SCOPE 2026 winter Newsletter
First three Left-to-right: SCOPE Fellows: Bewuketu Terefe, Blaine Mengistu-Gunn & Brooke Erickson
Summary of 2025 scope boARD FELLOW’S WORK
In 2025, SCOPE Fellows played a key role in strengthening partnerships, advancing global health initiatives in Ethiopia, and supporting leadership development. The fellows collaborated across institutions and countries, combining academic experience with community-based engagement.
2026 Fellows: Introducing the 2025-26 SCOPE fellows
Two University of Washington (UW) SCOPE Fellows have been named for 2025-26: Marin Strong and Meron Girma. Marin and Meron bring strong backgrounds in global health and community-engaged research, contributing expertise in maternal health, HIV, and health equity. Marin Strong, a community health nurse and PhD candidate, and Meron Girma, a first-year medical student - both at the University of Washington - are committed to advancing health equity through research and community-engaged work focused on sexual and reproductive health, HIV/STI prevention, maternal outcomes, and addressing structural inequities affecting Black and immigrant communities.
Kavya Kumar, SCOPE Student Assistant
Introducing SCOPE STUDENT ASSISTANT: KAVYA KUMAR
Kavya Kumar is the new SCOPE Student Assistant and an undergraduate public health student at the University of Washington. As a student assistant, she supports program operations, communications, and event coordination. She is interested in global health equity, community-based interventions, and health systems, and is also conducting undergraduate research in immunology.
board updates: Dieudonne Hakizimana, Hiwot Weldemariam, david citrin, brian jacobsen
We are welcoming two former SCOPE Fellows to the SCOPE Board. Dieudonne Hakizimana served as a fellow in 2021 and Hiwot Weldemariam was a 2024 SCOPE Fellow. They will bring first hand knowledge of the SCOPE Fellowship to the board.
We also want to give our sincere thanks to Brian Jacobsen for his many years of dedicated service as SCOPE Treasurer.
David Citrin, formerly SCOPE’s Managing Director, transitioned to Waymark, a public benefit company providing free, community-based care for people enrolled in Medicaid programs, where he now serves as Care Operations Analytics Principal on the Care Model & Quality team. We thank David for his contributions to SCOPE and, especially, the fellowship program.