WI Population Health Service Fellowship

Meet fellow alum Benjamen Jones! Benjamen was in the inaugural cohort of fellows in 2004 when the fellowship program was first established. Ben completed his fellowship with the Milwaukee Health Department and continued working at the Milwaukee Health Department following his fellowship as a Health Information Specialist. Following that, Ben has worked at Waukesha County Public Health on transformative change and advancing public health for the last decade. We are so glad to have Ben apart of the fellowship community here in Wisconsin! 

Follow our Fellowship Instagram account for the latest programmatic updates and fellow spotlights!

Last week we welcomed the 21st cohort of fellows into the Fellowship Program with our annual orientation. We are so excited to be welcoming this incredible group of public health professionals into Wisconsin’s public health workforce. From left to right: Brianna DeNamur, MPH (Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Chronic Disease Prevention Program), Kayla Rinderknecht (Clean Wisconsin), Katherine Kerwin (Eau Claire City-County Health Department), Berrit Goodman, MPH, MSOT (Milwaukee Health Department & Milwaukee Health Care Partnership), Joanna Hagan, MPH (Public Health Madison & Dane County), and Yosef Meadows, MPH (Milwaukee Health Department). Welcome fellows, we are looking forward to working with you over the next two years!

Fellow alum spotlight – Katarina Grande 🌟 Katarina was a fellow from 2010 - 2012 at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the Center for Urban Population Health. Kat has served as a preceptor to multiple fellows over the years and is a current faculty member of the fellowship, providing guidance and support to our program. Thanks for all you do, Kat!

Meet fellow alum Emily Dejka, MPH 🌟 Emily was placed at Eau Claire City-County Health Department as a fellow from 2020-2022. Following the completion of her fellowship, Emily has continued working with Eau Claire City-County Health Department as a Public Health Specialist in their Policy & Systems Division. We are so glad that Emily has continued to be part of the fellowship community by serving as a preceptor for fellows placed in Eau Claire! 

Fellow alum spotlight -- meet fellow alum Gerardo Mares Aguilera 🌟 Gerardo Mares was a fellow from 2018 - 2020 and was placed in Milwaukee at Data You Can Use. Gerardo’s work sits at the intersection of criminal justice, data equity, and public health — and he brings a strong systems thinking lens to address upstream drivers of inequities. This is such important work and we are glad to have Gerardo a part of our fellowship community!

Congratulations to our 2022 - 2024 cohort of fellows! We are so proud of everything they have accomplished in their last two years in the Fellowship Program and are excited to see the impact they will have on public health and the world!

Join me in congratulating our Fellowship Director, Dr. Wajiha Akhtar-Khaleel PhD, MPH for being named one of 'Wisconsin’s Most Influential Asian American Leaders for 2024' by Madison365. We are so grateful for Dr. Akhtar’s leadership at UW’s Population Health Institute and the Wisconsin Population Health Service Fellowship Program, and are better off because of her wide portfolio of work advancing health equity across our state. Congratulations, Wajiha! https://lnkd.in/gjMndTAF

In May at the Wisconsin Public Health Association Annual Conference we co-hosted a workforce convening in recognition and celebration of 20 years of the Fellowship Program's 20th anniversary. We heard from The Wisconsin Partnership Program, our partners at Wood County Health Department, Population Health Institute’s leadership, and our keynote speaker, Paula Tran - who not only is an alum of the program herself, but also is our current State Health Officer and Division of Public Health Administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The Fellowship Program has had an unique impact on Wisconsin’s workforce – our first picture above shows the faces of the Fellowship Program's leadership with the amazing fellow alum who’s day to day work is advancing public health in Wisconsin. A huge thank you to the Wisconsin Public Health Association for this space to reflect and be in community with one another. Credit to Ueda Photography (https://lnkd.in/gvHfc9T3) for capturing these incredible photos from the evening.

I had an amazing week learning from intelligent, caring, and talented public health professionals at the Wisconsin Public Health Association’s annual conference and had the honor of getting to share two of my biggest projects I undertook in the WI Population Health Service Fellowship program! I presented a session with two of my colleagues (Sowmya Adibhatla and Lindsey D.) and two grantees (Clark County Health Department and Western Wisconsin Health) on the equitable outreach programs done during Routine Immunization Community Engagement Grant program at Wisconsin DHS. Additionally, I presented a poster (https://lnkd.in/gCJ-m7g5) with the lovely Betsy Vornholt on our work to develop and communicate a wastewater disease surveillance data at the City of Milwaukee Health Department.