Public Health Magazine - Fall 2008 - Woodruff Health Sciences ...

Alumni honors for 2008
Recipients empower women, populations in need
A global health leader and a cdc
nutrition expert received this year’s
alumni awards from the rsph.
Taroub Harb Faramand, 95mph,
was honored with the Distinguished
Achievement Award for her efforts
to empower women in communities
and guide the development of institutions
to improve health nationally
and globally. As senior vice president
for global health programs with
Project hope, Faramand oversees
a network of core and field staff
responsible for more than 80 programs
in 36 countries. Trained as a
physician in Russia, she has 25 years
of clinical and management experience
in reproductive health, maternal
and child health, and hiv/aids.
“She is a visionary leader and strategic
thinker who puts ideas into action,”
said Dixie Snider, 84mph, last
year’s Distinguished Achievement
Award recipient. While Faramand is
known for her international leader-
ship, she never lost sight
of the value of working
with communities. From
developing a microcredit
program for women in
rural Egypt to designing
literacy booklets in local
languages, Faramand has
a gift for “lifting up those
most in need,” said Snider.
Leisel Talley, 00mph,
has helped make a difference
in the lives of
people affected by human
catastrophe. For these efforts, she
received the Matthew Lee Girvin
Award, presented to young professionals
who have improved the lives
and health of others. The award
honors the memory of Girvin, a
1994 graduate who died in 2001
during a U.N. surveying mission.
Since Talley joined the International
Emergency and Refugee
Health branch of the cdc eight years
Leisel Talley, 00MPH, joined the CDC in 2000 as a nutritional epidemiologist with the agency’s
International Emergency and Refugee Health branch. She also teaches at the RSPH.
Taroub Harb Faramand, 95MPH, oversees
programs in 36 countries with Project HOPE.
ago, she has assessed the nutritional
needs of populations in Sudan,
Ethiopia, Indonesia, Thailand, and
Tanzania. In 2006, working with
unicef, the World Food Program,
the U.N. Food and Agriculture
organization, and the ministries of
health and agriculture in Sudan, she
completed an emergency food security
and nutrition assessment in wartorn
Darfur, which informed government
and humanitarian assistance
in that region. Talley also developed
culturally appropriate mental health
interventions for Karenni refugees in
Thailand who fled there from Burma
to escape civil war and persecution.
In the course of her work, she often
heeds the advice of global health
professor Stan Foster. “He taught us
to expect the best but be prepared
for the worst,” said Talley, upon accepting
her award. And like Foster,
she shares lessons learned with her
own students in the rsph, where she
teaches the course “Food and Nutrition
in Humanitarian Emergencies”
as an adjunct faculty member.
fall 2008 public health magazine 37