ALUMNI PROFILES
Pete Dupree MPH (Graduated in May 2006)
STI/HIV Technical Advisor and Program Consultant at the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment in Denver
My name is Pete Dupree and I have been working in one aspect of Public Health or another for over 12 years. Six of those years have been spent in sub-Saharan Africa working on HIV and STI mitigation, prevention, and education at a national policy level. I received my Bachelors degree from Colorado State University in 1991, after which I made my firs
t foray into Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho (see the map tapestry behind me in my photo). I received my MPH from UMass in 2006 and almost immediately landed an ideal job working as the STI/HIV Technical Advisor and Program Consultant at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in Denver.
I felt I needed to round out my practical work experience with a more complete arsenal of public health tools e.g. biostatistics, epidemiology classes and the support of faculty and staff with unique insight and experience of their own to compliment mine.
They offered me the opportunity to work and study at the same time. I began my MPH work while still in Malawi working as the National HIV/AIDS Advisor to the European NGO/relief organization Concern Worldwide.
It offered me the credentials to build on my CV immediately. I was offered a position that would not have been possible without my MPH despite my extensive real-world experience. The courses offered at UMass gave me the knowledge to pursue facets of public health that would have been denied me otherwise and for that, I am very grateful. I now control a much bigger budget and am directly involved in state wide programming and policy decisions; a direct result of my MPH.
I plan to return to the international public health work I love by Spring 2010. While my experience has been in sub-Saharan Africa, I hope to get my foot in the door of emerging disease (SARS, MDX-TB, H5N1 etc.) public health programming in SE Asia where my wife has spent many years. If the right opportunity does not present itself there, I would love to return to southern Africa where I have good friends, useful connections, and some decent language skills. When I am not working, I love to hike, mountain bike, pay tennis and disc golf, and back country camp with my wife high in the Rockies.
