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Becker Honored as Massachusetts Adult Immunization Champion
Ann Becker, public health and infection control nurse at University Health Services (UHS), has been honored with a 2018 Massachusetts Adult Immunization Champion award for her collaboration and leadership in responding to an outbreak of meningitis B at the university and in the Five College community.
The award is presented by the Massachusetts Adult Immunization Coalition (MAIC), in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). Becker received the honor at MAIC’s 23rd annual adult immunization conference April 10 in Marlborough.
Becker was also a featured presenter at the event, speaking at a session on encouraging young adults to understand the importance of vaccination, and as part of an afternoon plenary session on increasing vaccination rates by tailoring messaging and services to target populations.
Becker, who joined UHS in 2002, is director of the UMass Amherst Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), a unit she co-founded in 2005, which embeds the MRC into the curriculum of undergraduate nursing programs. She teaches community and public health nursing to undergraduate and graduate students, chairs the Tobacco-Free UMass Amherst committee, manages the Tobacco Ambassador program, runs numerous walk-in STI and HIV screening clinics annually and engages in communicable disease surveillance and response on campus.