The Bob Keegan Polio Eradication Heroes Fund recognizes health workers and volunteers who have incurred serious injury or lost their lives as a direct consequence of their participation in polio eradication activities. The families of the workers, who have been the victims of automobile crashes, military conflicts and other life-threatening events, receive a certificate recognizing the victim’s heroic commitment to polio eradication and a cash tribute.

When you see a child paralyzed with polio, and you realize that it's totally preventable with existing vaccines, there's a high level of motivation to get involved and make a difference.

The fund was established in June 2000 in partnership with major polio eradication partners. Robert "Bob" Keegan was the first contributor, donating the award money he received when we was recognized with CDC's distinguished William C. Watson Jr. Medal of Excellence. Keegan remained the fund's strongest advocate. When he retired from CDC in May 2007, he completed a bike ride across the U.S. from Florence, Oregon, to Yorktown, Virginia – 4,165 miles – to raise awareness and dollars for the polio eradication initiatives of the CDC Foundation and Rotary International. When Keegan passed away in January 2012, the CDC Foundation renamed this fund in his honor to express our gratitude for his extraordinary leadership and dedication.

"In my mind, this CDC Foundation fund is an extraordinary example of leveraging small amounts of funding to do a tremendous amount of good," said Keegan in a 2005 interview. "When you see a child paralyzed with polio, and you realize that it's totally preventable with existing vaccines, there's a high level of motivation to get involved and make a difference."

About Bob Keegan

Bob Keegan retired from CDC in 2007 after nearly 33 years of service. He spent the first 11 years of his career in STD control. In addition, Keegan helped to investigate Legionnaire's Disease in New York City’s Garment District in the late 1970s; worked to locate non-responders in Fulton County, GA, as part of Agent Orange studies in 1982; and helped to develop the first pre- and post-test counseling for HIV/AIDS.

From 1985–1990, Keegan coordinated CDC’s refugee health activities in Southeast Asia, helping to assure that refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were immunized and treated for communicable diseases. In 1991, he joined the newly formed Polio Eradication Activity, which had a staff of six and an annual budget of $3 million. Since that time, the activity has grown to become CDC's Global Immunization Division (GID), with a staff of 110, and an annual budget of more than $150 million. GID has expanded to include measles mortality reduction and regional elimination, routine immunization systems strengthening, and new vaccine introduction.

Keegan’s leadership, energy and innovation played a pivotal role in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and in accelerated global measles control and regional measles elimination initiatives. He was an outstanding mentor and technical consultant on program management and operational issues for CDC and WHO. In all his endeavors and accomplishments, Keegan demonstrated outstanding diplomacy, sensitivity and social and interpersonal skills as a CDC ambassador on global immunization to international organizations, governments and global health leaders. He was a true humanitarian who championed global sustainable development and health equity.

Keegan was a recipient of the William C. Watson Jr. Medal of Excellence and the Public Health Advisor of the Year Award from the Watsonian Society. He also received the U.S. Public Health Service Special Recognition Award (1995) for his significant achievements and service in global public health programs. He was also honored as the winner of the Philip Horne Award from CDC’s National Immunization Program (2003) and recipient of a special CDC Foundation 10th Anniversary Public Health Hero Recognition.

Supporting Girls' Education in Kenya

Mary Louise Martin, DVM, MS, EIS ‘85, dedicated her life to improving the lives of children. As a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Martin conducted research on birth defects and developmental problems, focusing on fetal alcohol syndrome. Later, as a public health advocate, she worked to ensure anti-malarial drugs were available in low-income countries to help prevent suffering and death for the world's at-risk children. She was among the 12 Americans and more than 200 Kenyans who lost their lives when a terrorist bomb exploded at the American Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998. In 1999, to honor her memory and passion for girls’ education, family, friends and colleagues established the Louise Martin, DVM, MS, EIS ‘85 Memorial Scholarship Endowment. The endowed fund guarantees that at least 15 disadvantaged Kenyan girls each year will receive a scholarship to attend Starehe Girls’ Centre, a high school. The number of scholarships provided each year will only grow with time and support.

At Starehe Girls’ Centre, students learn traditional academic subjects such as Biology and Mathematics, as well as professional skills such as debate. The school motto, Our Education, Our Strength (Elimu Yetu, Nguvu Yetu), reflects a spirit of academic excellence, which can be seen in the remarkable record of achievement among its students. About 95% of Starehe graduates have attended university since 2008. In 2022, 83% of Starehe graduates were admitted to public universities, while the remaining 17% qualified to join technical institutions. These statistics are more remarkable considering that all students attending Starehe come from economically challenged backgrounds.

Starehe does not charge fees for a majority of its students. To pay their way, the school seeks scholarships from sources like the Louise Martin Endowed Memorial Scholarship. The average cost for one girl’s scholarship is about $635 annually. Since its inception, the scholarship has sponsored 23 girls through four years of secondary school, giving them the educational foundation needed for a successful future. Gifts from generous supporters of the endowment have increased its impact, bringing the number of annual scholarships from the initial 3, to 6, to 10 and 15 beginning in 2022.

Beyond just a diploma, educated women in Kenya are more likely to have higher paying jobs, an improved standard of living, reduced infant and maternal mortality, increased life expectancy, improved status in the family and the community, higher self-esteem and an increased knowledge of individual rights.

Though the future seems far away for 18-year-old scholarship recipient Ann Chege, she sees her education as a ticket to endless possibilities. Eager to learn, with varied interests in English, geography and biology, she is, like many in Kenya, still powerfully connected to her home and the people she left behind when she came to Starehe.

Says Chege, “I can work anywhere in the country, but I would like to go home to help people in my area who do not have an education. They encourage me to succeed because they see me now as someone who can help make a difference.”

Please honor Louise and her passion for girls’ education, while making a difference in the lives of Kenya’s next generation of scholars. Make a gift to the Louise Martin Memorial Scholarship Endowment today.

The CDC-Hubert Global Health Award, endowed by the O.C. Hubert Charitable Trust is designed to encourage students to think of public health in a global context. Established in 1999, the original fellowship provided an opportunity for third- and fourth-year medical and veterinary students to gain public health experience in an international setting. Hubert fellows spent six to twelve weeks in a developing country working on a priority health problem in conjunction with CDC staff.

In 2020, the fellowship transitioned. Now called the CDC-Hubert Global Health Award (Hubert Award), it provides a stipend for competitively selected medical or veterinary students, residents, physicians, or veterinarians who successfully completed their 6 or 8-week EEP rotation during the past five years (2019–2023). The Hubert Award is awarded annually to up to 12 EEP graduates per year who are ready to take the next steps on their journey to becoming leaders in the fields of public health, global health, and One Health and are interested in applying to the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in the near future. Selected applicants will receive a stipend of $1,300 each to support travel and hotel expenses to attend the 2024 EIS conference (April 23–26, 2024) and any additional public health training of their choice.

Since its inception in 1975, EEP has provided approximately 2,100 future physicians and veterinarians opportunities to gain experience with applied epidemiology and public health under the mentorship of CDC subject matter experts. EEP students have helped investigate domestic and global public health problems such as infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, chronic diseases and limited access to health care. Students often participate in surveillance, analyze data, assist with outbreak investigations and contribute to CDC publications and recommendations. Project assignments in global health have largely supported CDC’s mission to protect domestic public health by helping other countries respond to global health threats. This competitive program offers 6- or 8-week rotations largely based at CDC headquarters. 

The 2024 Hubert Award application has closed. 2024 Award winners will be notified in January 2024 and are expected to attend the EIS conference and awardee events in Atlanta, Georgia from April 23–26, 2024. The 2025 Hubert Award application will open in November 2024.

For questions about the Epidemiology Elective Program, please visit the CDC page.

More than 780 million people worldwide do not have access to safe water and another 2.5 billion people lack proper hygiene education to help prevent illness and death from disease. Giving everyone in the world safe drinking water would cost hundreds of billions of dollars in treatment plants, pipes and taps. Thanks to a simple technology developed by retired CDC scientist and researcher Dr. Eugene Gangarosa and his colleagues, safe water is becoming a reality for even the poorest families in the most remote parts of the globe. Called the Safe Water System, it combines water treatment using inexpensive diluted bleach solution and safe water storage using narrow-mouthed containers and lids.

It doesn’t have to be a large amount of money. Sometimes you just need a catalyst, a way to pay certain costs to get over the hump to make something happen. The Foundation has often provided a conduit for doing that.

Reflecting a lifelong commitment to provide safe water around the world, Dr. Gangarosa and his wife, Rose, established the Gangarosa Endowment for Safe Water in May 2000 to provide an ongoing source of support for CDC's safe water initiatives. In his words, "CDC’s Safe Water Program provides us such a unique opportunity to help by addressing in a meaningful way one of the most pressing public health needs of our time—safe water for all. Rose and I know of no better investment in our children's future than this to save lives, improve quality of life and contribute to global stability."

Rob Quick, MD, MPH, medical epidemiologist with CDC's Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch, works to launch and implement many of CDC’s safe water projects. "We are able to tap the Gangarosa Endowment at critical times to get safe water projects off the ground,” says Quick. “It doesn’t have to be a large amount of money. Sometimes you just need a catalyst, a way to pay certain costs to get over the hump to make something happen. The Foundation has often provided a conduit for doing that.”

Here are some of the initiatives that have been supported by the Gangarosa Endowment:

• Evaluation of a project to install handwashing and drinking water stations in 180 rural Kenyan health facilities, train health workers about water treatment and hygiene, and encourage the health workers to promote these healthy practices to their clients. This project helps address the problem of a lack of handwashing and safe drinking water facilities in literally thousands of clinics in sub-Saharan Africa.
• A project to bring safe water storage containers to communities in rural Madagascar
• Sponsoring masters of public health students to study a safe water system project in Jolivert, Haiti following the devastating earthquake of 2010

Make a gift

In the Fall of 1999, a group of CDC employees and retirees who understood the challenges of doing public health work in developing countries decided to create an endowment fund to address global health issues. The fund would provide a source of flexible funding to meet critical or emergency needs in the field that could not easily be met through usual government channels. Thanks to the vision and generosity of those CDC employees and matching support from the Marcus Foundation, the fund has grown to over $250,000 and more than $24,000 has been disbursed to fund program initiatives. The Fund helps CDC address polio, vaccine-preventable diseases and other priority global health issues.

In the words of Bob Keegan, former deputy director pf CDC's Global Immunization Division, "This endowment allows us to focus on the real issues in the field while rapidly resolving critical, frequently inexpensive operational problems that so often interrupt our work. When civil unrest in Somalia intensified during 2002, our staff requested that we provide bulletproof vests for several national health workers most at risk. The CDC Foundation approved funding immediately, allowing work to continue without interruption, and further enhancing CDC's reputation as an agency that does what it takes to get the job done."

Fund Provides Sewing Machines to Fight Polio in India

”Vaccinators and supervisors had conducted numerous immunization campaigns and fatigue was a real risk,” says CDC public health advisor Julie Jenks. “So we decided to try to generate some excitement about the campaign in the community and among our vaccination teams.”

Two “outstanding” supervisors in each of Moradabad’s 22 planning areas received wrist watches provided by Rotary International, and a total of 66 outstanding vaccinators received sewing machines. The sewing machines were purchased through the CDC Foundation’s Endowment for Global Health Priorities.

“Local vaccinators and supervisors receive only a small per diem of about $1 per day,” says Jenks. “The incentives really energized them to vaccinate every child.”

In addition, families in which all children were immunized were entered into a “lucky drawing” to receive a sewing machine. The 132 winning families were recognized at a ceremony at the conclusion of the campaign. More than 500 people attended the ceremony which received significant local media coverage.

“This small expenditure made possible through the CDC Foundation made a big difference in the success of this campaign,” says Jenks. “We hope to learn from this pilot project and selectively use incentives in difficult areas.”