Center for Global Health Announces Spring 2026 Travel Grant Recipients

The MUSC Center for Global Health announced today the 10 spring 2026 recipients of its student and trainee Global Health travel grant awards.

The MUSC students and trainees were honored with $2,000 grants, providing financial support for international travel to low- and middle-income countries to complete global health project work. The goal of each award is to assist recipients in furthering their global health service learning and training in communities abroad. Awarded projects can be research, experiential, or educational in nature.

Annually, the center provides up to 20 grants spanning two separate application cycles during the academic year to support the individuals in their global health training and practice.

The student and trainee global health travel grant awardees include:

Luke Bauknight, M.D.

• College of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine
• Project title: St. Croix Emergency Medicine Rotation
• Location: U.S. Virgin Islands – Saint Croix
• Project description: As part of a four-week clinical rotation, Bauknight will travel to the U.S. territory of Saint Croix at Governor Juan F. Luis Medicine Center. He will gain experience delivering emergency medical care in a rural, resource-limited setting, participating in direct patient care, treating a diverse local population while identifying common disease patterns and public health challenges affecting the area.

Belicia DeBose

• College of Nursing
• Project title: College of Nursing Eswatini Global Immersion in Palliative Care
• Location: Siteki, Eswatini
• Project description: DeBose will travel to Eswatini, a small country located in southeast Africa, as part of a College of Nursing leadership-led global health training project focused on applied palliative care at Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki. The program will include hospital-based learning experiences, supervised home visits with palliative care teams, faculty-led mentorship and reflection sessions while strengthening cross-cultural communication and family-centered decision-making skills, among other learning objectives.

Caroline Gray Forsberg

• College of Medicine
• Project title: Project and Grant Proposal for an Educational Outreach on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) as an HIV/AIDS Prevention Tool in Young and Vulnerable Populations in Ghana
• Location: Accra, Ghana
• Project description: The goal of Forsberg’s project is to develop a grant proposal for a public health initiative focused on PrEP education and youth outreach in Accra, the capital of Ghana, a country on the Atlantic coast of western Africa. Through this experience she seeks to improve her understanding of the burden and real-world impact of HIV/AIDS within the hospital and community setting in a low- or middle-income country.

Katie Mullins

• College of Medicine, Department of Public Health
• Project title: How Perceptions of HIV and Mental Health Impact Attitudes Towards Management and Self-Testing in Nairobi, Kenya
• Location: Nairobi, Kenya
• Project description: The project proposed by Mullins will examine the relationship between mental health and attitudes toward HIV and HIV self-testing, specifically focusing on perceptions of the disease and how behaviors involving testing can be influenced. Mullins will conduct survey work in partnership with Vijana Amana Pamoja, a community-based organization that leverages sports-based programming to promote overall well-being, including HIV education among youth and young adults.

Josh Powers

• College of Medicine
• Project title: Kangaroo Mother Care Outcomes at Sodd Christian Hospital
• Location: Soddo, Ethiopia
• Project description: During his project, Powers will conduct research that seeks to answer whether the timing and standardization of prenatal Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) counseling influences the time to KMC initiation and early adherence among eligible low birth weight and preterm infants. KMC emphasizes skin-to-skin contact between the infant and parent. Following data collection, findings will be summarized to identify trends and opportunities for quality improvements at the hospital.

Diana N. Rodriguez, M.D.

• College of Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellow
• Project title: Central America Outreach & Endoscopy (CARE)
• Location: Atitlan, Guatemala
• Project description: The project for Rodriguez will seek to understand how to create and run a temporary endoscopy unit with limited resources and space. The work will be conducted at Hospitalito Atitlan, located in the Guatemala highlands, featuring gastrointestinal care and endoscopy procedures to underserved members of the Atitlan community.

Taylor Simon

• College of Medicine, Department of Public Health
• Project title: Community Health Integration in Nairobi, Kenya
• Location: Nairobi, Kenya
• Project description: Simon will also be traveling to Nairobi to conduct data collection in partnership with VAP. Simon’s primary activities will focus on mental health assessment of program participants to identify prevalent stressors and gaps in support involved in HIV/AIDS-related education. Additionally, Simon will assess the community’s ability to use and interpret at-home HIV testing kits, including evaluating barriers such as health literacy, stigma and ease of use.

Adrianna Soucy, M.D.

• College of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine
• Project title: St. Croix Emergency Medicine Rotation
• Location: U.S. Virgin Islands – Saint Croix
• Project description: Soucy will participate in a clinical rotation at Juan F. Luis Medical Center in Saint Croix, practicing emergency medicine in a rural, resource-limited environment. Learning objectives will include developing a nuanced understanding of local cultural influences to adapt communication and clinical practices.

Sidney Steinsberger

• College of Medicine
• Project title: Training & Evaluation for School Health Nurses in Ghana
• Location: Accra, Ghana
• Project description: Steinsberger’s project will focus on developing an evidence-based training curriculum and a monitoring and evaluation framework for school health nurses as disability educators at Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital in Accra. The project aims to strengthen the role of school health nurses within the Ghana School Health Education Program by supporting capacity to deliver disability education, early identification and more.

Talina van Overeem

• College of Nursing
• Project title: Eswatini Palliative Care Immersion Experience
• Location: Siteki, Eswatini
• Project description: At Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki, van Overeem will participate in the Eswatini Palliative Immersion Experience. During this project, she will be part of strategic meetings on palliative care, complete an end-of-life nursing refresher course, visit patients with palliative care teams and more.

Applicants were required to submit a cover page, project proposal, personal essay, program budget, letters of support and resume. Awardees must use the funds within the next 12 months.

In addition to the funds provided to support their travels, students and trainee grant recipients also have access to free resources from the University’s travel, health and security assistance provider, International SOS, as do all individuals traveling abroad while representing MUSC. The company offers 24/7 access to medical and travel assistance, emotional and mental health support and security advice while abroad. Students and trainees are required to comply with the MUSC international travel policy.