Hart Leadership Program Announces Interns and Fellows in Global Health

Hart Leadership

Published June 20, 2008, last updated on March 12, 2013 under Education News

Duke University’s Hart Leadership Program (HLP) has selected 19 students to conduct innovative community-based research projects with organizations across four continents.  Three recent Duke graduates will serve as Hart Fellows, and 16 students will participate in Service Opportunities in Leadership (SOL), a yearlong research-service learning program for undergraduates.

“These dedicated, good-hearted students represent the very best of Duke,” said Alma Blount, Director of the Hart Leadership Program. “We’re working hard to help them prepare for their field work, but they already have many creative ideas for how to serve their community partners.  Along the way, they are going to learn some fascinating lessons about the public policy, leadership, and complex politics of social change.” 

This year’s Hart Fellows join the 63 Duke graduates the program has supported to date.  Since 1995, Fellows have completed research projects and honed their leadership skills in 29 countries ranging from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe.

In addition to sponsoring two regular Hart Fellowships, this year HLP is piloting a Hart Fellowship in Global Health, which is being jointly funded by the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) and the Hart Leadership Program.  The collaborative design will allow the Hart Fellow in Global Health to spend 10 months in a developing country, working on a community-based research project related to the DGHI’s priorities. Then the Fellow will spend two months in residence at the DGHI, linking his fieldwork to scholarship on campus, writing up his research findings, and making presentations about the policy dimensions of his work. 

“We see this as an opportunity to mentor and advise a future leader in Global Health and to bring the Fellow’s field experience and knowledge back to DGHI during the summer months,” said Michael Merson, director of the DGHI and professor of medicine, community and family health, and public policy.

All three Hart Fellows will begin their programs in July 2008 and return in late spring 2009. They were chosen on the basis of their commitment to excellence and their potential for research service-learning.

The 2008-2009 Hart Fellows

Grant Smith, of Knoxville, Tennessee, who graduated summa cum laude in May 2008 with honors in psychology and a minor in biology. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Smith received a Deans’ Summer Research Fellowship in the summers of 2006 and 2007 to continue his work designing a pediatric-to-adult care transition program for adolescents with sickle cell disease. In summer 2007, Smith traveled to Belize to serve as a health educator at PeaceWork Health Education Camps. He has volunteered at numerous hospitals, including the Duke Children’s Hospital, John Umstead State Psychiatric Hospital, and the University of Tennessee Trauma Center. At Duke, he served as co-president of the Learning through Experience, Action, Partnership, and Service (LEAPS) program, and as a crew leader for Project BUILD—a pre-orientation program for incoming freshmen that encourages volunteer work in Durham.

“In facing both known and unknown challenges, I hope to better understand my own strengths and weaknesses, while learning how to build and rely on a support network with people who may have very different values and backgrounds from my own,” Smith said.

Smith will work with the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center-Duke University Women’s Health Collaboration (KCMC-Duke Women’s Health Collaboration) in Moshi, Tanzania. This brand-new maternal health initiative, spearheaded by Duke physicians Jeffrey Wilkinson and Sumera Hayat, aims to support the KCMC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in patient care, program development, outreach and capacity-building, and research. In addition to assisting in the implementation of this initiative, Smith will engage in community-based research aimed at furthering the goals of the collaboration.


Corey Sobel, who graduated magna cum laude in May 2007 with a self-designed major in Writing Conflict: Reporting International and Ethnic Violence. A native of Potomac, Maryland, Sobel was a recipient of a full Division 1-A football scholarship and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He currently works at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he serves as a research assistant to journalists and activists from the developing world pursuing research on democracy.

“Working in Washington, I’ve realized that international humanitarian issues here are often essentialized, turned into statistics and phrases,” Sobel said. “A Hart Fellowship will help me resist such abstraction. The Fellowship will force me to face—and learn from—the individual histories and problems of the people I’m trying to help.”

At Duke, Sobel served as coordinator and co-leader of the Duke Human Rights Coalition and as president of Global Grasp, a community service and human rights organization. In summer 2006, he received $3,000 in Duke grants to write educational materials about HIV/AIDS for recently infected members of the Njoro and Nakuru communities in Kenya. Sobel interned at Duke Magazine and Esquire, and received creative writing awards for fiction and scriptwriting.

Sobel will work with the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) in Mae Sot, Thailand. KHRG is a small and independent group documenting the human rights situation in rural Myanmar by working directly with rural villagers who are suffering abuses such as forced labor, systematic destruction of villages and crops, forced relocation, extortion, looting, arbitrary detention, torture, sexual assault and summary executions. In addition to completing a community-based research project for KHRG, Sobel will assist with writing detailed human rights reports, coach ethnic-Karen staff in English language report-writing, and oversee KHRG’s Podcast initiative, among other activities for the organization.


Sam Swartz, of Durham, North Carolina, who graduated magna cum laude in May 2008 with a major in political science, a Certificate in Global Health, and a minor in international comparative studies. Swartz is the recipient of the Hart Fellowship in Global Health. During the summer and fall of 2006, Swartz worked and lived in Bangsak, Thailand at the Rajaprajanugroh School 35, a residential school for children orphaned or victimized by the 2004 tsunami. Since May 2003, Swartz has worked as a part-time research assistant for McCorkle Policy Consulting, and currently volunteers for the Obama for America presidential campaign. In August 2007, he co-founded and then co-chaired Duke’s Socioeconomic Diversity Working Group, and volunteered as a middle school tutor with Student U. Swartz has also served as a Big Brother in Durham’s Big Brother/Big Sister Organization, volunteered as an English literacy tutor for Duke campus support staff, and gutted flood-damaged homes in New Orleans. He is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

“I expect and am looking forward to being challenged and stretched by, learning and growing from, a different people and place. I am looking forward to partnering with and bringing some of the resources of DGHI to do community-based, community-directed research,” he said.

Swartz will work with the Reduction in Maternal Mortality Project (RMMP) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The RMMP is working alongside the Cambodian government’s Health Sector Support Programme, a large scale, multi-million dollar scheme to rebuild the country’s severely damaged health system. The RMMP is helping to reduce maternal mortality rates by increasing the poor’s access to affordable maternal health services, with a focus on improving access to safe abortion care and long term contraceptive methods. Swartz will participate in a variety of activities including routine monitoring and evaluation data collection and reporting, as well as operations research projects that examine a variety of issues, such as barriers to access to maternal health services, medical abortion, and voluntary surgical contraception. He will also complete an independent community-based research project targeted at the needs of the RMMP.

2008 SOL interns

The 16 students selected for the SOL internships will work with host organizations in the United States and abroad on research service-learning projects.

Sophomores Kimberly Atkins and Cate Harding, who are working with KIWAKKUKI in Moshi, Tanzania. They will explore the effects of a mobile HIV/AIDS testing clinic on the urban and rural populations of the region. Their faculty mentor is Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies Kate Whetten.

Junior Theresa Cho, who is working with the organization With Migrants in Seoul, South Korea. She will assess the steps that the Korean government has taken to ensure migrant workers’ social integration. Her mentor is Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies Elizabeth Ananat.

Junior Natalie Dawe, who is working with Crews’n Healthmobile in Phoenix, Arizona. She will investigate the childhood-nutrition education programs available to homeless and low-income children, and whether their parents’ priorities align with the medical staff’s programming. Her faculty mentor is Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies Kristin Goss.

Sophomore Jasdeep Garcha, who is working with GRAVIS in Jodhpur, India. He will assess the native people’s attitudes toward underground water tanks built in the middle of the desert, along with the tanks’ social and economic impact. His faculty mentor is HLP Director and Lecturer of Public Policy Studies Alma Blount.

Junior Tara Hopkins, who is working with a local medical clinic in Kudwé, Togo. She will examine the differences between Western and other understandings of healthcare, and how different approaches to disease and medicine influence treatment. Her faculty mentor is Associate Professor of Anthropology and African and African-American Studies Charles Piot.

Sophomore Ying-Ying Lu, who is working with Dream Corps International in Beijing, China. She will investigate how curricula can best be implemented to meet the needs of a migrant worker community. Her faculty mentor is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology Ralph Litzinger.

Junior Andrea Marston, who is working with Asociación Mujeres Microempresarias in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She will look at how Fair Trade certification can best be used to increase income for rural women. Her faculty mentor is Tamera Marko, Program Coordinator for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Freshman Catherine Meyer, who is working with World Camp, Inc. in Ahmedabad, India. She will examine the prevailing misconceptions and cultural beliefs in the area about HIV/AIDS and assess methods to create a more comprehensive curriculum. Her faculty mentor is Professor of Asian and African Languages and Literature Miriam Cooke.

Junior Edgar Mkrtchian, who is working with Profamilia in Cartagena, Colombia. He will assess the characteristics of a successful community healthcare organization, and look at how Profamilia’s strategies can be applied on a broader scale. His faculty mentor is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology Diane Nelson.

Sophomore Ryan O’Connor, who is working with ASPIRA Association in Washington, D.C. He will investigate how cross-cultural inquiry can influence Hispanic parents to take a larger role in their children’s education. His faculty mentor is Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies Kristin Goss.

Freshman Dayo Oshilaja, who is working with the Urban Assembly School for Criminal Justice for Young Women in Brooklyn, New York. She will examine the methods by which schools foster an environment of learning by successfully facilitating the interactions of diverse groups of students. Her faculty mentor is Professor of Public Policy Studies William Darity.

Junior Leslie Pfeiffer, who is working with the Urban Assembly School for Criminal Justice for Young Women in Brooklyn, New York. She will look at how the school can best cultivate relationships with community members and the private sector that will be financially profitable. Her faculty mentor is Professor of Public Policy Studies Philip Cook.

Junior Alyssa Reichardt, who is working with the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Organization in the Bronx, New York. She will examine how the organization can improve its programs to better meet the needs of low-income families. Her faculty mentor is Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies Alex Harris.

Freshman Eddie Zhang, who is working with the Center for Microfinance in Sambalpur, India. He will examine the ways in which individuals in a malaria-infected region perceive and respond to their illness. His faculty mentor is Assistant Professor of Economics Alessandro Tarozzi.

Freshman Tony Zhang, who is working with the Costa Rica Humanitarian Foundation in La Carpio, Costa Rica. He will investigate patients’ perceptions of the quality of the organization’s health care along with ways in which the clinic can better meet the community’s needs. His faculty mentor is Sumedha Ariely, Program Coordinator for the Duke Global Health Institute.

“These dedicated, good-hearted students represent the very best of Duke.”

Alma Blount