Miller School Public Health Graduate Awarded an InterExchange Foundation Christianson Grant

Gabriela “Gaby” Pages, M.P.H., a recent graduate of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Department of Public Health Sciences, was awarded a 2019 Christianson Grant from the InterExchange Foundation. The grant will make it possible for her to volunteer with Partners in Health on their tuberculosis mobile screening vehicle, and gain a unique global health research experience.

On the first day of her Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) course, Pages approached the course professor, Mariano Kanamori, Ph.D., and told him she was interested in working in Peru for a year. She wanted to gain more global research experience before applying to a doctoral program.

Pages got a volunteer opportunity through Partners in Health, a non-governmental organization based in Boston, to work on a tuberculosis mobile screening vehicle in the slums of Lima, Peru. Dr. Kanamori, who is an assistant professor of public health at the Miller School, also has research experience in Peru and was able to get an additional training opportunity for Pages at the Centers for Disease Control in Peru.

“I am excited to embark on my journey to further the fight against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Peru and continue the mission of the founders of Partners in Health in advancing the right-to-health movement,” Pages said. “I am also endlessly grateful to Dr. Kanamori for writing a recommendation letter for my grant application and for helping me find a position at the CDC. Lastly, I want to thank the Department of Public Health Sciences for all of the amazing support throughout my program.”

The Christianson Grant is typically awarded to young Americans who create service projects abroad. While in the CBPR course, Pages implemented a social network study with Venezuelan refugees living in Miami. In the CDC in Peru, Pages will work on a similar social network project with Venezuelan refugees living in Lima. As part of her training, she will also receive mentorship from Cesar Munayco, M.D., M.Sc., M.P.H., Dr.Ph., who is the director of epidemiological research and evaluation of health intervention at the CDC in Peru.

“Gabriela is well known in our school of public health for being very proactive. She has performed exceptional work in my course that I would say is dissertation-level work,” Dr. Kanamori said. “She is always looking beyond what is asked of her to do. And she has a great talent for research.”

Tags: Christianson Grant, Department of Public Health Sciences, Partners in Health