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Weekly News and Notes
From the Duke Global Health Institute
Greetings!
Welcome to the Fall 2009 semester and to the Class of 2013! We are particularly proud to welcome the inaugural class of Duke Master of Science in Global Health students.
Undergraduate and graduate students have 16 global health courses from which to choose this semester. Total enrollment in these courses already exceeds 300.
In addition to our academic offerings, this semester proves to be an exciting one with a series of excellent speakers, exhibits and special events. Keep up with all of the DGHI happenings on Twitter, Flickr , Facebook and YouTube.
We welcome your feedback and look forward to your participation throughout the semester. And as always, send us your news to share.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI |
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Summer In the Field
Duke students educate Haitian families about safe water collection methods
By Alyssa Zamora, Duke Global Health Institute
Two Duke University students recently completed their fieldwork project in the rural town of Thomassique, Haiti where they educated locals about the importance of clean drinking water and its ability to improve public health. Theology major Christina Booth, who is pursuing the Global Health Certificate through the Duke Global Health Institute, says she's pleased with the results and happy to see more locals start to embrace a safer way to drink water.
 "The families I worked with immediately wanted to know when we could come back and present this education session in their church," says Booth. "I was so excited to know that people were not only interested in adopting these health practices, but were so enthusiastic to want to share the information with more people."
Water supply and sanitation are key challenges for this isolated community along Haiti's central plateau, where there is a high incidence of diarrhea and dehydration due to contamination. This summer, Booth and her partner, Junior Meryl Colton, organized group meetings and visited households to promote the health benefits of using water treatment systems. An effective and virtually cost-free water treatment option is solar disinfection, in which water is poured into plastic bottles and then placed in the sun to disinfect. READ MORE
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Read about more student summer fieldwork projects on the newly updated Fieldwork section of the DGHI website. Click here. |
New DGHI postdoctoral fellow to study women's health in Dominican Republic
 Her fluency in Spanish is what led Jennifer Toller Erausquin, DGHI's newest postdoctoral fellow, to pursue a career in global health. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in psychology, she worked as a paramedic and a volunteer at a free clinic in Detroit. This opportunity allowed her to interact with Hispanic patients who came to the clinic seeking help, oftentimes with no insurance or plan for improving their health. "It was just so clear to me that an individual approach to health can't be our only approach," says Erausquin, who came to realize that health is a larger societal issue that requires attention from a variety of dimensions, especially for chronic conditions.
She went on to earn master and doctorate degrees in Public Health at the University of California - Los Angeles. While working in L.A. to raise awareness about sexually transmitted diseases among immigrant Latina women in L.A., she was inspired by the women she met. These women "make sacrifices in their lives in order to better their families, but they don't always put their own health first," says Erausquin. "I just want to help women attain the health and well-being they deserve as caretakers of their families." MORE |
Faculty News and Funding
Grants Accepted
Brief Care-Based HIV Prevention for Newly Diagnosed Men
DGHI Affiliate and Psychology Professor Kathleen Sikkema has been awarded $1,439,593 from the National Institutes of Health and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to study and build effective transmission risk reduction intervention programs for individuals who are newly-diagnosed with HIV.
Sikkema, who is also the Director of the Social and Behavioral Science Core within Duke's Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), will lead the two-year study. It will assign 120 sexually active, HIV-positive men who have sex with other men, to receive either comprehensive standard of care or a brief risk intervention that addresses sexual transmission risk behavior and substance use. The intervention will follow the initial physician visit and integrate risk reduction through personalized and relevant medical treatment and the sharing of health-protective information. Data on each patient will be collected on several occasions following the study to determine the intervention's effectiveness.
Sikkema's research team includes Christina Meade, an Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center, and Arlene Kochman,a certified social worker who specializes in HIV/AIDS and gay/lesbian issues.
Funding Opportunities
Supporting Universities to Partner Across the Pacific
The United States Agency for International Development Mission to Indonesia is seeking applications from U.S. institutions of higher education that support USAID/Indonesia's development strategy through partnership activities between institutions of higher education in Indonesia and the United States. MORE
Public-Private Alliances Related to Nutrition in Peru
USAID/Peru seeks to develop innovative alliances that decrease malnutrition (chronic and micronutrient malnutrition, particularly anemia) in children in support of the Government of Peru's malnutrition (CRECER) strategy. MORE
Deadline for Applications: Sep 30, 2009
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For additional funding opportunities, click here.
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Get Involved in Global Health!
DGHI has made it easier for you to get involved in global health at Duke. Click below for an easy-to-use guide to global health education, fieldwork, events, service and more.
Funding Opportunities
DGHI Request for Proposals: Small International Travel Grants DEADLINE: 5 pm, October 1, 2009
DGHI is offering small international travel awards of up to $5,000 each to Duke graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty to pursue global health research opportunities in low or middle income countries (see World Bank list). These grants are aimed at researchers looking to explore research collaborations by visiting an international site. Applications will be reviewed on a biannual schedule, and should include a brief (no more than three pages) description of proposed activities, budget, and applicant's CV. Applications should emphasize the relationship of the proposal to the six Signature Research Initiatives, and the prospects for longer term research funding support. Proposals will be reviewed by DGHI internal and external reviewers.
Proposal due dates: October 1, 2009 and March 1, 2010
Funding award dates: October 30, 2009 and March 30, 2010
For questions, please contact Kelly Deal
Overseas Fellowships in Global Health and Clinical Research DEADLINE: December 3, 2009
The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows (FICRS-F) Support Center at Vanderbilt is offering a one-year clinical research training experience for graduate-level U.S. students in the health professions. This is an opportunity for highly motivated individuals to experience mentored research training at top-ranked NIH-funded research centers in developing countries. MORE
Service Opportunities Global BrigadesGlobal Brigades is currently accepting applications for campus club presidents to lead students on a unique, one-week trip to make a difference in an underprivileged community. Over the past few years, Duke has sent Medical brigades to Panama and Honduras where students have made a sustainable impact in rural communities while applying what they've learned on campus. MORE* * *
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