Two Georgetown University School of Health students received an annual award that provides students the opportunity to conduct research related to global health and human rights issues in an international field, the university’s Global Health Institute announced Dec. 1. 

The Maeve Kennedy McKean Global Health Award, named in honor of the late executive director of Georgetown’s Global Health Initiative, Maeve Kennedy McKean (LAW, GRD ’09), the award provides students with academic and financial support to develop research in their respective fields and to conduct fieldwork in the countries their research is focused on. This year’s recipients are Jordan Pai (SOH ’27) and Kayla Wontumi (SOH ’27).

Both Pai and Wontumi will partner with a faculty mentor to study their field before traveling to their respective countries in the summer. The recipients will then present their research at Georgetown’s annual Global Social Justice Summer Research Symposium in fall 2026.

Wontumi will be partnering with WAJAMAMA, a clinic and a nonprofit organization founded and led by a Georgetown graduate that aims to increase the workforce capacity of nurses and midwives to prevent maternal death and morbidity. This partnership is facilitated through her faculty mentor, Christina Marea, assistant professor in the Berkley School of Nursing.

Wontumi, who will be studying healthcare and group care models for mothers in Zanzibar, Tanzania, said she will be examining the different clinical approaches to maternal health and care.

“Building on the work of Professor Christina Marea, the WAJAMAMA clinic in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and the broader research team, I intend to explore the many dimensions of maternal health in an immersive setting,” Wontumi wrote to The Hoya. “Using a participatory approach, I plan to collaborate closely with mothers and local healthcare personnel to better understand the impact of culture and holistic approaches to medicine on their health outcomes.”

Marea said she looks forward to collaborating with Wontumi on the global health issue of maternal care in Zanzibar.

“This will be my first time with a Maeve McKean fellow and so I’m very excited to be working with Kayla,” Marea told The Hoya. “As a partner in the Global Health Initiative and as a mentor for Maeve McKean, I’ll be working with Kayla, our undergraduate student, so that she can have an experience of both team-based and individually-led global health collaboration that is bi-directional.”

Pai will work under the mentorship of Emily Mendenhall, director of Georgetown’s science, technology, and international affairs (STIA) program, and Mendenhall’s partner Edna Bosire at the Brain and Mind Institute at Aga Khan University in Kenya. There, Pai will research running as a source of community health resilience, combating a rise in non-communicable disease burden within the country.

Pai, a member of Georgetown’s Running Club and Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), said he developed the idea to study his topic when he was applying for the McKean award.

“I wanted to find a way to incorporate running into the research just because Kenya’s the best place for that,” Pai told The Hoya. “What I’m hoping to get out of the research is really to give back to the community.”

“What I’m hypothesizing is that runners from Kenya do it more so as a means to make money for their families,” Pai added. “So I want to be able to have this research be able to give back to the community and hopefully impact them in a positive way.” 

Wontumi said she hopes her research will empower mothers in Zanzibar.

“When I received the notification of my acceptance to the research fellowship, I was ecstatic beyond measure and immensely grateful for the opportunity to pursue my long-standing passion for health equity in an experiential setting,” Wontumi wrote. “I am eager to expand my knowledge and engage in such transformative work throughout the next year, with the hope of making a meaningful impact on the lives of mothers in Zanzibar.”

Marea said the award will be beneficial for both students and communities since students receive valuable global health experience while giving back to the communities they are researching in.

“I hope that we can continue to grow this partnership and have really a long-term continuity,” Marea said. “We use a quality improvement approach with a liberatory lens that there are constantly ways to be delivering healthcare better and more equitably, to be preparing healthcare providers, to both provide excellent care but to experience wellbeing and wellness, and transformative learning experiences where they feel empowered.”