Looking to create awareness and increase opportunities for learning in the global, border and rural settings – including hands-on field/clinical work and research – a multidisciplinary group of University of Arizona students and faculty collaborators will host the Arizona Global Health Conference, March 28-29.
The conference will be h
eld at the Arizona Health Sciences Center and will bring together global, border and rural experts to share their research and clinical/field experience while also exploring opportunities for future global, border and rural health educational and research collaborations.
Registration is open to the public and is $30 for students and $60 for non-students. Registration includes a pre-reception and poster fair from 6 to 8 p.m. at the UA Cancer Center’s Kiewit Auditorium on March 28; on March 29, the conference is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at DuVal Auditorium at UA Medical Center.
“Our goal for the conference is to facilitate a multi-disciplinary approach to health practice and to promote new collaborations, while strengthening existing relationships among faculty, staff and students, which will be integral to creating innovative cross-disciplinary, hands-on field work and research
opportunities,” said Aubri Carman, conference organizer and second-year student at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson.
Carman and second-year UA medical student David Carpenter are conference co-chairs. Bradley Dreifuss, MD, director of the rural and global health program at the UA Department of Emergency Medicine, provided conference guidance, and all have worked for months planning and recruiting students and faculty in the effort.
The “Cultural Competency: Considerations for Sustainable Health, Technology and Education Program Development in Global, Border and Rural Health” conference will feature keynote speakers Parmi Suchdev, MD, MPH, and Marc Nichter, PhD, MPH.
Dr. Suchdev is an associate professor of pediatrics and global health. He is also a medical epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He directs the Emory Pediatrics Residency Program Global Child Health Track. His research focuses on micronutrient malnutrition, in particular the safety and effectiveness of home fortification programs, as well as the effects of infection/inflammation on nutrition biomarkers.
Dr. Nichter is a Regents’ Professor and UA professor of anthropology, public health and family medicine. He is a sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in medical anthropology and has considerable field experience in global health, health disparities and ethnomedicine. His research interests include a wide range of topics, from child survival and reproductive health to emerging infectious diseases; from mental health to pharmaceutical practice and tobacco control. He has conducted research in South India, as well as Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and served in research support roles for projects in Indonesia, Thailand, West Africa and Latin America.
The Arizona Health Sciences Center Global Health Consortium serves as a resource center, coordinating the work of disparate, established and emerging global health programs in teaching, service-learning and field research.
“To advance the existing global opportunities on the UA Main Campus and at AHSC, it is critical to capitalize on the large potential that exists for expanding multidisciplinary collaboration on education and research programs,” said Dr. Dreifuss.
Twenty-five UA faculty and staff members will present in the afternoon as part of six panel discussions, each centered on a different theme. As experts in their respective fields, panelists will present their work and engage in pertinent discussion, with time for questions from the audience.
“By bringing together like-minded individuals for the conference, we can cultivate multi-disciplinary student and faculty interest and enthusiasm to create a new approach for health initiatives at the UA,” Dr. Dreifuss said. “We want to create awareness and provide opportunities to coordinate research and education efforts, while also gaining support and providing guidance to the administrative leadership in future global health initiatives.”
For more information and complete schedule, please visit:
globalhealthaz.org/conference-home.html