Jennifer Audette recognized for commitment to global health

Jennifer Audette is winner of the Health Volunteer Overseas’ Golden Apple Award
Jennifer Audette is winner of the Health Volunteer Overseas’ Golden Apple Award

Jennifer Audette, P.T., Ph.D., program director and associate professor in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, is the recipient of the Health Volunteer Overseas’ (HVO) Golden Apple Award.

The award recognizes individuals and health educators who make exceptional contributions to HVO’s mission to improve global health.

In 2018, HVO released the Frontiers in Public Health special research topic e-Book, International Partnerships for Strengthening Health Care Capacity: Models of Collaborative Education. 

The special collection included 33 articles by 163 authors, representing 96 different organizations and institutions. It was designed to document effective models of collaborative education that contribute sustainable solutions to strengthen health workforce capacity and, thereby, improve health care in resource-scarce countries.

The tireless efforts of volunteer editors ensured the project’s success. The volunteers included Jennifer Audette.

Audette has been involved with HVO projects in Suriname and Haiti. As a faculty member, she developed a course titled, Broadening Experiences, which allows students to observe physical therapy education and practice in unique settings in the United States and abroad. For the past 15 years, she has been leading student immersion trips to Guatemala.

Audette is chair of the American Physical Therapy Association's Global Health Special Interest Group. 

Her recent research activities explore physical therapy faculty and the benefits and outcomes of providing international experiences for physical therapy students.

HVO is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve global health education of the local health workforce in resource-scarce countries.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.