Contact: Sammy McDavid
Robin Annison and Christopher Thomas
Two Jackson students receiving diplomas May 12 at Mississippi State University are selections for a special post-graduate federal training program.
Robin L. Annison and Christopher N. Thomas will begin work in September with the Public Health Prevention Service, a part of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both students are completing master's degrees in physical education, with emphasis in health promotion and health education.
An arm of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, CDC is the lead government agency for protecting the health and safety of citizens at home and abroad.
With starting pay and adjustments currently totaling some $36,000 a year, the PHPS program provides three years of on-the-job experiences in designing, implementing and evaluating prevention programs. Its goal is to help expand the national public health infrastructure by developing future leaders at the local, state and national levels.
PHPS annually selects some two dozen participants from a final screened applicant group of about 70 new master's degree graduates. Approximately 200 usually apply.
Annison is a 1995 Jackson Preparatory School graduate, while Thomas finished the same year at St. Joseph Catholic High School. Both hold recent MSU bachelor's degrees in physical education/fitness management and have been working for the past year as assistants in the department of health, physical education, recreation, and sport.
In the first year of their training, participants receive two six-month work assignments at a CDC facility, with each assignment in a different focus area. During the final two years, they will have a single assignment with a variety of duties at a state or local health department.
Upon completion of training, Annison, Thomas and their PHPS colleagues are expected to become highly sought candidates for positions in public health agencies, as well as voluntary, community and managed-care organizations.