Its network of partnerships with other community organizations is a likely reason that the U.S. State Department selected Georgia State University’s School of Public Health to host 100 Fulbright scholars for a global health innovations seminar Feb. 22-27, Anna Varela, the school’s director of communications, told Global Atlanta.
The Fulbright foreign students will participate in visits to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Carter Center and a public health program of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in East Atlanta as well as meet health and policy experts from the university’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and the Office of International Initiatives.
In addition to the opportunities for the scholars to expand their personal and professional networks, they will focus in the seminar on public health infrastructure, data and health disparities and public health/government relations. There also is to be an emphasis on international collaboration, according to Ms. Varela.
All of the participating students are pursuing graduate degrees at U.S. institutions representing dozens of developed and developing countries including China, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey.
The School of Public Health already has a history of of educating international students with 18 Fulbright students currently working on graduate degrees and more than 50 others who have earned a master’s degree or a doctorate in public health, Ms. Varela said.
As an example, she cited Aung Aung, a 2008 graduate of the medical school in Yangon, Myanmar. After working with the non-governmental agency Doctors Without Borders for eight years, he was accepted into the Fulbright program at GSU’s School of Public Health and will participate in the program with the visiting scholars.
Ms. Vasela explained that the visit to the health program at the Tabernacle Church was included because many of the scholars where they will be involved in similarly based facilities and programs.
For more information, Ms. Varela may be reached by calling (404) 413.1504
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