By Staff Reports
(O’ahu)– Catherine Pirkle, an assistant professor in the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies, has been selected as a Fulbright Specialist by the J. William Fulbright Council for International Exchange of Scholars. She will collaborate with faculty at the College of Health Sciences of Trairí (FACISA), which is a rural satellite campus of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Northeast Brazil.
Dr. Pirkle, a resident of Mānoa Valley, has a long history of working in underserved global settings, including West Africa and Arctic regions. She has strong, long-term international connections to research teams around the globe. As a Fulbright Specialist, she will lead teacher training at FACISA, and participate in short-term lectures and seminars on topics including early pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and violence against women. Her efforts will support the host institution in preparing students to address critical public health needs and to attract more local and international students.
Created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, the Fulbright Specialist provides short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post-secondary academic institutions around the world. As a Fulbright Specialist, Dr. Pirkle will be considered for additional future overseas assignments that require her unique expertise during the next three years.
The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over its 60 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have taught, studied or conducted research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States.