I will always remember watching the woman I got to know in Malawi, dying from the complications of AIDS...

As a World Health Organization intern in Malawi during the summer of 2003, Grace Chan saw the challenges of implementing ambitious national HIV policies and programs at the grassroots level. During a year with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Australia, she accompanied clinic flights to remote reaches of the outback to set up a consumer feedback system, while learning how the Flying Doctors utilize innovative methods to overcome the "tyranny of distance" in the Australian semi-desert. In Boston's Chinatown where pediatric asthma rates are twice the national average, she created an "asthma-swim" program to teach asthma management skills and improve lung capacity through exercise.

Chan knows well the gulf that divides policy goals from successful real-world implementation. "I want the training that will help me design health interventions and management strategies to provide the best possible health care to underserved communities," she says.