She also collaborated with others on a monthly newsletter, “Health” or “Suc Khoe.” She took part in studies in communities to determine the health problems and to make need assessment analyses, in order to prescribe suitable health education intervention programs. In her first semester in the Community Health Science Department at Tulane; she hopes to gain academic training, but, also, valuable experience in the real world. She applied to work at the Mary Amelia Women's Center in the Algiers Assessment Team. She feels that this will be a great opportunity to gain skills for her future because she is deeply conscious of the importance of health education in her own country and the need to improve Vietnamese health care and general well being.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
