August 17, 2023
The UNC Asheville-UNC Gillings Master of Public Health (MPH) Program has announced the first ten recipients of the Johnson-Baker Scholarship. His $10,000 scholarship offered by the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) is named in honor of two founders of the MPH program. Both of them contributed to the health of the people of Western North Carolina in various ways and died at the height of their lives. their career.
Competitive Tuition Offset Scholarships to assist WNC communities who have lived or worked in Western North Carolina (WNC) and are underserved and unduly affected by structural bias Awarded to up to 10 students per committed MPH cohort.
The 2023-2025 Johnson-Baker Scholars are: (first row, left and right) Dakota Fozard, Adriana Alvarez, Chasity Leake, and Taylor Young. (Second row, left and right) Natalie Beach, Niki Manes, Vanessa Howe, Imani Saya, Albert Chow, Ryan Bostic.
Johnson-Baker Scholars will continue to serve the communities of Western North Carolina while developing public health skills as students of the UNC Asheville and UNC Gillings MPH programs.
Dr. Travis Johnson
Travis Johnson, MD, the first director of the MPH program, MPH lived with cancer for eight years until his first research student was about to graduate, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He was a passionate advocate for providing maternal and child and other public health services to underserved communities. He always sought to “do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly.” For his program, MPH wanted to “partner with local institutions to give students the opportunity to solve cases based on real problems in real time.”
Melissa Baker
Melissa Baker MPH strengthens collaboration in the care of children with disabilities, leads community-wide quality efforts in pediatrics and women’s health, and empowers physicians, mental health counselors, schools, and law enforcement to strengthen community engagement. He was a facilitator of community medicine who worked hard to ensure collective action. Buncombe County and her WNC understood both the impact of Adversity Childhood Experiences (ACES) and how traumatized people develop resilience skills.
The UNC Asheville-UNC Gillings Master of Public Health program is located on the MAHEC campus in south Asheville, North Carolina. Students attend class with their peers once a week during the academic year. Earn her MPH in place-based health focus within 21 months. For more information on the program, please visit: www.mahec.net/mph.
Please contact the UNC Gillings International School of Public Health Communications Team at sphcomm@unc.edu.