Global Health Education Day 2024

By Meg Kennedy -- Jul 23, 2024

Global health investigators, educators, and students recently convened at the annual Global Health Education Day to celebrate global health research in the field of education. Hosted by the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health Center for Global Health Education, this year’s Global Health Education Day took place on Wednesday, May 8 in the Lurie Medical Research Center and included keynote speakers, poster presentations, and a closing awards reception. The event opened with a welcome address by Center for Global Health Education co-directors Ashti Doobay-Persaud, MD and William Leonard, PhD.

“Global Health Education Day brings together educators, trainees, and students to celebrate and discover more about global health research, education, and service throughout Northwestern, Chicago, and beyond,” said Doobay-Persaud.

Undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate participants presented posters highlighting global health research and findings during the poster session held in the Ryan Family Atrium.

Attendees then gathered in Baldwin Auditorium to hear from two keynote speakers, Lisa Umphrey, MD, FAAP and Carlos A. Faerron Guzman, MD, MSC. 

Umphrey, assistant professor of Pediatrics and senior investigator at the Center for Global Health at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, gave a powerful lecture on "Partnership Driven Initiatives in Global Health Education: From Uganda to Humanitarianism in Academia." Professor Umphrey’s keynote address highlighted the lessons she learned about ethical global health training and curricular development through her extensive experiences in the field.

Faerron Guzman, associate professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Graduate School and senior advisor at the Planetary Health Alliance at Johns Hopkins University, discussed the scope and importance of the emerging domain of “Planetary Health.” Professor Faerron Guzman’s keynote, "Earth and Health - Integrating Planetary Health into Medical and Global Health Education" elegantly illustrated the importance of framing the study of global health in an ecological context.

Following the keynote addresses, Doobay-Persaud and Leonard celebrated poster presentation winners at the closing reception. In addition to poster winners, the center announced the recipients of the Educator of the Year award. The annual CGHE Outstanding Global Health Educator of the Year Award recognizes outstanding global health educators for their contributions across Northwestern University’s Chicago and Evanston Campuses. This award honors individuals who have provided exceptional support for the development and advancement of teaching and learning in global health.

This year’s Educator of the Year recipients were Lisa Hirschhorn, MD, MPH and Naomi Sugar, MPH.

The event concluded with closing remarks by Doobay-Persaud and Leonard thanking attendees for their lasting support and encouraging participants to continue to strive for innovative research.

Poster Presentation Winners

- Yi Gao, Education and Training for Impact: Initial Outcomes from the Fogarty Funded Cardiovascular Research Training Program in Nigeria (CeRTIN) program (Poster #21, Student/Trainee)

- Kelly Hunter, Assessing the long-term impact of an HPV screening intervention on willingness to vaccinate: Evidence from rural Kenya (Poster #11, Faculty/Staff)

Honorable Mention

- Nkechinyelum (Kiki) Ogu, Barriers to Complex Obstetrical Care in Rural Philippines (Poster #15, Student/Trainee)

- Matt Caputo, Catastrophic Health Expenditures for Colorectal Cancer Care: A Retrospective Analysis of the First Private Cancer Center in Nigeria (Poster #14, Faculty/Staff)

- Elizabeth Christian, Establishing an African Hepatitis B/HIV-HBV Clinical Research Network Across Africa (Poster #8, Faculty/Staff)

View posters here. Watch the keynote addresses. Learn more about the Center for Global Health Education.