1990s

M. Michelle Berry 86OX 88C 92MPH was named president and CEO of Chimerix, a biopharmaceutical company that develops oral antivirals. She joined Chimerix in 2012 as chief medical officer. The company is based in Durham, N.C.

Thomas Prol 89OX 91C 97MPH was named first vice president of the New Jersey Bar Association. He is the first openly gay officer in association history and has been a vocal advocate of marriage equality and a 2011 law to combat bullying in public schools. He practices environmental and government affairs law with Laddey, Clark, & Ryan in Sparta, N.J. He is on track to become state bar president in 2016.

2000s

Born: Reagan Sophia to Heather Yori Ingold 00MPH and her husband, John, on Jan. 4, 2014. The family lives in Atlanta.

Married: Sarah Kurz 00MBA/00MPH to Edward Barker Jr. on July 26, 2014, in Southporte, Maine. Kurz develops commercial strategy for Merrimack Healthcare Solutions, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Mass.

Judy Lubin 00MPH was awarded a PhD in sociology from Howard University in May. She wrote her dissertation on Race and the politics of health reform: Antigovernment opposition to national health insurance from the New Deal to the Affordable Care Act.

Tolton Pace 00C 02MPH was selected to participate in the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative, a 15-month faith-based leadership development program for urban youth workers.

Married: Kelley Friedgen 99C 03L/03MPH to Kyle Johnson on Oct. 5, 2013.

Christine Korhonen 03MPH is a research health science specialist with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Salt Lake City.

Born: Norbu Tamang to Paul “Chip” Barnett 04MPH and his wife, Neema, in June 2014. Barnett is now a senior technical director with the International Rescue Committee in New York.

Susan Hobson 05MPH is a research informatics analyst specializing in research and health sciences information technology at Emory.

Tielin Qin 05MPH 11PhD is a mathematical statistician with the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C.

Alison Smith 05MPH is an emergency medicine resident in Salt Lake City. She received the Matthew Lee Girvin Award in 2009 from the RSPH Alumni Association.

Born: Chance and Deacon to Alexis Forman Morgan 06MPH and her husband, Donnell, on Dec. 7, 2013. The family lives in Clinton, Md.

Nia Brodrick 07MPH is a pediatrician with Unity Health Care in Washington, D.C. She recently completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of Florida at Orlando Health.

Daniel Thompson 01OX 03C 08MPH was named deputy for planning and partnerships with the Georgia Department of Public Health. He helps build stronger ties with the state’s health districts to reduce chronic disease and oversees the development of statewide cancer, school health, and chronic disease plans.

Kelly Callahan 09MPH was appointed director of the Trachoma Control Program at the Carter Center. She previously served as the center’s representative in southern Sudan, where she introduced the trachoma program. She also played a key role in efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease and eliminate river blindness as assistant director for program support for all of the center’s health programs. Callahan serves on the RSPH Alumni Board.

Married: Barbara Do 09MPH to Nick Greene on May 25, 2014, in Baltimore. They live in Raleigh, N.C., where Do works as a research statistician with RTI International and serves as co-president of the Triangle Chapter of the Emory Alumni Association.

Laura Johnson 10M/10MPH is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Her clinical/research interests include pediatrics and population health.

Chandra McElhaney 10MPH was named district training and development specialist for the Cobb and Douglas county public health departments in Georgia.

Kerri Timmerman 10MPH is a senior program management analyst with ICF International.

Sheba Ehteshami 07OX 09C 11MPH is a senior associate with Grant Thorton LLP in Atlanta. She was named Woman of the Year for health care by the National Association of Professional Women.

Married: Lauren Taylor 11MPH to Patrick McShane on May 10, 2014, in Atlanta. She is a clinical research coordinator with the Emory ALS Center.

Margaret Bertram 13MPH is a Presidential Management Fellow in the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.

Rosalyn Schroeder 13MPH joined the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.

Courtney Peters 14MPH is a preventive medical consultant with the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Meighan Tarnagada 14MPH is a research program coordinator for postpartum hemorrhage studies in Africa and Asia with Gynuity Health Projects.

Working the Iditarod

Jodie Guest 92MPH 99PhD, no vacation comes close to spending two weeks amid an army of volunteers in minus 40-degree temperatures in the remote town of Unalakleet on the Bering Sea in Alaska. 

Unalakleet marks the 800-mile point of the Iditarod, the 1,049-mile dog-sledding race from Anchorage to Nome during early March. The route includes 23 checkpoints and three larger hubs, including Unalakleet, where mushers stop to regroup and have their dogs checked out by veterinarians before continuing on. Guest oversees logistics for the final leg of the Iditarod, a task that includes managing 200 volunteers and the Iditarod Air Force, a small fleet of Cessna planes and their pilots. “We get volunteers to their checkpoints, food to the volunteers, straw and hay for the dogs, and the vets out there,” she explains.

Her father, a Kansas City veterinarian, is one of the 50 vets who staff the race. Guest joined her father there seven years ago.

“It’s quite an event,” she says. “We can’t provide help to mushers or dogs unless a musher decides to drop a dog because of fatigue, illness or injury, or going into heat. We don’t feed or unharness the dogs. The musher works unassisted. Our job is to keep the mushers and the dogs safe.”

Volunteers follow the mushers’ progress using GPS. If a musher stops longer than usual to rest and feed dogs between checkpoints, Guest dispatches a plane for a safety check. “It’s our responsibility to make sure the mushers are moving,” she says. “If they drop out of the race, we help move them to a hub to fly them out.”

The Iditarod seems a world away from Emory, where Guest serves as director of HIV research at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. An epidemiologist by training, Guest teaches at Rollins and the School of Medicine. She often shares her Iditarod experiences with Atlanta-area elementary school students. “I love coming back home and teaching kids about it,” she says. 

Guest also finds solace and renewal in the beauty of Alaska, its wildlife, and the excitement generated by the dogs and their mushers. “It’s the ultimate dad-daughter trip,” she adds. “It’s amazing.” —Pam Auchmutey

In Memoriam

Debbie Shelton, 72, an RSPH Dean’s Council member with a special interest in safe water, died on July 11, 2014, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. After moving to Atlanta in 1977, Shelton served with the Alliance Theatre as coordinator of its youth touring company and director of youth programs. She was a key member of the committee working to win the 1996 Olympic Games and joined the staff as program director for venue staffing. Following the Olympics, she was vice chair of hospitality for the PGA Championship at East Lake and board chair of the Alliance Theatre. She also served on the boards of Starlight Children’s Foundation, the Visiting Nurse Health System, Alliance Francaise d’Atlanta, the ARCS Foundation, and the Cathedral of St. Philip. Shelton is survived by her husband, Charles; two daughters; and four grandchildren.