The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF) is proud to announce three recipients of the 2010 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship. They are:

Mara K. Hansen (Harvard University)
Mara K. Hansen will spend parts of the next year working in India and Morocco to design a comprehensive program to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) in Morocco. 
Specifically, Mara will study the success of The 
Corridors 
Project, an 
internationally
 renowned 
project
, supported by the Gates Foundation, that has 
been 
working 
on 
the 
reduction 
of 
STI 
and
 HIV/AIDS
 transmission 
among
 commercial 
sex 
workers 
in 
three 
districts
 of 
Karnataka,
 India 
since
 2005.
 Mara intends to use the Corridors Project as a template for a similarly successful program that she will design for and present to her Moroccan colleagues. As
 a Peace Corps 
volunteer 
working previously with 
the 
Moroccan 
Ministry 
of
 Health, Mara created 
educational, 
prevention
, and 
testing 
programs
 to 
protect 
the 
health 
of sex workers in the city of Boumia. 
She is currently a master 
of 
science degree candidate 
in 
global 
health 
and population

 studies at the School of Public Health at Harvard University.

Norah Herzog Meyerson (The University of Washington)
Norah Herzog Meyerson will work with Health Alliance International (HAI) in the newly independent country of Timor-Leste, to encourage healthy practices regarding maternal and child health at HAI’s Birth-Friendly Facilities. Birth-Friendly Facilities (BFF’s) are culturally competent, effective and sustainable medical facilities that provide an institutional alternative to home-births. In Timor-Leste, roughly 90% of women deliver at home, where medical complications are not handled safely – leading to one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Norah’s program will ultimately expand the function of BFF’s to include use as a women’s community center for education, discussion, and access to family planning methods in addition to offering mentorship to women in becoming champions of health in their own households and communities at large. Norah was previously a health care professional in Seattle, WA and Brooklyn, NY and a graduate of Pitzer College, where she received a scholarship based on leadership and community service. She is currently enrolled as a master of public health degree candidate at the School of Public Health at the University of Washington.

Megan C. Slaughter (The University of Minnesota)
Megan C. Slaughter will work this summer with the Uganda Village Project to improve preventative health education and healthcare provisions related to malaria, safe water, hygiene and sanitation, reproductive health, and immunizations in the marginalized Iganga district. Megan will serve as the leader of a team that develops partnerships with local community members and other organizations to facilitate collaboration in reducing health disparities, while increasing the sustainability of community health programs. Megan has worked previously with Americorps, the Independent Medico Legal Unit in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis. She is currently a master of public health degree candidate in community health education, with a concentration in global health and human rights, at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

The finalists, and semi-finalists for this year’s scholarship are:

FINALISTS
Michelle Desmond, University of Washington
Devina Kuo, University of California, Berkeley
Jesse McKenna, Boston University School of Public Health
Brooke Nichols, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Kimberlee Roxburgh, University of South Florida
David Sanders, Oregon Health and Science University

SEMI-FINALISTS
Elizabeth Bunde, Tulane University
Patrick Ercole, Saint Louis University
Kathleen Maloney, Tulane University
Krystal Rampalli, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Kimberlee Roxburgh, University of South Florida
Sean Trafficante, Tulane University

This year’s applications were reviewed by multiple board members, KMF volunteers, and public health experts, in a six-stage evaluation process. Among many impressive applicants, we feel that this year’s recipients and their projects embody those qualities of leadership, innovation, and sustainability that we are especially keen to recognize with Katie Evans Memorial Scholarships.

_{(Community members from the Island Food Community of Pohnpei take a break from a community health meeting led by Alyssa Bittenbender, far left. Alyssa Bittenbender is a recipient of KMF’s 2009 Katie Evans Memorial Scholarship.)}