Three researchers from Oregon Health & Science University were selected for Fulbright Scholar awards for academic year 2023 – 24, making OHSU among the Fulbright program’s “top-producing” special-focus research institutions for conducting research and lectures abroad.
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's flagship international academic exchange program. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. Each year, Fulbright recognizes institutions that have the most students or scholars in the program.
“Having three Fulbright scholars this year is a beautiful complement to the progressive work being done at OHSU,” said Peter Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., OHSU chief research officer and executive vice president. “This year’s Fulbright awardees are incredibly creative and dedicated professionals who are committed to using valuable approaches to solve some of the most difficult challenges in medicine: substance use disorders, reproductive health and cancer. Each of these researchers embodies OHSU’s mission to improve the health and well-being of people in Oregon and beyond.”
Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program.
“Fulbright’s Top Producing Institutions represent the diversity of America’s higher education community,” said Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. “Dedicated administrators support students and scholars at these institutions to fulfill their potential and rise to address tomorrow’s global challenges. We congratulate them, and all the Fulbrighters who are making an impact the world over,”
Applicants to Fulbright at OHSU are supported by Rachel Dresbeck, Ph.D., senior director of research development at OHSU. OHSU Research Development offers counseling, access to trainings, and other resources for those who are interested in the program.
“The best research happens when people collaborate with others who share their passion but who have different perspectives,” Dresbeck said. “By collaborating internationally, our Fulbrighters can stimulate discovery in new ways and in new areas — and bring new vision back to OHSU.”
Fulbright alumni work to make a positive impact on their communities, sectors and the world, and have included 41 heads of state or government, 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows and countless leaders and changemakers who build mutual understanding between the people of the United State and the people of other countries.
Scholar profiles
Blair Darney, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine
Blair Darney, Ph.D., M.P.H., is visiting the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico in Mexico City. Darney is presenting key data in obstetrics and gynecology at conferences this spring. Her work is being used in the U.S. for teaching and researching ways to improve immigrant health.
“It is an honor to be awarded this Garcia Robles COMEXUS/Fulbright award, which builds on my years of rewarding collaborations in Mexico and represents my commitment to contributing to bilateral relations between the U.S. and Mexico,” Darney said. “This Fulbright has allowed me to deepen and expand my research partnerships, and ask new research questions that best support local research interests and needs to generate evidence in the support of expanding access to abortion in Mexico.”
Honora Englander, M.D.
Professor of medicine (general internal medicine and hospital medicine) in the OHSU School of Medicine, and director of an in-hospital addiction intervention program known as Project IMPACT
Honora Englander, M.D., is visiting Claude Bernard University Lyon I in France. This prestigious visit presents an opportunity for Englander to conduct collaborative addiction and addiction-medicine research, study interprofessional French health systems, and build lasting international partnerships.
She is conducting a qualitative study of French interprofessional health care clinicians, drug user activists and policymakers to understand methadone and buprenorphine care systems in France. The goal is to inform U.S. policy and practice, as well as French preparedness for the threat of illicit fentanyl.
“My experience as a Fulbright Scholar has fundamentally changed my understanding of addiction and harm reduction,” Englander said. “France’s model has wide-ranging lessons for the U.S., and this experience is the start of what I anticipate will be many years of collaboration, cultural exchange, and friendship.”
Rebecca Jungbauer, Dr.P.H., M.A.
Research data analyst at OHSU-Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center
Rebecca Jungbauer, Dr.P.H., M.A., traveled to Universidad del Bosque in Colombia, where she evaluated the health and social needs for respectful maternity care and food insecurity for pediatric patients and their caregivers.
“This was truly a life-changing experience. I came back more confident, with a stronger sense of my own capabilities and value as a researcher, but more importantly as an evolving human,” Jungbauer said. “I see this as the first step in a long and fruitful collaboration with and commitment to empowering people outside of the U.S. and Europe. The work of so many researchers in Latin America and the Caribbean goes unnoticed; publishing in respected journals is near impossible without fluency in English or funds to support publication, which means we are missing an entire continent’s worth of important work.
“I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my tribe of supporters who went out of their way to help me connect, immerse, grow, transform into the superheroine I am, or want to be, to help create a healthier and more equitable world for all.”