Maya Angelou once said, 'You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.' These words resonate with me as I reflect on the challenges I've overcome and the resilience I've developed, fueling my determination to succeed. My name is Danielle Fulton, and I am currently an HL7 Onboarding Analyst at Inductive Health Informatics where I work with labs and facilities to send health data to their Department of Health and to the CDC for public health surveillance. Before starting my career, I obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Information Management & Systems at University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, SC in 2016. Upon graduating, I started my career at Cerner, now known as Oracle. There, I obtained a position with the CareAware team where I begin learning about Admission, Discharge and Transfer messaging and how the messages communicate information between systems. Unknowingly, that team and knowledge would birth interest in a field that I would thoroughly enjoy. With my experience, I have worked effortlessly to improve interoperability between systems to ensure patients are cared for properly, data is known between the counties and states, and surveillance is provided to help prevent future pandemics such as COVID. Although I love being on the backend defense line, I plan to further my career and pursue a master’s in public health with a specialization in Health Informatics. With my knowledge gained from this degree, I plan to focus on syndromic surveillance and research other uses that syndromic surveillance can provide help with such as Opioid use and Chronic illnesses prevention. Once I complete my Master’s degree, I plan to continue my education and obtain a PH.D in Health Informatics. I plan to pursue the PH.D for various reasons, including wanting to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in Health IT across the world, and a desire to research and learn complex topics in depth. My community involvement includes volunteering in community clean up events, aiding the homeless with toiletry bags and clothing, and mentoring young people in my community. My goal is to advocate for change, empower others and create a lasting impact with whatever I do in life. My most recent major accomplishment was being recognized by the CDC for working with the National Syndromic Surveillance team and onboarding a record number of facilities to the system used for surveillance. I and my team worked endlessly to help combat future pandemics and analyze high occurrences of syndromes before they become an issue. With the money saved from winning this scholarship, I would allocate some of the funds for my future education expenses and pay down some of the student loans that I have accumulated throughout the years. Thank you for considering my application for the Charles Cheesman's Student Debt Reduction Scholarship. Receiving this scholarship would not only alleviate financial burdens, but also enable me to pursue my passion for Public Health Informatics. I am committed to making the most of this opportunity and using my education to create positive change in my community.

I aspire to obtain a Ph.D. In Health Informatics, seek a professor role at a college and give back to the community I grew up in. As a professor, I plan to be a mentor and help others realize how they can promote change, work with technology to promote access to healthcare and help improve care, especially for people of color. In the future, I also plan to give back by providing scholarships to help pay for the education of students with a background like mine. Why? Well, growing up in rural South Carolina there weren’t many professionals to look up to and to talk to about future life goals or financial decisions. Many adults worked in factories or hard labor-type jobs and made low wages, even my mom. I noticed many days she would come home in pain from repetitive lifting and then stress about not having enough to pay her bills. I knew then that I had to work hard to attend college and gain a good career that would allow me to do what I love and one that would allow me to break generational wealth barriers. My community lacked many resources which prevented me from figuring out what I wanted to be at an early age. One reason was due to my parents not attending college and another was the lack of funding available for my high school to ensure students attending were academically ready for college, such as providing IT or financial awareness courses. Not only were we lacking educational resources in my community, but the government also lacked the urgency to improve the physical and mental health of my community. I noticed a lot of people within my family and throughout the community had a diagnosis of diabetes or were at risk. Through research, I found the occurrence of this disease is higher in my rural town than in most parts of South Carolina. How can a small county of 10,000 have such a high rate? This is an epidemic; I remember saying to myself! My Great Grandmother, Grandmother and Aunt all passed away due to this disease, after living with it for many years. This struck a nerve and led me to pursue my two interests, healthcare and IT, in a field known as Health IT. I graduated from undergrad and learned about the many roles and developments Health IT has in healthcare. I gained numerous skills with hopes of one day helping my community. Unfortunately, even though I obtained numerous part-time jobs and scholarships to pay for school, I accumulated about 36K in student loans. Due to the student loans, I deferred attending graduate school to obtain a Master's in IT degree as the first step toward my Ph.D. degree. Shortly after graduation, I also became a guardian to my little cousin due to her mom being diagnosed with diabetes, losing her vision and battling mental health illnesses. These challenges have made my journey to pursue my goals and to become financially free from student loan debt difficult, but I have hope and know that I will one day become Dr. Fulton and make a difference in my community. With the money saved from obtaining this scholarship, I can begin my Master’s program and take a few classes a semester until I can finish. I will also use the money for expenses associated with the program, which include certifications and memberships to network with other like-minded people. Although this process has not been easy, I am dedicated and have the grit and motivation within me to continue and not give up.