University of Washington School of Nursing doctoral student Carey McCarthy has been named one of this year’s LambarŽnŽ Schweitzer Public Health Fellows by The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship.

This is the first time a nurse has been selected as a fellow for the organization, which has been sending students to Gabon, Africa, since 1979.

McCarthy, a first-year PhD student, is planning to study nurse migration and global health workforce issues. She also is interested in working to strengthen nursing infrastructure and leadership capacity in lesser developed countries, according to a news release. As a fellow, she will travel to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Gabon for three months this summer to work with the hospital’s Community Health Outreach Program. The program provides village-based health care, including maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, TB education and follow-up, and malaria prevention, and treatment.

“The Albert Schweitzer philosophy of ‘reverence for life’ really resonates with me,” she said. “I think every person, no matter where they happen to live, deserves reverence, respect and access to health care and services.”

McCarthy has traveled and worked in more than 30 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Azerbaijan, as well as several countries in South America. She received her bachelor’s in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University in 2005.

For more information, visit www.schweitzerfellowship.org.