Jill Lundberg (MS ’96)
Program for Pfizer Employees Helps to Broaden Alum’s Public Health Perspective
Like many people, Jill Lundberg (MS ’96) has always had a desire to make a meaningful difference in the world. However, most people say that they couldn’t leave their job and family for six months and travel halfway around the world to do it.
The Pfizer Global Health Fellows program allows forty Pfizer employees each year to support the work of leading non-governmental organizations around the world. This philanthropic approach shares the expertise, knowledge, and caring of Pfizer’s staff with organizations working to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other debilitating diseases that ravage countries in the developing world. Since the program was launched in 2003, more than 100 Pfizer employees have been selected to serve as doctors, health educators, information technology advisors, and finance experts in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
In January 2006, Jill returned from her six-month experience in Malawi, Africa. She worked with Family Health International, whose staff was already in place in Malawi, to document case studies and identify best practices from existing community-based home-based healthcare programs and programs to support orphans and vulnerable children. She analyzed the programs already in place to determine how they could be improved and how the best practices could be used to scale up existing programs and replicate the programs in other regions of the country.
One of the things that Jill worked on was the development of communication skills (e.g. writing, oral, interviewing) among community members leading the programs, which helped them to better implement Jill’s and their own critiques of the programs. For instance, in Malawi, when an individual wants to communicate with someone, it is not uncommon to make a phone call or knock on the door once; if a response is not received, there is no follow-up. Teaching community members to assess and document their own programs fostered pride and motivation and helped to minimize communication as being a hurdle to overcome when trying to get support for and implement programs.
Other communication barriers were the result of cultural differences and Jill tried to adapt to local culture communication styles rather than expect the community members to change. For example, she quickly learned that an affirmative response to an inquiry is not always substantive, but may instead indicate a desire to polite.
Looking back on her experience, Jill says,
“What struck me most of all was the people’s resilience, their sense of community, and their enduring strength. In an area where nearly 15% of people have HIV/AIDS, that outlook is certainly something to be admired.” Since returning the U.S., Jill appreciates more than ever her own fortune. She says she’s been pulled back to the community, and hopes to contribute to “making a difference in her own backyard”.
Jill encourages her colleagues working in public health to take any available opportunity to broaden their perspective and that understanding the global effect of one’s contribution to public health makes the day-to-day work so much more meaningful.
Devona Delach (MPH ’04)
Alum Completes Prestigious Fellowship Program
Devona Delach (MPH ’04) writes the following about her recent experience in the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program.
“After completing my graduate education at Pitt in 2004, I began working for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. I had passed many rigorous phases of assessment for acceptance into the elite Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program, a two-year federal government program for the analysis, leadership, and management of public policies and programs, designed to prepare America’s future leaders for careers in public service.
“I arrived at CMS during a very exciting time, shortly after the passage of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. This law provided seniors and people with disabilities with the first comprehensive prescription drug benefit ever offered under the Medicare program, the most significant improvement to senior health care in nearly 40 years.
“For about six months, I worked on implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card and Transitional Assistance Program, a voluntary program to give immediate relief to people with Medicare to help reduce their costs for prescriptions during the time until the new drug benefit began on January 1, 2006. One of my key assignments was a “lessons learned” project, which was used in preparation for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program. I also spent a year working on Medicare Advantage (Part C) and Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (Part D) enrollment and eligibility policy. In addition, the PMF program enabled me to complete a six-month developmental assignment, during which I worked on Capitol Hill at the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. As part of the health policy team, I researched and examined a broad range of public health issues and policies, and also deepened my understanding of Congressional procedure.
“I would highly recommend the PMF program to GSPH students who are interested in public service careers. Not only did I receive an overview of both the policy and operational aspects of the federal government, but the program provided me with outstanding career and advancement opportunities, high-profile work assignments, exposure to senior management officials, and valuable training. It was an experience that I will not soon forget.”