Alumna honored for community contributions

Joyce Essien, MD, WSU Class of 1971, was one of 10 people to be honored with the Good Housekeeping Award for Women in Government. She received this award for implementing an asthma program for children, thereby exemplifying how government at all levels can improve people’s lives.

Dr. Essien is a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is the director of the Center for Public Health Practice at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. In that capacity, she initiated and established Zap Asthma, a community program to battle the impact of asthma on the lives of inner city children. This public/private partnership has made Zap Asthma a model for cities across the nation.

Charles Whitten, MD, associate dean emeritus for special programs, remembers Dr. Essien as a brilliant student. “Dr. Essien demonstrated her interest in aspects of minority health problems when in 1968 she volunteered to serve on our first minority recruitment advisory committee,” said Dr. Whitten. “I am not surprised at the exemplary evidence of her ongoing commitment to the cause.”

The Good Housekeeping award was given in collaboration with the Center for the American Woman and Politics with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Council for Excellence in Government.