International Collaborative Expands Health Research at Princeton

Princeton University welcomed graduate students from Australia and Vietnam this fall to advance research on antimicrobial stewardship, infectious diseases, and other global health issues. Doctoral candidates Stephanie Enkel and Nguyen Thi Cam Tu are participating in Princeton’s International Health Research Collaboration, an exchange program co-sponsored by the Center for Health and Wellbeing (CHW) and the School of Public and International Affairs.

Launched in 2022, the initiative invites foreign graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and other researchers from CHW partner institutions to Princeton for one semester. While here, scholars have opportunities to innovate, present their work, audit courses, and integrate into the broader health-focused community at Princeton.

“The Center for Health and Wellbeing has a long history of collaborating with research institutions around the world. Princetonians regularly travel overseas for internships and research projects that offer new insights into the field of global health and related disciplines, allowing them to bring lessons home to the United States,” stated Gilbert Collins, director of global health programs and executive director of CHW. “The International Health Research Collaboration allows us to reciprocate, making it possible for international students and stakeholders, from both developed and developing countries, to benefit from Princeton’s vibrant research community and to bring lessons back with them in turn,” added Collins.

Fall 2024 Visiting Scholars

This semester’s visiting scholars are deeply engaged with Princeton faculty and students while furthering their doctoral research and forging new collaborations.

Stephanie Enkel

Stephanie Enkel stumbled upon the field of public health after working in a remote Aboriginal community nestled in northern Australia, where she noticed high rates of skin infections during a gap-year service project. Although these dangerous, complication-inducing infections have been virtually eliminated in the non-Indigenous population, they are widespread in Aboriginal communities due to environmental conditions and inferior living standards. “That’s when I discovered public health – and finally had words for this ‘thing’ that I liked but couldn’t really explain,” she noted. 

Upon realizing that medicine was not the only option for “a smart kid who liked science,” Enkel shifted her ambitions toward public health. Ten years later, she has two master’s degrees in the field, health policy experience, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at University of Western Australia while working with the Healthy Skin and Acute Rheumatic Fever Prevention research team at The Kids Research Institute Australia.

Enkel’s doctoral research investigates how environmental health initiatives can reduce the incidence of Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A), a bacterium that can lead to acute rheumatic fever and subsequently rheumatic heart disease (RHD). This acquired condition, affecting children and young adults, puts those affected at risk of heart failure and other life-threatening problems. In one component of her Ph.D. project, Enkel analyzed data from interviews with more than 200 people living and working in remote Aboriginal communities to examine issues related to health equity, environmental health, infectious disease, and epidemiology. These regions have one of the highest rates of RHD in the world, although the disease is entirely preventable.

At Princeton, Enkel has supplemented her research with coursework on the topics of global health challenges, population studies, and urban inequality and social policy. She is also working under the mentorship of Noreen Goldman, Hughes-Rogers Professor of Demography and Public Affairs and CHW affiliate, from whom she has learned different research methods.

Throughout her visit, Enkel has been fully immersed in the American experience, traveling across the country, attending football and hockey games, apple-picking, and even enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

She returns to Australia later this month with an expanded skill set and new ambitions, which may include more formal training in epidemiology and/or additional research projects with The Kids Research Institute Australia. 

Nguyen Thi Cam Tu

Nguyen Thi Cam Tu was initially interested in economics, but her academic experiences nudged her in a different direction. “My teachers inspired me to fall in love with public health, which was a relatively new field of study in Vietnam,” she said. “I liked the concept of thinking about community benefit instead of only personal benefit and working together to improve health for everyone.”

Tu earned her undergraduate degree at Hanoi University of Public Health and a master’s degree in public health at Umea University in Sweden before starting her career at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Vietnam, where she has spent the last decade. Tu held operational roles for several years, following procedures and coordinating projects, until she was ready for a new challenge. “At the time, I was engaged in an antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) program, designing interventions to improve clinicians’ antibiotic prescribing practices,” she said. “I thought that would be an interesting topic to research, and a Ph.D. seemed to be the logical next step.”

Tu resumed her academic journey in 2021. Her doctoral research explores the drivers and impact of behavioral change and stewardship interventions on antibiotic prescribing practices within a network of acute care hospitals in Vietnam. “The project will help me understand the gap between policy and practice, considering the roles of resources, internal capacity, and other factors,” she said.

Tu has been writing her dissertation at Princeton while auditing courses on people-centered anthropology, quantitative social science, and statistical methods in sociology. She has also fostered relationships with two CHW affiliates: Bryan Grenfell, Kathryn Briger and Sarah Fenton Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs, and Ramanan Laxminarayan, Senior Research Scholar, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. “Professor Laxminarayan has been working on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) for a long time, so learning from him has been a great opportunity,” Tu said. “He also invited me to an AMR workshop in New York City, which was very interesting.”

As Tu reflects upon her Princeton visit, she lights up when asked about the highlights. “I really enjoyed being a full-time student again, being able to focus on my courses and study in the library until late at night,” she said. Tu even expressed her appreciation for campus dining, noting, “I also liked not having to cook a lot!” 

Tu returns to Vietnam with renewed energy and plans to shift her research toward implementation science. Her next project will assess the sustainability of AMS interventions, exploring strategies for monitoring, evaluation, and maintaining outcomes to inform policy in support of the fight against antimicrobial resistance.