It was an evening filled with gratitude among ColoradoSPH students, faculty, staff, donors, community partners, and friends as the school celebrated ColoradoSPH Partners in Public Health: An Evening of Thanks this month.
Dozens of scholarship recipients were on hand to share their stories and meet with their benefactors, who made their educational dreams come true. Two of those students spoke about their experiences with public health, the School, and their ability to pursue their graduate education thanks to the generosity of donors.
Amy Nguyen, an MPH student and Judith Albino scholar, spoke about her experience helping her Vietnamese immigrant grandparents translate their medical issues to doctors when she was just a child. The variance in care she noticed between native English speakers and her grandparents was so significant that she decided to pursue public health to ensure all people receive consistent health treatment.
Kaitlyn Friedman, a DrPH student and a Hoffman scholar, earned her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt and her Master’s from Duke University before selecting ColoradoSPH specifically for our work on firearm injury prevention through the Center for Injury and Violence Prevention (IVPC) and Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative (FIPI).
Two faculty members also shared the importance of donor partnerships to their work. Jini Puma, associate director of the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center, and clinical associate professor, described how the funding helps support her work in the community. Much of her work focuses on infant and school-aged children, as well as the teachers and workers who support them in Colorado.
Jill Norris, professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology, said she utilized donor grants when she was a researcher, along with her husband, Michael Holers, a faculty member at the Colorado School of Medicine.
So, in 2025, they established the Endowed Scholarship in Autoimmune Disease Epidemiology Fund, an area of study that both Norris and Holers have spent their careers furthering. The fund establishes their legacy and ensures that the school will continue to make strides in the field for years to come (or something like that – wanted to highlight how donors can hone in a personal passion to make a difference at the school)... Distributions from the Scholarship Fund will provide scholarship awards with the intention to support students pursuing careers in, or conducting research related to, the epidemiology of autoimmune diseases.
Overall, the evening was a success in celebrating the students, faculty, and the work that is made possible through generous donors.
