Title: Team Epi-Aid Receives Award for Public Service
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Section/SPIG: Epidemiology
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It’s not often that epidemiologists get awards and praise for doing their jobs. But the student epidemiology volunteers who make up Team Epi-Aid were recently recognized for their extraordinary public service to the state of North Carolina.
Team Epi-Aid was one of two recipients of the 2005 Office of the Provost Public Service Award, established in 2000 by Provost Richard Richardson to recognize university units and student organizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Team Epi-Aid recruits and places students in the North Carolina Division of Public Health and local health departments throughout the state to assist with outbreak investigations and other short-term applied public health projects. More than 130 students from the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy have contributed nearly 3,000 hours of service since the program began in 2003.
The award is designed to honor service that is an example of excellence, including responsiveness to community concerns, strong community partnerships, and integration of the service into the teaching and research missions of the University. Team Epi-Aid does all this and more: students have the opportunity to gain practical public health experience by working closely with state and local health departments, while the health departments gain much-needed surge capacity and cutting-edge expertise.
From forming a public health response to Hurricane Isabel, to investigating an E. coli outbreak associated with the state fair, to conducting Hepatitis vaccination clinics, Team Epi-Aid students, faculty, and staff work with state and local public health professionals to respond to the health needs of the people of North Carolina.
Team Epi-Aid is coordinated by the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness in the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more information on Team Epi-Aid, call (919) 843-5561 or visit <http://www.sph.unc.edu/nccphp/teamepiaid/>.