Appiah named Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow for second time

Bernard Appiah, DrPH, assistant professor at the Texas A&M School of Public Health, has received an international fellowship from the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP). Appiah serves as the director of the school’s Research Program on Public and International Engagement for Health.

Appiah will work in Africa this summer with Irene Kretchy, PhD, of the University of Ghana to conduct content analysis of both African and American newspaper reports on medication non-adherence, design socio-behavioral research strategies to address the issue and train students and faculty in writing effective media and policy briefs. Appiah and Kretchy will also work together to develop courses for the new master’s and doctoral degrees in social and behavioral pharmacy at the University of Ghana.

“Non-adherence to medications for treating diabetes and hypertension is a serious problem worldwide,” said Appiah, who also has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy. “It is important to research how journalists report on the topic in newspapers targeting Sub-Saharan Africa as well as African-Americans.”

This project is part of a broader initiative that will pair 55 CADFP scholars with one of 43 higher education institutions and collaborators in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda to work together on curriculum co-development, research, graduate teaching, training and mentoring activities in the coming months.

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship program facilitates engagement between scholars born in Africa who are now based in the United States or Canada and scholars in Africa on mutually beneficial academic activities.

This is the second time Appiah has been named a scholar, with the first being in 2016.