Dr. Carrillo accepted into ASTHO fellowship program

Genny Carrillo-Zuniga, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.P.H., Sc.D., assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health, has been accepted into the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) 2013 Environmental Public Health Tracking Peer-to-Peer Fellowship Program.

ASTHO is a national nonprofit organization representing public health agencies of the United States, U.S. territories and freely associated states, and the District of Columbia. It has conducted numerous national and regional webinars on environmental public health tracking, strengthening U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention partnerships that are aimed at tracking, preventing and controlling environmental-related diseases.

Dr. Carrillo, who teaches at the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health McAllen Campus, was accepted to the fellowship program due to her interest and knowledge of environmental surveillance and tracking related to asthma. As part of this fellowship, she will be developing a plan for building a binational environmental public health tracking network for asthma along the Texas-Mexico border.

In preparation for her fellowship, Dr. Carrillo will make a three-day visit to a current tracking program to learn key techniques and information technology infrastructure that can be modeled around the needs and environmental challenges specific to her research. She will engage in a one-on-one in-depth mentorship with an existing program, through which she will develop peer networks across state and territorial health agencies as well as visualize health and environmental data using the Esri ArcGIS online tool.

Dr. Carillo will receive up to $7,000 toward fellowship activities and complete the program by May.