Global Health: Bridging Research, Policy and Practice
March 28, 2008
Stanford University

A Symposium Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the Division of International, Comparative and Area Studies (ICA) at Stanford University

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education and the Division of International Comparative and Area Studies (ICA) at Stanford University, welcome to the annual Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) project directors' meeting and to the symposium, “Global Health: Bridging Research, Policy and Practice.” This half-day symposium will take place on Friday afternoon, March 28, 2008.

Current knowledge in the health sciences has the potential to alleviate unnecessary disease and suffering. However, a gap continues to exist between the scientific knowledge that exists to address these questions and how both policymakers and local communities use it. Disparities of access to medical facilities and treatment, the underutilization of health technologies, and the clash of new ideas with local customs all contribute to that gap. This symposium will explore these and other issues critical to the world’s health.

The keynote address will be given by Paul Wise, the Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society at Stanford. Wise is a health policy researcher whose work has focused on children's health; health-outcomes disparities by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status; the interaction of genetics and the environment as these factors influence child and maternal health; and the impact of medical technology on disparities in health outcomes.

Wise has worked to improve healthcare practices and policies in developing countries. He is involved in child health projects in India, South Africa and Latin America, targeting diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS. He also travels each year to Guatemala, where he teaches and provides care at a village clinic.

He currently chairs the steering committee of the NIH's Global Network for Maternal and Child Health Research, and he has served on many other boards and committees including the Physicians' Task Force on Hunger and the American Academy of Pediatrics' Consortium on Health Disparities. He has received honors from organizations including the American Public Health Association, the March of Dimes, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

In addition to the keynote address, we will feature a panel presentation of three distinguished scholars whose work is anchored in Africa, East Asia, and Latin America. Anne Firth Murray is the Founding President of The Global Fund for Women. A Consulting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford University, Murray will discuss the special issues of international women’s health. Karen Eggleston leads the program on comparative health care in East Asia at Stanford’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. She will present on health system reforms in Asia and Eastern Europe. Grant Miller is an assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His primary interests are in health and development economics, and economic demography. For this symposium, he will address to topic of behavioral obstacles to health improvement in developing countries.

We look forward to hosting you at Stanford, and discussing these important topics with you.

Sincerely,

Judith Goldstein
Sakurako and William Fisher Family Director, Division of International Comparative and Area Studies, Stanford University

Christine Corey
Senior Program Officer, UISFL, U.S. Department of Education

This conference is limited to Title VI Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language program directors.