College of Medicine Summer Internship Addresses Border Health Disparities

Program promotes public health disparities research in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

Four graduate- and professional-level health sciences students are ending their 10-week summer internships at The University of Arizona having dedicated their time to learn public health research on the U.S.-Mexico border region.

Amanda Gutierrez, Katherine Svensson, Maritza Valenzuela and Kelsey Vaughan were selected from a national pool of interested applicants to gain an increased understanding of public health disparities in the border region. Their internship experience provided them with practical hands-on research training, role-model mentoring and collaboration and building networking skills in a supportive environment.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine’s FRONTERA: Focusing Research on the Border Area is a program sponsored by the Hispanic Serving Health Professionals Schools, also known as HSHPS.

The organization was established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide academic and professional development training to minority students and recent graduates who are interested in improving the health status of Hispanics across the country.

HSHPS’s U.S.-Mexico Border Internship Program and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have partnered with the UA’s College of Medicine, the Arizona Hispanic Center of Excellence the and Office of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs to fund the FRONTERA internship.

“Through programs like FRONTERA, we are beginning to increase the pool of minority researchers interested in examining health disparities in the border region,” says Dr. Ana Maria López, principal investigator for the FRONTERA program and UA College of Medicine associate dean for outreach and multicultural affairs. “In addition, we are enhancing the University’s ongoing commitment to partner with border communities to improve the health of its people.”

Each FRONTERA participant is matched according to his or her areas of professional interest with a faculty mentor whose research has an impact on border health.

Gutierrez, a student at New Mexico State University, is currently working on a master’s degree in public health. For the internship, Gutierrez was partnered with Linda Don, director of the UA College of Medicine's Office of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs, to work on a project focusing on the recruitment of Filipino nurses and how they can help to address the need for a Spanish-speaking workforce in Arizona. The “Filipino Nurses in Arizona” project will culminate in an article presented to Gov. Janet Napolitano in late 2008 and will also be part of a report on the status of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Arizona.

Svensson recently graduated with a master's degree in epidemiology from the University of Puerto Rico, where she interned at the university’s cancer registry studying endometrial cancer data. Her internship project entailed analyzing the results of surveys and interviews of Arizona cancer patients with her FRONTERA mentor Dr. López. The project is funded by the Arizona Cancer Society to understand why there is low participation of Latinos in clinical trials.

Valenzuela, a Phoenix resident, has a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a bachelor of arts degree in political activism from the University of Redlands. Valenzuela is conducting a follow-up study on health education intervention by the health advocate program Promotoras with her FRONTERA mentor Tracy Carroll, a lecturer at the UA department of family and community medicine.

Vaughan, a recent graduate of the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, is working with Cecilia Rosales, associate professor with the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, on a project funded by a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health grant, “Challenges to Farm Worker Health at the U.S.-Mexico Border.” Vaughan is designing the study’s methodology and conducting focus groups in Yuma to better understand the six areas of stress most frequently reported by migrant farm workers.

In addition to their research project commitments, FRONTERA participants attend activities to enhance their understanding of the problems affecting the border region and to become familiar with key agencies, programs and stakeholders who are working to improve the well being of the diverse populations living in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

This summer’s activities include attending an Arizona-Mexico Commission Health Services Committee meeting; visiting the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social Hospital and the Hospital General del Estado de Sonora in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico; and participating in the “Nuestros Niños” Health Care Census and Immunization Campaign in Somerton, Ariz.

The interns will showcase their work at a closing ceremony to be held at the Arizona Cancer Center on Aug. 6 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.