US Public Health Service Officer to Speak at Tulane LCDR Diane Kelsch will speak to students at 3pm on Monday, September 18th in Room 1208 of Tidewater building. Ms. Kelsch will be discussing potential careers with the USPHS Commissioned Corps. The PHS is a uniformed service, similar to the armed forces. However, it is an unarmed service consisting of medical and science-related professionals including Environmental Health Officers, Nurses, Physicians, Engineers, Dietitians and Health Service Officers. Ms. Kelsch will focus her discussion primarily on Environmental Health Officers, but resources and contact information regarding the other PHS categories will be provided. Environmental Health Officers provide basic environmental health services related to food, water, and waste; and more specialized services in areas of injury prevention and institutional environmental health; and highly specialized services in areas such as counterterrorism, industrial hygiene, health physics and hazardous waste services. The USPHS works closely with a number of Federal Agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Health Resources and Services Adminstration (HRSA), National Institutes of health, Environmental Protection Agency, US Coast Guard, National Parks Service, and the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service. If you're not sure what to do after graduation, this is a great opportunity to learn what the Public Health Service has to offer you and your career!
Alumni Profile: Dr. Maya Begalieva As she finished medical school, Dr. Maya Begalieva anticipated a lifelong career in nuclear medicine in her native Kyrgz Republic. However, the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union brought a wealth of new opportunities. After working with the International Federation of the Red Cross, the President's Office of the Kyrgz Republic, and the UN Development Program, Dr. Begalieva found herself at Tulane, getting an MPH in Health Systems Management. She stayed in New Orleans to work as an intern at the Louisiana Office of Public Health (OPH). Tulane then invited her to come back as a Clinical Assistant Professor and to run the OPH Internship Program. She also works with the South Central IMPACT emergency preparedness program and teaches the Biological Basis of Disease core course. Dr. Begalieva says that her favorite part of her job is helping students connect the ideals of academia with the somewhat difficult reality of practice in a large organization such as OPH. To learn more about the opportunites OPH and IMPACT have to offer, contact Dr. Begalieva at (504)988-2673 or mbegali@tulane.edu. | 
