Erica Field joins the Duke Global Health Institute and Duke's Department of Economics as Associate Professor of Economics and Global Health. She comes from Harvard University where she served as a faculty member since 2005. She is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research focuses on microeconomics of development with the goal of understanding behavioral responses to poverty. Her research interests include microfinance, property rights and housing policy, health and health care policy, and marriage and family law. She has worked in Bangladesh, Nicaragua, India, Mongolia, Peru and Zambia. Field has also taught graduate-level courses in development economics, economics of global health, and health economics and psychology.

Shenglan Tang joins the Duke Global Health Institute and Duke School of Medicine as Professor of Medicine and Global Health. Some of his work will be dedicated to development of the new Global Health Research Center at Duke Kunshan University in China. Tang comes from the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), based in Geneva, where he worked as a scientist and research manager. Tang has more than 20 years experience undertaking research on health systems reform, disease control and health care financing in China and other countries, and has provided consultancy services on health systems development and primary health care to many international organizations and governments. Tang holds several appointments from leading universities, including Fudan University and Shandon University in China, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom.

Haiti wasn't always the "poorest nation in the Western hemisphere," though it's almost impossible to read about the country today without coming across that phrase. In the two years since the earthquake that devastated it, Haiti has experienced political conflict and its first ever cholera epidemic; hundreds of thousands of the displaced are still living in makeshift tents strewn like dusty flags by the sides of highways. It is easy to forget that, for most of the 19th century, Haiti was a site of agricultural innovation, productivity and economic success.   

In the wake of the earthquake, many have talked about the need to lay foundations for a better future. To do that, Haiti should look to the past, and the system of small farms and the decentralized economy that once provided Haitians with dignity, autonomy and wealth.