Austin Jones
Austin is a fifth-year MD/PhD student at Tulane University in New Orleans studying infectious disease epidemiology. After completing his undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley in 2013, he developed a passion for tropical medicine while working in rural Panama for the non-governmental organization Floating Doctors. He created the organization’s community health education program to provide longitudinal care to the indigenous Ngäbe-Buglé. He subsequently moved to New Orleans where he completed a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. Austin’s research involves screening and linkage to care for infectious diseases and expanding health services for Hepatitis C and chlamydia in New Orleans. He is an aspiring emergency physician. In his future career, he aims to deliver healthcare in low-resource settings and integrate public health interventions with emergency services. Outside of medicine and public health, he is an outdoor enthusiast. Austin spent the past five summers completing a 5,500-mile journey hiking, biking and kayaking from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.
Attacks on Ebola Treatment Facilities and Incidence of Ebola in the North Kivu Outbreak
7/07/2019 - 8/25/2019
Democratic Republic of the Congo
What does the Kean Fellowship mean to you?
It is an incredible honor to have been chosen for the Ben Kean Fellowship. This award has allowed me to pursue my dream of working at the WHO, blending my passions for emergency response and infectious disease public health. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to strengthen my global health experience.
What do you anticipate learning?
I hope to learn from leaders in the field of outbreak response. The WHO is the ideal site to train under clinicians and epidemiologists alike who are responding to the ongoing Ebola outbreak. I plan to develop a skillset in ArcGIS and spatial mapping of infectious diseases. I aim to forge enduring partnerships in collaborating with local and international researchers. Through the Kean Fellowship, I anticipate gaining practical experience in epidemiology for my future global health career.
What interests you about tropical medicine and what problems are you interested in solving?
My interest in tropical medicine is focused on addressing global health security. Disease outbreaks serve as the ideal application of a dual clinical and public health skillset. I am drawn to outbreaks in tropical regions as they require navigating complex cultural, socioeconomic, political and environmental factors that interface with the delivery of care. Furthermore, I support capacity-building to equip at-risk regions with the tools to prevent, detect and respond to these crises. I am passionate about training as an emergency physician and epidemiologist so that I can most effectively help those who have limited access to care.