How Universities Can Help Achieve Progress in Global Health

Author: Lola Jover. Panoramic views of Chicago.

Last week I had the pleasure to participate with Núria Casamitjana, the Director of Education & Training at ISGlobal, at the 10th annual conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) under the theme: Translation & Implementation for Impact in Global Health. The conference took place in Chicago (United States) and was hosted by the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago and the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.

I had the pleasure to participate with Núria Casamitjana, the Director of Education & Training at ISGlobal, at the 10th annual conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health

CUGH supports academic institutions and partners to improve the wellbeing of people and the planet through education, research, service, and advocacy. Its vision is supporting universities as a transforming force in global health. In 2018, CUGH gathered more than 165 institutional members and a network of 30,000 practitioners, making it the world’s largest academic consortium engaged in global health. ISGlobal is a member of CUGH since 2015.

Lola Jover and Núria Casamitjana at the 10th annual conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH)

Núria Casamitjana, member of CUGH Board since 2018, participated in the panel of two satellite sessions. The first session was titled: From competencies to curriculum: approaches to teaching global health, organized by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). Elizabeth Ablah, Associated Professor of the University of Kansas School of Medicine, facilitated a great introduction of competency-based curriculums, using as a reference the ASPPH’s MPH Global Health Competencies Toolkit created in 2018.

Throughout this first part of the workshop the audience discussed challenges encountered in building a competency based curriculum, and more particularly whether socio-cultural differences between different regions worldwide require different types of competencies to prepare students for a global health work. To see real examples, three faculty members including Núria, were invited to participate in a debate to show to the audience three different curricular models from Europe, Asia and North America.

Núria highlighted, amongst other things, the transdisciplinary approach of the Master of Global Health and the positive experience of having students in the programme from different disciplines other than life sciences, such as economics or social sciences. In addition, she emphasized all the benefits that our institution has from being a member of the tropEd Network, particularly in regards with mobility of students from our institution to other academic institutions of the network and vice versa.

Núria Casamitjana participating in the session entitled: From competencies to curriculum: approaches to teaching global health

The second satellite session that ISGlobal participated was titled: Advancing your global health career: tips and insights from global health leaders, organized the CUGH Trainee Advisory Committee (TAC). In this session, Núria Casamitjana shared her career path with a young audience of global health students. When she was asked for tips, she highlighted the fact that is really important to be open to opportunities to build a career in global health. She said: “Life is about change… you should follow your heart and do what you enjoy”.

Casamitjana shared her career path with a young audience of global health students. When she was asked for tips, she highlighted the fact that is really important to be open to opportunities to build a career in global health. She said: “Life is about change… you should follow your heart and do what you enjoy"

Complementing other panellists - Ann Kurth, Dean of Yale University School of Nursing, and Roger Glass, Director of the Fogarty International Center and Associate Director for International Research at NIH-, she explained that it’s not a mandatory to live abroad to pursue a career in global health. There are global health issues in developed countries with vulnerable and undeserved populations such as migrants and refugees whose health and other needs are often forgotten.

Her final message to the audience was: “You are our future, be creative and change what you don’t like in the world where we are living”.