Sam Swartz, of Durham, North Carolina, graduated magna cum laude in May 2008 with a major in political science, a certificate in global health, and a minor in international comparative studies. Sam is the recipient of the twelve-month Hart Fellowship in Global Health, a pilot collaboration between the Hart Fellows Program and the Duke Global Health Institute. During the summer and fall of 2006, Sam worked and lived in Bangsak, Thailand at the Rajaprajanugroh School 35, a residential school for children orphaned or victimized by the 2004 tsunami. Sam has worked as a research assistant for McCorkle Policy Consulting, and has trudged through the snow and eaten appalling amounts of junk food for the Obama for America presidential campaign in Iowa, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Chicago. He co-founded and then co-chaired Duke's Socioeconomic Diversity Working Group, and volunteered as a middle school tutor with Student U. Sam has also served as a Big Brother in Durham 's Big Brother/Big Sister Organization, an English literacy tutor for Duke campus support staff, and gutted flood-damaged homes in New Orleans. He is known for his long rants, occasionally purports to manage a local band, and will eat (almost) anything, especially with hot sauce. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Sam will work with the Reduction in Maternal Mortality Project (RMMP) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The RMMP is working alongside the Cambodian government's Health Sector Support Programme, a large scale, multi-million dollar scheme to rebuild the country's severely damaged health system. The RMMP is helping to reduce maternal mortality rates by increasing the poor's access to affordable maternal health services, with a focus on improving access to safe abortion care and long term contraceptive methods. Sam will participate in a variety of activities including routine monitoring and evaluation data collection and reporting, as well as operations research projects that examine a variety of issues, such as barriers to access to maternal health services, medical abortion, and voluntary surgical contraception. He will also complete an independent community-based research project targeted at the needs of the RMMP.
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