The Johns Hopkins
Center for a Livable Future has awarded predoctoral
fellowships to 12
students for 2008-2009. This year, for the first time, the
fellowships have been awarded in one of
CLF's three program areas: Farming for the Future, Eating
for the Future and Living for the Future.
Recipients of Farming for the Future Predoctoral
Fellowships are Carmen Arriola and Edward
Broughton, International Health; Beth Feingold and D'Ann
Williams, Environmental Health Sciences;
Jillian Parry Fry, Health Policy and Management; and Amy
Peterson, Epidemiology. Arriola, Peterson
and Williams are second-year CLF Predoctoral Fellows.
Eating for the Future Predoctoral Fellowships have
been awarded to Julia DeBruicker, Health,
Behavior and Society; Jennifer Hartle, Environmental Health
Sciences; and Sohyun Park and
Manjunath Shankar, International Health.
Recipients of Living for the Future Predoctoral
Fellowships are Kristen Gibson, Environmental
Health Sciences and a third-year CLF Predoctoral Fellow;
and Gila Neta, Epidemiology.
Carmen Arriola received a veterinary degree from San
Marcos Major National University in
Lima, Peru, and is a fourth-year doctoral student concerned
about the vulnerability of human
populations to the health and economic impacts of zoonotic
(animal to human) diseases. Her proposed
research is the first systematic study of the environmental
and public health impact of the porcine
industry in Peru. She says she hopes to apply her research
findings to practical uses, especially for
underserved populations around the world. Her doctoral
adviser is Lawrence Moulton, a professor in
the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health.
Her project advisers are Robert Gilman,
also a professor in International Health, and Ellen
Silbergeld, professor in Environmental Health
Sciences.
Edward Broughton's experience with his family's
shellfish farms in Australia led to his interest
in aquaculture and human health. As a third-year doctoral
student, he will examine the association
between antibiotic use in food-fish production and zoonotic
infections. Specifically, he will investigate
antibiotic-resistant and susceptible salmonella bacteria in
farmed fish from Guangdong, China, and the
risk their presence poses to humans. He would like to add
to the body of knowledge that guides
policies for antibiotic use in aquaculture at the national
and international levels. Broughton earned his
bachelor's degree in applied science from Curtin University
in Perth, Australia, and his master's from
Columbia University. His adviser is Damian Walker,
assistant professor in International Health.
Beth Feingold is a second-year doctoral student in the
Department of Environmental Health
Sciences' Division of Environmental Health Engineering. She
has proposed using satellite remote
sensing to locate Confined Animal Feeding Operations based
on the spatial and spectral signatures of
the animal houses and manure lagoons in order to better
estimate their contribution to large-scale
ecosystem and human health burdens of pollution and
disease. Feingold holds master of public health
and master of environmental science degrees from Yale
University, and a bachelor's in geology from
Vassar College. Her adviser is Ellen Silbergeld, professor
in the Department of Environmental Health
Sciences.
Jillian Parry Fry, a second-year doctoral student,
received her undergraduate degree in
biobehavioral health from the Pennsylvania State University
and her master's degree in public health
from the University of New Mexico. Current research
interests include examining the impact of
industrial food animal production sites on surrounding
communities from a human rights perspective.
Her doctoral adviser is Robert Lawrence, CLF director and
professor in Environmental Health
Sciences. Her faculty adviser is Daniel Webster, associate
professor in Health Policy and
Management.
Amy Peterson received her veterinary degree from Tufts
University in 2001. She spent two
years in both large and small animal clinical practice in
addition to participating in the control and
eradication efforts during the 2001 United Kingdom
foot-and-mouth disease epidemic. Her proposed
research is to investigate animal reservoirs of MRSA
(Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)
and the role of large-scale industrial agriculture in
environmental spread of animal MRSA to
surrounding communities by evaluating MRSA presence and
clonal profile at hospital admission in a
rural tertiary care hospital center. Peterson's doctoral
advisers are Ellen Silbergeld, professor in the
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and Kenrad
Nelson, professor in the Department of
Epidemiology.
D'Ann Williams is a DrPH student at the Bloomberg
School while also working in the Division of
Environmental Health Engineering. She received an
undergraduate degree in natural sciences from
Towson University and a master's degree in environmental
sciences from Johns Hopkins. At the Center
for Asthma in the Urban Environment, she focuses on
environmental sampling to evaluate source
exposure and environmental determinants of asthma. In 2001,
working with an NIEHS/JHSPH team at
the World Trade Center in New York, she investigated
airborne exposures of workers. She also
worked in New Orleans to assess airborne mold levels within
the city after Hurricane Katrina. Her
proposed research is to assess the exposure of dairy CAFO
contaminants in indoor and outdoor
environments in Yakima Valley, Wash. Her research adviser
is Patrick Breysse, professor in
Environmental Health Sciences, and her doctoral adviser is
Alison Geyh, associate professor in
Environmental Health Sciences.
Julia DeBruicker, a third-year doctoral student, will
examine the sustainable food movement as
it is unfolding in the United States. Her goal is to
uncover what is driving this growing consumer
sector. What are its participants trying to get away from
in ordinary, supermarket food, and what do
they want out of food that has been raised to a higher
standard? Her work will prepare a blueprint
for how the values, priorities and momentum that underlie
this movement can contribute to the
agricultural and food policy agenda that the field of
public health is developing. DeBruicker will situate
her research in a Midwestern agricultural region to prepare
an ethnographic description and a regional
model that can inform other places. Her faculty adviser is
Peter Winch, associate professor of social
and behavioral interventions in the Department of
International Health.
Jennifer Hartle is interested in investigating how to
change current eating patterns in high-
income countries to reduce human impact on the environment.
She plans to discover and evaluate
current management plans designed to change eating habits.
Utilizing successful initiatives, she plans
to construct a program in behavioral change that can be
introduced on a larger scale. Hartle received
a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences from the
University of California, Berkeley and her
master's from the Bloomberg School. She has been working as
an industrial hygienist in the energy
production and semiconductor industries for eight years and
will begin her doctoral studies in January.
Her initial academic adviser is Robert Lawrence, CLF
director and professor in Environmental Health
Sciences, and her faculty adviser is Norma Kanarek,
associate professor in Environmental Health
Sciences.
Sohyun Park is interested in making healthy eating
choices easy ones. Her background in
nutrition and food policy with experience at the Korea Food
and Drug Administration as an associate
researcher led to the doctoral program in the Center for
Human Nutrition at the Bloomberg School.
Her research will focus on environmental and structural
changes for preventing childhood obesity in
South Korea. She says she wants to develop strategies to
make healthy eating choices more available
and accessible to children and adolescents in food outlets.
She earned her bachelor's degree in food
and nutrition from Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea,
and a master's from Tufts University. Park
is now a second-year doctoral student in the Center for
Human Nutrition. Her adviser is Joel
Gittelsohn, an associate professor in the Department of
International Health.
Manjunath Shankar considers himself to be a heterodox
health economist and has been
influenced by the works of Amartya Sen, Herman Daly and
E.F. Schumacher. As a fourth-year doctoral
student, his research will evaluate the impact of kitchen
gardens on women's empowerment and food
security using the capability approach framework developed
by Sen. Shankar graduated in medicine
from Bangalore University and earned a Master in Health
Administration degree from Tata Institute
of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. His research interests
include primary health care, community
empowerment and heterodox economics. His advisers are Alan
Sorkin and Carl Taylor, both in the
Department of International Health.
Kristen Gibson is interested in the environmental and
public health impacts of industrial animal
production through surface and groundwater transport of
emerging human and animal pathogens. Over
the past five years she has conducted research within the
Johns Hopkins Center for Water and
Health and has been involved in projects addressing some of
the public health consequences of
industrial animal production. As a third-year doctoral
student and a third-year CLF Predoctoral Fellow,
she plans to continue developing new methods to investigate
emerging pathogens and their persistence
and transport through surface and groundwater sources
potentially impacted by industrial animal
production. Gibson earned her bachelor's degree in
microbiology and molecular biology from the
University of Central Florida. Her doctoral adviser is
Kellogg Schwab, associate professor in the
Department of Environmental Health Sciences.
Gila Neta is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the
Epidemiology Department's Environmental
and Occupational Division. Her dissertation research
focuses on the public health consequences of
pesticides. She is investigating the effects of prenatal
exposures to persistent and nonpersistent
insecticides in a cohort of babies born in Baltimore as
part of the THREE Study (Tracking Health
Related to Environmental Exposures). She is exploring the
risk factors for exposure to pesticides and
examining the associations between levels of pesticides in
cord blood and the effects on fetal growth
and development and on the immune system. Her dissertation
adviser is Lynn Goldman, professor in
Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology. Her
academic adviser is Jonathan Samet, chair of
Epidemiology.
Each predoctoral fellowship provides one year of
support in an amount up to $60,000 to be used
for tuition, stipend and/or research expenses depending on
individual needs. Students must be
enrolled in any one of the divisions of Johns Hopkins in a
PhD, ScD or DrPH program and are eligible
for support during any stage of their doctoral program. The
CLF Predoctoral Fellowship Program, now
in its sixth year, is made possible by a generous donor.
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