Brownsville Campus Student Awarded Gunnin Fellowship

UTHealth School of Public Health Brownsville campus student, Ghadir Helal Salsa has been named the recipient of the 2022 Dr. Gerry C. Gunnin, Ph.D. Public Health Memorial Fellowship (Gunnin Fellowship). This highly competitive award assists students pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree in public health at an accredited Texas school.

Helal Salsa是德克萨斯州布朗斯维尔Uthealth公共卫生学院健康促进与行为科学系的博士生。她一直对社区健康计划感兴趣，尤其是那些专注于营养，体育锻炼和促进健康的计划。她在巴勒斯坦领土的Birzeit大学获得了公共卫生硕士学位，在那里她与包括联合国在内的本地和国际组织一起从事社区农业，粮食安全和食品安全项目。

Helal Salsa’s passion for improving community health is driven by the challenges encountered by people living in the Rio Grande Valley. Currently, she is working on her dissertation, which will focus on understanding the delivery of nutrition education classes among underserved communities in Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also the program manager for the Diabetes Prevention Program, a CDC-recognized lifestyle change program that helps to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.

Gunnin奖学金建立了德州头脑lth Resources in 2006 as a tribute to the leadership and legacy of Gunnin, former president of the Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation and vice president of the Texas Health Resources Community Health Improvement Department. In addition to a tuition award, fellowship recipients complete a 10-week internship with Texas Health Resources. Helal Salsa will begin her internship in March of ‘22, and will work on a continuum of care strategy for uninsured or underinsured patients in North Texas communities that will focus on addressing social determinants of health and barriers.