The University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Global Health (CGH) is pleased to announce the awarding of seven educational travel fellowships to UW faculty and staff members. These grants are awarded to CGH affiliates to support international travel related to educational activities, including development for global health courses, initiation of field experiences and field research, and conference attendance which pertain directly to the mission of the CGH. Preference was given to proposals that address important global health issues, have an interdisciplinary focus, have potential for an ongoing relationship/partnership with the host country and offer tangible educational benefits. The review panel representing the Center for Global Health Steering Committee felt that the following outstanding submissions characterize the type of interdisciplinary initiatives that the Center seeks to support. Congratulations to these award recipients!
Araceli Alonso, PhD, MA, MS
Associate Faculty, School of Medicine and Public Health
Associate Faculty, Gender and Women’s Studies
UGANDA
Project: “I will conduct fieldwork in Kampala with the Family Planning Association of Uganda, studying the implementation, progress, and results of a reproductive health project that addresses the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases among street prostitutes, and the education and awareness of female genital cutting.”
Jill Boissonnault, PT, PhD, Karen Patterson, PT, MS, PCS, Jeff Hartman, DPT, MPH
Faculty Associate, Faculty Associate, and Adjunct Faculty respectively
School of Medicine and Public Health, Program of Physical Therapy
BELIZE
Project: “The Program in Physical Therapy of the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health will take four students to Punta Gorda, Belize for a two-week service-learning experience in January, 2009. The students will work with ‘Special Needs Association of Toledo’ to develop community education programs on disability and to perform service projects for the community and for families of those with disabilities. This service-learning is part of PT 600, a service-learning course in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. All 2nd-year PT students participate in this course though only 4 of 37 will travel outside of Dane County to perform their service. This will be the first such trip the school has undertaken.”
Sarah Khan, MS, MPH, PhD
Assistant Scientist, Integrative Medicine, Department of Family Medicine
School of Medicine and Public Health
INDIA
Project: “In order to develop an exchange program with the Foundation for the Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) and UW-Integrative Medicine Program in Bangalore, Karnataka India, I will meet with Darshan Shankar, founder of FRLHT, and his colleagues (physicians, practitioners/professors of South Asian healing systems, botanists, biochemists, biostatisticians, agriculturalists, and conservationists) to develop a three-week educational program for UW-Madison and US medical residents to experience non-Western healing modalities in August 2010. The South Asia exchange program will provide UW-Madison and United States medical residents with an opportunity to learn about and experience the diverse South Asian healing arts (Ayurveda, Unani, Tibetan, Indigenous, and Homeopathy) in an academic setting.”
Scott Mead, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine
School of Medicine and Public Health
UGANDA
Project: “I’ll be a volunteer faculty member in the medicine ward and clinic at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda. That role includes lecturing to medical students and medicine postgraduates. I’ll also be working to identify opportunities for future collaboration between Ugandan health care providers and the UW Center for Global Health.”
Darby Oldenburg, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology
UW-Richland
MEXICO
Project: “The aim of this project is to assist with water quality monitoring in Mexico and to gain experience and insight to develop better curricula for my introductory microbiology course. This project reflects the nature of both primary research and bringing “real world” research into the undergraduate classroom by linking the work I do in Mexico to an open-ended, inquiry-based laboratory unit on water quality. The ultimate goal is for students to appreciate the challenges we face with water quality and how it relates to human health.”
Kurt Sladky, MS, DVM, Dipl. ACZM
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgical Sciences
School of Veterinary Medicine
BELIZE
Project: “Currently in Belize, UW faculty members are involved in Hillside Health Care International, a human health clinic. In another area of Belize, a colleague owns a large nature preserve which is used for ecotourism and wildlife ecology studies. My objective is to visit all the sites to see if we can come up with a method of combining the human, domestic animal, and wildlife health issues into an over-reaching ecosystem health model, to which we will be able to develop methods for training students as part of a Center for Global Health field course.”
Nora Stieglitz, PharmD
Clinical Instructor, School of Pharmacy
MEXICO
Project: “As part of a multidisciplinary team, I will be working with the community of Tequillila, Mexico to develop a medicinal garden, evaluate procedures in place for emergency situations, investigate the role a pharmacy may play in the community, and help improve sanitation. This will ideally serve as the basis for future involvement of University of Wisconsin pharmacy students in Tequillila, Mexico.”
Best wishes to this year’s award recipients! We look forward to presentations of their projects at future CGH seminars.
The CGH Steering Committee also wants to thank everyone who submitted proposals, and encourages continued involvement in global health activities. Special thanks to the Division of International Studies and the Morgridge Center for their support of this effort.
For more information on the UW-Madison Center for Global Health or to register as a CGH affiliate, visit www.pophealth.wisc.edu/gh.