On May 3, the College of Public Health and Human Sciences gathered to celebrate and honor individuals who live out the college’s mission.
To welcome attendees to the third annual Ovation event, CPHHS Dean Javier Nieto thanked alumni, preceptors, supporters, faculty and staff for creating an environment that drives student success.
Public health alumna Meghan McCafferty introduced Jessi Broberg, recipient of the Preceptor Impact Award. Jessi graduated from Oregon State University in 2015 with a degree in Human Development and Family Sciences and is now the supervisor of administrative volunteers and patient experience at Oregon Health & Science University. At OHSU, Jessi created the Summer Administrative Internship Program to provide students with the opportunity to take what they learned in the classroom and apply it to the workplace.
“With little to no work experience in a large corporation, I set out to create an organized and defined program that benefited both students and OHSU,” said Jessi in her acceptance speech. “I sought to provide a variety of professional development activities, actionable and real-life project work, and a chance to showcase that work at the end of their internship.”
Taylor Ricci, undergraduate kinesiology student and co-creator of the Dam Worth It campaign, welcomed Charlie Fautin to the stage to receive the Supporter Impact Award. Charlie serves as deputy director of the Benton County Health Department, where he administers public health programs and helps innovate strategies for integrating public, mental and environmental health with primary medical services.
Taylor recognized Charlie for his service as an adjunct instructor, presenter and panelist, serving on the Oregon MPH program committee, the college’s community advisory council and on the search committee for the college’s new dean.
“As has often been wisely observed, public health is a team sport with the game time extending over years and decades,” Charlie said. “This has certainly been true in my career, and the presence of a public health program at OSU was one of the factors that attracted me to working for Benton County and living in Corvallis.”
Charlie added that the public health program, colleagues at Benton County Health Services, and faculty and staff at CPHHS are all part of the team he feels honored to work alongside.
To conclude the event, nutrition doctoral student Melinda Spooner presented the Alumni Impact Award to Claire Hughes, PhD, ’58. Claire was Hawaii’s first Native Hawaiian registered dietitian and spent more than 30 years with the State of Hawaii Department of Health as a public health administrator, chief of the nutrition branch, nutritionist and registered dietitian. Since retirement, she continues to advocate for improving Native Hawaiian health, including work on cancer deaths in Native Hawaiian men and serving as a researcher for a University of Hawaii Medical School project.
These award recipients have significantly impacted their community, and it was an honor to recognize their contributions.
If you would like to nominate someone for next year’s event, please do so here.
All photos by Hannah O’Leary.