Jalaa A. Abdelwahab: STOP Program Testimonial

Credit: ©UNICEF/Abdelwahab

Before STOP, Mr. Abdelwahab (STOP 11) was working as a Public Health Prevention Service Fellow at CDC in the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. After STOP, Mr. Abdelwahab completed his fellowship with CDC and worked at CDC as an epidemiologist for 11 years. He is currently the Senior Advisor and Deputy Director of the global polio team at UNICEF headquarters in New York.

“I participated in STOP twice. Once when I was deployed to AFRO regional office, which was in Harare, Zimbabwe, and the second time to South Sudan and Somalia based in Nairobi. Both were great experiences, but my love for polio, epidemiology, and fieldwork was solidified during my time in South Sudan. This was my first time supporting polio campaigns. I learned so much and was able to gain a stronger and real understanding of the challenges we face in implementing rather simple strategies in very complex settings. I owe a great deal of my career path to the fact that I started with STOP. It provided me with the most practical application of my skills and enriched my career with valuable field experiences which I still reflect on to this day as I work at the global level in Global Polio Eradication Initiative. We are closer than ever to eradicating polio together and I hope that we can apply the lessons learned from that journey to achieve future comprehensive public health objectives with a focus on the most marginalized and disadvantaged.”

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