2021 Alumni Award Winners

Allison Barlow, MPH '97; BSPH Faculty

Director, Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Distinguished Alumna Award

Allison Barlow, PhD, MPH ’97, MA is a committed advocate and partner of Native American communities. She joined the Center for American Indian Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1991 and has served as director since 2016. Through the Center, she develops public health interventions with tribal communities to promote health equity. These programs employ Indigenous outreach workers who design, direct, and evaluate interventions with and for their communities.

In spring 2020, Dr. Barlow and her team at the Center recognized that the living situations of many Native communities would place them at high risk for COVID-19. They embedded their workforce with the Indian Health Service to do COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, vaccination, and extensive wrap-around services, including delivery of food, water, medicines, hygiene kits, baby supplies, pet food, and other supplies. They created dozens of free resources for tribal communities, such as COVID-19 and vaccination data tracking tools, fact sheets, radio scripts, videos and social media posts. They continue to partner with Navajo Nation to address water insecurity and scale solutions to other tribal communities in need.

Dr. Barlow’s leadership of the Center has also included the creation of the Family Spirit early childhood home-visiting program now active in more than 130 tribal communities; the Native Vision program that partners with professional athletes to promote Native American youth development; and, the Arrowhead youth entrepreneurship program. In addition, she helped launch the first-of-its kind graduate Public Health Training Certificate in American Indian Health at Johns Hopkins.

Lee Bone, MPH '77; BSPH Faculty

Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Community Champion Award

Lee is responsible for the success of hundreds of community initiatives, including sponsored projects, research and service-based care, all aimed at improving health disparities. She serves on committees, teaches, garners program sponsorship, and champions community based participatory services and research. Her remarkable skill is in helping the community identify its own needs and in accessing Hopkins and other resources to attend to social needs and assure quality care. Lee has worked with East Baltimore churches, Baltimore City Schools, the Health Department, Baltimore CONNECT, and state and professional agencies. Notably she has fostered the growth of successful community health worker training programs, and community experiences for Hopkins students.

Currently, she directs the Hopkins undergraduate public health program community health course. Lee is known by everyone at Hopkins and in the community and is universally respected and trusted. She is passionate, relentless and action oriented. Most importantly, she is “out there” at health screenings, training, and community events. She is a hands-on partner with the community who believes first in community empowerment.

Janice Bowie, PhD '97; BSPH Faculty

DrPH program Chair, Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Distinguished Alumna Award

Janice Bowie, PhD ’97, MPH, is a nationally recognized expert in health disparities and community-based research methods. Her collaborative research across Hopkins and the Baltimore community explores approaches that actively engage community partners to improve the health and wellbeing of their communities, which leads to the success and sustainability of community-based interventions. One partnership has examined the unique association of spirituality and health in prevention and treatment decision making.

Dr. Bowie’s multi-disciplinary approach brings together researchers from across Johns Hopkins and the communities the enterprise inhabits. She is core faculty in the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, which connects research, programs, and resources from across the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, and Nursing. She is also affiliated with the Urban Health Institute, which aims to strengthen and support collaborations between the Baltimore community and Johns Hopkins through community gatherings, capacity building workshops, neighborhood leadership programs, symposiums, and highlighting local research.

In September of 2020, Dr. Bowie was named a Bloomberg Centennial Professor, an endowed position that is part of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the School of Public Health. She is a faculty member in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Bloomberg School where she also directs the schoolwide Doctor of Public Health degree program. Her leadership of the program has tripled enrollment, demonstrating her remarkable commitment to training and equipping a new generation of public health leaders who will tackle the challenges facing their communities.

Allysa Dittmar (ClearMask), MHS ‘17; KSAS BA ’14

Co-Founder and President, ClearMask, LLC

Outstanding Recent Graduate Award

Through their company ClearMask, LLC, Allysa Dittmar, BA ’14, MHS ‘17, Elyse Heob, MPH/MBA ‘18, Aaron Hsu, BS ’14, MHS ’15 and Inez Lam, BS ‘16, PhD ‘22, designed the world’s first FDA-cleared, fully transparent surgical mask and have sold 17,000,000 masks worldwide since April 2020.  Their transparent masks are an equitable, accessible, and safe alternative to traditional masks for individuals who rely on visual communication to communicate and connect with others. Their impact has expanded exponentially during the pandemic, removing barriers in communities and workplaces via national governments, state and federal agencies, hospitals, clinics, universities, schools, and many more.

While their work is particularly relevant today as communities use masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, the product’s concept has a deeply personal origin for co-founder Allysa Dittmar. Allysa, who was born profoundly deaf, realized the need for this product when she was unexpectedly left unable to communicate with her surgical team. She and her team developed hundreds of prototypes to maximize clarity, comfort, and human connection and have expanded product lines to offer a consumer mask and a FDA-cleared mask in different sizes. Critical investments in their work have come through awards and grants, including support from Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab.

Elyse Heob (ClearMask), MPH/MBA '18

Co-Founder and COO, ClearMask, LLC

Outstanding Recent Graduate Award

Through their company ClearMask, LLC, Allysa Dittmar, BA ’14, MHS ‘17, Elyse Heob, MPH/MBA ‘18, Aaron Hsu, BS ’14, MHS ’15 and Inez Lam, BS ‘16, PhD ‘22, designed the world’s first FDA-cleared, fully transparent surgical mask and have sold 17,000,000 masks worldwide since April 2020.  Their transparent masks are an equitable, accessible, and safe alternative to traditional masks for individuals who rely on visual communication to communicate and connect with others. Their impact has expanded exponentially during the pandemic, removing barriers in communities and workplaces via national governments, state and federal agencies, hospitals, clinics, universities, schools, and many more.

While their work is particularly relevant today as communities use masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, the product’s concept has a deeply personal origin for co-founder Allysa Dittmar. Allysa, who was born profoundly deaf, realized the need for this product when she was unexpectedly left unable to communicate with her surgical team. She and her team developed hundreds of prototypes to maximize clarity, comfort, and human connection and have expanded product lines to offer a consumer mask and a FDA-cleared mask in different sizes. Critical investments in their work have come through awards and grants, including support from Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab.

Aaron Hsu (ClearMask), MHS '15; KSAS BA '14

Co-Founder and CEO, ClearMask, LLC

Outstanding Recent Graduate Award

Through their company ClearMask, LLC, Allysa Dittmar, BA ’14, MHS ‘17, Elyse Heob, MPH/MBA ‘18, Aaron Hsu, BS ’14, MHS ’15 and Inez Lam, BS ‘16, PhD ‘22, designed the world’s first FDA-cleared, fully transparent surgical mask and have sold 17,000,000 masks worldwide since April 2020.  Their transparent masks are an equitable, accessible, and safe alternative to traditional masks for individuals who rely on visual communication to communicate and connect with others. Their impact has expanded exponentially during the pandemic, removing barriers in communities and workplaces via national governments, state and federal agencies, hospitals, clinics, universities, schools, and many more.

While their work is particularly relevant today as communities use masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, the product’s concept has a deeply personal origin for co-founder Allysa Dittmar. Allysa, who was born profoundly deaf, realized the need for this product when she was unexpectedly left unable to communicate with her surgical team. She and her team developed hundreds of prototypes to maximize clarity, comfort, and human connection and have expanded product lines to offer a consumer mask and a FDA-cleared mask in different sizes. Critical investments in their work have come through awards and grants, including support from Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab.

Brandon J. Johnson, MHS '12

Public Health Advisor, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Outstanding Recent Graduate Award

Brandon J. Johnson, MH, MCHES, is a tireless advocate for positive mental health and suicide prevention services for youth and adults across the country. Brandon earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Morgan State University in 2008 and a Master of Health Science Degree from Johns Hopkins University in 2012. Currently, he serves as a Public Health Advisor at the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the Suicide Prevention Branch at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this role, Brandon serves as a Government Project Officer (GPO) for various suicide prevention grant programs that target youth, adults, and health care systems. Brandon is also the GPO for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), which provides suicide-specific materials, webinars, and training to organizations and communities all over the country working to prevent suicides. Brandon is also the Co-Lead of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s Faith Communities Task Force. Brandon also serves as the subject matter expert in suicide among Black people within the agency.  

He has led numerous projects to develop resources and materials to specifically prevent suicide among African-American youth, including representing SAMHSA on the 2020 HHS Report to Congress on African American Youth Suicide.  Brandon is the creator of “The Black Mental Wellness Lounge,” a YouTube channel dedicated to discussing Black mental health and healing. The Black Mental Wellness Lounge is a YouTube page dedicated to the promotion of Black mental health tips, education, and resources for the community

Vikram Krishnasamy, MPH '14

Medical Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Outstanding Recent Graduate Award

Vikram Krishnasamy, MD, MPH ’14, is a CDC medical officer working to address America’s drug overdose crisis. His work has involved collaborating with law enforcement and public health partners to assist patients on opioid therapy affected by clinic closures. He also developed an online training program for public health partners that gave them tools to understand the overdose epidemic. In October 2020, he was awarded the Emerging Leaders Service to America Medal for his work from the Partnership for Public Service. Vikram holds board certifications in internal medicine and preventive medicine and also completed CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service. He continues to provide clinical care in a free clinic in Clarkston, GA.

Inez Lam (ClearMask), WSE BS '16

Co-Founder and CEO, ClearMask, LLC

Outstanding Recent Graduate Award

Through their company ClearMask, LLC, Allysa Dittmar, BA ’14, MHS ‘17, Elyse Heob, MPH/MBA ‘18, Aaron Hsu, BS ’14, MHS ’15 and Inez Lam, BS ‘16, PhD ‘22, designed the world’s first FDA-cleared, fully transparent surgical mask and have sold 17,000,000 masks worldwide since April 2020.  Their transparent masks are an equitable, accessible, and safe alternative to traditional masks for individuals who rely on visual communication to communicate and connect with others. Their impact has expanded exponentially during the pandemic, removing barriers in communities and workplaces via national governments, state and federal agencies, hospitals, clinics, universities, schools, and many more.

While their work is particularly relevant today as communities use masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, the product’s concept has a deeply personal origin for co-founder Allysa Dittmar. Allysa, who was born profoundly deaf, realized the need for this product when she was unexpectedly left unable to communicate with her surgical team. She and her team developed hundreds of prototypes to maximize clarity, comfort, and human connection and have expanded product lines to offer a consumer mask and a FDA-cleared mask in different sizes. Critical investments in their work have come through awards and grants, including support from Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab.

Wui-Chiang Lee, MHS '02, PhD '05

Director of the Department of Medical Affairs and Planning, Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Wui-Chiang (John) Lee received an MD in Taiwan and then an MHS (2002) and PhD (2005) from the Department of Health Policy and Management at the BSPH. Currently he is the Director of the Department of Medical Affairs and Planning at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan.

During the past year, Wui-Chiang has made an extraordinary effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan and to support us at Johns Hopkins. As part of the leadership team guiding the prestigious medical center through its own COVID-19 response, he appreciated early last winter how critical masks are to keeping healthcare providers and others safe. When he discovered that Hopkins was experiencing shortages, he worked with several Taiwanese donors to coordinate the manufacture, purchase and shipment of 100,000 facemasks to our campus in Baltimore. In 2003, while a PhD student at the BSPH, Wui-Chiang worked with faculty and fellow Taiwanese students to draft a comprehensive SARS epidemic control program, which was adopted almost in its entirety by the Taiwanese government. Taiwan’s experience with SARS created the groundwork for their recent successful effort to combat COVID-19. Wui-Chiang explains how grateful he is for his Hopkins training that helped him and his fellow Taiwanese public health and medical community members manage COVID-19 and SARS. He writes, “I am honored to have an opportunity to pay back my alma mater when she needs me.”

Lisa Maragakis, MD '98, MPH '07

Senior Director of Infection Prevention, The Johns Hopkins Health System; Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Director, Department of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, Hospital Epidemiologist, The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Distinguished Alumna Award

Lisa Maragakis, MD '98, MPH '07, FSHEA, FIDSA is an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she is Senior Director of Infection Prevention, Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Biocontainment Unit and Incident Commander for the Johns Hopkins Medicine COVID-19 response. Her research interests are the epidemiology, prevention and control of healthcare -acquired infections and antimicrobial-resistant organisms. Dr. Maragakis serves as Co-Chair of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2020 Updates of the Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections.

Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH '14

Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Pandemic Center, Brown University School of Public Health

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH ’14, is an epidemiologist and researcher lending her experience to the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Dr. Nuzzo was recently named the inaugural director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health and was formerly a Senior Scholar at the Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also a Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of the Outbreak Observatory, which conducts operational research to improve outbreak preparedness and response in partnership with frontline public health practitioners. Her newly visible and timely work focuses on pandemic preparedness, outbreak detection and response, health systems as they relate to global health security, biosurveillance, and infectious disease diagnostics. This work is not only critical to our fight against COVID-19, but will also serve the world through continued vigilance and preparation.

Dr. Nuzzo shares her expertise on pandemic preparedness and response widely and regularly, from leading news outlets to national governments and for-profit and non-profit organizations. She served as the lead epidemiologist for the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Testing Insights Initiative, housed within the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, and co-led the development of the first-ever Global Health Security Index. Through her deft use of social media and appearances across traditional media, she reinforces valuable and useful information in an easily digestible format. Dr. Nuzzo is a credible, trusted voice of public health during a time when our world is looking for guidance, answers, and hope.

Thomas Pearson, MD '76; MPH '76, PhD '83; KSAS BA '73

Heritage Award

Thomas Pearson, MD ‘76, PhD ‘83, MPH ’76, is an international leader in public health research and cardiovascular disease prevention, whose long relationship with the University has encompassed four degrees, two residencies, and investments of time and resources. Pearson is a founding member of the World Heart Forum for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and has been a major contributor to the American Heart Association’s prevention guidelines. He has a special interest in observing heart disease trends and the extent to which guidelines are carried out, and he has lectured and published extensively on these topics. His scholarly contributions were recognized in 2009 when he was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars.

Mentoring, both received and given, has been a cornerstone of his career. In honor of more than three decades of excellence in mentoring, the American Heart Association Prevention Mentoring Award in 2019. Dr. Pearson continues to show his passion for investing in students through consistent financial support for students and fellows across the School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School. He is currently exploring options for to recognize the importance of preventive medicine at the Bloomberg School.

Katherine Phillips, MSN/MPH ’12, Nurs BS ’10

Medical Director, Esperanza Center Health Services Clinic; Family Nurse Practitioner, Esperanza Center Health Services Clinic

Community Champion Award

As a nurse practitioner and medical director at the Esperanza Center, Katherine Phillips, MSN/MPH '12, Nurs BS '10, set up a bilingual COVID-19 hotline in March of 2020 so that immigrant patients without a doctor could access Sars-CoV-2 testing. To date, the impactful hotline has fielded over 5,000 calls. When Hopkins set up its Sars-CoV-2 community testing at Sacred Heart Church, it used the Esperanza hotline to register patients for testing and as a resource for patients to call with questions, worsening symptoms, etc. Once the vaccine became available, the hotline linked callers to vaccine appointments and to date has helped vaccinate hundreds of people. A team of community health workers led by Phillips conducts on the ground outreach at sites frequented by Latino immigrants, including Latino grocery stores, churches, and sites where day laborers seek work. In addition to COVID-19 work, Katie leads a team of 13 at the Esperanza Center Health Clinic, which offers free primary care to undocumented immigrants in the Greater Baltimore area. 

Raymond Reid, MPH '81

Sr. Research Associate, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Dr. Reid earned an MPH from BSPH in 1981, completed a Preventive Medicine Residency in 1982, and joined the BSPH faculty thereafter. He received his MD from the University of Utah in 1979. Among the first Native American physicians trained in public health, he has applied this knowledge to life-saving work with Native American populations for 40 years, including the White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, Hopi, and Navajo tribes. Working and living on both the White Mountain Apache and Navajo reservations since 1983, he has made outstanding contributions to the health of Native populations that have scaled to the globe, saving millions of children’s lives, including: landmark studies on Oral Rehydration Solution and treatment of diarrheal diseases that have changed international policies; pivotal studies to prove new vaccines for H.influenzae type B (Hib), Pneumococcal disease and Rotavirus that affected Native children at higher rates. These vaccines are now the standard of care throughout the world; and co-founding the Center for American Indian Health’s Training program, through which he has mentored hundreds of Native American health care workers and researchers.

Dr. Reid, as the first Navajo alumnus of Johns Hopkins, has combined the highest standards of excellence with a humanitarian compassion that knows no bounds. He has been singularly focused on promoting health and educational equity for Native Americans, who have suffered the most deep-seeded disparities in the US.

Anne W. Rimoin, PhD '03

Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Gordon-Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health, UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health;
Director, UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health; Director, UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program

Global Achievement Award

Anne W. Rimoin, PhD ’03, is one of the world’s preeminent experts on global epidemiology and emerging infectious diseases. Her pioneering research in Central Africa has led to fundamental understandings of the re-emergence of human monkeypox virus in rural populations, long-term immune responses in Ebolavirus disease survivors and yielded important discoveries, including the identification of new pathogens in populations at the animal-human interface. Dr. Rimoin has been a strong advocate for capacity building in low resource settings and conducting disease surveillance in complex emergencies.

A leading voice on the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Rimoin appears frequently on television and radio and is a regular guest on local, national, and international news media. She is currently leading several COVID-19 studies in the U.S. and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including research on occupational exposures and attitudes towards vaccination in health workers, first responders, and other essential worker populations.

Dr. Rimoin directs the Center for Global and Immigrant Health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, where she is a Professor of Epidemiology and the Gordon-Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health. She has worked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 2002, where she founded the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training program to train U.S. and Congolese epidemiologists to conduct high-impact infectious disease research.

Karen Schneider, MD, MPH ’08 

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Global Achievement Award

Sister Karen Schneider, MD, MPH '08 received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Saint Joseph’s College in 2019 in addition to five others from various institutions. She is a pediatrician and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins where she has been recognized for her international medical work in the service of children. Sister Karen coordinates the Pediatric Tropical Medicine elective, for which she supervises clinical experiences for residents in several countries, lectures on tropical medicine to pediatric residents, and updates out-of-country physicians and health workers on medical topics. She has completed more than 80 medical mission trips including work in Haiti, Guyana, Nigeria, and Kenya, where she provided medical care to countless people in need of assistance, and has touched both young and not-so-young with her healing presence.