Emily Khan: Finding her niche

One of the things Emily Kahn liked best about getting her M.P.H. and Ph.D. at the School of Public Health was the chance to change her focus of study as she became exposed to new areas in the field.

"I started in behavioral epidemiology, shifted emphasis to biological cardiovascular epidemiology, and ended in maternal and child health epidemiology," says Kahn.

Kahn's strong foundation in epidemiology landed her a coveted two-year CDC fellowship in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) where she was assigned to the Texas Department of Health.

There, she says she "did everything from investigating a salmonella outbreak at a convention to analyzing data from the poison centers to try to estimate the prevalence of inhalant use among young teenagers."

Following her EIS assignment, Kahn remained with the CDC and moved to Atlanta where she currently directs the Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Section at the Georgia Division of Public Health.

(Updated: June 2009)

Epidemiology