Meet Your 2019-2020 RSPH Alumni Board

Kinsey McMurtry, MPH (15 HPM) – President HPM

Kinsey is the Associate Director for Fellowship Programs at Emory University School of Medicine where she coordinates six OBGYN fellowships. Previously, she was a Health Promotion Coordinator for the Georgia Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale County Health Departments where she organized health promotion and education programs and events specifically for physical activity, nutrition, access to healthcare, tobacco use prevention, workplace wellness and adolescent health by collaborating with community partners.

Fun Fact: Kinsey is a "Triple Eagle" -- a graduate of Oxford College of Emory, Emory University, and Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health.

Kaytna Thaker, MPH (14 EH) – President-Elect EH

Kaytna works as a contractor for the Antibiotic Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit at CDC. In her current position, she has contributed to a wide variety of projects including preparing written responses to congressional inquiries, gathering, analyzing, and disseminating data from national programs, and tracking antibiotic resistance policy and implementation activities for stakeholders including HHS and the White House.

Fun Fact: Kaytna is a Host Team Member of Community Bucket, an organization which aims to connect young professionals with service and networking opportunities.

Elizabeth Sprouse is an informatics professional with in-depth experience in program development, strategic planning, procedure and data standardization, project management, communications and technology training. Through her consulting firm, Double Lantern Informatics, Elizabeth is committed to using health care informatics to further the delivery of equitable health care, improve lives, and support our local and global neighbors in living a life founded on well-being and joy.

Fun Fact: Elizabeth and her husband have a family commitment to take their son to all 50 states by the time he is 18. At 5 years old, he has already made it to 25 states.

Aneesah Akbar-Uqdah, MPH (08 HPM) HPM

Aneesah is a Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corp and a public health analyst with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Global HIV and TB. In this role she provides expert analysis, programmatic advice and assistance for projects related to global health security, foreign military health capabilities, and global health systems in AFRICOM and CENTCOM. She is also the founder of Defending U.S. with Medical Intelligence, a think tank that explores threats to global health security, emergency preparedness, and influential STEM program development for adolescents and college aged students. 

Fun Fact: Aneesah supports the selection of Marine Corps Officer candidates at universities throughout Georgia as a physical training instructor. She also founded the CDC Employee Association of Emory Alumni as a way to connect all 1,200 Emory alumni currently working at CDC!

Kaleigh Emerson, MPH (10 GH) GH

Kaleigh Emerson is passionate about population-level interventions that make it easier for individuals to make healthy choices and lead more enjoyable lives. Her work is in evaluation and implementation science as a research associate at the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health at the UT Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Her primary projects aim to improve the public mental health system for transition-age youth. She’d love to connect with colleagues who bridge public health and prevention with mental health.

Fun fact: Outside of work, Kaleigh enjoys swimming, especially in Austin’s spring-fed pools.

Corliss Heath, PhD, MPH, M. Div (98 BIOS) BIOS

Coliss is a Health Scientist in the Office of HIV/AIDS Training and Capacity Development at the Health Resources and Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau in Rockville, MD.  There she leads various projects supporting the development of leadership, evaluation, and training to assure the provision of high quality HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention, care and treatment services.

Fun Fact: Corliss is the founder and CEO of SAVE, Inc., a non-profit educational and training corporation where she has fosters the growth and development of young men and women in the Atlanta, Tampa Bay and metropolitan Baltimore areas.

Dan is a Project Manager at Houston Methodist where he is responsible for initiating, defining, and managing high-profile strategic project for Houston Methodist’s three southern region hospitals. He, along with his wife Elisabeth (10N), currently serves as Co-President of the EAA Houston Chapter.  Dan also serves as a member of the Emory All in a Day Ambassador Task Force, Mentor in both the RSPH and Goizueta Alumni Mentor Programs, Co-Lead Coordinator of the EAA Houston Chapter Emory Cares International Service Day and was the BBA Chair of the Goizueta 100 Anniversary Houston Event.  Dan also serves as a Mentor through the Emory / Veterati partnership to provide digital mentorship to active service members, veterans and military spouses.

Fun Fact: In his spare time, Dan enjoys spending time with his wife and son, playing and coaching ice hockey, traveling, reading and cooking.

In addition to an MPH in Epidemiology, Meaghan earned a Masters in Industrial Design from Georgia Tech. Armed with a background in public health and industrial design, Meaghan founded Orange Sparkle Ball in 2001. The design consultancy creates and frames new initiatives, products and services to internal and external stakeholders. Over the years, Orange Sparkle Ball has predominantly worked with food and beverage and health organizations and has increasingly taken on socially conscious projects.  In early 2015, Meaghan and her colleagues started work on a design apprenticeship program focused solely on design for social impact. This led to the founding of a non-profit, Spark Corps.

Fun Fact: Meaghan is a judge and mentor for the Global Social Venture Competition and Industrial Design Society of American (IDSA) and is frequently invited to sit on innovation and entrepreneurial panels

Julia Krauss, MPH, MBA (18 GLEPI) GLEPI

Julia is a Senior Associate at KPMG in strategy consulting, where her work focuses on different pharmaceutical/life sciences projects. While at Emory, she was a dual MBA/MPH with a concentration in Global Epidemiology to develop skills required to manage disease control programs in an efficient and financially sustainable manner in order to make lasting improvements in global health. She volunteers with Sanergy, a social enterprise that aims to reduce the burden of poor sanitation in Nairobi, Kenya’s informal settlements through innovative business and service delivery models.

Fun Fact: Julia enjoys outdoor activities, such as running, hiking, and biking.

Samantha Lie Tjauw, MPH, MBA (14 GH) GH

Samantha works as a Research Scientist at The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), where she conducts user-centered, mixed-methods research to provide a rich understanding of consumer health information technology needs to diverse clients, including the Georgia Department of Community Health and the US Department of the Army. She functions as the public health subject matter expert and social science lead in the social-technical approach her team employs for each project. The aim of these projects is to create innovative, user-friendly technologies that allow for enhanced data integrity, data analytics, and enable social programs to engage in evidence-based intervention design.

Fun Fact: Samantha teaches freshman students at Georgia Tech through the Serve-Learn-and Sustain initiative on campus.

Monique Martin, MPH (12 BSHE) BSHE

Mo works in Government and Public Services as a Senior Consultant with Deloitte Consulting providing support for various CIOs within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monique has 9 years of professional experience in private, not for profit, and government sectors; with a focus on delivering effective public health interventions.

Fun Fact: Mo enjoys running in the morning with her dog while enjoying the beauty of Piedmont Park.

KaeAnne Parris, MPH (12 BSHE) BSHE

KaeAnne is a public health professional with five years of experience, she’s worked for the Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group, eHealth, Emory, and the CDC. Her favorite piece of work from Rollins School of Health was a paper written on HIV prevention using SMS technology to reach hard-to-reach populations.

Fun Fact: KaeAnne started walking with AIDS Walk Atlanta in High School, and has walked every year she’s in Atlanta since then.  

Alex Plum, MPH, CHES (15 BSHE) BSHE

Alex is the Director of Development and Innovation for Global Health at Henry Ford Health System (HFHS). Alex created and now leads Henry Ford’s “global to local” portfolio of programs. His projects use the paradigm of global innovation flow (sometimes called ‘reverse’ innovation) to improve US models of healthcare delivery, workforce, information, governance, and financing by adapting and applying evidence-based models from low-resource settings around the world.

Fun Fact: He connects churches in Flint and Detroit with partners in Liberia and Haiti to find sustainable solutions. He is also an accomplished soccer referee for NCAA Division 1 conferences and semi-professional/minor leagues in the Midwest

Erin Swearing, MPH (15 GEH) GEH

Erin Swearing is an international development professional with a specialty in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health markets in low- and middle-income countries. Erin works at Results for Development as a Senior Program Associate on the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI), focusing on supporting peer learning and adaptation of private sector organizations working to increase access to health care services.

Fun Fact: Erin loves to watch documentaries and work on her baking skills.

Ana-Maria Visoiu-Knapp, MPH (14 GH) GH

Ana-Maria is a small business owner in the Northeast U.S. and has worked as a Study Coordinator / Program Manager for the Zambia Emory HIV Research Project. In this role, she worked across departments and cultures to coordinate data capture and analysis, as well as provided training and capacity building in support of their collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institute of Health and Janssen Pharmaceuticals towards Janssen’s first HIV-1 efficacy vaccine Clinical Trial. She relished being on the “front lines” in this vital work, leading a team that has contributed the first possible HIV-1 vaccine ever to be brought to market. 

Fun Fact: Ana-Maria was invited by Arianna Huffington (founder of Huffington Post) to contribute to Thrive Global, Arianna’s new platform.