Christiana Toomey (foreground) and Eilidh Higgins learned radio production from Hussien Mohamed, director and cofounder of Sagal Radio. The main radio listeners are primarily refugees. During Toomey's second semester at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, she volunteered to write and record radio scripts to be translated into multiple languages, focused on early childhood learning, safety and health.

Christiana E. Toomey is an intern with the Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Georgia Comprehensive Cancer Registry. With a bachelor's degree in engineering sciences from Dartmouth College, an ABET-accredited bachelor's degree in engineering from Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and only a year left to complete her master of public health degree from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Toomey has the strong analytical and statistical skills needed to update the Georgia cancer data report.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Georgia. Since 1995, DPH has collected all cancer cases diagnosed among Georgia residents.This information is part of the statewide population-based Georgia Comprehensive Cancer Registry (GCCR).

"Chris has been a huge help in updating our Cancer Data Report," said Chrissy McNamara, M.S.P.H., cancer epidemiologist, Georgia Comprehensive Cancer Registry.  "We have benefitted greatly from the experience and hopefully she has learned some things that will be useful in her future public health career."

"The report is critical in forming programmatic activities," said Cherie L. Drenzek, D.V.M., M.S., state epidemiologist.  "From a scientific base to targeted intervention and education, that's why we conduct cancer surveillance."