May 5, 2006

Medical student first at U-M to win overseas fellowship

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Tanyaporn Wansom, a third-year medical student at University of Michigan Medical School, is a recipient of the 2006-2007 Fogarty International Center/Ellison Overseas Fellowship in Global Health and Clinical Research. She is the first U-M student to receive this prestigious fellowship and was selected from more than 136 applicants nationwide following an intense, three-day selection conference hosted at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

Starting in August 2006, Wansom will spend a year in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where she will participate in clinical care and research related to illicit drug use and HIV/AIDS. She will also have the opportunity to assist with expanding HIV clinical care sites to Laos and the Thai-Burma border. Her mentors will be Drs. Chris Beyrer, David Celentano and Susan Sherman from Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Thira Sirisanthana from Chiang Mai University.

“Disparity in access to treatment for HIV is one of the world's largest health problems and is unconscionable given the low cost for generic antiretroviral medications in the world today.  The Fogarty Ellison Overseas Fellowship provides the opportunity for me to receive hands-on experience in a developing country and help improve access to life-saving medications and care,” Wansom says.

A Grosse Ile, Michigan native, Wansom envisions a career in global health, policy, and advocacy with a special emphasis on fighting the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Before matriculating at U-M, she spent a year in Bangkok, Thailand as a Fulbright scholar following graduation from Swarthmore College. In Bangkok, Wansom worked at an HIV clinical trial center, served as an HIV testing counselor at a large public hospital and volunteered at grassroots organizations for injecting drug users and commercial sex workers. Since matriculating at U-M, she has also been active as a national leader for both the American Medical Student Association and the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, serving in positions that allowed her to advocate for those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

“I expect there will be challenges this year, and I’m looking forward to them. My most important goals for the year are to develop clinical skills and to learn more about clinical research in underprivileged populations.  Being involved in multinational trials and working with physicians in HIV/AIDS specialty clinics will give me skills that will shape my practice and career path in the future,” Wansom says.

The FIC/Ellison Overseas Fellowships in Global Health and Clinical Research Program is a training program for U.S. and low- and middle-income country students in the health sciences. Paired student awardees from the U.S. and overseas receive one year of mentored clinical research training at an NIH-funded institution in one of seventeen sites around the world. Research sites are located in developing countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, with projects focusing on AIDS and related opportunistic infections, malaria, sexually transmitted infections and non-infectious disease.

Written by Mary Beth Reilly

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