Professor wins prestigious U.S. Public Health Service fellowship ANN ARBOR—Deborah Schild Wilkinson, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, has been named a 2001 Primary Care Policy Fellow by the U.S. Public Health Service.

The fellowship provides award recipients with intensive six-month training, in which participants study primary care policy, education and research to become more effective advocates for the improvement of primary health care at all levels of government and in the private sector. It also includes sessions on leadership development and media training.

Wilkinson, who holds doctoral and master’s degrees in social work and a master’s of public health degree in maternal and child health, was nominated by the National Association of Social Workers for her scholarly and service contributions in the development and teaching of health policy issues, as well as in the social work profession.

While in the fellowship program, Wilkinson’s work will focus on aspects of prevention, and on interdisciplinary practice and policies that support training in primary care policy. It is likely that her work will relate somehow to genetics and maternal-child health.

Created in 1991, the fellowship brings together a multidisciplinary, international group of primary health care leaders to meet and work with top government, congressional and private-sector health care officials in Washington, D.C.

The program is sponsored and administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and co-sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Health Care Financing Administration, Indian Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Deborah Schild WilkinsonNational Association of Social WorkersHealth Resources and Services Administration