Atlanta International Health Fellowship Endowment

In 1984, Drs. Bob Chen and Katy Irwin learned that an international health professional who had been accepted to their Epidemic Intelligence Service was at risk of losing her financial support for this two-year program in applied public health and epidemiology. Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not authorized at the time to provide financial assistance to foreign nationals for this applied public health training, the two young physicians decided to address this gap by establishing the Atlanta International Health Fellowship (AIHF).

With help from other EIS Officers, employees, and retirees of CDC and Emory University and Atlanta residents, they raised funds and formed partnerships with Emory University and Villa International Atlanta that have provided tuition and lodging support for many years. Since the first fellowships were awarded in 1991, 25 individuals from over 22 countries have received stipends to cover costs of tuition, lodging, medical insurance, or transportation to receive applied public health courses sponsored by CDC or Emory University.

In 1997, the Tull Charitable Foundation made a major grant to the AIHF that enabled the Atlanta International Health Fellowship to become the first endowed fund at the CDC Foundation.