About Us
Message from the Chair
Message from King Holmes,
William H. Foege Chair of the Department of Global Health
The Department of Global Health was formally lauched in 2007 and is a joint endeavor of the UW
School of Medicine and the School of Public Health and Community
Medicine. The Department was made possible by generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and additional support from the University of Washington.
Our mission is to reduce health disparities that disproportionately affect poorer populations of the world,
through teaching (education, training and mentoring), research, and service programs. The Department is uniquely
positioned to take on this challenge.
“Generation G” and Other UW Global Resources
The UW brings a wealth of interest, expertise, and resources to global health. Young people in the U.S. and
throughout the world today could be called “Generation G” – the Global Generation – who
seek and respond to opportunities to help people and the environment throughout the world. It seems to me that
they have become the opposite of the “Me” Generation. It is a privilege and exciting to be in a
position to help them explore and fulfill their aspirations.
The Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Community Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Pharmacy, and Dentistry
all have programs that address the health needs of underserved populations, both nationally and internationally.
Virtually all other Schools and Colleges of the University also have important programs related to global health.
In fact, the UW teaches over 70 languages — more than most, if not all, other universities in the nation.
Further, the UW ranks first in the nation in number of U. S. Department of Education international area study
programs. The NIH Fogarty International Training Center supports nine international research training programs
led by UW faculty throughout the world – in Africa, Central and South America, and Asia.
Currently, few of these programs are connected to one another. A map of the world with different colored pins
representing where each School and College has its international programs would depict a rainbow of colors — but
very little overlap of different colored pins in any particular city. In general, collaborative international
activities seem to have arisen almost randomly based upon the personal contacts of UW faculty or narrowly focused
funding opportunities, rather than as the result of coordinated strategic planning. This isn't bad per
se, but interdisciplinary collaboration across programs and Schools could create economies-of-scale, safer environments
for UW students and faculty, and synergistic efforts to solve complex problems. An important goal of the Department
of Global Health is to help connect many of these programs and facilitate the application of interdisciplinary
UW resources to tackle the problems they address — especially those involving global health disparities.
The Department's Goals, Values, and Priorities
Our overall goals are to:
- Build a world-class Department to help meet the needs of our students, trainees, and faculty and to prepare
them for global health work;
- Create an organizational structure to address teaching (education, training, and mentoring), research, and
service (technical assistance and development); and
- Help bring together the many largely unconnected global health-related activities at the UW to create complementary
or synergistic interdisciplinary programs that address the causes of and solutions for global health disparities.
Our values include:
- Respect for disadvantaged individuals and populations
- Justice and equity in global health
- Diversity and breadth of experience of faculty and students
- Sustainable partnerships
- Action-oriented learning, research, and service
Our initial priorities have been defining the interests, needs, and opportunities in global health across all
of the UW Schools and Colleges, beginning to meet the needs of students and trainees, and beginning to build
a strong sustainable infrastructure for global health. Our next priorities are to make strategic choices in
selecting programs for development as UW Global Health Centers of Excellence. Much has happened already toward
that end.
Key Administrative Positions Filled
Judy Wasserheit, MD, MPH, was recruited in November 2006 as the Department's first Vice Chair. Judy had
previously served as Director of the Division of STD Research Branch at NIH and then as Director of the Center
for Disease Control's (CDC) Division of HIV/STD Prevention, before coming to Seattle to direct the NIAID-supported
HIV Vaccine Trials Network based at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Sally Weatherford, PhD, has been brought on board as the Department of Global Health Director, Aleta Elliott
as Special Projects Manager, and Josh Apfel as Department Manager.
Global Health Resource Center
The Global Health Resource Center (GHRC), directed by Daren Wade, MSW, became
part of the Department of Global Health on January 1, 2007 and will receive support and additional staff to
meet the growing interests of UW students and trainees. GHRC opened its doors in 2003 in the Health Sciences
Building in order to manage the training and education program for the Puget
Sound Partners for Global Health (PSPGH) and to establish a global health resource and information center
on campus. Daren has done a superb job of coordinating activities, events, and information, connecting individuals
interested in global health, and catalyzing opportunities for inter-professional collaboration and exchange.
Since 2003, the GHRC has coordinated and supported international experiences in global health for nearly 150
UW graduate and undergraduate students and professional trainees. In February, the GHRC coordinated a student-led
International Health Conference, sponsored by PSGPH, which attracted nearly 1,000 participants – mostly
students from across the Western US and Canada. This was the fifth such conference.
In addition to its primary location in Room T433 in the Health Sciences building, the GHRC has established
a new office in Mary Gates Hall, Room 274E, currently staffed by Daren Wade (dwade@u.washington.edu)
all day on Tuesday, and on Thursday mornings, to begin to coordinate undergraduate program development.
The GHRC Advisory Board consists of faculty, staff and student
representatives from most of the UW's 17 Schools and Colleges, as well as Vice Provost Susan Jeffords' Office
of Global Affairs (e.g., the offices of International Programs and Exchanges directed by David Fenner, and International
Students and Scholars, directed by Curt DeVere.) The Board represents an important consortium for networking
and sharing developments and activities related to global health occurring across the campus, including those
of the Department of Global Health.
Planning and Curricular Staffing
Having neared completion of an initial assessment of global health-related opportunities across the UW campus,
we are planning a strategic planning retreat in early summer, and have begun adding to the Departmental faculty
and staff. In February 2007, Stephen Gloyd, MD, MPH, and Amy Hagopian, MHA, PhD, both from the Department of
Health Services, together with Julie Beschta, MPH, and Sarah Frey, began working for the Department of Global
Health. Together, they form an Education Office for the Department, with responsibilities for development of
global health curriculum and educational, training and mentoring programs.
While the Department's curriculum will be based in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health, it will
benefit from and contribute to the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary programs campus-wide. The Department
has formed a Curriculum Advisory Committee, with faculty representatives named by deans of each of the UW's
Schools and Colleges, and student representatives from the health sciences and upper campus. This committee
will help define core competencies and learning objectives for global health, addressing potential needs and
opportunities for a variety of global health certificate, undergraduate, and graduate degree programs, collating
existing global health-related courses and learning opportunities offered by the UW, and advising on strategies
for curriculum, coordination and development.
Departmental Locations
The greatest need for the Department of Global Health is a physical location for faculty, staff, and students
to work and interact. We envision a future presence in three major locations on the UW campus (at sites accessible
to the health sciences and to the upper campus), at Harborview Medical Center, and eventually at the planned
South Lake Union campus. In late 2008 or early 2009, two floors of the new Ninth and Jefferson Building at Harborview
Medical Center— 50,000 sq ft — will become available to the Department. Creating space for Global
Health on the UW campus remains a key developmental goal. Having multiple locations introduces both challenges
and opportunities: challenges at times in getting everyone together, but opportunities in spreading our work
and serving faculty and students broadly across the UW and affiliated institutions.
Future Activities
Many of you have heard about the proposed Health Metrics Institute. The Institute could be the major academic
center in the world for measuring the health status of the world's populations and for monitoring the
health impact of policies, interventions, and other factors. The Department of Global Health would be the academic
home for some of the members of the proposed Institute.
Five grant proposals have been submitted through the Department of Global Health to the NIH, USAID, and the
Fogarty Center, some in conjunction with other UW Schools or other local or national partners. Two have been
selected for funding by USAID, and the others are under review.
Working With Our Community Partners
We continue to work with our key community partners — other academic institutions, the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center,
PATH, the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the Infectious Diseases Research Institute, Washington Biotechnology
and Biomedical Association, and others to foster local collaborations.
Our work has just begun, and there is an extraordinary amount to do. It is an exciting time for us to draw
together and take advantage of our diverse talents and collaborative setting. Collaboration in the interest
of improving the health of those most in need worldwide is the name of the game.
I look forward to keeping you informed of our progress as we move forward in building the UW Department of
Global Health. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at kkh@u.washington.edu or
Judy at jwasserh@u.washington.edu.
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