Award for Academic Excellence in Public Health

Recognizes a graduating public health senior who has demonstrated exemplary academic performance in their coursework in the concentration.

Grace Reed AB Public Health ’22

“Grace demonstrates a combination of academic excellence, initiative and perseverance, true public health values, and well-developed focus balanced with curiosity and openness, creativity, and leadership. She is an impressive emerging scholar, a delightful person, and an exemplary member of the public health community. Her commitments to causes are enduring and central to who Grace is, and she has done a masterful job at Brown leveraging education and academic achievement in the service of meaningful impact in promoting the public health mission.”

Awards for Excellence in Public Health Honors Thesis

Recognizes at least one graduating public health senior who has demonstrated excellence in the conduct of their honors thesis research.

Tiffany Thomas AB Public Health ’22

Thesis: Empowering the Next Generation of Public Health Leaders: Bringing Public Health into High Schools
“Tiffany undertook a project that far exceeded the standard expectations for an honors thesis. The result is an outstanding demonstration of enterprise and creativity; and of a comprehensive grasp of the methods, content, and values of the field of public health. But it has been far more than a demonstration of personal commitment and capacity. It promises to have a substantial impact on the landscape of public health education.”

Excellence in Community Service

Recognizes a graduating public health senior who has demonstrated a commitment to building community beyond the School of Public Health walls and Van Wickle gates.

Madeline Noh AB Public Health ’22

“Maddy truly exemplifies the finest commitment to community service and engagement, which makes her a role model not only among her peers, but the broader university as a whole. She strives to connect community work with advocacy and to adopt a culturally congruent and human lens to public health, because she prioritizes this based on her own lived experiences and desire to advocate for the needs of her communities. Through her work as a Swearer Center Community-Based Learning and Research Fellow, as a medical interpreter in clinics across Rhode Island, and as a patient health advocate at Lifespan’s Connect for Health, among other service efforts, Maddy devotes herself tirelessly to developing strong community engagements and partnerships because she sees this as foundational to understanding and applying her academic coursework.”

Excellence in Service to Brown and/or Brown Public Health

Recognizes a graduating public health senior who has served as a leader within the school and/or University working to promote a stronger and better Brown and/or Brown SPH community.

Sophia Petrillo AB Public Health ’22

“Over her four years at Brown, Sophia has consistently given back to the public health undergraduate community. A member of the Public Health DUG since her freshman year, Sophia has risen to president of the group's Executive Board, helping to organize initiatives including "Meet the Deans," a peer mentorship program, and a Mindfulness Retreat with Dr. Jud Brewer. Through these efforts, along with her service on the Undergraduate Studies Committee, the Public Health Curriculum Committee, as well as as a Teaching Assistant and a member of the Food Recovery Network and Saving Mothers, Sophia has helped to bring students together to develop a deeper sense of community.”

Public Health Diversity & Inclusion Catalyst

Recognizes a graduating public health senior who has made a notable impact to advance diversity, inclusion, and equity within the Program, School of Public Health, Brown University, or local, city, state, and/or broader communities.

Zoie Carter AB Public Health ’22

“Zoie has an extensive background working on diversity and inclusion issues as a catalyst for change. In her courses at Brown, she frequently and critically pointed out perspectives on cultural and inclusion issues that often go overlooked. She has worked extensively in the mindfulness sphere with the goal of promoting equity and access for communities of color. She has committed substantial effort to assessing stressors among Black youth in the Hartford area where she developed youth enrichment programs in collaboration with community partners. In Providence, her work at Butler Hospital and as club president of Providence Youth Advocacy demonstrate Zoie's genuine commitment to diversity and inclusion. She continually and effectively works to elevate these issues, not as supplementary considerations, but as urgent needs.”

Special Citation

Awarded for extraordinary service to the School of Public Health.

Grace Reed ’22 and Madeline Noh ’22

“Over the past two years, Grace and Maddy have led the development of a new platform for diverse undergraduate perspectives on public health: the Brown Undergraduate Journal of Public Health. This supportive space for undergraduates interested in exploring research and publishing for the first time, gives Brown students an opportunity to contribute to the local, national, and global dialogue on a wide range of public health issues.

This enormous undertaking would be difficult during any year, but during their junior and senior years and with all of the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, their feat is even more noteworthy. I am truly astonished by their efforts and their success and have no doubt that their foundational work will live on for future Brown Undergraduates in Public Health to share their research and writing with others, both within the Brown community and beyond.”