University of Virginia     
Center for Global Health
Building Partnerships for Global Health
Tel: 434-924-5242   http://cgh.virginia.edu

     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 serves as a compass 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 the University's academic mission by reaching across departments, centers, and schools to build lasting collaborations within the University and abroad.

     Founded in 2001 by Dr. 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. This work is focused on the health priorities of the fellows' home countries and institutions. Over 80 such fellows have trained at UVa, with a remarkable 100% returning to their home countries to help build programs that include new trans-university Centers for Global Health in Brazil, the Philippines, Ghana, and South Africa. These continued research alliances with UVa faculty result in shared discoveries, patents, grants, and publications (over 200 to date).

     Since the Center's founding in 2001, 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 also grown markedly. To help meet these demands, the Center secured a new Fogarty International Center Framework grant which is supporting the creation of new and exciting course work related to global health. In September of 2004, UVa's Center for Global Health was presented as a model for other universities to follow and was the focus of a Fogarty International Center meeting at the National Institutes of Health.

         The Center has also established partnerships and 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 UVa School of Medicine Dean Arthur Garson, we are now working 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 builds on existing faculty contributions and institutional collaborations in schools across the university.