Ms. Diana Hamer, a doctoral student in Tulane’s Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, was selected by the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools (HSHPS) to represent the organization at the 2014 Millennial Health Leaders Summit being held this week in Atlanta, GA.

The invitation-only event brings together the next generation of leaders who will be able to take on the task of eliminating health disparities in the United States in the twenty-first century. Promising graduate students are drawn from medical, public health, and public policy schools in recognition of their achievements and their potential to effect change in their future careers.

“Diana Hamer is an exceptional doctoral student exemplifying the transdisciplinary nature of public health pursuing research at the intersection of  environmental health, tropical medicine, and community health sciences,” said Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, chair of the department. “Her dengue research is currently being used to address the impending chikungunya epidemic in Suriname.”

The Millennial Health Leaders Summit is co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Minority health and Health Equity, the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Brown University.