Alums Honored for Equity and Justice Work in Maternal and Child Health.

From left: SPH alums Trish Elliott, Rahel Getachew Hailemichael, and Mallory Cyr.
Alums Honored for Equity and Justice Work in Maternal and Child Health
At its annual reception last semester, the Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence at SPH awarded the 2021 Maternal and Child Health Alumni Award to alums Mallory Cyr (SPH’15) and Patricia Elliott (SPH’06, ’13), and also recognized the 2020 award recipient, alum Rahel Getachew (SPH’02).
For nearly 20 years, the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health (MCH CoE) at the School of Public Health has celebrated the work of alums by presenting the annual Maternal and Child Health Alumni Award to select SPH graduates for their outstanding service and dedication to promoting wellness and safety among women, children, adolescents and families.
Last October, the MCH CoE held its first virtual MCH Networking and Alumni Awards reception, in which the center recognized the award recipients for 2020 and 2021.
The 2020 MPH award recipient was Rahel Getachew Hailemichael (SPH’02), a clinician and former vice dean of student affairs at Myungsung Medical College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Two alums received the award in 2021, one for an MPH and one for a DrPH alum: Mallory Cyr (SPH’15), program manager on the Child and Adolescent Health team for the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), and Trish Elliott (SPH’06, ’13), clinical associate professor of community health sciences (CHS) and director of SPH’s DrPH program.
“I decided to pursue a career in MCH because I believe that the health of a woman is the health of her family, and we can improve and influence the health of the community, and of the society as a whole, starting with the family,” says Hailemichael, who was in the first cohort of the MCH department’s former leadership training curriculum in 1999. “One thing I will never forget about the MPH program is the family-like environment of the MCH department. When I was invited to receive this award, that same feeling came back to me again—after many years, the MCH department is still interested in what we’re doing, and is here to support us, and that really means a lot.”
After finishing the MPH program, Hailemichael completed an internship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she assessed national data to better understand the causes of maternal mortality. She also worked with the Refugee and Immigrant Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she worked on women and children’s health, focusing on female refugees from Somalia and Liberia who had tuberculosis and other related health issues.
In 2011, Hailemichael returned to Ethiopia to work as a clinician at the Christian Medical Center in Addis, and soon became an integral part of a much larger project with the center, as it formed the new Myungsung Medical College.
Lois McCloskey, interim chair and associate professor of community health sciences, co-director of the MCH certificate, and director of the MCH CoE, says she remembers Hailemichael’s “enormous competence, compassion and humility.
“Almost singlehandedly, Rahel founded a new medical school, taking one broad curriculum document, four classrooms and a BUSPH education and turning it into the Myungsung Medical College,” McCloskey says. “What an achievement for families in Addis Ababa.”
Throughout her career, Cyr has focused on improving systems for children and youth with special healthcare needs, and ensuring that this population is supported as they move into adult healthcare and programs. She began the MPH program after working in maternal and child health for almost a decade, working on the federally funded national center on healthcare transition and with the state of Maine’s Title V program. After graduating from SPH, Cyr worked as a contract manager for the State of Colorado’s Medicaid program, before moving to her current role as a program manager for AMCHP.
“It has been my dream to work for AMCHP since I attended my first conference in 2008,” says Cyr, who leads the State Public Health Autism Resource Center and supports the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program, as well as the state Children & Youth with Special Healthcare Needs directors across the country. “Working for AMCHP allows me to make changes at a national level, and have a bird’s eye view of public health issues and the unique needs and challenges each state is experiencing.”
The MPH program helped her understand what goes into creating programs and interventions, and “receiving this award means so much to me,” she says.
“Besides the technical skills I learned during my time at BUSPH, I also learned a lot about myself and how critical my voice was as someone living with a disability navigating systems, and a city like Boston,” says Cyr. “Although the staff at BUSPH was incredibly supportive, I realized how much work still needs to be done to infuse the discussion of disability equity into not only public health programs, but within all educational institutions and healthcare settings.”
“We recognized Mallory for her longstanding and tireless leadership in the movement for disability justice,” says McCloskey. “She is able to combine her passion, born of lived experience, skillful advocacy and education, and the ability to put her visions into programs and policies. Most of all, Mallory is making inroads in assuring that the longstanding field of ‘Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs’ is indeed a field that places social justice in the center.”
Elliott, who completed the MPH program in 2006 and the DrPH program in 2013, was the DrPH recipient of the 2021 MCH Alumni Award. She joined the CHS faculty full-time after completing the DrPH program, during which she served as an adjunct faculty member.
With interests in adolescent and family access to health services, and the intersection of mental health and juvenile justice, school health, and health policies, Elliott teaches courses in health behavior theory, maternal child and adolescent health, and program management. In addition to directing the DrPH program, Elliott also directs the Practice Fellowship Program of the MCH CoE, where she connects exceptional MPH students with year-long placements in public health organizations. She also serves as the director of education for the CHS department.
“It is very humbling to be recognized by my colleagues in this way and in the remarkable company of Mallory and Rahel,” says Elliott. “Awards are very individual things, but the truth is what I have accomplished out in the field and in the classroom is because of the support I have received along the way. The MCH program at BUSPH shaped my career and I am truly grateful for the training I received as a student and the support I continue to receive as a member of the faculty.”
“Trish is enormously gifted as an educator at the intersection of academic rigor and practice realities,” says McCloskey, pointing to Elliott’s leadership of the DrPH Program from which she graduated and MPH education for CHS; her design of pioneering co-learning partnerships among MCH programs in three state health departments, SPH’s Population Health Exchange, and the MCH CoE; as well as her work evaluating and supporting the mental health needs of youth involved in juvenile justice. “Trish leads with generosity, rigor, and integrity. Because of how she teaches and leads the emerging workforce in MCH, her work trickles down quickly to the families and communities that our field seeks to support.”
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