Dynamic Duo

Rollins alumni Sheryl Golub 22PH and Brian Tolleson 95C 23PH met in a study group for a particularly challenging biostatistics class in 2021 while enrolled in the Executive MPH (EMPH) program at Rollins. Both second-career professionals in the prevention science track, they bonded over making it through the class (with A’s, no less), their shared calling to contribute to the greater good, and their seasoned stature among mostly younger fellow students.

“The EMPH program specifically involves a lot of collaboration and teamwork. It’s intended that you’re working full time as you’re studying and pulls in the experiences of so many different people, which is what public health is all about,” says Golub, who for more than 15 years ran a boutique consulting firm specializing in developing learning and training programs for clients such as the Food and Drug Administration and various biotech and pharmaceutical companies. “Brian and I had most of the same classes and really worked well together.”

During his time at Rollins, Tolleson—co-founder and managing partner of Lexicon Strategies, a community and social impact consulting firm—was recruited for the Becoming Better Ancestors (BBA) project 9lessons.org. This impact project, founded by famed public health leaders William Foege, MD, and Mark Rosenberg, MD, captures the nine key lessons learned while eradicating smallpox—one of the greatest public health successes in history—to help changemakers address critical problems across the globe. Tolleson turned his work with 9lessons.org into his Rollins Applied Practice Experience. He holds the role of senior advisor, content creator, and communications lead, which is the perfect marriage of his film and TV background and aspiration to pivot his work toward supporting the idea of preventing human extinction.

“Preventing human extinction is a job now! We need people whose full-time jobs are to keep humans living on the planet,” says Tolleson, who won the 2023 Eugene J. Gangarosa, M.D., Student Award for Excellence in International Health.

After his first year working on BBA, he recruited Golub to join the team at Lexicon to create the curriculum and learning component around the nine lessons.

“Sheryl mentioned she was looking for a job, and I said, ‘Just come work with me!’,” says Tolleson. “She fit the profile of the kind of people we want to have working with us—a consummate professional and leader in her field with a wealth of experience and deep desire to improve the world around them.”

Golub and Tolleson now collaborate on several projects together, in addition to managing clients and projects individually. An ongoing assignment is Georgia’s rollout of the federal three-digit dialing code 9-8-8, or 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which helps connect people experiencing suicidal, substance use, or mental health crises with trained counselors and resources. The Lexicon duo is working to support every aspect of the crisis system that goes into 988, focusing on communications and how to align stakeholders to embrace common goals throughout the state of Georgia.

“SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, recently came to Georgia to highlight the work that is happening across the state, and we’re very proud of how Georgia is becoming a leader in the 988 response work,” Tolleson says.

The colleagues also are consulting on Change the Pattern, a project of the National AIDS Memorial, the Southern AIDS Coalition, and Gilead Sciences. The project is an HIV prevention program focusing on the South, predominantly in communities of color.

“This project is bringing attention to the social determinants of health that are intimately linked to the HIV epidemic still happening in our country,” Tolleson says.

Tolleson and Golub both credit the education they received at Rollins with helping them fine-tune and grow their professional expertise in different ways. They gained more in-depth knowledge in using software and other practical tools daily and the intricacies of public health agencies and organizations. They also built strong relationships with esteemed faculty, some of whom have since become collaborators.

But perhaps Rollins’ greatest gift of all is the lasting friendship they formed as students.