Forum's Queen Elizabeth Scholars in Strengthening Health Systems: Summer 2018

The McMaster Health Forum is pleased to announce the latest set of recipients for the Queen Elizabeth Scholarships in Strengthening Health Systems. Bounded for Commonwealth destinations in Africa, the recipients will represent the Forum aboard during their cross-cultural exchange. These scholars, whose experiences and placements represent a diverse range of opportunities, include: Mijia Murong who will be based in Uganda, Peter Youssef and Steven Chen who will be based in South Africa, and Sabrina Lin who will be based in Malawi.

Outgoing Intern: Mijia Murong
Mijia will be traveling to Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda to complete an internship with the Regional East African Community Health (REACH) Policy Initiative. She will be evaluating the attributes and impact of a capacity building program in knowledge translation, through qualitative methodology.

Outgoing Interns: Peter Youssef and Steven Chen
Peter will be travelling to Johannesburg, South Africa to work with the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DMPE) and the Africa Centre for Evidence (ACE). He will be working on a data map of the National Spatial Planning Framework, understanding how evidence mapping works together with rapid response services, and a landscape map of the different mechanisms that evidence is used in Africa.

Steven will also be travelling to Johannesburg, South Africa to work with the African Centre for Evidence (ACE). He will be working on a project for the South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) that will entail producing various products on environmental topics decided with various DEA units.

Outgoing Intern: Sabrina Lin
Sabrina will be traveling to Zomba, Malawi for an internship at Dignitas International. She will be working on the Malawi Building Research capacity, Implementation, and Translation Expertise (NCD BRITE) capacity building program, which includes a  trans-disciplinary team led by the University of Malawi College of Medicine, the University of North Carolina, and Dignitas International. 

Through the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship program, McMaster University will participate in activating a dynamic community of young global leaders across the Commonwealth to create lasting impacts on health systems both at home and abroad through cross-cultural exchanges encompassing international education, discovery and inquiry, and professional experiences.

The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (QES) is managed through a unique partnership of Universities Canada, the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF), Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) and Canadian universities. This program is made possible with financial support from the Government of Canada, provincial governments and the private sector.

To stay connected with our QEScholars, follow @McMasterForum on Twitter and visit the #QEScholar tagboard page.

Read more about the QES Scholarship in Strengthening Health Systems offered by the Forum.