Working in the field to improve health
Pia MacDonald, PhD, MPH
Pia MacDonald, PhD, MPHDon’t be fooled by Pia MacDonald’s quiet demeanor. She is an accomplished researcher and a dedicated teacher and mentor. She is also resourceful, and above all, determined.
Pia has never shied away from working in the trenches to improve our world. After earning a BA in Environmental Science from the University of California at Berkeley, Pia spent two years in the Peace Corps training farmers and international development workers in Thailand in agroforestry. While getting her MPH at Yale, Pia traveled to Turkey and Kenya as a research assistant studying the epidemiology of malaria and other insect-borne illnesses.
With a PhD from the University of Michigan in Epidemiology, Pia went to work for the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service and conducted outbreak investigations and public health surveillance.
In 2002 she came to UNC, where she is research assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. In addition, Pia heads the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness.
She is also IGHID’s own Latin America Projects Manager.
Pia is the driving force behind current efforts to establish a number of programs and research initiatives in Guatemala. UNC has existing partnerships with the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) and the U.S. CDC Regional Office for Central America and Panama. The institutions are collaborating on a project aimed at developing a field epidemiology training program in Central America. The curriculum will be the foundation of a new MPH program at UVG. “We are developing what we hope is a model curriculum for field epidemiology training worldwide,” Pia said. “We are also creating a training program for local- and district-level health department staff.”
Pia has a keen ability to recognize opportunities and pursue them. In addition to the training initiative, Pia has been awarded seed money to expand the collaboration with UVG to include a research partnership focused on HIV/AIDS. Guatemala is the largest country in Central America and accounts for nearly one-sixth of the region’s HIV-infected population, and the Guatemalan government has declared HIV/AIDS to be an urgent public health problem.
With Pia’s energy and drive behind it, UNC is likely to become a major player in global health in Latin America.
-Story by Lisa Chensvold
