Erikka Gilliam, an intern for the WIC program since December, will start another DPH internship this spring.

When Erikka Gilliam began an internship at the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) in December, she didn't know it would turn into an even bigger opportunity for her public health career.

 

Gilliam, a student at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, joined DPH as an intern for the WIC program on Dec. 4. The work she did played a role in landing her a second internship at DPH which starts in May, this time with the EPIC Breastfeeding Program, part of DPH's Maternal and Child Health Section. Her experience illustrates the success of the department's growing intern program

 

Gilliam said DPH has taught her a lot about the practice of public health in the real world.

 

"I never thought I would learn so much in just a few months," she said.

 

In the WIC program, Gilliam is the lead research assistant, supervising the program's other interns as they conduct telephone surveys of WIC participants, investigating why some clients aren't returning to WIC clinics to pick up food vouchers. Gilliam piloted the survey in December, implemented it in the spring and trained other interns to make the phone calls and record data. Now she's working on compiling a report on the project.

 

Gilliam's hard work impressed Theresa Chapple-McGruder, Ph.D., MPH, director of epidemiology for DPH's Maternal and Child Health Section, who was looking for a promising graduate student intern to lead an evaluation of the EPIC Breastfeeding Program, an initiative that aims to encourage more of Georgia's health care providers, specifically pediatricians, to take an active role in promoting breastfeeding to mothers.

 

"The fact that she was able to do all this [for the WIC survey] from December to now is remarkable," Chapple-McGruder said. "She really took the bull by the horns to get it all done. I thought she would be really good for this program."

 

However, making Gilliam the EPIC Breastfeeding Program intern wasn't as easy as it might seem. The internship is funded by the Graduate Student Epidemiology Program (GSEP), part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Health departments across the U.S. apply to be connected with graduate students who have applied to conduct program or data analyses. DPH was one of more than 120 health departments to apply and one of 26 selected to participate.

 

At Chapple-McGruder's suggestion, Gilliam applied for the GSEP program, and was one of 26 out of 275 applicants to land an internship. But HRSA, not DPH, was responsible for matching up participating health departments with a graduate student.

 

"The program said there was only one student that was a match for us, and it was Erikka," Chapple-McGruder said. "It was really lucky for both of us."

 

DPH has worked with the Georgia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics on the EPIC Breastfeeding Program for five years, but the program's effectiveness has never been evaluated.

 

That's where Gilliam comes in.

 

"I'm excited. It will be a great opportunity to stay at DPH and to get more [epidemiology] skills," she said. "And breastfeeding promotion is right in line with what I wanted to study."

 

Chapple-McGruder said she has no doubt Gilliam is the right person for the project.

 

"She's really dedicated, detail-oriented and interested in learning and being challenged. You can't ask for a better skill set when you're looking for an intern," she said.