TONI PERLING

A poverty warrior and change agent. That’s how Joseph Eltobgi, MBA, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (TMBCI), describes himself. He’s worked for the betterment of the more than 32,000 members of his North Dakota community in various roles for more than a decade.
So, when he was hired to join the CDC Foundation as a senior public health advisor, he recognized it as “an exciting opportunity. I've never really imagined using my skill sets and experience to suppo...

A longtime Tennessee public health nurse working to increase vaccination rates for children ages 5- to 11-years-old. A pair of recent graduates contributing innovative ideas to a statewide health-equity initiative in Wisconsin. And the daughter of immigrants helping address the health needs of Nevada’s newly resettled Afghan refugees.
These are just a few of the 60-plus CDC Foundation employees working in the public health protection field as health equity project managers.

Through rain, snow, sleet, windstorms and even unexpected visits from wildlife, a dedicated trio of COVID-19 Corps healthcare workers are battling the pandemic—and the elements—in their native Alaska to provide COVID testing to the population of Anchorage and beyond. Elizabeth Arteaga, Elizabeth Aarons, and Tracy Frost are the tight-knit team of former in-patient nurses now tasked with running the testing program for the largest state, land-wise, in the entire U.S.

A pair of public-health professionals team up to delve deep into COVID-19 data, uncovering a health-equity reporting issue at funeral homes and developed a plan to address the problem.

A trio of communications specialists has developed smart strategies for reaching out to their particular audiences re: COVID-19.

In his latest book, The Wim Hof Method, the extreme athlete aims to change the way people perceive consciousness and human potential

The Iceman cometh. His name is Wim Hof, and he’s bringing mind-body techniques he developed over the course of 40-plus years—during which he captured more than 20 endurance-based Guinness World Records—to his new health and spirituality title, The Wim Hof Method: Activate Your Full Human Potential.

This determined Dutchman has already found fame through several ...

National Geographic is on a mission to introduce a generation of readers to some impressive female heroes in the form of dynamic fictional characters and real-life role models.

Izzy Newton and the S.M.A.R.T. Squad is an all-new series featuring a group of middle schoolers who solve STEM-minded mysteries, while Girls Can is a colorful compendium of admirable women from every walk of life, from Cleopatra to Oprah, and including some real-life Nat Geo scientists. It’s part of a plan to empower t...

#COVID19CorpsSalute: Senior Epidemiologist Katherine Farr, who specializes in implementing public-health solutions through digital technology, helped DC Health launch its exposure-notification app, DC Can (https://coronavirus.dc.gov/dccan). Farr worked with Google and Apple on this key contact-tracing project, which now has more than 214k downloads.

They’ve become known in Pennsylvania public-health circles as “The Super Tracers.” This tight-knit team of 10 COVID-19 Corps members didn’t know each other before they became part of the CDC Foundation’s initiative to assist local, state and other health departments staff up to fight the pandemic. But as the first paid contact tracers hired for the COVID-19 response in the state, they encountered process issues that quickly brought them together to develop solutions they could implement and p...

A Vermont COVID-19 Corps member investigated a COVID outbreak amongst migrant farmworkers at a local orchard and managed to curb the spread.

#COVID19CorpsSalute: Stationed in the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), epidemiologist and informatician Emily Haanschoten created custom code that fully digitized the health department's data system and designed a study validating COVID-19 visitor guidelines to the westernmost US territory.

Paz and Maureen are former nurses, Lillian and Daniel are recent college graduates, Joanne’s back in the workforce after raising a family and Sanford’s been a well-known figure in Chicago public health circles for more than 25 years.

Now they’re bringing their varied backgrounds and talents to bear as members of the COVID-19 Corps, part of the CDC Foundation’s emergency mission to recruit, hire and train teams of public-health workers to act as case investigators and contact tracers for state...

When it comes to the devastating effects of COVID-19, it’s not just the infection itself that threatens our well-being, but it’s the emotional toll of the ongoing pandemic that’s hitting us all hard as well. The How Right Now initiative, made possible with support from the CDC Foundation, was specifically developed to provide information and tools to help reduce stress, increase coping skills, as well as to direct those in need to mental-health, social service and other helpful resources.

A n...

Like many major U.S. cities, Detroit, MI, was hit hard early on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the first confirmed case in March 2020, the city found itself facing the largest COVID-19 caseload outside of the East Coast. But Detroit is also the home to a team of talented public-health professionals, and thanks to their efforts, along with those of their dedicated colleagues at the Detroit Department of Public Health, Detroit was able to flatten its curve and became a model for other citi...

Introducing the CRUSH COVID campaign to community-based organizations and alerting them to the CDC Foundation's ability to provide technical assistance and more.