Outstanding Recent Graduate Award 2012

Tresa Kaur Dusaj
Tresa Kaur Dusaj graduated from Hopkins in 2004 with her BSN and graduated from New York University in 2007 with her MSN. She is now in the dissertation phase of a Doctor in Philosphy degree at Rutgers University. Tresa is also an Assistant Professor at Monmouth Univeristy. She is one of the 700 nurses nationwide who have become certified in Informatics. She maintains an active role in Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, and the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association, and she is founder of the Graduate Student Informatics Organization. Top

Blair Glencorse, SAIS Bol '03 (Dipl), SAIS '04
Blair Glencorse is Founder and Executive Director of the Accountability Lab, an independent, non-profit organization that works to make power-holders responsible in the developing world. Previously, Blair worked on issues of state and market-building across Africa, Asia the Middle-East and Latin America at the Institute for State Effectiveness and the Aspen Institute, and on post-conflict and fragile states at the World Bank. Blair received an MA with honors in American Foreign Policy and Economics from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he has also co-taught a course on post-conflict reconstruction; and an MA in Modern History from the University of Edinburgh where he won the Kirkpatrick Prize for the highest grades in the graduating class. Blair is a Fellow at the British-American Project and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA); an Ambassador of the British Council’s TN2020 Leadership Network; and a BMW Foundation YoungLeader. In 2011 during the Arab Awakenings, Blair was honored as a UN Alliance of Civilizations Fellow for the Middle East and North Africa; and in 2012 he was named one of the top “99 under 33” Foreign Policy Leaders by Diplomatic Courier magazine. Blair has worked tirelessly to support SAIS, through teaching, mentorship and career advice for students, guest talks, Bologna Center applicant interviews, and fundraising support. Top

Lara B McKenzie
Lara B. McKenzie is the Principal Investigator for the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor in Pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and College of Public Health. The Center for Injury Research and Policy is one of only 11 Injury Control Research Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is the only one focused on injuries to children and adolescents. Dr. McKenzie’s research interests in the field of public health broadly include social and behavioral sciences and child injury prevention and control. To date, her research has focused on the health of children and the prevention of injury, with specific attention to injuries that occur in and around the home as well as the delivery of injury prevention interventions in the pediatric emergency department and the community. She has an interest in the relationship of childhood obesity and child safety seats, as well as in various consumer product-related injuries, sports injuries, and activity-related injuries. She is an incredibly productive scholar, receiving NIH funding and awards for products that come out of the research. She also contributes to several professional societies and serves as a mentor for many students. Most importantly, her research contributes important new knowledge about the critically important public health problem of preventable child injuries, which are the leading cause of death for children, and she is committed to making sure that knowledge is translated to the public and to decision makers. Top

Adam C. Sirois, SPH '10
After graduating with an MPH in 2010, Adam Sirois was hired by New York University College of Nursing (NYUCN) to become the Coordinator of the Office of Global Health, heading several cutting-edge public health projects and working with Dr. Ann Kurth, the Executive Director of the NYU College of Nursing Office of Global Health. Adam is currently working on several projects in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, including needle exchange programs, HIV prevention programs, Hepatitis C testing, positive prevention, and computerized counseling. In Kenya, he is currently studying HIV infections among injecting drug users (IDUs),one of the most at-risk populations. Partnership with Kenya’s national HIV program will allow lessons learned from this study to inform other countries that are considering how best to address the growing IDU contribution to the HIV epidemic in this high-HIV-burden region. In Tanzania, Mr. Sirois is studying the integrated management of pregnancy and childbirth using computer-based teaching in HIV education. The intrapartum period represents a time of high risk for women and newborns in Tanzania. The project focuses on increasing the utilization of high quality, evidence-based care provided by midwives in the rural Lakes Region of Western Tanzania. NYUCN is partnering with MoHSW, the Tanzanian Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Touch Foundation, Expert24, and Tigo to implement and evaluate an integrated obstetric practice and referral improvement intervention linking midwives at frontline health centers with providers at district hospitals and utilizing innovative m-Health technology, provider and patient incentives, and social marketing. Top

Jacob Yoffee, Peab '02, '03 (GPO), '04 (GPC)
Jacob Yoffee (BM '02, Composition; GPD '03 Jazz; GPD '04, Jazz Saxophone) maintains two extremely impressive careers: one as a saxophonist and one as a concert and film composer. As a saxophonist, he is a member of Darin Atwater’s Soulful Symphony and of the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra. He also leads his own quintet, the Murray Avenue Jazz Initiative, and his own four-piece electric group, Metaphor. He was signed to Inner Circle Music Records in 2007, and his debut album Dead Reckoning garnered an article in the New York Times and a cover feature for Saxophone Journal Magazine. He has worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and played with jazz greats Gary Thomas and George Colligan. His website for his life as a saxophonist can be found here: http://www.jacobyoffee.com/live/. In his other life, he is Resident Composer for the American Studio Orchestra. He recently scored Children of the Corn: Genesis and has scored nine independent features including Sinking Sands, an African film that was nominated for Best Score of 2010 at the Ghana Movie Awards. His concert music has been performed in the US and abroad. His website for this part of his career is extensive and can be found at www.jacobyoffeemusic.com. Jacob was originally nominated by Peabody Faculty member Gary Thomas and recommended by the Steering Committee of the Society of Peabody Alumni.