Faculty 

Sally Adebamowo, MBBS, MSc, ScD
Associate Professor
School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

Jennifer Albrecht, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

Jessica Brown, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

‌Bruce DeForge, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Social Work

Lori Edwards, DrPH, RN, PHCNS-BC
Assistant Professor
School of Nursing Department of Family and Community Health

Nadine Finigan-Carr, PhD
Research Associate Professor
School of Social Work

Erin Hager, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics

Luis Pinet-Peralta, PhD, MSC, EMTP
Adjunct Assistant Professor
School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

Susan Wozenski, JD, MPH
Assistant Professor
School of Nursing Department of Family and Community Health

Master of Public Health Staff

Director of Collaborative Initiatives
Kara Longo, MS
(410) 706-7210
klongo@som.umaryland.edu

Academic Program Coordinator
Andrea Manning, MS
(410) 706-0539
amanning@som.umaryland.edu

Faculty Spotlight 

Dr. Shailvi Gupta 

In this edition of the Faculty Focus, we get to know Dr. Shailvi Gupta. Dr. Gupta is a new faculty member with the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Master of Public Health Program (MPH). Currently, she teaches PH 717: Global Public Health Emergencies, a new class as of spring 2022.

PH 717: Global Public Health Emergencies discusses complex global humanitarian emergencies and dissects the intricacies associated with them. Dr. Gupta noted that a goal for her in this class is to help her students understand how messy global health can be and how important it is to be an effective and humble global health leader.

We asked Dr. Gupta about her interest in public health, and she shared that she had always been interested in global health even before college. She always wanted to be a physician and was drawn to surgery once she got to medical school. She saw surgery as “raw and real” and envisioned using those skills globally. During her training, she took two years to do research, one of which she earned an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with an emphasis on epidemiology, biostatistics, and humanitarian assistance.

After obtaining her MPH, Dr. Gupta gained hands-on experience by executing a countrywide surgical needs assessment in Nepal. While there she was also working with the Ministry of Health in Mozambique to develop an ambulance system, helped to build trauma registries at public health hospitals in Maputo, and conducted research with Doctors without Borders. Afterwards, she pursued a trauma fellowship at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center where she stayed on as faculty.

We also asked how networking may have helped her throughout her career. To that she responded, “the world is small and has only become smaller as I moved along in my career,” and she believes that networking can lead to many opportunities. We also asked Dr. Gupta whether she had any advice for our current MPH students as they move into their public health careers. She said, “always be humble and kind.” In her class, she highlights the importance of approaching any public health situation with a “how can I help” mindset over “this is what I am going to do to help.” She noted that as public health officials, it should be our goal is to “listen, be humble, and utilize our training to be effective.”

Lastly, as a get-to-know-you we asked Dr. Gupta some fun questions. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband and their baby girl. Prior to her daughter being born, Dr. Gupta was an avid yogi, runner, dancer, and violinist. We were also curious about her favorite place to travel. Her quick response to this question was Patagonia in South America as this is where she met her husband. She went on to note that she has yet to do public health work there but hopes to do so in the future!