Geography Alumna Wins NIH LRP Award for Health Disparities Research

October 26, 2021

Designed to support scientific discovery, the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are a set of programs established by Congress and designed to recruit highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. The escalating costs of advanced education and training in medicine and clinical specialties are forcing some scientists to abandon their research careers for higher-paying private industry or private practice careers. The LRPs counteract that financial pressure by repaying up to $50,000 annually of a researcher’s qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in NIH mission-relevant research. Since tomorrow’s medical breakthroughs will be made by investigators starting in their research careers today, the LRPs represent an important investment by NIH in the future of health discovery and the wellbeing of the Nation.

MSU Geography and Environmental Science and Policy Program Alumna and current Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School Dr. Dee Jordan will conduct a spatial risk assessment of COVID-19 infections in the Ifanadiana District of Madagascar and develop an early warning signal for surveillance. The project will fill critical gaps in knowledge surrounding who in the population becomes infected and where the risk of transmission is the greatest. The findings of this study will directly benefit health workers, reduce risk to exposure by characterizing the potential outbreak areas, inform prevention and control policies in the district, and aid in resource allocation for the COVID-19 pandemic and future health systems strengthening efforts.

Congratulations, Dr. Jordan!