The Maggie Ryan Endowed Fellowship in Global Health was created in memory of Maggie Ryan, a remarkable young woman and former intern of the Global Health Program whose life was tragically cut short in an automobile accident as Maggie drove home after her college graduation. Out of this tragedy, as a tribute to Maggie, her family — parents Ann and Tony, and brothers Matthew, William, and Thomas — created the Maggie Ryan Endowed Fellowship in Global Health.
This fellowship allows for a fellow who is unconstrained by the requirements attached to a hospital clinical position, allowing the flexibility and agility to respond to global child health needs as they arise.
The current Maggie Ryan Fellow, ER nurse and nurse practitioner Alexis Schmid, DNP, RN, CPNP-PC/AC, CPEN, CCRN, represents the kind of dedicated and skilled professional who will help advance maternal and child health worldwide.
Since 2018, Lexie has been able to leverage the flexibility and funding that come with the Maggie Ryan Fellowship to participate in projects, trainings, and clinical care around the globe, including:
- travel to Bihar, India, to design interventions to strengthen the COVID-19 response and emergency care capacity
- work in Albania for the World Health Organization to support the design and implementation of a national COVID-19 vaccine efficacy trial, as well as work for the WHO’s COVID-19 specialty team in Burkina Faso, Chad, Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh), Iraq, Nigeria, and Yemen to understand challenges faced in humanitarian settings to respond to COVID-19
- project co-lead for a collaboration with Boston Public Schools nurses to implement training, protocols, and support activities to support school nurses to safely reopen schools in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic
- research with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders to investigate if specific laboratory tests can predict serious bacterial illness in children in humanitarian and resource-constrained settings
- ongoing work in the occupied Palestinian territories, including developing and implementing pediatric resuscitation training
- contributor to the development and pilot of a novel curriculum in pediatric emergency care, commissioned by the African Federation of Emergency Medicine
- hospital system strengthening and nursing education at children’s hospitals in Ghana and Laos that provide care to underserved communities
- provided technical support and training to community health workers, paramedics and nurses in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and refugee camps in Greece
- contributed to the development of a hospital service and operation assessment tool and framework for Palestine Red Crescent Society hospitals in refugee camps in Lebanon
- disaster response as part of a federal medical disaster team in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria