Elizabeth Smith

Mario Trejo

Graduate students Elizabeth Smith and Mario Trejo have been selected for the Cancer Epidemiology Education in Special Populations (CEESP) Program Fellowship this summer.

The students, who are both in the master of public health (MPH) program, will conduct a research project for 15 weeks during the period of May-August.

Smith is in the MPH program with a concentration in Health Services Administration. She will be engaged in a quality improvement project at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System (SAVAHCS) for an underserved population in Southern Arizona.

Smith will be conducting a comprehensive chart review of advance directive (living will), completion rates in veterans diagnosed with cancer. This will allow for SAVACHS to gauge the effectiveness of their process for discussing and transcribing advance directives with cancer patients.

Trejo is a first year MPH Student with a concentration in Epidemiology. He will be working with epidemiologists at the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. He will be working on studying the effect of HIV status on cancer progression for cases of non-metastatic cervical cancer.

The CEESP Program funds MPH and PhD students conducting cancer research related to minority populations within the U.S. and international settings. The program provides special educational opportunities for students to learn about cancer epidemiology in special populations as well as translation of epidemiology into cancer control and prevention interventions.

CEESP is funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (R25 CA112383). The program is housed within the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health.