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Fulbright and Prestasi Alumni Pursue Doctorates in Public Health

Posted in: College News and Events

Irma Hidayana, Sivuyisiwe Ntombi Wonci, and Fernanda Andre

The Master of Public Health is thrilled to celebrate the continuing academic accomplishments of our Fulbright and Prestasi scholar alumni. After completing their MPH degrees and returning home to apply their new insights and experiences to health systems in their nations, four Fulbright/Prestasi scholars have decided to further advance their scholarship by pursuing doctoral degrees.

Irma Hidayana, MPH ’15, Prestasi from Indonesia, is an infant feeding expert and breastfeeding advocate helping counter aggressive marketing of infant formula in Indonesia. The first of our international alumni to enter a doctoral program, she is now working on completing her dissertation in Health Education at Teachers College.

Sivuyisiwe Ntombi Wonci, MPH ‘15, a health systems and policy researcher, is also completing her dissertation at the University of South Africa, Pretoria. Wonci is contributing to an evaluation and overhaul of the South Africa national health system, and provides guest lectures to our MPH students on that work each spring, via Skype.

Fernanda Andre, MPH ’16, a public health dentist and rural community health planner from Mozambique, has been involved in an exciting maternal mortality prevention initiative there. She has just been accepted to the Ph.D. program in Community and Population Health Science at the University of Saskatchewan in fall 2019.

All our Fulbright and Prestasi alumni are working to advance the health systems, policies, and infrastructure in their home countries, and the College of Education and Human Services takes great pride in their accomplishments. We look forward to congratulating each of the newly minted doctors as they complete their programs!