Britt Ehrhardt, a master of health science student at
the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of
Public Health and the 2008 recipient of the school's
Dean's Alumni Advisory Council Scholarship, has
been named one of 18 Luce Scholars by the Luce
Foundation.
Ehrhardt will travel to Asia to live and work as part
of the Luce Scholarship Program, designed
to increase cross-cultural awareness for young American
leaders.
She said she hopes to intern in Thailand or the
Philippines with a nurses' association or
professional association of health workers. Internships are
arranged by the foundation for each
scholar based on his or her specific interest, background,
qualifications and experience.
Throughout her career, Ehrhardt has worked to address
various public health issues such as
disease prevention and limited access to health care in the
United States and Africa. As an MHS
student, she did her thesis research on a mobile health
program that provides health services to
nearly 10,000 South African students in rural secondary
schools. Earlier, she served as a technical
adviser for the U.S. Agency for International Development's
Office of HIV/AIDS in Namibia, where
she advised a network of HIV counseling and testing centers
on service promotion and marketing. Prior
to her role at USAID, Ehrhardt worked for the Firelight
Foundation addressing health issues in
southern and eastern Africa.
"My work in rural Africa has made it clear to me that
the world faces extreme shortages and
maldistributions of its health workforce," Ehrhardt said.
"Too few are trained, and most choose urban
areas over rural, and rich countries over poor ones,
leaving many communities struggling to fill the gap
left by health worker shortages. As a Luce Scholar, I hope
to see how social and behavioral sciences
are used to change work environments in Asia and decrease
health workforce shortages."
Launched in 1974, the Luce Scholars Program is aimed
at young Americans in a variety of
professional fields. It is unique among American-Asian
exchanges in that it is intended for leaders who
have had no prior experience in Asia and who may not
otherwise have an opportunity in the normal
course of their careers to come to know Asia or their Asian
counterparts.