Colombian Veterinarian Completes 10-Week Public Health Training Program in NY

ALBANY, N.Y. (August 16, 2022) – Collaborations between the University at Albany School of Public Health and partner universities in Latin America have led to meaningful educational dialogues and exchanges, with a visiting veterinarian from Colombia recently completing a 10-week internship at the New York State Department of Health.

“In recent years, we’ve met virtually with colleagues in Latin America, and used digital technologies to bring together our classrooms,” says John Justino, Director of the UAlbany Center for Global Health. “It has been beneficial to all involved to hear various perspectives and solutions to our local, national, and international public health problems.”

“In the middle of the pandemic, we collaborated with universities in Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, and held virtual seminars in Spanish. The increased use of technology has made these partnerships possible,” says Alvaro Carrascal, emeritus faculty at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and an affiliated faculty at the Center for Global Health.

In 2021, these collaborations deepened, with UAlbany’s Alvaro Carrascal and DrPH student Jeancarlo Cordoba developing and delivering a remote module on global health at Universidad Javeriana Cali in Colombia.

Maria Isabel Sanclemente, a veterinarian and MPH student at the Universidad Javeriana Cali, took part in the global health module, and afterwards reached out to Carrascal, Cordoba, and Justino to ask about international internship opportunities with UAlbany and the New York State Department of Health. She had been working in promotion, prevention, inspection, and surveillance for health and environmental sanitation in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, and was eager to learn more from an international perspective.

“Maria Isabel is an exceptional student and young professional, and we were impressed with her contributions during our virtual short-course on global health,” says Justino. “We’ve worked with colleagues at the Department of Health and the Wadsworth Center to host internship placements for graduate students from other key partner universities around the world in the past. Each and every one of these exchanges have been successful and viewed as mutually beneficial. So, we agreed to explore placement opportunities that align with Maria Isabel’s ongoing graduate thesis work at the Universidad Javeriana Cali and with her long-term career goals.”

Based on Sanclemente’s research interests and background as a veterinarian, Justino reached out to Bryon Backenson at the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, who also holds a faculty appointment in UAlbany’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Andie Newman, the New York State Public Health Veterinarian, to see if they would be interested in hosting Sanclemente as an intern.

This summer, Sanclemente worked under Newman and Backenson for a 10-week training program, learning about a variety of communicable diseases and New York’s surveillance and response to public health problems. She analyzed databases, helped to make decisions on projects, and participated in meetings with the CDC, FDA, local health departments, and other partners. She also visited the Rabies Lab to see how samples were processed, helped to analyze and respond to outbreaks for foodborne diseases, and joined the Albany County Health Department on restaurant and summer camp inspections.

“Having the opportunity to work with everyone at the Department of Health was very enriching, and the entire time everyone was very kind and shared their knowledge,” says Sanclemente. “Every time I asked something, they answered me with the best attitude and shared articles and related texts so that I could go deeper into the subject.”

According to Backenson, “Maria Isabel fit right in and hit the ground running. She was eager to learn and was open to new experiences, and definitely made a positive contribution to our work. And while she learned a great deal about communicable disease control in New York State, our team learned a great deal from her and about her work in Colombia.”

“Creating opportunities for public health professionals and students from around the world to work together and share experiences is so important given the increasing frequency, severity and global reach of fast-moving zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks,” Newman adds. “Cooperation between public health scientists and disease control specialists around the world is more important than ever.”

Sanclemente notes that the internship was interesting right from day one, as she previously only had experience working for a local health department, so approaching communicable diseases from the state level was entirely new. In the future, she hopes to apply all of her education and work for the CDC or World Health Organization, contributing to public health programs or policies that can improve the living conditions of various communities.

“For me, seeing the differences and successful experiences in other countries are useful to implement them in other places—and I feel very motivated and confident to continue growing to achieve my professional goals,” she says. “This international internship experience has been one of the best in my life. Not only for the professional growth, but for the personal growth as well.”