University of Virginia Center for Global Health
 Building partnerships for global health
One Page Summary

UVa's Center for Global Health (CGH) focuses on health as a transcendent and unambiguous human value that engages multiple disciplines across the University of Virginia and across cultural, economic, and geographic divides. As such, health provides a compass for direction and a measuring stick for progress made. Our CGH model emphasizes academics, service, and research:

  • 1. UVa student scholars develop faculty-mentored 6-8 week projects in developing countries working to improve the health of those in greatest need

  • 2. International fellows travel from collaborating sites abroad for training and research at UVa to address their own research priorities

  • 3. New interdisciplinary curricula emphasize research linked to service, including global health courses for undergraduates and medical students, a global health track for the MPH program, and student-sponsored events and speakers.

UVa's Center for Global Health enriches our academic mission by reaching across departments, centers and schools to build lasting collaborations within the University and abroad.

Founded in 2001 by Richard L. Guerrant as one of the first pan-university Centers for Global Health, the University of Virginia's CGH builds on a 28-year program in Geographic Medicine and one of the country's longest sustained international collaborations in Northeast Brazil. The CGH promotes the engagement of faculty and students in the development of multidisciplinary research and service learning projects that address global health issues. Through existing relationships with international colleagues and institutions, the CGH annually sponsors over 50 UVa undergraduate, graduate, and professional students in mentored global health research and service projects in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and underserved areas in the United States. In addition, 8-10 international research fellows, competitively selected from the faculty of our collaborating institutions abroad, come to UVa each year for training and research with UVa faculty mentors focused on the health priorities of their home countries and institutions. Over 80 such fellows have trained at UVa, with a remarkable 100% having returned to their home countries to help build programs that include new trans-university Centers for Global Health in Brazil, Philippines, Ghana, and South Africa. Their continued research alliances with UVa faculty result in shared discoveries, patents, grants, and publications (over 200 to date).

Since the creation of the Center, the number of global health-related courses and interdisciplinary activities at UVa has increased exponentially. Student interest and demand for information, career advice, and opportunities in global health have grown markedly. The CGH has established partnerships and has a new Fogarty International Center Framework grant with other groups around the University to address global health challenges. Partners include the Institute for Practical Ethics, the Center for Undergraduate Excellence, the SAVANA consortium, and the schools of Nursing, Law, Engineering, Medicine, and the College of Arts and Sciences. CGH student scholar projects include:

  • Interactions of diarrhea and antiretroviral drug resistance in HIV in Brazil-undergraduate student in human biology
  • Interaction between Western medicine and traditional beliefs and practices in Guatemala-graduate student in law
  • Prevalence and treatment of hypertension among the underserved in India-medical resident
  • Composting toilets in Juarez, Mexico-undergraduate student in engineering
  • Voluntary counseling and testing for HIV/AIDS in China-undergraduate student in biochemistry
  • Health impacts of water resources in South Africa-undergraduates in environmental sciences and engineering; and graduates in law, nursing, and medicine

Initially funded by the Ellison Medical Foundation, Pfizer, the Fogarty International Center at NIH and supported by our Dean, we now plan to develop an endowment of $30-50 million to provide a sustained income of $1.5-2.5m/year for scholars, fellows, and curriculum-support that is readily matched by faculty and collaboration in schools across the University. We already have the Thomas H. Hunter Professorship in International Medicine, Becton Dickinson support for the International Healthcare Worker Safety Project, and new Brace Scholar and Peale Fellow awards. UVa's Center for Global Health was presented as a model for other universities and the focus of a Fogarty International Center meeting at NIH in September 2004.