2020-21 Annual Report of the University of Iowa Global Public Health Initiative

2020-2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Global Public Health Initiative

FROM THE CHAIR The 2020-21 academic year continued to be an unusual and difficult year to navigate for everyone and especially those working in global health. While international travel continued to be out of reach, we did our best to adapt to our new reality and used the improved virtual technologies available to us to strengthen our partnerships and research efforts overseas.

For students, nothing can replace the benefits of living and working in a global environment. However, our new virtual work environment allowed us to bring in speakers and explore new partnerships that otherwise may not have been within reach. From virtual guest speakers zooming in from overseas to new collegiate and university research partnerships, this past year held several bright spots in our college's global health endeavors.

Although not much has changed in the last year, the future does look brighter for the state of health, health research, and health education around the world. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with our international partners over the next year and are especially excited to be able to travel and work together in-person. We will continue to support the faculty, staff, and students in our college's community as global health and travel returns to our lives.

Diane Rohlman Chair, Global Public Health Committee Endowed Chair, Rural Safety and Health Professor, Occupational and Environmental Health

2020-21 HIGHLIGHTS NEW PARTNERSHIPS This year our college create new formal partnerships with the University for Global Health Equity (Rwanda) and Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Moldova). The College of Public Health was also instrumental in hosting a global health virtual speed networking session with the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) which has helped expand our informal faculty relationship into a university-wide institutional partnership.

GUEST SPEAKERS Throughout the year, we hosted several guest speakers, including Dr. Gagan Gupta, UNICEF Health Specialist, who presented on the impact of COVID on essential global health services.

Our guests also included a panel of global practitioners who spoke with students on career development opportunities and featured: Maha Damaj, Country Represntative to Moldova, UNICEF Mary Harvey, Health Officer, USAID Africa Eric Sarriot, Senior Manager for Health Systems, GAVI Alfredo Vergara, Country Director to Mozambique, CDC

GLOBAL CASE COMPETITION The IIPHRP Global Health Case Competition, now in its 4th year, also continued to engage students. For the 2020 year, 5 teams competed to present their interventions on fighting chronic disease amongst migrants in Chiapas, Mexico. This year's judges included Roberto Castro, Professor of Sociology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, along with Russell Ganim, Denise Martinez and Ann Ricketts, all representing departments from across the University of Iowa. This year, we also introduced a new competition event - a mystery speaker to act as a primary resource for competing students - and featured William Etienne, Infection Preventionist and former Doctors Without Borders participant, and Ivana Fertziger, Senior Program Officer for Mexico and Central America for the Ford Foundation.