Students and faculty from Duke traveled to the nation’s capital this week to participate in the inaugural Consortium of Universities for Global Health annual meeting and congressional briefing.
The consortium was attended by more than 300 people from six universities and marks the first time that universities gathered to push for global health issues, specifically cooperation between the U.S. government and universities, said Dr. Michael Merson, director of the Duke Global Health Institute and Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health. According to the consortium’s brochure—entitled “Saving Lives: Universities Transforming Global Health”—the event aims to foster cooperation between universities across the nation to address global health issues.
President Richard Brodhead took part in the consortium’s presidential panel and discussed the increase in students interested in global health. He noted that Duke’s global health undergraduate certificate program and the Global Health Institute have grown rapidly in recent years.
Following the two-day consortium, the Global Health Caucus and Center for Strategic and International Studies invited the consortium to a congressional briefing to address citizens interested in the consortium, Merson said.
As the briefing’s headline speaker, Merson focused on the government’s plan to spend $7 billion this year and $61 billion over six years in support of global health initiatives.
“A lot of this money is going to countries around the world for programs such as AIDS prevention, tuberculosis treatment and maternal-child programs,” Merson said. “Universities can help in monitoring these programs and figuring out the best intervention strategies. We can also help in designing sound policies with the government in setting priorities in global health.”
Three college students followed Merson to speak about their global health activities and their experiences—one was junior Gregory Morrison. The executive vice president for DSG spoke about his DukeEngage experience in Uganda.
Morrison said his presentation highlighted how global health is important to U.S. interests. He added that initiatives build a significant amount of good will toward America and also have an economic benefit as the urban markets for American goods will increase.
“Universities are really involved in global health work around the world and are doing good work,” Morrison said. “Partnership between the government and universities is something that the government should really focus on.”
Merson said the rapid increase in global health programs at universities is indicative of current generations of students who really have a desire for service.
Junior Rahul Kale said he has noticed students’ growing interest in global health work.
“I know there has been a great push to get the certificate program to become a major and I know a lot of people who are interested in the field right now,” he said. “The cool thing is that programs such as DukeEngage and other global health field work projects are getting more and more developed.”
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