Director of Research and Practice Relations with Georgia DPH
“Emory is alive with a lot of people who are passionate about public health, and they aren't going to sit around and watch public health happen around them, they're going to affect change on it. And that's really energizing to be a part of.”
As an infectious disease epidemiologist, Allison Chamberlain, PhD, never wanted her research to stay siloed in academia; real world applications are an essential part of her work. This is what led her to become what she calls a “pracademic”.
“I was drawn to practice because I had a really keen interest to make sure that the research that I was doing was practically relevant to some group of people,” she says. “I really wanted my research to be practically informed and informative.”
Something that allows Chamberlain to straddle the worlds of research and practice is her epidemiology consultancy with the Fulton County Board of Health, which she has held since 2017. There, she assists the county to analyze and use their epidemiologic data to improve their health programs, whether those are focused on HIV and STI prevention, vaccine promotion, or COVID-19 response. The latter led her to found the Emory COVID-19 Response Collaborative and the Rollins Epidemiology Fellows Program in 2020.
Rollins students are also frequent collaborators in Chamberlain’s work, often acting as graduate research assistants on her projects at county and state health departments. She also advises the Student Outbreak Response Team, a student-run organization at Rollins which trains students to get involved in outbreak and emergency response activities with community practice partners. It is important, she says, to pass on the same kind of practical knowledge she learned while she was a trainee to the next generation of epidemiologists.
“I like to engage students in ways that have them apply what they're learning in the classroom to real world problems, which are often very different than the things that are curated for a lesson plan in a class.” She adds, “I try to expose them to the nuances, challenges, obstacles and biases that can come into play when you're trying to tackle something in real life.”
Chamberlain believes that the availability of real-world practice experiences with partners, alongside the strong foundational epidemiological toolkit built by coursework, is something that makes Rollins unique. She is continuing to build and strengthen relationships with state and local public health partners that allow for these experiences in her new role as the school’s Director of Research and Practice Relations with the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Collaborations and partnerships within Rollins are also important to Chamberlain, who feels invigorated by the school’s community. She notes that, “Emory is alive with a lot of people who are passionate about public health, and they aren't going to sit around and watch public health happen around them, they're going to affect change on it. And that's really energizing to be a part of.”