Samantha Schoenberger

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, United Kingdom

Master of Science in Public Health

 
Samantha Schoenberger, who graduated from Grinnell College in May 2017, was chosen to represent District 7930 as the 2021 Global Scholar in the Rotary Foundation’s Area of Focus of Disease Prevention and Treatment.
 
Samantha, who lives in Cambridge, has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Neuroscience from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. She is passionate about cultural civility and mental healthcare provision. Her career as a global health practitioner will unify public health imperatives and psychological methods to create cross-cultural youth and family-level interventions for trauma and resilience. 
 
For the last 10 years, through research fellowship funding, volunteer commitments, and an interdisciplinary academic foundation, Samantha has developed a strong empirical skillset guided by a compassionate cultural lens. Pursuing a Master of Science in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) allowed her to continue with a vision for contributing to collaborative healthcare provision and international mental health treatment. Her psychology and neuroscience degrees at Grinnell College revealed to her the myriad ways that research informs our perceptions and policies. Through her history of crisis hotline service, she has found purpose in holding profound empathy for individuals and communities processing grief and suffering. A semester at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad ignited a passion for multicultural immersion and a curiosity for bridging international responses to global health issues. Her Fulbright Research grant investigating HIV stigma and addiction treatment barriers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia sharpened her skillset to contribute to community-embedded intervention strategies. In recent years, as a public health researcher at Boston Medical Center, she developed interventions for young adults and families affected by the US opioid crisis.