Fogarty program bolsters research network for students

Tulane is among a consortium of universities training the next generation of global health researchers as part of the Global Health Fellows Program, funded by the Fogarty International Center. The program provides pre- and postdoctoral candidates yearlong mentored research training in more than a dozen training sites. Dean Pierre Buekens serves as the director and principal investigator of the program for Tulane, with Dr. Richard Oberhelman as co-director. The consortium is led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As a Global Health Fellow, doctoral student Ted Miles will spend the next year in Peru studying parental attitudes about adolescent gender and sexuality and the effect of these attitudes on vaccinations for HPV.

Like many other low- and middle-income countries, Peru has a high rate of cervical cancer, which is caused by HPV and is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in that country, according to the Pan-American Health Organization.

“Ted Miles will get to meet and network with other researchers, contribute to analyzing and publishing data that the office has access to, and see what directions his career could take.”

Valerie Paz Soldan

Miles said the Global Health Fellows Program provides a community spirit for the fellows.

“I think this opportunity will support my dissertation, but will also give me the opportunity to build a much stronger global research network, collaborate on a number of projects in the field, and develop mentorship and collaborator relationships that will hopefully help me throughout a career in global health research,” he said.

Miles will conduct his research under the mentorship of Valerie Paz Soldan, associate professor of global community health and behavioral sciences, who directs Tulane’s Health Office for Latin America (HOLA) in Lima, Peru.

Paz Soldan said about 10 Tulane students and graduates are already working in the HOLA office. “In addition to his own research, Ted will get to meet and network with other researchers, contribute to analyzing and publishing data that the office has access to, and see what directions his career could take.”

Applications for the 2018-2019 class are accepted through Nov. 1, 2017.

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