June 12, 2008

SIU Med School Receives Public Health Grants

A physician and research scientist at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield each have been awarded one-year grants from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Dr. Janak Koirala, associate professor of medicine, received a second year of funding to improve HIV/AIDS education and prevention in central Illinois.   The project is developing culturally specific and developmentally appropriate HIV/AIDS educational interventions for high school students in central and metro east areas of Illinois.  The total budget for this year is $25,000.

Wiley Jenkins, Ph.D., assistant professor of family and community medicine and medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology, received a grant to study Internet-based sexual transmitted disease (STD) intervention in rural Illinois.  The study will examine the availability of Internet-based service for STD information and evaluate its effectiveness as a complement to traditional screening interventions for rural communities.  The total budget for the grant is $60,000.

Koirala joined the SIU faculty in 1999.  He completed a joint three-year fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago (1999).  He earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1999).  Koirala completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois Hospitals/Westside V.A. Medical Center in Chicago (1996).  He earned his medical degree and undergraduate degree from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal (1991, 1983).  Koirala is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Jenkins joined SIU's faculty in 2007.  He earned his doctoral degree in health policy and administration from the University of Chicago (2007), his master of public health degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans (2002) and his bachelor's degree from Blackburn University in Carlinville (1991).

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