The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Names 2011-12 Schweitzer Fellows

April 27, 2011 - PRLog -- The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) is thrilled to announce the selection of its 2011-12 Schweitzer Fellows—265 multidisciplinary graduate students who will spend the next year addressing health disparities and developing lifelong leadership skills at 13 program sites throughout the U.S. and at Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s hospital in Lambaréné, Africa.

“Due to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, an estimated 32 million previously uninsured people will soon be entering our country’s health care system for the first time,” says ASF Executive Director Sylvia Stevens-Edouard, MS. “Now more than ever, it is essential that we focus on developing a multidisciplinary pipeline of health professionals who have the dedication, skills, and cultural competency to effectively meet the health needs of these and other underserved people.”

Over the next year, the 2011-12 U.S. Schweitzer Fellows will partner with community-based organizations to develop and implement yearlong, mentored service projects that sustainably address the social determinants of health. The 2011-12 Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellows will partner with Schweitzer hospital staff to help provide skilled care for patients from all parts of Gabon, Africa.

Upon completion of their initial year, these 2011-12 Fellows will become Schweitzer Fellows for Life—and join a vibrant network of over 2,000 Schweitzer alumni who are skilled in, and committed to, addressing the health needs of underserved people throughout their careers as professionals. 99 percent of Fellows for Life say that ASF is integral to sustaining their commitment to serve the underserved.

“From developing programs that train promotoras (lay community health promoters), to building the capacity of health and social service community agencies, this year’s Schweitzer Fellows will be creating and implementing yearlong service projects that are in line with the focus areas of the government’s recently-launched National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities,” Stevens-Edouard says. “By carrying out these projects—and also participating in the Schweitzer Fellowship’s rigorous leadership development programming—on top of their regular graduate school responsibilities, they will emerge from their Fellowship year with sharpened skills and a hard-earned blueprint for making service a central part of their lives and careers.”

A full listing of this year’s Schweitzer Fellows and their schools, organized by location, is available in the PDF version of this press release, available for download here: http://www.schweitzerfellowship.org/resources/documents/S...

Detailed information on each Fellow and his/her Schweitzer project is available at http://www.schweitzerfellowship.org. ASF’s national office is located in Boston, MA and hosted by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

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The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF)'s mission is to develop Leaders in Service: individuals who are dedicated and skilled in meeting the health needs of underserved communities, and whose example influences and inspires others.