College of Public Health doctoral student Jaime Butler-Dawson is the first recipient of the Craig Zwerling and Nancy L. Sprince Scholarship in Occupational and Environmental Health. The announcement was made in a special presentation on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

Butler-Dawson’s dissertation involves measuring pesticide exposures and examining the impact on neurobehavioral performance on rural populations in The Gambia. She earned her Master of Public Health degree at Boston University. Previously, she worked on global HIV/AIDS projects with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and before that as a health volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, focusing on health promotion and income-generating projects.

“I am grateful to have been awarded the Zwerling-Sprince scholarship,” says Butler-Dawson. “The award celebrates the accomplishments of Drs. Zwerling and Sprince who have excelled in occupational and environmental health and have paved the path for success for students like me to follow.”

The scholarship for graduate students pursuing areas such as occupational health, injury prevention, and rural health is named for two longtime University of Iowa faculty members — Craig Zwerling and Nancy L. Sprince of Iowa City, both emeritus professors — who served in senior leadership roles in the UI College of Public Health during a period spanning more than 20 years.

Dr. Zwerling, an occupational medicine physician and injury epidemiologist, led groundbreaking research in areas ranging from on-the-job injuries to motor-vehicle crashes to workplace drug testing. Throughout his 21-year career at the UI, he directed the Injury Prevention Research Center and served as the first head of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health from 2000 to 2010.

Dr. Sprince, an occupational medicine physician who specialized in respiratory diseases, directed the Heartland Center for Occupational Health and Safety and the UI’s occupational medicine residency program during a 17-year career at the UI. Her research focused on prevention of occupational lung diseases and the prevention of physical injuries from farm work. Their work at the UI Institute for Rural and Environmental Health helped establish the university as an international leader in rural and environmental health research, education, and outreach.

In presenting the new scholarship, Sprince reflected on the training she and Zwerling received and the fulfillment they experienced in preparing a new generation of scientists and practitioners to protect the health of workers, the environment, and rural communities.

“We know how important graduate training programs like those in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health are, and we understand that funding for these programs is uncertain,” says Sprince. “We certainly can’t replace the support provided by federal training programs, but we want to show our commitment. Both Craig and I come from family backgrounds where giving was a tradition, and we want to continue that legacy. We see the establishment of this scholarship as seed funding and we hope others will join in supporting graduate students in the future.”