A MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
August 13, 2020

Dear Colleague,

Our hearts go out to the people of Beirut after the terrible explosion that ripped through the heart of the city. We particularly send our best wishes to our colleagues at the American University of Beirut and Phoenicia University. In this bulletin you will find organizations that you can donate to assist the country during this tragedy.

In the interest of public safety, we have decided to convert our 2021 global health conference into a virtual format. It will take place March 12 to the 14th, with satellite sessions occurring the 11 days prior to the conference. It will be an engaging event with new opportunities and formats to connect with attendees and speakers. We hope this will provide new opportunities to share cutting-edge knowledge, build partnerships and convene a broader range of colleagues from around the world. Below are the links to register, submit abstracts, and propose breakout sessions and satellite sessions which will be taped and can occur anywhere in the world. Our Research Committee and Education Committee have also created a mentorship program for those submitting abstracts.

This month we also released "Global Health Votes," an initiative to strengthen the ability of all Americans to vote in the upcoming election. We are holding two online training sessions before our virtual Capitol Hill Day on October 2. Anyone is welcome to register for them. We hope this will enhance people’s skills in communicating with the media, engaging with the public and with their elected officials. Below are an array of other events and products produced by global health colleagues from around the world.
We hope you and yours stay safe as the pandemic tragically continues to claim lives around the world.

Best wishes,




Keith Martin, MD, PC
Executive Director
Consortium of Universities for Global Health
CUGH Events & Updates

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CUGH2021 will be a virtual conference. Working with our host institutions, we will provide an excellent, online venue to learn, share research, collaborate, and develop partnerships to address the global health challenges we are facing. Our new conference website, www.cugh2021.org, is open to accept registrations and proposals for satellite and concurrent sessions. The abstracts portal will re-open next week.

CUGH members are invited to apply to join one of several of CUGH committees and subcommittees that are seeking new members. They include CUGH's Research Committee, Global Health Operations Committee, Advocacy & Communications Committee, and Education Committee & select Subcommittees.

Applicants must be individual members of CUGH or work at an organization that is a CUGH member. Committee members are expected to actively participate in at least 2/3 of committee meetings and contribute to assigned projects during their terms. Unless otherwise specified, terms will be for 2 years. Applications are due by August 24, 2020.

New for the 12th Annual CUGH Conference, we are piloting an Abstract Advising Program to connect early-career CUGH and AFREhealth members (advisees) with more experienced CUGH and AFREhealth members (advisors). Once linked, the advisor and advisee will work together in a focused interaction to improve the quality of the abstract prior to submission for the CUGH conference (Abstract deadline of October 30, 2020).

Eligibility:
  • Potential Advisees must be CUGH members (individual or institutional) or AFREhealth members seeking guidance to improve their abstract prior to submission to CUGH2021.
  • Potential Advisors must be CUGH members (individual or institutional) or AFREhealth members and commit to providing high-quality and timely abstract guidance to the advisee with whom they are matched. To ensure that advisors have an appropriate level of experience, they must have been involved in writing at least five abstracts that were accepted at national or international conferences.

To sign up for this inaugural Abstract Advising Program, complete the following form as soon as you can and no later than September 30, 2020: https://forms.gle/uZsRWs5uEQTT3moQ9
VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING SERIES

CUGH is excited to announce that we are hosting two, free virtual communication workshops in September 2020. Given the upcoming US election and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that global health voices are heard in the halls of government, in the media, and amongst the public. Science must lead our approach to global health challenges. Advocacy Associates will be delivering the training. Below are descriptions and registration links to the workshops. Everyone is welcome to register.

Communicating with the Public, Media and Stakeholders
Tuesday, September 15th, 2020 1:00 PM (ET)

Join us for a training designed to strengthen the global health community's understanding of how to effectively communicate complex ideas to the general public. In this training, we will examine the core elements of what outside audiences need to understand as well as how to craft appealing messages. We will discuss specific venues for communicating your messages, such as letters to the editor, social media, traditional media, with legislators and more. You will come away from this training with enhanced skills for reaching out to influencers in your community—and beyond!

Engaging with Congress
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020 1:00 PM (ET)

Learn from 25-year Capitol Hill veteran, Stephanie Vance, on how to effectively engage with your elected officials. This session will provide updates on current policy issues, advice on researching your legislators, and best practices/techniques for developing a winning message. Stephanie will share strategies for successfully delivering your messages. Your voice is more important than ever in addressing the challenges we are facing. This training will strengthen your effectiveness on Capitol Hill.

An election year is a particularly important time to assert the value of global health. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CUGH is holding a virtual Global Health Day on Capitol Hill on October 2nd, 2020. This online event will allow participants to engage their Congresspersons on the value of US leadership and investments in global health. 

We will focus on members from committees that are responsible for funding US global health programs. Preference will be given to individuals from the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. 

The meetings will occur from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (ET) on October 2nd.  Prime Advocacy, a government relations firm will schedule all engagements. We will do our best to connect attendees with their Senators and House Representatives. Participants will receive a personalized Hill Day agenda, talking points, and corresponding log-in information for their virtual meetings.

To apply for this Hill Day, please click here. The application deadline is this THURSDAY AUGUST 27TH, 2020, EOD. Space is limited as we can only host a maximum of 100 meetings. You must reside in the US to participate in this Hill Day given the strict nature of Congressional offices and constituent services. Multiple participants will be part of each meeting. BEFORE APPLYING PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU CAN ATTEND THE DAY.

Please direct any questions to Ms. Monica Gilsanz, Advocacy and Communications Project Officer at CUGH: (202) 872-1187 or via email at mgilsanz@cugh.org.

We are pleased to announce that we are opening applications for the Dr. Tom Hall Educational Grants program for 2020. 10 grants, each valued at $5000 USD, will be awarded to CUGH members in good standing. As per Dr. Hall’s wishes, proposed projects should include educational activities that focus on improving the health of the planet, sustainability and human health.

Please find more information about this opportunity here. The application form is here. The deadline for applications is October 1, 2020. Please direct questions regarding the grant process to smallgrants@cugh.org.

Defending the right to vote is defending public health. CUGH recently released "Global Health Votes." This national campaign is focused on mobilizing the hundreds of thousands of health workers and scientists across the United States to vote, speak out publicly for science-based solutions to global health challenges, and encourage their fellow citizens to vote. This campaign is also asking voters to approach their Congresspersons to support four key initiatives that can strengthen the ability of every American to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

“Battling a deadly pandemic like SARS-CoV-2 is a race against time to save lives. The White House and members of Congress must set aside their political differences and urgently implement what is needed to protect American lives.” - Dr. Keith Martin

CUGH signed onto a letter that was sent to the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice on August 6 calling on the agencies to rescind the July 9 proposed rule that uses public health claims to bar asylum seekers from the United States. A copy of the letter has been published on the website of the Mailman School of Public Health.

Beginning in August, COVID-19 newsletters will be sent out every two weeks, except for weeks when the Bulletin is published. If you know of relevant guidelines, advocacy efforts, and other resources specific to the pandemic to share with our network, please send them to info@cugh.org. All newsletters are archived on our website.

The CDC has great videos that cover a range of CDC global topics, including PEPFAR/HIV, Ebola, TB, Lassa Fever, and One Health. Find them on the CDC Global YouTube channel.

In addition, the official CDC page has all of the COVID-19 related videos in one place. Several are in Spanish, but most are in English.

Sustaining Technical and Analytic Resources (STAR) is accepting applications for its open fellowship and internship positions in Uzbekistan, Cambodia, South Africa, Malawi, Chad, and the United States.
News & External Events

The Global Health Institute of the American University of Beirut launched the Beirut Port Explosion Missing Persons Database to support efforts for finding missing persons from the explosion. Please feel free to circulate this message and support the consolidation of efforts towards locating and finding the missing persons from the Beirut Port explosion.

To help support relief efforts consider donating to: The Lebanese Red Cross, International Medical Corps, Islamic Relief, or the World Food Program.

AFREhealth invites you to participate in a webinar on "Conundrums for Nursing and Midwifery Education in the era of COVID-19" on Wednesday 19 August, 2020 at 1:00 PM GMT (2:00 PM WAT, 3:00 PM SAT, CAT, 4:00 PM EAT, 8:00 AM EST). Once you register, you will receive the Zoom details in your inbox upon registration; you may also find in it your spam folder. During registration, please double check that you have provided the correct email address. Do not hesitate to contact the AFREhealth Secretariat if you have any questions.

Join the University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Institute for the third installment of their COVID-19 & Equity webinar series on August 20, 2020 at 9 AM Central Time. Also join them on August 27 for their webinar, Moving Forward: Building a More Equitable World.

Join ACHEST for their upcoming webinar on August 26, 2020 at 15:00-16:30 East Africa Time. This webinar is expected to achieve the following:
  • Inspire African governments to build and sustain trust with the population through effective communication that reaches communities with credible information.
  • Raise awareness on the critical role of inter-sectoral collaboration and the Whole of Society approach for COVID-19 control. This includes rolling out decentralized governance structures that reach all individuals, households and communities.
  • The outcome will be prevention of the rising community transmission of COVID-19, ensuring timely case finding, contact tracing and promotion of social cohesion and national solidarity to suppress the pandemic.

The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)-funded SCALE Award is seeking examples of creative program adaptations resulting from COVID-19-related challenges in the sectors of agriculture, natural resource management (NRM), and alternative livelihoods. Under the Creative Adaptation Award, the most compelling approach will be documented in a technical brief and will be featured in a SCALE-produced professional video alongside several of the strongest submissions, which will be circulated widely to the food security community. Version Française.
 
Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis from now until 5:00 PM ET on August 31, 2020. 

The John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award recognizes the world’s leading researchers who have used rational, scientifically based research to improve the wellbeing of those facing health inequalities worldwide. While a single significant scientific discovery would continue to be sufficient evidence to select a nominee, the Award will also recognize outstanding researchers who apply rational scientific approaches to successful implementation, evaluation and policy interventions.

Gairdner invites nominations from any field of research impacting global health and health inequity. The award is intended for research-focused candidates, not those primarily involved in administrative or advocacy roles. This award can be shared by multiple recipients at the discretion of the Foundation. Nominations due October 1, 2020.

Cambridge Elements are a new concept in academic publishing and scholarly communication. They consist of original, concise, authoritative, and peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific research, organised into focused series edited by leading scholars, and provide comprehensive coverage of the key topics in disciplines spanning the arts and sciences.

In this Element, Jessica Kritz writes about a Participatory action researchers (PAR) intervention in Old Fadama, an informal settlement in Accra, Ghana, which provides developing-country governments with a solution for complex challenges: a low-cost, locally-designed tool that dramatically improved participation and resulted in projects that impact the public good.

Exemplars in Global Health brings together researchers, experts, funders, and collaborators from around the world to help countries dramatically improve health outcomes by learning from each other. The program aims to document, disseminate, and enable replication of amazing successes in global health – from reducing stunting and under-5 child mortality to responding effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. These positive outliers are not mere stories, but models that can be replicated in comparable settings. 
 
The Exemplars in Global Health platform was designed to allow easy access to practical results and promote adaptation of exemplar learnings in new contexts. It already offers valuable lessons on the topics researched to date: Stunting, Under-5 Child Mortality, Community Health Workers, and Vaccine Delivery. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have also launched a special project, Exemplars in Epidemic Preparedness and Response, which is studying positive outliers in the prevention and response to epidemics.

Emory Global Health Institute hosted a forum on July 22 where a panel of experts discussed the history of colonialism and neoliberalism, racism and implicit bias in healthcare, the call for anti-racism for global health professionals, and the role of academia in addressing racism as part of global health action.

As Congress works to develop additional legislation to address the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential that it include critical resources for our public health system and workforce, expanded paid sick days and paid leave for all workers, access to affordable health coverage and other important measures to protect the health of the nation.

Take the time to contact your members of Congress and urge them to prioritize public health infrastructure and paid sick, family and medical leave in any future legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the United States, health disparities and inequities disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities. Much of this inequity is rooted in social determinants of health such as housing, education and nutrition. Two pieces of legislation, the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2020 and the Improving Social Determinants of Health Act of 2020, would seek to eliminate these disparities while correcting the conditions that cause and perpetuate them. These bills are particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as minority communities bear a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.  

The new Centre for Multidisciplinary Research in Health Science (MACH), devoted to life sciences, is an international landmark and leading center for health research with a special, but not exclusive, interest in infectious diseases within a global and multidisciplinary perspective. The Institute researchers tackle global health challenges, such as those determining illness and suffering among the poorest and marginalised populations, as well as those linked to innovative biomedical solutions from research in immunology and microbiology.

Africa Health Journal is a review journal, which does not publish research original articles with some exceptions. The target audience is frontline health practitioners and policy makers in governments. Teachers and students in academic institutions will also find the content of the AHJ of interest. Online and print editions are published quarterly.

October 6-9, 2020 | Virtual

Housed in Florida International University’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, the Global Health Consortium (GHC) is an accelerator for multidisciplinary initiatives to address key challenges in global health affecting the large populations around the globe. This year's conference will continue to address the topics that are central to the GHC’s mission and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted global health and prevention programs.
Job & Funding Opportunities

The Department of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine seeks a strong academic leader for the Director of Division of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Medicine. The successful candidate will have a strong background in education, research and management of clinical operations. Demonstrated leadership ability is essential. This individual should be fellowship trained with subspecialty board certification in infectious disease and experienced in a tertiary care academic setting. Experience working in a culturally diverse environment is highly preferred.
Applicants are asked to apply at the link above with a letter of interest and a current CV to be fully considered. Priority review will be given to applications received by August 31.

Emory University seeks candidates for its Vice President, Global Health/Director, Emory Global Health Institute (VPGH/DEGHI) position. Reporting to the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs (EVPHA) and working closely with the Department of Global Health in the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH), the VPGH/DEGHI will play a key role in maintaining Emory’s reputation as a premier destination for global health. The VPGH/DEGHI is responsible for collaborating with other Global Heath leaders at Emory to assure the development and growth of the global health missions, as well as the alignment and development of academic and research matters relating to global health at Emory University. These responsibilities require the VPGH/DEGHI to exert effective leadership in planning, evaluating success and growth and recruitment. The VPGH/DEGHI will be responsible for the overall mission, vision, strategic direction, coordination and administration of the Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI). 

A research assistant position will be available in 2020 in the laboratory of Dr. Ursula Wesselmann at the Departments of Anesthesiology, Neurology and Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Wesselmann’s translational pain research laboratory focuses on the pathophysiological mechanisms of chronic pain syndromes in women. Studies in our research laboratory have the common theme of elucidating peripheral and central pain mechanisms via neurophysiological and psychophysical paradigms in health and disease, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel treatment strategies for women suffering from chronic pain syndromes based on the underlying pathophysiology. Applications due September 30.

Reporting to the ICAP at Columbia University, the Country Director serves as the primary representative in the Philippines and is responsible for the strategic leadership and direction of ICAP’s entire program of research, technical assistance and training. The Country Director is responsible for managing the technical, programmatic and operational aspects of the program. Applications due September 30.

The UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative is recruiting its next cohort of transdisciplinary post-doctoral fellows. They are seeking two postdoctoral candidates to advance innovative discovery, intervention and policy research to help close racial gaps in preterm birth and improve birth outcomes among babies born preterm. Given their transdisciplinary approach, they encourage individuals from a wide range of professional and scientific disciplines to apply. In addition to receiving competitive salaries, fellows are eligible to receive research funding to support fellowship projects and educational stipends to further their training. Fellows also receive research and career mentorship and participate in regular works-in-progress sessions and professional development workshops.

To be eligible for the two-year fellowship, candidates must be a US citizen or permanent resident and have completed a doctoral program (e.g., MD, PhD, DNP, DrPH, ScD). Fellows are accepted on a rolling basis; the first round of applications will be reviewed on October 15.

The University of Washington Global and Rural Health Fellowship is now accepting applications for Internal Medicine and Medicine-Pediatrics physicians who are interested in becoming leaders and experts in the fields of global and rural health. This Global and Rural Health Fellowship is a two year training program where fellows spend one year living and working with Native populations in Alaska and South Dakota and one year working abroad on medical education and/or research projects with University of Washington faculty and mentors. In addition to a weekly structured curriculum, fellows can also obtain a Masters degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine or attend tropical medicine courses. For more information, contact Francis Montes at fmontes@uw.edu or visit their website. The application deadline is October 31.

The Fogarty International Center at NIH offers funding to support global health research. Fogarty also offers a variety of resources for those seeking global health research funding across NIH, and from other organizations.

The following three resources from JHU are continuously updated repositories of federal and private funding opportunities for individuals in various elements of their career.
Featured Reading
How (Not) to Write About Global Health
In this BMJ article, Desmond Jumbam discusses common pitfalls in writing about global health. Read here.

To Succeed In Global Health, We Need To Find The Outliers
Dr. Madhu Pai discusses the value of learning from positive and negative outliers in global health but reminds readers to examine who gets to tell the stories and how. Read here.

The Role of Mobile Technology in Alleviating Hunger and Food Insecurity
Food security and hunger is a major public health issue, with 820 million hungry people globally. In this article, the authors discuss the role of a novel app, called Food2Share, developed at New York University. They describe the potential of the app to alleviate hunger and food insecurity and simultaneously reduce food waste. Read here.
Global Health Journals & Newsletters
Consortium of Universities for Global Health
202-974-6363 | info@CUGH.org | www.CUGH.org