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Woodruff Health Sciences Center celebrates exceptional health professional students
winning team posing with sign

A team of health sciences students tackling the HIV PrEP health challenge won the inaugural IPE-ACTS competition in May. The competition was part of Emory’s new applied interprofessional training program for first-year health professional students.

The Woodruff Health Sciences Center’s Office of Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) celebrated its second full year of operations by hosting the final-round competition of its Interprofessional Education-Achieving Collaborative Team Solutions (IPE-ACTS) training course and an awards ceremony for students receiving its Interprofessional Education (IPE) Certificate of Distinction. 


IPE-ACTS competition addresses health challenges

In April, the office hosted the final round of its IPE-ACTS course, Emory’s new applied interprofessional training program for first-year health professional students.

The first round of IPE-ACTS included 132 interprofessional student teams that developed solutions to the following Atlanta-based health challenges: childhood literacy, climate justice, diabetes outcomes, gender care, HIV PrEP, maternal health, mental health, opioid crisis, science disinformation and violence prevention. Each team submitted a five-minute video of its solution in March, with the top team from each health challenge topic advancing to April’s final round.

The 2024 winning team tackled the HIV PrEP health challenge, while the two honorable mention teams developed solutions for the opioid crisis and science disinformation health challenges. Bill Eley, executive associate dean of the Emory University School of Medicine, and Kristy Martyn, professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, served as final-round judges.

“We were so impressed with the thoughtful and creative health challenge interventions that the IPE-ACTS student teams developed during the first round of the competition,” says Jodie Guest, co-director of the Office of IPECP. “Their concepts demonstrated ingenuity and the value of working in interprofessional teams to solve hard problems and improve the lives of communities.”

The winning teams from each of the 10 health challenges presented their innovative ideas and programs for solving some of Atlanta’s most pervasive health problems.

“We hoped that teams would create concepts that would be worth pursuing and we were thrilled to see multiple ideas that we hope to move to implementation,” Guest adds.

Launched in November 2023, IPE-ACTS is a required interprofessional training course for first-year health professional students in the schools of nursing, medicine and public health. Students enrolled in the course begin by taking online modules providing detailed information regarding the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies.

In January, students participated in IPE-ACTS Day, when they learned more about their specific health challenge and met with their teams to develop contracts and begin brainstorming their solution. Teams then met three times from February through mid-March before they submitted their first-round health challenge solution videos.

“While launching IPE-ACTS was a huge undertaking, we have been so impressed with what our health professional students developed in their interprofessional teams,” says Beth Ann Swann, Office of IPECP co-director. “We had a very successful pilot year for IPE-ACTS, and we look forward to working with our planning team to incorporate lessons learned so that we can continue to build upon and improve the program for each new cohort of health professional students.”


IPE Certificate of Distinction Awards

In May, 28 health sciences students received the IPE Certificate of Distinction, which recognizes Woodruff Health Sciences Center students, residents and fellows who have demonstrated a strong commitment to interprofessional education and have distinguished themselves by participating in approved IPE-experiential learning opportunities while at Emory. The IPECP office held a reception in the recipients’ honor prior to graduation ceremonies.

“After launching the program in fall 2023, we were thrilled to have so many health professional students apply to become part of our second IPE certificate cohort this spring,” Swan says. “Emory students and trainees give so much of their time outside of the classroom to important interprofessional activities that will help them become better health professionals. We are pleased that we can recognize their hard work through our certificate program.”

The Office of IPECP will award IPE Certificates of Distinction three times per year to align with the university’s May, August and December graduation schedules.

“It was great to see so many students both take advantage of the incredible interprofessional opportunities available to them at Emory and to be able to honor them for their work,” Guest says. “As our certificate program grows, we expect and look forward to honoring more and more students from all the health sciences schools and programs during Emory’s three graduation periods.

“We also look forward to continuing our IPE-ACTS program so that Emory health professional students learn the required interprofessional education competencies in an exciting and applied format,” Guest adds.

Project title: Let’s get PrEPared! Bridging the gap between PrEP and college students, with an emphasis on Black men who have sex with men (MSM)

Faculty champion: Aaron Siegler, Rollins School of Public Health

Ellery Andersen, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Sophie Bustamante, Rollins School of Public Health

Alysia Ferrebee, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Bella Garcia, Rollins School of Public Health

Shelby Mayo, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Celine Mouawad, Emory University School of Medicine

Jiawen Shi, Rollins School of Public Health

Lucy Walke, Emory University School of Medicine

Katie Whitehead, Emory University School of Medicine

Project title: Combating science disinformation and vaccine hesitancy

Faculty champion: Jodie Guest, Rollins School of Public Health

Alyssa Bernstein, Rollins School of Public Health

Meklit Bogale, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Alondra Cruz, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Abby Goldman, Emory University School of Medicine

Katie Haynick, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Allison Levitas, Emory University School of Medicine

Ramitha Rajendragowda Pallavi, Rollins School of Public Health

Marsha Walker, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Julie Zhu, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Yiming Zuo, Rollins School of Public Health


Project title: Opioid crisis: Harm reduction field day

Faculty champion: Sarah Febres-Cordero, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Madeline Davis, Rollins School of Public Health

Taylor Hodges, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Brianna Howard, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Victoria Kowalczyk, Emory University School of Medicine

Falzal Mamani, Emory University School of Medicine

Mackensey Moore, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Caroline Olson, Emory University School of Medicine

Vishika Patel, Rollins School of Public Health

Mia Roces, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Jacqueline Simpson, Rollins School of Public Health

The spring 2024 IPE Certificate recipients included students and trainees who participated in interprofessional experiential learning activities that Emory offers. The awardees are:

Natalie Atese Yaa Akoto, Rollins School of Public Health

Hannah Averill, Rollins School of Public Health

Almas Badani, Rollins School of Public Health

Surabhi Beriwal, Emory University School of Medicine

Maximilian Peter Brady, Emory University School of Medicine

Danielle Cicka, Emory University School of Medicine

Amanda Colton, Emory University School of Medicine

Jacqueline Comiter, Emory University School of Medicine

James Colton Cooper, Rollins School of Public Health

Elora Cortes, Rollins School of Public Health

Jeavanie Desarmes, Rollins School of Public Health

Victoria Dotto, Rollins School of Public Health

Ramya Ginjupalli, Emory University School of Medicine

Rebecca Hong, Emory University School of Medicine

Abigail LeCates, Emory University School of Medicine

Amber Leigh-Garcia, Rollins School of Public Health

Ketki Vinayak Joshi, Rollins School of Public Health

Turkan Banu Karatas, Emory University School of Medicine

Sarah Kuechenmeister, Rollins School of Public Health

Roshan Modi, Emory University School of Medicine

Oreoluwa E. Olakunke, Emory University School of Medicine

Suprithi Pingle, Rollins School of Public Health

Isabelle Santangelo, Rollins School of Public Health

Heidi Sielbach, Rollins School of Public Health

Hannah Marcovitch, Emory University School of Medicine/Rollins School of Public Health

Meg Winata, Emory University School of Public Health

Megan Wittling, Emory University School of Medicine

Seth Zissette, Rollins School of Public Health/Laney Graduate School

Please visit the Office of IPECP website to learn more about its IPE-ACTS and IPE Certificate of Distinction programs.

The 2024 winning team of the inaugural IPE-ACTS competition tackled the HIV PrEP health challenge, while the two honorable mention teams developed solutions for the opioid crisis and science disinformation health challenges.


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