Posted on November 15, 2005 at 1:55 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — The School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has received a three-year, $398,000 grant to support an innovative program aimed at advancing research and education in global health.
The award is one of 16 recently announced by the Fogarty International Center, in partnership with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Grants are part of the new Framework Programs in Global Health initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health.
“This effort will bring together faculty and staff from across campus with leaders from other U.S. institutions and numerous international partners to grow our capacity to address some of today’s most significant global health challenges, such as deafness and other disabilities,” said John Ehiri, Ph.D., associate professor of public health in UAB’s Department of Maternal Child Health and lead investigator of the grant.
The program will be conducted in partnership with UAB’s Sparkman Center for Global Health to expand several existing center programs while creating new incentives and means for engaging faculty, students and staff from across campus, closing gaps in curricula and communications, and promoting internships and research training opportunities related to infectious diseases, environmental impacts and assessments, public health leadership and management, and access to care for people with disabilities.
A school-wide executive committee will lead the UAB Framework Program, guiding efforts to build UAB’s global health education, research and service capacity. Some specific activities of the program will include a distance learning certificate program in global health, new core and field courses in global health, and short-term student exchanges/ internships with partnering educational institutions in Jamaica, Ukraine, Peru, Zambia, Honduras and other nations.
In conjunction with announcing the new initiative, UAB will host a Global Health Symposium, from noon to 2 p.m., Monday, November 21, in Spain Auditorium on UAB’s campus.
“The symposium will highlight and celebrate UAB’s ongoing contributions to global health, as well as feature forthcoming opportunities under the new Framework Program for Global Health,” said Sheila Andrus, Ph.D., acting director of the Sparkman Center.
More than 200 people are expected to attend the symposium, which will include remarks by UAB President Carol Z. Garrison, Ph.D., and School of Public Health Dean Max Michael, M.D. Following presentations by Ehiri and Andrus, participants will have an opportunity to view exhibits featuring information about UAB’s global health activities.