Students Compete in Intramural Global Health Case Competition

December 2024

Students from across Northwestern’s schools convened on December 6 for the 13th annual Global Health Day and to compete in an intramural Global Health Case Competition, hosted by the Havey Institute of Global Health and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Global Health Studies Program. 

Teams were provided with a global health problem case and tasked with finding a solution to be presented the following week. Each team was given twelve minutes to present, followed by questions from a panel of faculty member judges. 

This year’s case competition prompt was: “The Ministry of Health in Mexico released a call for proposals for a five-year grant of 200 million pesos to support the development of innovative programs to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity in Mexico.” The competition featured multidisciplinary teams of trainees. Held in the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center, this year’s competition featured five teams of students representing Feinberg School of Medicine, The Graduate School, McCormick School of Engineering, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. 

Team 5 presents “Combating Childhood Obesity in Mexico” during the Global Health Case Competition.

Serving as competition judges were Sara Becker, PhD, Alice Hamilton Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science; Nanette Benbow, MA, research associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and co-director of the Implementation Science Coordination Initiative; Robert Havey, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine and director of the Havey Institute of Global Health; Veronica Johnson, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine; and Justin Ryder, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pediatric General Surgery and Pediatrics and vice chair of research in the Department of Surgery.

Faculty lead Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Medical Social Sciences (Implementation Science) and Preventive Medicine, and associate director of Research at Ryan Family Center for Global Primary Care, praised the event as an opportunity to bring multidisciplinary trainees together.  

“I’m so impressed by the well-researched, innovative solutions the teams developed in just one week,” Van Pelt said. "A true testament to global health work, the multidisciplinary collaboration was clear in the trainees’ pitches. 

"The case competition is such a fantastic applied learning experience,” she said. 

Each team was required to represent three schools in order to foster more diverse solutions to global health problems.  

Global Health Day, organized by the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health, recognizes global health research, education and outreach efforts. 

The winning team will represent Northwestern at Emory Global Health Institute’s International Case Competition in March 2025.

The first place team of Rebecca Marcus, Erika Ruiz-Yamamoto, and Nkatha Mwenda.

Global Health Case Competition Winning Teams  

• 1st place: Team 5 (Erika Ruiz-Yamamoto, Nkatha Mwenda, Rebecca Marcus) — “Combating Childhood Obesity in Mexico” 

• 2nd place: Team 2 (Shail Belani, Joseph Biju, Aryan Kalluvila, Antony Vincent) — “A Fit Future: Tackling Childhood Obesity in Mexico Through Policy, Access, and Awareness” 

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