Yale Launches Global Health Initiative

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 15 May 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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In an ambitious effort to further Yale University's engagement in global health, President Richard C. Levin announced today the launch of the Yale Global Health Initiative. This is the first endeavor of the University's new Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, which was announced in April. The purpose of the new initiative is to unite the many global health efforts across campus, foster innovative educational programs to address the growing student interest in global health, and stimulate and support faculty research to enhance healthcare around the world.

With founding support from the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, the Yale Global Health Initiative will focus on three areas: education, research and leadership. Initial educational efforts will include the development of a new graduate certificate program in global health at the MacMillan Center, expanded course offerings in Yale College and the Graduate School, and support for student internships and projects in global health.

The initiative will also support innovative and collaborative global health research with seed grants for faculty, support for a postdoctoral training program, and resources for a new interdisciplinary professorship in global health.

Finally, it will provide support for the Global Health Leadership Institute (GHLI), a new program that will hold its inaugural conference on "Strategic Problem Solving in Global Health" in June. The conference, funded by the Glaser Progress Foundation, will bring together public health leaders from around the world to explore new approaches to providing better, more equitable healthcare.

The Yale Global Health Initiative builds upon the University's long-standing commitment to and engagement in global health issues. It connects a number of successful programs that span the campus: the Yale School of Nursing's "train-the-trainer" program for HIV prevention in China, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia; numerous research projects on infectious and emerging diseases underway at the School of Medicine; the Center for Interdisciplinary Research projects on HIV/AIDS; the global health concentration at the School of Public Health; and the health studies initiative in Yale College.

In recognition of Yale's institutional commitment to global health, the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health this week awarded the University one of its prestigious Framework grants, intended to stimulate cross-disciplinary, international research and training. The Framework grant will help fund the work being done by faculty and support staff dedicated to the new Global Health Initiative. Yale has also been invited to join the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, an organization created to support the expansion of strong academic centers in this field.

The launch of Yale's Global Health Initiative coincides with President Obama's request to Congress for support of a new global health strategy focused on combating AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and a host of other tropical diseases and preventable illnesses that kill millions of people each year, many of them children.

Yale Provost Peter Salovey has appointed Elizabeth Bradley, Professor of Public Health, to direct the Yale Global Health Initiative, with the guidance of a University-wide advisory committee. "I am delighted that Professor Bradley has agreed to lead this extremely important activity. By harnessing individual innovation and stimulating collaborative research and teaching, the Yale Global Health Initiative promises to make significant contributions to global health scholarship, education and leadership," said Salovey.

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Yale University

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