Kick-off event for new Institute for Global Health held on November 9
Approximately 25 faculty attended a grand kick-off luncheon on November 9, held to announce preliminary approval of a new Institute for Global Health at UMass. Participants were welcomed by Provost Charlena Seymour and Vice-Provost for Research, Paul Kostecki. The Institute will be directed by Dr. David Buchanan. He discussed his current efforts to initiate new projects in Russia and South Africa.
In way of background, the inspiration for the new Institute for Global Health grew out of discussions between Provost Seymour and Vice-Rector Mogotlane of the University of Pretoria. Provost Seymour visited the University of Pretoria, South Africa, in the summer of 2005. While there, the two institutions signed a global Memorandum of Agreement pledging cooperation on a range of research and educational endeavors. The vice-Rector then visited UMass in April, 2006, and he recommended that UMass establish a new Institute for Global Health to cement a major area of mutual interest. And so the institute was born. Thus far, a total of 35-40 faculty have expressed interest in collaboration.
IGH Vision
The University of Massachusetts Amherst Institute for Global Health (IGH) is committed to protecting and promoting the health of people throughout the world, especially those living in developing nations. To fulfil this mission, the IGH provides training and educational opportunities for international personnel seeking advanced skills in the public health sciences and conducts applied collaborative research projects designed to develop effective programs and policies to ameliorate pressing health problems. The University of Massachusetts Institute for Global Health contributes multidisciplinary faculty expertise towards achieving goals of reducing health disparities and improving quality of life in international settings. Faculty and staff affiliated with the Institute develop and implement many different types of educational programs, including short courses taught both here and abroad, specialized doctoral training programs, on-line courses, workshops, symposia, and others, and engage in collaborative health research with host nationals.
IGH Collaborations
The UMA-IGH has on-going partnership relationships with the University of Pretoria, MEDUNZA, and the Medical Research Council in South Africa; Proyecto ADAMES, a midwifery training program to reduced maternal mortality, in the Dominican Republic;a joint International Rotary Club & USAID-funded Reproductive Health Program in Pskov, Russia; and in Germany at the Institute for Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Muenster, and the Department of Epidemiology, University of Ulm. Additional relationships exist in Viet Nam at the National School of Public Health, Hanoi, in Thailand at the Burapha University School of Public Health, and in China, at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) & Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). Relationships also exist with the scientists at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, the Hanoi School of Medicine, and the Viet Nam National Institute of Nutrition.
Structure
The IGH has an Advisory Board composed of national and international health experts and international development authorities. The following Colleges, Schools and Departments contribute to the multi-disciplinary activities of the IGH: the Division of Community Health Studies in the School of Public Health & Health Science; the Division of Biostatistics & Epidemiology (SPHHS); the Division of Environmental Health Science; the Department of Communication Disorders (SPHHS); the Department of Nutrition (SPHHS); the Department of Management in the Isenberg School of Management; the School of Nursing; the Center for Public Policy and Administration; the Department of Sociology in the College of the Social & Behavioral Sciences; and the Departments of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Veterinary & Animal Sciences, and Resource Economics in the College of Natural Resources and the Environment.
