The College of Pharmacy at historically Black Florida A&M University has established a new Office of Global Health within its Institute of Public Health. Under this new program, four students will undertake a new internship this semester that offers the first study abroad opportunities for graduate students in the public health field at the university’s College of Pharmacy.
The director of the new Office of Global Health at Florida A&M University’s College of Pharmacy is Yussif Dokurugu, an assistant professor of epidemiology. Dr. Dokurugu holds bachelor’s and master’s degree in sociology from the University of Ghana. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from Florida A&M University.
Under the new internship program, two African American students – Marissa Dopson and Rhonda Gaines – will be spending time at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Dopson, a graduate of Tuskegee University in Alabama, is an environmental epidemiologist who aspires to a career in dentistry. Gaines, who earned her undergraduate degree at Florida A&M, will study mercury exposure from fish of women of child-bearing age in the Dominican Republic.
Two other African American women from Florida A&M University – Ashley Samuel and Diamond Clark-McQueen – will be based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. A graduate of Florida A&M, Samuel will study air and traffic pollution and their impact on public health in South Africa. Clark-McQueen, who plans to become a doctor, will conduct research on women and maternal health as it relates to HIV.
