Please submit your news to:

Mrs. Anissa Riley,

Office of External Affairs,School of Veterinary Medicine, Tuskegee University

Tuskegee, AL 36088, (334)724-4509, FAX: (334)727-8177, Email: riley@tuskegee.edu

Three Tuskegee Veterinary Medical Students Chosen as 2009 Ferguson Fellows in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Program

by Anissa L. Riley

TUSKEGEE, Ala. (May 13, 2009) - The Association of Minority Health Professions Schools, Inc., in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently selected the participants for the Dr. James A. Ferguson Emerging Infectious Disease Fellowship Program for summer 2009. The fellowship was renamed in 2000 from the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) Summer Research Fellows Program in honor of the late Dr. James A. Ferguson who was instrumental in encouraging the establishment of the Summer Research Fellowship Program in 1989.

Ferguson served as the fourth dean of the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine (TUSVM). He passed in 1998. Three students representing TUSVM were selected from the school’s eight applicants: April Kendricks of Longview, Texas; Brian Smith of Marietta, Georgia (both members of the TUSVM Class of 2012), and Cedric Lane of Detroit, Michigan (TUSVM Master of Science in Veterinary Science graduate program). Lane graduated on May 10, 2009. His thesis was ”A Quantitative Risk Assessment for the Likelihood of Introduction of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (Hpaiv) Strain H5N1 into USA Hunters.”

The fellowship program is an eight-week professional development experience for racial and ethnic minority students in medical, dental, veterinary, pharmacy and public health graduate programs. Fellows are paired with a CDC mentor and participate in a broad array of public health activities. At the end of the program, fellows are required to deliver an oral presentation and written paper on their work and fellowship experience to CDC scientists and staff. Fellows are eligible to receive a $4,000 stipend, summer housing, and transportation to and from Atlanta.

The Ferguson Fellows program is designed to increase students’ knowledge of public health and public health career paths, and to introduce fellows to careers addressing infectious diseases and/or racial and ethnic health disparities. The ultimate goal of the program is to encourage students to pursue careers in public health and specific disciplines needed by the CDC to strengthen and diversify the U.S. workforce.

”I am proud of the students selected to represent Tuskegee University. The Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS) makes annual site visits to member schools to promote the fellowship program. We are very grateful to the Program Director, Allison L. Hornbuckle, for the tremendous effort put forth by the AMHPS and the CDC to give these students a paid for career-enlightening opportunity for the summer months,” said Dr. Cheryl G. Davis, Associate Dean for Administration and Resource Development and the AMHPS Liaison for the Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health.

For a future application and more information on the Dr. James A. Ferguson Fellowship Program, please visit www.minorityhealth.org. For more information on the Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health, please visit www.onemedicine.tuskegee.edu/ and www.tuskegee.edu/.