University of Virginia Center for Global Health
Speakers for Tuesday 26 July
The Center for Global Health is grateful to our hosts for this event.
Richard L. Guerrant, MD, director of the Center for Global Health and Thomas H. Hunter Professor of International Medicine, first went abroad as a UVa medical student to the Congo in the summer of 1967. Since then he has also worked in Bangladesh and Brazil . He earned his B.S. from Davidson College , his M.D. from the University of Virginia , and his residency in internal medicine at the Harvard Medical Service/Boston City Hospital. He has held fellowships in Infectious Diseases at NIH, Johns Hopkins, and UVa. Recently elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and appointed to its Board on Global Health, Dr. Guerrant edits the major 2-volume textbook on Tropical Infectious Diseases, among 5 other books, and is author of over 420 scientific articles and reviews. His work is focused on the recognition, diagnosis, pathogenesis, impact, and treatment of enteric infections. With colleagues in Brazil , Guerrant’s research documents the effects of and potential solutions for diarrhea and enteric parasitic infections on the long-term physical and cognitive development in malnourished children and on anti-HIV drug absorption and resistance in patients with AIDS. His group has trained over 200 postdoctoral fellows and students who are becoming leaders in tropical medicine throughout the United States and abroad, including over 80 postdoctoral trainees and colleagues from Brazil, Ghana, China, Philippines, and South Africa, a remarkable 100% of whom have returned to their home countries to become leaders in their respective institutions and to develop a model of sustained, productive international collaboration. As past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Guerrant is an outspoken voice for the urgency of global health. Guerrant has recently launched a model new Trans-University Center for Global Health and is working to develop a Network of these Centers at top institutions across the US and abroad.
Jessica Troell, JD, former CGH University Scholar and UVA Law graduate, is currently the Director of the Africa Program at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), based in Washington , DC . In this capacity, Ms. Troell works with civil society organizations and governments to create, implement, and enforce sound environmental laws and policies throughout Africa . Some of her recent project work includes creating innovative resource materials and training workshops on public participation in African water resource decision-making, developing the legal and institutional frameworks for participatory fisheries management in Lake Victoria, building the capacity of Moroccan NGOs and government officials to create and implement sound environmental policies and laws, and promoting and implementing sound policies and laws regulating access to genetic resources in the Albertine Rift. Prior to joining ELI, Ms. Troell spent six months conducting applied research on water governance in the international Limpopo River Basin . She was also an Honors Law Clerk for the U.S. EPA’s Office of International Environmental Law, a legal intern for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s International Environmental Law Program, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer for the Moroccan National Parks Service from 1994-1996. Ms. Troell is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Virginia School of Law.
Pascal Bessong, PhD, current CGH Fellow working at UVa’s Thaler Center for AIDS Research, is a molecular microbiologist and faculty member of the Department of Microbiology, University of Venda , South Africa . The University was originally established in 1982 to serve the former black homeland of Venda during apartheid, but it has been restructured to reflect political and socio-economic changes and conduct research relevant to the community. Among the problems addressed are HIV/AIDS and diarrheal diseases. Dr. Bessong is identifying mutations in the protease and reverse transcriptase genes of HIV-1 subtype C viruses—the predominant variant in South Africa—from drug naïve individuals, and to study how these changes impact drug resistance. He is also working on the prevalence and genotypes of human cryptosporidiosis in the Venda Region of South Africa. His mentors at UVa include Drs. Richard Guerrant, David Rekosh, Marie-Louise Hammarskjöld, and Rebecca Dillingham. He notes that he is most grateful for his CGH research fellowship and that the skills he has acquired at UVa are critical in seeking solutions, through teaching and research, to local problems in South Africa and also to continue fruitful collaborations with researchers at UVa.
Related Documents:
Glenn Brace CGH Presentation
CGH Bios
Jessica Troell CGH Scholar Report on Water Rights in the Limpopo Province
Limitation in Verbal Fluency .... in Child Neuropsychology
Global Health Matters/Fogarty International Center
Updating the DALYs for diarrhoeal disease ... in Pediatric Research
The Unacceptable Costs of the Diseases of Poverty
Model for a Network of Trans-University Centers for Global Health
