Global Health: Global impact, local impact

by Suzanne Maman, PhD (Associate Dean for Global Health)

Our faculty and researchers work to address public health issues in diverse settings, applying what they learn in one context to inform solutions in another. Public health and clinical interventions developed by our faculty internationally have been adapted to meet the needs of United States communities and vice versa. We train our students with skills and tools to work in diverse settings, ensuring they can address complex health challenges wherever they arise. Our definition of global health includes addressing the health needs of global populations within the U.S., such as refugees and immigrants. By addressing public health issues both locally and globally, we advance well-being for all.

We train our students with skills and tools to work in diverse settings, ensuring they can address complex health challenges wherever they arise.

Global-Local Impact Spotlight

Michael Kosorok, PhD, W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor in biostatistics, is leading the newly launched Center for Artificial Intelligence and Public Health (CAIPH). (Read more on pages 18-19.) Kosorok has been working with Jeff Stringer, MD, FACOG, professor at the UNC School of Medicine, on a landmark study that highlights the importance of global public health research on local public health. The study, conducted in North Carolina and Zambia, paves the way for universal obstetric ultrasound. The technology utilized in the study suggests high-quality pregnancy care can be accessible to all women regardless of their location or resources available, locally or globally.

Training Impact Spotlight

Partners Investing in Students

We are proud to celebrate 20 years of partnership with FHI 360 through the FHI 360-UNC Gillings Graduate Research Fellowship. This collaboration has trained 48 Gillings graduate students, preparing them for impactful careers in global public health. FHI 360 has generously contributed over $1.5 million exclusively to Gillings students to invest in their public health education through tuition support, health insurance, student fees and stipends. The yearlong fellowship provides our graduate students with invaluable real-world experience, allowing them to apply classroom knowledge while receiving mentorship from FHI’s esteemed researchers. These mentorship relationships often evolve into lasting professional connections. The benefits to both institutions extend beyond the fellowship, with six former fellows currently employed at FHI 360 and two serving as faculty members at the Gillings School.

Donors Investing in Students

Thanks to generous donor support, we offered three Pre-Dissertation Travel Awards to doctoral students. The awards help Gillings doctoral students travel internationally to do preliminary explorations of potential research materials and sites in preparation for writing a dissertation. This funding is crucial in allowing our doctoral students to travel, make connections and relationship-build with people in-person.

• Ting Chen (MCH) is traveling to Nigeria to conduct preliminary explorations for her dissertation on enhancing health service coverage estimates and program monitoring and evaluation in Nigeria.
• Emilia Goland (MCH) is traveling to Ghana to explore opportunities to conduct research focusing on young people’s use and perceptions of self-care interventions for sexual and reproductive health.
• Sara Lebu (ESE) traveled to Kenya to pilot research investigating the feasibility of a low-burden assessment approach to understand the impact of flooding on sanitation infrastructure and fecal contamination in the environment in low-resource settings.

Practice Impact Spotlight

The Gillings Humanitarian Health Initiative (HHI), in collaboration with and support of partnering organizations and collaborators, works to address multiple and diverse humanitarian situations. The HHI leadership and student interns have made an impact in several countries and territories, working with organizations and universities this past year in Gaza, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria and the U.S. A few highlights of the projects follow:

• Aparna Kachoria, doctoral student, and Prajwol Nepal, doctoral alumnus, completed an evaluation report with Alight, a global humanitarian response organization in Sudan. Alight was primarily interested in a mixed-methods evaluation to better understand patient and staff perspectives on the services provided and received. However, due to the ongoing conflict, Alight shifted the focus of the work to look at evaluation priorities in the midst of acute conflict. The team worked to ensure the shift still allowed them to answer questions that Alight originally posed. The resulting evaluation report is also helping Alight with goal setting for the immediate future.
• Quintin Van Dyk, MPH, global health alumnus, developed data dashboards for Casa Alitas, a humanitarian aid program committed to assisting asylum-seekers released in Tucson, Arizona. The dashboards show demographic data of asylum seekers arriving at California’s shelters, including what countries they are coming from, what languages they speak, where they are heading in the U.S., how large their families are, gender and age. These dashboards help the state to more easily analyze and view their data when putting together reports for funders and county/state/federal officials.