DoDEA

ARLINGTON, VA — August 23, 2010 — Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) alumnus Dr. Gregory Fant has been named a Fulbright Specialist Roster Candidate for a five-year term beginning in 2011. Fant graduated from Hahn American High School at Hahn Air Force Base (now, de-activated) in Germany.

He is currently a Federal Civil Servant, serving as a Supervisory Health Scientist and the Deputy Director, Division of Science and Policy, HIV/AIDS Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services. Since 1997, Fant has worked in various agencies including the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Fant also worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a Medical Statistician and at HRSA as a Health Statistician in solid organ transplantation and in HIV/AIDS care and treatment. Fant is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at George Mason University where he teaches statistical methods to doctoral and master’s degree students in political science and public administration.

In addition to being a DoDEA graduate, Fant’s mother, Noemi, and late-father, Edward, were Federal Civil Servants and served as DoDEA teachers assigned to U.S. military facilities in Japan, South Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines and Germany from 1972 to 2010. Noemi Fant was last assigned to Spangdahlem Elementary School in Germany. She retired from the Federal Civil Service this year and now lives in the United States.

Fant is one of over 400 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Specialist Program. This program, created to complement the traditional, year-long Fulbright Scholar Program, provides short-term, collaborative, two-to-six-week projects at higher education institutions in over 100 countries worldwide. Fant’s areas of expertise for the Fulbright Specialist Program include Global/Public Health (including epidemiology and statistics) and Public Administration.

“I applied to the Fulbright Specialist Program earlier this year after returning from a weeklong visit to Cairo, in early December 2009,” said Fant. While exploring the sites of Coptic Cairo, he noticed a sign on the side of a building in the area identifying it as the site of a USAID project on behalf of the Egyptian and US Governments. “Surely,” Fant said, “the Fulbright Program is, also, a viable option for an individual to help others around the world.”

Fant is interested in using the Fulbright Specialist Program to develop a process whereby public health evidence can be collected and used to plan and implement a health promotion or disease prevention program among those at-risk for HIV or another disease.

As he waits for his country-match, Fant considers, “It might be nice to return to Cairo as a Fulbright Specialist and work with Egyptian university professors and public health graduate students who would, as part of their degree course work, facilitate an evidence-based, health promotion or disease prevention program in cooperation with community leaders and those persons at-risk.”

Selection as a Fulbright Specialist is the result of a peer review process; the peer review process is highly competitive. Application to the program is open to US faculty and professionals who apply through the Council for International Exchange of Scholars which administers the program on behalf of the Department of State.

Fulbright Specialist activities focus on strengthening and developing the needs of higher education institutions and do not fund personal research. Eligible activities include teacher training, short-term lecturing, conducting seminars, special conferences or workshops, as well as collaborating on curriculum planning, institutional and/or faculty development.

Fant began his university studies with the University of Maryland, European Division in Munich. Fant holds a bachelor’s degree from Excelsior College in Albany, NY; a Master of Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha; a Master of Science in Health Sciences from TUI University; and a Doctorate (PhD) degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Fant, also, earned professional recognition in applied statistics (AStat) and epidemiology (MACE).

The Fulbright Program, conceived by and named for US Senator J. William Fulbright and established by Congress in 1946, is the US Government’s flagship international exchange effort to promote peaceful understanding between the United States and other countries around the world through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills.

DoDEA consists of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools located overseas, and the Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools located in the U.S. and its territories and possessions. DoDEA provides education to eligible DoD military and civilian dependents from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. DoDEA also provides support and resources to Local Education Activities throughout the U.S. that serve children of military families.