Centre students to study heart disease in Uganda

Centre students to study heart disease in Uganda

Published 10:30 am Tuesday, September 15, 2026

A new Centre College fellowship will give students a role in studying rheumatic heart disease in Uganda, combining academic preparation in Danville with fieldwork supported by the American Heart Association.

The SHIELD Fellows program will begin in August 2027. Students will spend a year preparing for research, collecting information in Uganda and analyzing their findings after returning to campus. Successive groups will participate over three years, building on the work of earlier fellows.

“This project will provide Centre students the opportunity to work with global health leaders on important research questions while enhancing their own research, communication and leadership skills,” Jennifer Gander, Centre’s director of undergraduate research, said in the college’s announcement.

Students will work with a team directed by Dr. Andrea Zawacki Beaton, a 2001 Centre graduate who is a pediatrics professor at the University of Cincinnati and a pediatric cardiologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Beaton has collaborated with researchers in Uganda for more than a decade. The fellowship will connect that work with students at her alma mater, giving them experience in research involving communities outside the United States.

Preparation will begin during the fall semester with coursework covering public health, Ugandan culture and research methods. Students also will hear guest lectures from SHIELD investigators.

During Centre Term, fellows will travel to Uganda to collect data while studying the country’s medical history and culture. Their work will continue in the spring through data analysis, presentations and manuscript preparation in collaboration with research mentors.

Centre’s participation falls within a $15 million American Heart Association initiative involving three U.S. research centers directed from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the Mass General Brigham Heart and Vascular Institute and the University of Pittsburgh.

The broader SHIELD effort includes three research projects addressing rheumatic heart disease in Uganda, Brazil and Timor-Leste. Centre students’ fieldwork will focus on Uganda.

According to the college, rheumatic heart disease affects at least 55 million people worldwide, with a disproportionate impact on people in low-income countries and underserved communities.

Researchers will examine approaches intended to improve detection and ongoing care. Those include heart screening supported by artificial intelligence, digital patient registries and community programs that help patients continue taking preventive medications.

The Centre team brings together faculty members with experience in African history, chemistry, health professions advising and epidemiology.

Jonathon Earle, an associate professor of African history and chair of the Uganda Studies Group, will contribute his knowledge of the region. Chemistry professor Kerry Paumi serves as the college’s chief health professions adviser, while Gander is trained in epidemiology.

Earle said the program will allow students to learn from health workers who have addressed major public health challenges in Uganda.

“With leading experts, Centre students will help shape pioneering cardiac research,” Earle said. “It’s a remarkable opportunity.”

Paumi said working alongside researchers from several disciplines could help students develop an interest in public health careers while encouraging continued learning beyond college.

For Beaton, the partnership extends a connection to international education that began during her own time at Centre.

She studied psychobiology at the college before earning her medical degree at the University of Louisville and a master’s degree in translational science from George Washington University.

Beaton co-founded the RHD Research Collaborative at the Uganda Heart Institute in Kampala. She has co-authored more than 60 publications with the Ugandan team, and the collaboration has provided direct mentoring to more than 30 students, nurses and physicians early in their careers.

Now, Centre students will have an opportunity to contribute to that research while considering their own professional paths.

“As a Centre alumna, I know firsthand what it means to be dropped into an unfamiliar place at exactly the moment you’re figuring out who you want to become,” Beaton said.

“Maybe some of them will set out on a path toward research that improves global cardiovascular health,” she said.