Henrietta Tiri Scholars Inaugural Cohort Holds First Meeting
The inaugural cohort of Henrietta Tiri Scholars met for the first time Oct. 26. The cohort meetings are designed to create and encourage an inclusive learning community under the direction of Semhar Okbazion. The inaugural cohort represents global scholars primarily from the African continent who are affiliated with UMB and studying in the MS in Health Science or MS in Global Health programs. Their participation is an invaluable asset to program faculty, staff and students, given their real-time work in critical global health areas.
The Graduate School of the University of Maryland, Baltimore launched the Henriatta Selle Tiri Scholarship Program for international affiliates of UMB who live outside the United States. The competitive full-tuition scholarship program was started in 2019 to provide an opportunity for members of the university family living and working outside of the United States to have access to the Graduate School’s online degree programs. It is being renamed to honor the life and work of Henriatta Selle Tiri who tragically lost her life on March 25, 2021.
At the time of her death, Henriatta was the Ethics and Regulatory Lead for the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for International Health, Education, and Biosecurity (Ciheb) in Nigeria. Henriatta joined the Nigeria team in 2007 as an assistant research study coordinator and rapidly rose to positions of greater responsibility where she was instrumental to the success of numerous global health projects. In the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Impact and Indicator Survey, the largest HIV-focused ever conducted worldwide, Henriatta oversaw regulatory affairs. In the ECHO® project in Nigeria, she led its successful implementation which subsequently expanded to become the West Africa Reginal ECHO (WARE) project.