We are grateful and quite thrilled to say a warm Ghanaian "Akwaaba!" to Dr. Susan Coffin as our first Distinguished Volunteer. An Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine as well as Hospital Epidemiologist and Medical Director of the Department of Infection Prevention and Control at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr Coffin is on a five-month visit to Ghana, where she hopes to learn about successful strategies for disease prevention in Ghana. In addition to these pursuits, she is eager to assist The Project in the grant-writing process, an endeavor in which she has much experience. Susan will also be working with our local volunteer doctors to more fully develop the Community Health Education and Outreach Program.
Dr. Coffin has an active and well-funded research program in the U.S., her home country, that focuses on the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and vaccine-preventable diseases and is an active participant in numerous local, state, and nation-wide public health programs that address such topics as: pandemic influenza preparedness, pediatric influenza, and the prevention of hospital infections. In recognition of her expertise, Dr. Coffin is an advisor to the Communicable Disease Branch of the City of Philadelphia's Department of Health, a member of the Governor's Health Advisory Panel, and a member of task forces sponsored by the National Quality Forum, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America where she participates in the development and implementation of national guidelines to prevent infections.
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