The Distinguished Teaching Awards are given to University faculty who show a mastery of their subject matter, intellectual rigor, lively curiosity, a commitment to research and a passion for teaching. Awardees receive $5,000.
Stephen Gloyd - Health Services
In the mythical developing nation of Ficticia, the facts are often unreliable, financial resources for health care are virtually nil, and the technology of modern medicine is half a world away.
On top of all those obstacles, some of the students in the UW's International Health Program who are trying to develop a policy on pharmaceutical drugs for this country will learn that their group of consultants would be funded by the international pharmaceutical industry.
Stephen Gloyd
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The "Ficticia Exercise," developed by Steve Gloyd, director of the International Health Program for his graduate students, is actually a path to the real world of problems and contradictions that face health policy-makers in developing countries.
Gloyd, who is an associate professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine's Department of Health Services, "shamelessly borrowed" the basic idea for the exercise from an instructor he studied with in Harvard's public health program. Over several years, he has developed the idea of the fictitious model country so that students become more involved.
"It becomes kind of a template to discuss policy issues," he says. Students are able to work out for themselves why it can be nearly impossible to implement a simple, rational policy in the real world.
Graduate students in the program are split about half and half between foreign students, usually mid-career health or health policy professionals, and American students who already have some experience working in developing countries. Most of the foreign students and some of the Americans are physicians. The students earn master's degrees in public health (MPH) over a two-year course of study, including developing and defending a thesis.
By the time Gloyd came to the UW to direct the International Health Program, he already had more than a decade of experience as an activist physician in many different settings, including several years in Mozambique. A graduate of Harvard and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, he had returned to his hometown of Seattle as a family practice resident in 1973. He credits Gabriel Smilkstein, a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the time, with inspiring him to look beyond normal boundaries in envisioning his career as a physician.
In the next several years, along with his experience in Africa, he worked in migrant health care, a Seattle community clinic, the state prison health service and Group Health Cooperative. He returned to Seattle after earning his MPH in health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health in 1983.
At the UW, he also has adjunct appointments in the departments of Health Services and Family Medicine, and teaches in other programs including public affairs and Africa studies.
"I don't really see myself as an academic," Gloyd says. "I come from a service background. I felt that my own training in public health didn't take advantage of the experiences the students had already had, and that has made me determined to engage our students in teaching and working with each other.
"Our students — both those from developing countries and the Americans who have worked there — bring an incredible breadth of expertise and experience to our program," he says.
Of course, devising strategies to have a diverse group of students work together and just naturally teach each other can be a lot more difficult than presenting lectures.
One former student attributes his success, in part, to an open, accessible and inclusive approach. "His door is almost always open and it is not unusual to find one or two students or faculty who have dropped by and gotten drawn into a discussion of public-health issues. Courses that he teaches provide an atmosphere for discussion and debate, as well as an opportunity for students to share their experiences as they relate to course topics. The weekly International Health Program seminar is planned and programmed by a team of students and faculty with input from the entire IHP."
But there are also secret weapons Gloyd employs to bring the students and faculty together — music and food. As a musician himself who used to perform in a marimba band, Gloyd said he learned in Mozambique the value of a good party in breaking down barriers and formal roles. The program has at least four major social occasions each year, plus several informal gatherings. In addition, each weekly seminar includes foods from the countries represented by the students.
"Come and see!" Gloyd says with a smile. "Whatever else you say about our program, we have to have the best food anywhere in health sciences."
Claire Dietz, University Week
University Week
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uweek@u.washington.edu
May 25, 2000