January 11, 2007
Global health luminaries Kim and Gayle to visit UW
The Fifth Western Regional International Health Conference will be held on the UW campus, Feb. 16–18. The conference, “Global Health Through Different Lenses: Reflections, Perspectives, and Visions for the Future,” will present global health through multiple viewpoints and disciplines.
Dr. Jim Yong Kim, of Harvard University, will give the keynote address, The Golden Age of Global Health: An Ethnography in Progress. The lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday Feb. 16, in 130 Kane, with a reception following at 9 p.m.
Kim is director of the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, and chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has 20 years experience in improving health in developing countries. He is a founding trustee and former executive director of Partners In Health, a not-for-profit organization that supports a range of health programs in poor communities in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and the United States. He also has served as advisor to the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as director of WHO’s HIV/AIDS department.
Dr. Helene Gayle, president and chief executive officer of CARE, the international humanitarian organization, will give the Evans School of Public Affairs’ Wolfle Lecture, prior to the keynote address, at 4:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 16, in 130 Kane. Gayle is the former director of the Gates Foundation’s HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program. She also worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 20 years in a variety of positions, from staff epidemiologist to director for the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. This lecture is free and open to the public. However, seating is limited. To attend Gayle’s lecture only, please register at evanseventrsvp@u.washington.edu.
Conference topics include conflict and refugee health, HIV vaccine research and development, arts and health promotion, building new health systems and minimizing aid colonization, health consequences of the Iraq War, water quality and human health, global oral health disparities, and film, film festivals, and representation. In addition to breakout sessions, there will be a special screening of Salud!, a documentary about the Cuban health care system, from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17.
The conference is organized by students and representatives of the Puget Sound Partners for Global Health (PSPGH), a collaboration of Seattle-area researchers, health care professionals, students, and nongovernmental organizations committed to improving global health. Partners include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Institute for Systems Biology, PATH, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the UW School of Medicine, and the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Conference co-chairs are Daren Wade, Global Health Resource Center, dwade@u.washington.edu and Ashok Reddy, reddya@u.washington.edu.
To register or for more information, visit PSPGH at www.pspgh.org.
