Dear Colleagues,

 

After last month's elections in the US, there is a great deal of uncertainty concerning the direction the country will take across a broad range of areas. More will be known as the new administration takes shape and policies are released. Certainly the rise in hate crimes, threats to women's reproductive rights, protection of undocumented immigrants, the fate of the Affordable Care Act, climate change activities and other issues are of grave concern amongst many of our members. 

 

Two areas in which you can mobilize your networks and institutions to educate the public and policymakers to support policy changes are: the protection of undocumented students and workers at universities and the protection of health workers in conflict zones (esp. in Syria). Public advocacy can move political decisions.

 

Please see our Advocacy Section for the statement made by the President of the University of California outlining their plan to protect undocumented immigrants from forced removal and discrimination and an article that outlines the dire plight of our colleagues who, while trying to care for the injured and ill in conflict zones, are themselves targeted by combatants. This is clearly a war crime and we who are involved in global health have a duty to speak out against these atrocities. 

 

If your institution has specific advocacy issues that it is pursuing please email them to us at executivedirector@cugh.org. We will use these in our advocacy efforts.

 

On behalf of the board I am very pleased to announce the five individuals elected by our members to our board: Dr. Patricia Davidson, Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Patricia Conrad, Univ. California Davis; Prof. Virginia Rowthorn Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore; Dr. Quentin Eichbaum Vanderbilt University; and Dr. Joseph Kolars, Univ. of Michigan.  We are also pleased to announce that Ms. Zoe Mullan, Editor, Lancet Global Health will be joining the board as an ex-officio member.  I would like to express our deep gratitude to Prof. Muhammad Zaman, Boston University and Dr. Nelson Sewankambo, Makerere University who will be leaving our board, for their service to CUGH. 

 

In this bulletin, you will also see updates about our 2017 conference, Apr. 7-9 in Washington DC.  Please note that on April 6 we will be holding exciting satellite sessions in DC on a broad range of topics from global surgery, urban health, quality healthcare, a job fair, student global health day and more. Attending the April 6 satellite sessions are not to be missed.

 

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