AcademyHealth, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded 10 scholarships to students for PHSR

AcademyHealth and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have awarded 10 scholarships to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding potential to contribute to the field of public health systems research (PHSR).

Scholarship recipients each receive $1,000 for registration and travel to attend AcademyHealth's Annual Research Meeting and the PHSR Interest Group Annual Meeting, June 27-June 30, 2010, in Boston. Scholarship winners will present their research during a poster session at the PHSR Interest Group meeting.

The following students received scholarships: Theresa Green, Western Michigan University; Justin Hall, University of Waterloo; Melissa Higdon, George Washington University; Judith Keagy, University of Arizona; Leesa Lin, Harvard School of Public Health; Elise Papke, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Michael Preston, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Vamsi Vasireddy, University of Illinois at Chicago; Nengliang Yao, Penn State University; and Ying Zhang, Georgetown University.

Scholarship recipients are masters and doctoral students engaged in research that shows potential to advance the understanding of public health systems by highlighting the diversity of research interests that broadly constitute the field. Applicants were required to submit an abstract of their work in addition to a letter of recommendation from faculty.

PHSR is a field of inquiry examining the organization, financing, performance, and impact of health systems-defined as the constellation of governmental and non-governmental actors that influence population health, including health care providers, insurers, purchasers, public health agencies, community-based organizations, and entities that operate outside the traditional sphere of health care.