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Alumna on the Frontlines of Disease Detection

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Christina Jackson

3 min read

How does someone prepare for a career that can include a morning meeting with a foreign minister, followed by an afternoon investigation inside a cave full of bats?

The Career. The Preparation

For Paige Armstrong ’11 (MED), her degree from UConn School of Medicine launched a career in public health that would take her across the globe to identify and stop deadly diseases.

Armstrong found her interest in public health early on, discovering a passion for science in grade school and finding a role model in her father, an emergency medical technician. “Caring for people has always been in my life,” she said.

Her father’s work, as well as a service trip she took as a teenager with Amigos de las Américas working to build latrines and stoves in Guanajuato, Mexico, led her to think about public health and the course her life could take. “When I returned from Mexico, I had my sights set on medicine,” said Armstrong.

She says UConn was a critical part of her plans to become a public health officer specializing in deadly fungal diseases. Before entering UConn School of Medicine, Armstrong earned a Master of Health Sciences (M.H.S.) degree, as well as a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. “I wanted to make sure I got that foundation in public health and understood what kind of projects I should work on during my time in medical school and my residency at George Washington University,” said Armstrong.

“I have to give UConn School of Medicine a lot of credit for the way they structure their medical education,” she said. “It was a rigorous, intense four years of my life, but UConn was always supportive of developing and trying new things.” For example, Armstrong and some classmates sought and earned the support of the Dean to create a medical Spanish interest group.

Because of the strong interest in this group, the Dean also approved their request to create an elective focused on the communications needs and cultural considerations of Spanish-speaking populations. “We actually taught that elective and brought in guest lecturers,” said Armstrong. “This openness and willingness to let us take an idea and run with it allowed me to continue fostering my interests in public health. It gave me experiences I continue to use.”

Disease Investigation

Today, Armstrong applies her education and experiences in emergency medicine and public health to her role as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer in the Mycotic Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In her role, she investigates and analyzes outbreaks fungal diseases including Histoplasmosis, Coccidioidomycosis, Aspergillosis, Mucormycosis, Scedosporiosis in collaboration with international and domestic colleagues and government officials.

In recent years, Armstrong assisted in the Emergency Operations Center at the CDC on the Zika response, and worked alongside the Ministries of Health in El Salvador and Nicaragua to evaluate their national surveillance systems.

She also led two outbreak investigations, one of which focused on the outbreak of Histoplasmosis in tunnel workers in the Dominican Republic. The outbreak response focused on providing diagnostic support to confirm the diagnosis of Histoplasmosis and investigating and providing additional occupational and environmental recommendations.

A team of 35 men had the unenviable job of cleaning out bat guano from tunnels that allow access to a hydroelectric dam. Many of these men developed the respiratory form of the disease. Histoplasma capsulatum spores exist in bat guano, and when inhaled, can cause this respiratory disease that results in sickness and, in some cases, death. (In this case, 27 of the 30 men who became ill survived.)

The second investigation Armstrong led focused on Candida auris, a multi-drug resistant yeast, in Colombia. Armstrong co-authored the results of this research on this fungus that acts like a superbug bacteria and is difficult to identify.

While there are inherent challenges and potential risks in a field investigation, the CDC provides comprehensive resources. “We have amazing support systems that provide everything we need, from radios for our use in remote areas to mosquito repellant.”

When they arrive in a country, their teams are also supported locally by a ministry or hospital that devotes a group of staff to support their efforts. “We sit down with leadership to understand the significance of the event that’s occurring in the community,” says Armstrong. “You appreciate the gravity of the situation and want to make sure you are taking the steps necessary to identify the concern, address it, and relay the appropriate recommendations to the leadership to ensure they are implemented.”

The local staff and government officials are supportive and critical to their success. “Every interaction with them is constructive,” said Armstrong. “Our work wouldn’t be possible without them.”

It’s also true that this work would not be possible without those, like Armstrong, who possess the combined passions of medicine and public health. “Sometime during my residency, I realized that when I was able to work in a position that combined my UConn medical education with my passion for public health, I could a make a large-scale difference and affect the lives of a lot of people.”

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Fund Will Create UConn’s First MPH Fellowship

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Jennifer Doak-Mathewson

3 min read

Retiring with a splash, Joan Segal ’64 ’82 is capping off her 40-plus-year tenure with an offer to match donations to establish UConn’s first fellowship in public health. When she learned that the MPH Advisory Board was launching an initiative to establish the Joan Segal Fellowship for Public Health, she volunteered to match gifts up to $25,000.

“I was very touched and humbled. It is our alumni who inspire me with all that they do to improve the health conditions of our population,” says Segal. “Their commitment to eliminating health disparities and to promoting social justice inspires me and makes my career worthwhile.”

David Gregorio, director of UConn’s graduate program in public health, credits Segal with providing the foundation her students need to make a difference in communities across Connecticut and beyond.

“Several hundred of our state and region’s local health directors, health care advocates, teachers, physicians and allied health professionals have been influenced by Joan’s guidance and determination to address the needs of the most vulnerable members of society,” he explains.

The Segal Fellowship Fund kicked off at the thirtieth anniversary celebration for the MPH program on March 29 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn. with more than 100 alumni and friends paying tribute to Segal. Two dozen gifts have come in so far, including a $2,500 lead pledge from the UConn chapter of Delta Omega, an honorary society for public health.

“Joan’s most enduring accomplishment may well be ahead of us. Thanks to the generosity of Joan and Joe Segal and fellow alumni, the Segal Fellowship will allow our program to attract excellent students to continue her mission well beyond the foreseeable future,” says Gregorio.

Segal’s career at UConn started as an undergraduate in the early 1960s. Her first love was literature. She majored in English and kept busy socially through Phi Sigma Sigma Sorority.

“I had a wonderful undergraduate experience at UConn. I had a grand time, and I was well prepared for graduate school. Upon graduation, I immediately entered the graduate program in English at New York University,” she says.

Next came marriage and starting a career. Living in New York City and Philadelphia, Segal had a successful early start in publishing as a copy editor. But she needed a new career direction when she and her husband left those hubs for publishing and moved back to Connecticut in 1969 to build her husband’s optometry practice.

At that time, UConn had just started the new dental and medical schools and was getting ready to open John Dempsey Hospital. Segal was hired by the dean of the School of Dental Medicine as his research assistant. Part of that first job at UConn was establishing the dental school’s continuing education program, which was perfect training for her later positions as assistant and then associate director of UConn’s graduate program in public health.

Segal was one of 10 students in the first class of Master of Science in Community Health program—the forerunner to the MPH program—in 1976. She counts helping the program earn accreditation in 1984 under the direction of former director Holger Hansen as one of her greatest accomplishments. Segal has worked with dozens of MPH students as a mentor, advisor for theses and major projects, and supervisor for field placement. During spring 2014, she supervised 24 students working throughout the state on six different public health projects of significance to Connecticut’s population.

“My copy editing experience was highly useful in advising students on their capstone projects. I may have driven my students crazy with all the editing marks,” she says. “This year I am perhaps having the most fun I’ve had during my tenure. I’m enjoying seeing how they take their prior course work and apply what they learned to practical projects in Connecticut communities.”

Segal, who spent 32 of her more than 40 years at UConn working in the MPH program, sees a bright future for the program and its role shaping public health in Connecticut.

“I would like to see the MPH program grow and have a presence in the national Association of Schools and Programs in Public Health. I would love to see more financial support for MPH and doctoral students, as well as a little more money to support student activities and academic endeavors like international research and presenting at national meetings,” she says. “We should be using financial support to recruit the very best and diverse students to public health.”

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