Our Events

See below for a list of upcoming and past events, including the
Global Health Equity Rounds speaker series, journal clubs, and more!
Video recordings of selected events may be available to U-M affiliates.

Global Health Equity Rounds: Anita Afzali

IBDHorizons and beyond: the present and future of IBD

October 3rd, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Zoom 

Dr. Anita Afzali is an internationally recognized, board-certified gastroenterologist with a distinguished focus on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). She has dedicated her career to improving the lives of those affected by this chronic and often debilitating condition.

Dr. Afzali’s medical journey began at the University of Washington, where she earned her medical degree and completed her internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship. She further specialized with an advanced IBD fellowship and holds both a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Washington and a Master of Healthcare Management (MHCM) from Harvard University. Dr. Afzali serves as Associate Chief Medical Officer, Executive Vice-Chair for Clinical Operations in the Department of Internal Medicine, and Professor in the Division of Digestive Diseases at the University of Cincinnati. 

As the founder of IBDHorizons, Dr. Afzali has further extended her influence by creating an organization dedicated to the education, research, and collaboration necessary for advancing IBD treatment. Under her leadership, IBDHorizons provides healthcare professionals with the latest insights into IBD management, fostering a community committed to improving patient outcomes.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here! (please check later)

WELCOME EVENT: GHE KICKOFF

Come meet fellow GHE members over good food and joining our group!

September 26th, 2024
6:00 PM 

Island Park

We are thrilled to have you join us for this special welcome event as we gather to celebrate the beginning of another impactful year with the Global Health and Equity Group. We will meet at Island Park to connect, share ideas, and enjoy some delicious food in the company of like-minded individuals committed to making a difference in the world.

Whether you're new to our group or a returning member, this event is an opportunity to meet others who share your passion for global health and equity. Look out for our link to RSVP so we can get ample Peruvian food! 

RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-JAzFgCh54iOH5TSdmdyR-aIx2zgl7eaq9THoAcpS9gxnLg/viewform

Global Health Equity Rounds: Akbar Waljee

AI methods and data science in resource-limited settings

June 27th, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom 

Dr. Akbar K. Waljee is an accomplished physician-scientist in healthcare policy and innovation, focusing on using machine learning and deep learning techniques to improve healthcare outcomes. He holds several key leadership positions at the University of Michigan, including serving as the faculty lead for the IHPI Data and Methods Hub and the Co-Director of theMichigan Integrated Center for Health Analytics and Medical Prediction as well as a convener for the e-Health and Artificial Intelligence program. 

Dr. Waljee's educational background includes undergraduate and medical degrees from Emory University, as well as a master’s degree in health services research from the University of Michigan. He also completed a healthcare policy fellowship at the Center for Health and Research Transformation.

Dr. Waljee’s work is aimed at improving healthcare access, quality, and efficiency, particularly in resource-constrained settings. He employs novel machine learning techniques to develop AI-enabled decision support systems and tools to facilitate more personalized care for disease management and healthcare utilization, with the ultimate goal of delivering efficient, effective and equitable care both domestically and globally.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here! (please check later)

Global Health Equity Rounds: Elisabeth Riviello

Critical care access in resource-limited settings

March 28th, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom

Dr. Elisabeth Riviello is passionate about improving critical care for patients in resource constrained settings. Her research is focused on ARDS, sepsis, and mortality prediction in low income countries. She has a particular interest in examining how context impacts critical care epidemiology, interventions and outcomes. Her medical education activities include critical care curriculum development for resource constrained settings as well as mentorship of US and LIC-based trainees interested in pursuing careers in global critical care.

Dr. Riviello serves on World Health Organization (WHO) committees, international society committees, and the Lancet Commission for Medical Oxygen Security; in these roles, she advocates for international critical care definitions and guidelines that prioritize applicability in resource constrained settings. She is the Principal Investigator for BREATHE, an implementation-effectiveness hybrid multicenter randomized controlled trial of high flow versus standard flow oxygen in five sites in Kenya, Malawi, and Rwanda.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here! 

Global Health Equity Rounds: Yen Hsieh

Surgical care to underserved communities

January 25th, 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom 

Yen Hsieh, MD is a double board-certified surgeon in Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery and Otolaryngology and assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Veteran Affair (VA), and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. His clinical expertise includes surgical care in facial trauma, head and neck cancer reconstruction, facial reanimation for facial paralysis, repair of congenital defects, as well as surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures. He has a special interest and commitment to global health and is dedicated to extending surgical care to reach underserved communities worldwide. Dr. Hsieh has undertaken multiple medical missions to countries including Mexico, Honduras, the Philippines, Tibet, China, Uganda, and Belize. He serves on the board of directors for Partners for Medical Relief, a nonprofit organization that provides medical and surgical care in Belize. Additionally, by utilizing the experience gained from practicing medicine in low resource settings, Dr. Hsieh is active in promoting sustainability and green initiatives in surgical care. He serves as vice-chair of the International Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies (IFOS) Sustainability Committee and is working to develop and implement feasible strategies for sustainability on local, national, and international levels. Dr. Hsieh completed his medical school and otolaryngology residency training at University of California Davis (UC Davis) Medical Center. He then completed his fellowship in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at University of Minnesota Medical Center and the Hilger Face Center.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here! (please check later)

Global Health Equity Rounds: Paul Clyde

Intersection of business and healthcare delivery in low and middle-income countries

December 21st, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom

Paul Clyde has many titles at the University of Michigan including the President of the William Davidson Institute, the Tom Lantos Professor of Business Administration, and the Movses and Maija Kaldjian Collegiate Lecturer in Business Economics and Public Policy at the Ross School of Business. Over his career, he has advised or directed more than 100 projects with firms in finance, education and healthcare industries in more than a dozen low- and middle-income countries. He has also worked with corporations ranging in size from small startups to large organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk and Microsoft. 

Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Clyde was an economist at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he advised the governments of many transition economies on their competition laws and natural monopoly laws. More recently, he has been involved in work exploring COVID policies in Sub-Saharan Africa and developing an optimal diabetes care delivery model in Sri Lanka.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here! 

Global Health Equity Rounds: Cheryl Moyer

Neonatal and maternal health in sub-Saharan Africa

November 30th, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom 

Cheryl Moyer is an Associate Professor of Learning Health Sciences and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her research focuses on the social and cultural factors that influence maternal and neonatal health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, including an emphasis on facility based delivery, neonatal mortality, social autopsy, and the assessment of ‘near-miss mortality’ – or those mothers and babies who suffer a life-threatening complication but ultimately survive. Most recently, she was the lead investigator on a 3-year USAID-funded project in northern Ghana that involved the conduct of social autopsies to explore maternal and neonatal deaths, sociocultural audits to explore the determinants of maternal and neonatal near-misses, and used GIS technology to map the location of deaths and near-misses against clinical, demographic, social, and cultural determinants. She also serves as a co-Investigator on an NIH-funded global health training grant for U.S. and Ghanaian post-doctoral fellows. 

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Michigan Public Health Institute

Michigan Public Health Institute

October 26th, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom

Read more here:

MPHI helps those who work in public health and related fields understand health equity, social justice, and the social determinants of health so they can work together to reduce the likelihood that people are disadvantaged because of their race, class, or gender. This is accomplished by collaborating with partners to implement programs, conduct research, and support strategies that address the root causes of inequities, including workshops, technical assistance, facilitation, and consultations centered around equity and social justice. Projects within the Center for Health Equity Practice (CHEP) speak directly to issues of poverty, inequality, and the social systems that contribute to them.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here! 

Global Health Equity Rounds: Shekinah Nefreteri Elmore

Global Radiation Oncology

July 27th, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom 

Shekinah Elmore, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor, researcher, and radiation oncologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who is dedicated to pursuing equity and empathy in oncology care. She is a cancer survivor with experience treading the line between patient and provider and has spoken about this at TEDMED 2020 and written in Elemental, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine, focusing on themes of embracing compassionate care and coping with uncertainty. She earned a master’s in public health from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and worked for the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs in sub-Saharan Africa prior to medical school.

During her time at Harvard Medical School, she received a Fulbright grant to work with Partners in Health in Rwanda to explore the patient experience of cancer care. While completing the Harvard Radiation Oncology Residency Program, she focused on understanding and improving radiotherapy access in resource-limited settings and promoting pathways for resident involvement in improving global radiotherapy. She has published on these themes in the Journal of Global Oncology and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics. She lives in Chapel Hill, NC with her husband, Adam Cluff, and their toddler, William Isaiah.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Joseph Kolars

Current state of global health initiatives at Michigan Medicine

May 25th, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom

We discussed global health initiatives across the entire University of Michigan, including Global Health REACH  and the Center for Global Health Equity , and ways for residents and fellows to get involved, including funding opportunities, programs such as the Global Health Research Certificate Program, becoming a member of the Center for Global Health Equity even as a trainee, and best practices when connecting with faculty already involved, among others. We also discussed philosophies for approaching global health equity as a whole, such as anti-colonialism frameworks.

Learners are also recommended to refer to his published work with Christopher Reynolds (medical student at University of Michigan) and Abebe Bekele  (Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Global Health Equity): Ten Questions to Guide Learners Seeking Equitable Global Health Experiences Abroad  

Missed the event? Watch the recording here! You can also download Dr. Kolars' powerpoint slides here.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Resource-Limited Settings Workshop

Towsley Simulation Center

May 13th, 2023
9:00 am - 12:00 pm

(SIGN-UP REQUIRED) We are hosting an ultrasound workshop with our own Dr. Juana Capizzano (Family Medicine) to teach a vital skill that may be useful in resource-limited settings. Light breakfast will be provided. Please note that there is currently no availability for more attendees at this time.

Global Health Equity Rounds: Naresh Gunaratnam

The Story of Grace: Innovative Health Care Interventions in Sri Lanka

March 23rd, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom

Check out the great work that Dr. Gunaratnam's organization, Grace Girls, performs in Sri Lanka here

Get in touch with him to discuss collaboration ideas or anything else here

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: House staff

Global health experiences

February 2nd, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom 

We discussed how apply for away rotations with assistance from Ali Gradone and also highlighted current and future initiatives of the Residents and Fellows for Global Health Equity group, including this speaker series, the Global Health Equity Certificate Program, our film series, our book club, and plans to establish a "Changemaker" grant and point-of-care ultrasound skills workshop for those in resource-limited settings. 

Missed the event? Download the powerpoint here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Alex Rabin

Respiratory Health in a Changing Climate

January 19th, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom

Climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable patients, including historically disadvantaged populations who suffer from higher rates of asthma and chronic lung disease. In this presentation, we will discuss current climate trends and review the respiratory health effects of climate change. We will also discuss ways to reduce the climate impacts of health care delivery with a focus on medical inhaler propellants. 

Alexander S. Rabin, MD is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs (VA) and University of Michigan hospitals. The goal of his work has been to understand the impact of respiratory exposures on patients and to minimize the environmental impact of healthcare delivery. He has worked closely with non-governmental organizations such as Health Care Without Harm (Boston, MA) and the American Thoracic Society to highlight the importance of urgent action to reduce healthcare-associated greenhouse gas emissions, including those stemming from inhaler propellants. His work has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times. He currently serves as the clinical site director for the VA Post-Deployment Cardiopulmonary Evaluation Network where he leads a multidisciplinary team that evaluates veterans with unexplained dyspnea and other respiratory concerns following military deployment. A graduate of Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Rabin completed his medical training at Brigham and Women's Hospital (internal medicine) and Massachusetts General Hospital (pulmonary and critical care). 

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Jeanette Pierce

Detroit in Context: Assets, History, and Challenges

December 8th, 2022
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
On Zoom 

Living in Detroit can be complicated. It has tons of amazing assets but also faces many challenges. One thing is for sure, Detroit is more than the headlines and stereotypes portray it to be. This talk will provide insights and put things in context as Jeanette Pierce takes you around the city and throughout the decades in order to help locals understand how Detroit’s history shaped where we are today, connect with what’s happening now and be inspired to take an active role in creating the city’s future. 

Discussion points will include:

Jeanette Pierce founded the City Institute to provide a deeper understanding of Detroit to better equip residents and stakeholders to build an equitable and thriving city. Since 2005, Jeanette has used experiential learning and non-traditional tours to help more than 150,000 locals and visitors learn about Detroit’s assets, small businesses, historic neighborhoods, city planning & development policies and innovative solutions to the challenges the city faces.  Jeanette and her team combine observations of current conditions, historical facts, and recent statistics with powerful anecdotes and individual stories of Detroiters to help clients understand the complexity and dynamism of the city of Detroit. City Institute offers learning journeys, speaking engagements and tours, and helps other cities create experiences that tell the story of their communities. Jeanette believes that when more people are informed and engaged in shaping a place’s future, there is a much better chance of that city becoming an equitable and thriving place for all. She has presented at more than 100 events including Atlantic Magazine’s CityLab Conference, Governor’s Economic Summit, Downtown Las Vegas Annual Meeting and the Oregon Heritage Conference. She was honored by Crain’s Detroit Business as one of the Top Forty under 40, by DBusiness Magazine as a Thirty in their 30’s, was awarded the Shining Light Future Leader Award from the Detroit Free Press as well as receiving many other recognitions and awards.  She serves on the Boards of the Michigan Municipal League Foundation and Detroit Historical Society. She has a bachelor’s of arts degree in communication from Aquinas College, and lives with her husband and toddler triplets on Detroit’s Eastside.   

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Kyle Pohl

Rural Health and Indigenous Populations

November 10th, 2022
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
On Zoom

Kyle Pohl will be presenting on the Alaska Tribal Health System and Rural Healthcare Delivery. We will examine current health disparities affecting Alaska Native People as well as the unique health care delivery model in Alaska which has helped to shape rural healthcare delivery around the world.  

Kyle Pohl, MD is an internal medicine and pediatric physician working at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. In medical school, he completed the specialty track of the Rural Physician Program through Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. He subsequently completed his combined IM-Peds residency at the University of Michigan where he tailored his curriculum to prepare himself to work in rural, underserved areas. Since graduation he has been working as a dual hospitalist at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska as well as performing primary care and public health initiatives at the remote critical access hospital in Nome, Alaska. He is the co-founder of the Norton Sound Children's Coalition which has won national recognition for improving pediatric healthcare quality in rural Alaska. He has served as the physician champion for the telehealth program at ANTHC and has created new models for specialty care delivery in remote areas. Kyle spends part of his time doing formal research evaluating pediatric language development through the NIH's Idea States Pediatric Clinical Trial Network as well as researching respiratory virus surveillance throughout several Indian Health Service locations in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health. Kyle's passion is innovative device design for low resource areas and he started his own medical start-up business focused on device design; he currently holds intellectual property rights on two novel medical devices. Finally, Kyle has served as the Site Director for the University of Washington's Global and Rural Health Fellowship where he has created an educational curriculum for internal medicine, emergency medicine and nurse practitioner fellows in addition to providing longitudinal mentorship to young clinicians.  

Missed the event? Link to recording to be uploaded later.

Global Health Equity Rounds: Sarah Peitzmeier

Feminist empowerment interventions as part of a public health approach to preventing sexual violence globally 

October 27th, 2022
12:00 pm - 12:50 pm
On Zoom 

Sexual violence is a pervasive public health problem that disproportionately affects cisgender women and transgender people globally. Feminist empowerment interventions are a type of sexual violence prevention intervention that has a strong evidence base for reducing sexual assault victimization, but are underutilized due to implementation issues as well as political and theoretical controversies. We will discuss what feminist empowerment interventions look like in the US as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa, how they fit into a public health approach to primary prevention of sexual violence, and ongoing work to adapt these effective interventions for online delivery and transgender populations. 

Sarah Peitzmeier, PhD, MSPH is a mixed-methods social epidemiologist focusing on gender-based violence and sexual health, particularly in marginalized populations such as LGBTQ communities and sex workers. Her current NIH-funded work focuses on intimate partner violence (IPV) in transgender populations, to better understand trans survivors' experiences and build validated tools for IPV screening in healthcare settings. Dr. Peitzmeier is also developing and testing interventions to reduce sexual assault against cisgender women and transgender undergraduates on college campuses. She is committed to community-engaged research that addresses under-researched community priorities, including her work on chest binding and health in transmasculine individuals. This work builds on her prior quantitative and qualitative research investigating the role of violence in propagating risk of HIV, HPV, and other sexual health concerns. 

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Rebecca DeBoer

Global Oncology and Bioethics

September 29th, 2022
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
On Zoom

The burden of cancer is rising in low- and middle-income countries, and many health systems are inadequately equipped to deliver equitable cancer care. As oncology capacity develops in low resource settings, frontline clinicians face complex ethical challenges in everyday clinical practice. Dr. DeBoer will discuss ethical dimensions of cancer at Butaro Hospital, a public district hospital in rural Rwanda supported by the NGO Partners In Health. She will share approaches to ethics research and advocacy for global cancer equity. 

Rebecca DeBoer, MD, MA is an Assistant Professor in Hematology/Oncology at UCSF and a medical oncologist at San Francisco General Hospital. She received a BA in Human biology from Stanford and a joint MD/MA in Medical Humanities and Bioethics from Northwestern. Her master's thesis focused on The Ethics of Global Cancer Care and Control. She completed internal medicine residency at the University of Chicago and a fellowship at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. After residency she worked as an oncology clinician in rural Rwanda with the NGO Partners In Health and then completed oncology fellowship at UCSF. Her current research focuses on resource allocation, patient-clinician communication, and strengthening care delivery in Rwanda, Tanzania, and the public safety net health system in San Francisco. She also teaches global health ethics at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and medical ethics at the UCSF School of Medicine.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Welcome Event

August 30th, 2022
6:00 pm
Island Park Shelter A
1420 Island Drive, Ann Arbor MI 48105

Get to know us better at this social event! Residents and fellows of the University of Michigan are welcome to attend and there will be catered food and alcohol. We will be discussing our planned activities for the year and will be happy to speak with anyone interested in joining our board! RSVP requested by August 23rd, 2022; please email ghe-executive@umich.edu if interested in the event, joining our board, or both!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Gurpreet Rana

 Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Global Burden of Disease Data Visualization Tools

June 16th, 2022
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom 

Visualizing data often allows us to see and study connections and correlations in health factors that might not otherwise be apparent. It also allows for impactful sharing of data on health outcomes over time by country or over regions. This session will be an overview of global health data visualization, focusing on an introduction to the use of the IHME Global Burden of Disease data (GBD) and GBD visualization tools.

Gurpreet Rana established and leads the Taubman Health Sciences Library's Global Health Program at the University of Michigan. The program works towards eliminating health inequities through the power of information resources. Preet's activities include: building research capacity through evidence-based information skills instruction; curation of global health data sources; participation in health equity research and collaboration; conducting expert searching of the global health literature; and fostering relationships with international partners. Preet teaches in health sciences curricula at the University of Michigan and internationally. In 2017, she was awarded the Medical Library Association's T. Mark Hodges International Service Award in recognition of her work in advancing the field of global health librarianship. She has a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario. 

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: TJ Klein

Overview for Clinicians Caring for New Afghan Arrivals

June 8th, 2022
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom

This presentation was developed by Shimmy Rukundo and Madeline Paxson, with mentorship by TJ Klein and Jade Marks, through the Michigan Engaging Community through the Classroom initiative. Dr. TJ Klein will be presenting.

TJ Klein is a clinical instructor and global women's health advanced trainee through the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan.  He obtained his undergraduate degree at Princeton University, his medical degree at Wright State University, and his Master of Public Health in Global Health from Harvard University.  He completed his residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore prior to joining the faculty at the University of Michigan.  His outreach and work focuses on sustainable cross cultural capacity building for the improvement of healthcare delivery for vulnerable populations, specifically within the Middle East.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Dig deeper: Flee, an animated documentary film about an Afghan refugee

Photo of Anvesh Annadanam
Photo of Michelle Glick
Photo of Helen Mulcahy

Global Health Equity Rounds: Anvesh Annadanam, Michelle Glick, Helen Mulcahy

Resident Global Health Experiences: Ecuador, India, and Alaska 

May 16th, 2022
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom 

Anvesh Annadanam is a current PGY3 ophthalmology resident at the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University, he helped to develop two medical devices, Faststitch and AccuSpine, for the US market, and presented his work globally. He continued at Johns Hopkins for his medical degree, where he conducted a clinical trial for USee, a self-refraction device used to dispense glasses in low resource communities around the world. As a resident, his interest in global health continued to grow. He is currently spearheading a project assessing the impact of social determinants of health on microbial keratitis outcomes at the Aravind Eye Hospital in South India.     

Michelle Glick is a third-year pediatrics resident at the University of Michigan. She is originally from New Jersey and pursued an English major at Amherst College.  After college, she lived and worked in Washington, DC for 5 years. She spent the first 3 years as a public middle school science teacher with Teach for America, and then worked as a clinical research coordinator and asthma educator at Children’s National. She completed medical school at Jefferson in Philadelphia. She is an AAP representative and co-founded Pediatricians for Black Lives. She will be speaking about her time in Ecuador. 

Helen Mulcahy is a third-year pediatrics resident originally from Michigan who is interested in pediatric emergency medicine and access to healthcare issues.  She will be moving to DC this year for a job in PEM. She will be talking about her month in Anchorage and Nome, Alaska. 

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Bridget Clough

The Afghan Placement Assistance Program and Resettlement Services in Washtenaw County

March 17th, 2022
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom

Bridget Clough (she/her/hers) is the program manager of Resettlement Services at Jewish Family Services (JFS) of Washtenaw County. She also supervises the Refugee Health Screening program. She earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration, with a focus in not-for-profit management, from Eastern Michigan University. Over the past five years, she has served as a resettlement case manager for newly arrived refugees, provided employment services, and intensive case management to the most vulnerable refugees served by JFS. In coordination with the Director of Resettlement and HIAS, Ms. Clough is developing a new program in order to provide case management to and address the unique needs of the humanitarian parolees who have been evacuated from Afghanistan who have been resettled in Washtenaw County.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Tom Sequist

Native American Health Policy: Inequities and Opportunities for Improvement

December 2nd, 2021
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom

Dr. Sequist is the Chief Patient Experience and Equity Officer at Mass General Brigham. He leads system wide strategies for improving patient experience, quality, safety, equity, and community health. He is a practicing general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sequist’s research interests focus on quality measurement and improvement, health care equity, patient and provider education, and the innovative use of health information technology.

Dr. Sequist is a member of the Taos Pueblo tribe in New Mexico and has conducted influential health policy research to advance our understanding of health care for Native American communities. He serves as the Director of the Four Directions Summer Research Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Medical Director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Physician Outreach Program with the Indian Health Service. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He received his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School, and his M.P.H. degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

This special event was co-hosted by the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion at Michigan Medicine.

Global Health Equity Meet & Greet

November 1st, 2021
7 - 9 pm
Request location information here

Get to know us better at this social event! Residents and fellows of the University of Michigan are welcome to attend. We will also be discussing our Global Health Equity certificate, which can be completed at any time during your training. RSVP requested by October 29th; please let us know in the free text of this form.

Photo of guest speaker Alize Asberry Payne

Global Health Equity Rounds: Alize Asberry Payne

Equity in the Time of Covid

October 21st, 2021
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom

Alize Asberry Payne is an Equity and Strategy professional working in Southeast, MI. Originally from San Francisco, Asberry Payne now serves as the first Racial Equity Officer for Washtenaw County. She brings a community-centered passion and professionalism to “Equity work,” incorporating her experience as a community organizer, consultant, and strategist. Alize has over 20-years of experience in public policy, strategy, community engagement and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her work is centered in ensuring that the most vulnerable have equitable access to resources and the opportunity to thrive. Alize has been named a fellow for the “Crafting Democratic Futures” project at the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Solutions. The three-year effort, funded by the Mellon Foundation, will explore community-based reparations solutions for Black and Indigenous People of Color. Her collaborative research on the impact of the local pandemic response on people of color has been published by the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being at the University of Michigan. Asberry Payne also serves on the Washtenaw County administrative cabinet, Criminal Justice Collaborative Council, and Michigan’s Covid-19 Community Stakeholders workgroup. Alize lives in Detroit with her husband and child. 

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Global Health Equity Rounds: Madiha Tariq & Asraa Alhawli

A Grassroots Approach to Healthier Communities

September 23rd, 2021
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom

Madiha Tariq is the Deputy Director at the ACCESS Community Health and Research Center. Ms. Tariq oversees health promotion and disease prevention programs including substance abuse and infectious disease prevention, maternal and infant health, and refugee health and wellness programs. Ms. Tariq has served as project director on several complex federal grants and cooperative agreements, including a SAMHSA-funded Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration project, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement-funded Ethnic Community Self-Help Program grant, and a highly successful Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services funded health insurance navigator program which gained recognition by President Barrack Obama, the US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and other leaders in health. She has published research on health insurance disparities among low-income people of color and the mental health burden of Arab refugees, immigrants, and United States-born Arab Americans in Southeast Michigan. She has also planned various international Arab health conferences – which have been the platform for ground-breaking research on Health Issues in Communities of Color. Ms. Tariq has led multiple education and awareness-raising campaigns in the community pertaining to discrimination and hate, physical activity, and substance abuse. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leadership Program Fellow. 

Asraa Alhawli is a Public Health Coordinator at the ACCESS Community Health and Research Center. Her work primarily focuses on advocacy and policy related to Medicaid, Medicaid expansion, and access to affordable health coverage in underserved communities. Ms. Alhawli also coordinates ACCESS’s involvement in research projects and initiatives with partner institutions. She has published research on associations with health outcomes in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) population in the U.S. She has also assisted in coordinating the international Arab Health Summit - which has been the platform for ground-breaking research on Health Issues in Communities of Color including the MENA population. Ms. Alhawli has led multiple education and awareness-raising campaigns in the community pertaining to health care access and substance use. 

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Photo of guest speaker Gifty Kwakye

Global Health Equity Rounds: Gifty Kwakye 

Sadly, It’s Not Always Hemorrhoids—Colorectal Cancer in Ghana

August 18th, 2021
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Zoom

Dr. Gifty Kwakye is an Assistant Professor at University of Michigan and serves as Clerkship Director for the Surgery Department.  She obtained both her undergrad and medical degrees from Yale University, and holds a Master in Public Health from Johns Hopkins. She completed her residency training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard and is board certified both in General and Colorectal Surgery. Her research interests lie in improving health disparities globally, tackling colorectal cancer screening and addressing treatment outcomes amongst populations in Africa but also immigrants here in the US. She is also currently conducting research on pelvic floor disorders that occur due to female genital circumcision.

This special event will be co-hosted by the Michigan Center for Global Surgery.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!

Photo of guest speaker Dr. Gillian Fraser

Global Health Equity Rounds: Gillian Fraser

Experiences Working for Médecins Sans Frontières and Challenges of Caring for People Living with HIV in Patna, India 

July 21st, 2021
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Gillian Fraser, MBchB, MRCP, Dip HIV, DTM&H, Msc Epi, is a consultant physician in Sexual health and HIV from Scotland. Since completing specialist training in Glasgow in 2015, she has been working between the NHS and field work for MSF (Doctors Without Borders). She has worked in Manipur, India rolling out hepatitis C treatment in PLHIV, and in Mynamar and Uzbekistan in an MDRTB project. Her last mission was in India, in Patna, Bihar in a 37-bedded inpatient facility for people with advanced HIV. Her next job will be in Teheran,  Iran working with marginalized populations (homeless, IDU and sex-workers).

Join us as we learn about her experiences working for MSF, and as she shares about their work in Patna, India providing care to patients with advanced HIV.

Missed the event? Watch the recording here!


Photo of guest speaker Dr. Katie Winiarczyk

Global Health Equity Rounds: Katie Winiarczyk

What happens when the only Doc in town gets sick? How COVID-19 has affected rural hospitals

April 15th, 2021
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Dr. Katie Winiarczyk is an internal medicine and palliative care physician at Marshfield Medical Center-Ladysmith WI. She was a recipient of the 2020 Rural Health Ambassador Award for her work in Ladysmith. We are excited to host her as she discusses the barriers faced by a rural community during COVID 19.

Photo of guest speaker Javier Cepeda

Global Health Equity Rounds: Javier Cepeda

Rethinking Drug Policy to Reduce Harms Among People Who Inject Drugs

March 18th, 2021
12 pm - 1 pm

Javier Cepeda, Ph.D., M.PH., is a professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Cepeda’s current research focuses on opioid use and infection, both in the US and in cross-border studies in Mexico. His research has branched into studies of policing and its impact on HIV transmission, drug policy reform, and drug treatment and prevention in several important cross-border studies, primarily in Tijuana, Mexico. He has also done cost-effectiveness work on opioid agonist therapy and other harm reduction strategies. Dr. Cepeda is also engaged in practice activities that have translated his research findings to inform policy and practice. His work has addressed issues of mass incarceration, drug policy, and HIV/AIDS for the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Caucus on HIV/AIDS, HIV treatment and harm reduction in Eastern Europe and Central Asia sponsored by the International AIDS Society and integration of HIV/TB/HCV in Kazakhstan.

Presenter Dr. Xanthia Tucker
Guest speaker Dr. Jenny Tsai

Picking up the Pen: An Orientation to Op-ed Writing

Presented by Dr. Xanthia Tucker, with Q&A from special guest Dr. Jenny Tsai

March 15th, 2021
8 pm - 9 pm

Xanthia Tucker is a first-year Med-Peds resident at the University of Michigan. She hails from northern California, where she grew up as the child of French and American seismologists. She studied comparative literature as an undergrad at Harvard and found her path to becoming a doctor through outdoor education and narrative medicine. After working as a health coach at Highland Hospital in California's East Bay and freelance writing for a healthcare startup, she completed her pre-med post-bacc at Bryn Mawr College. She earned her medical degree from the University of Chicago and is delighted to be deepening her nascent midwestern roots at the University of Michigan. She hopes to provide compassionate, equitable care to her future patients and combat disparities in the areas of adolescent and reproductive health. Outside of medicine, she loves to bake, sing, draw, and admire her cat-sons, Pico and Elio.

Jenny Tsai is an Emergency Medicine physician and free-lance writer in New Haven, Connecticut. She has a Masters of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a BA in Ethnic Studies and Human Biology from Brown University. Her writing has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Scientific American, STATNews, In-Training Magazine, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Academic Medicine, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and more. Her research focuses on the intersection of race and medicine. She has a particular interest in Social Medicine curricula and hopes to develop medical education using principles of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Narrative Medicine.  She can often be found wondering what would happen if she were to pursue a PhD, dancing around in places that aren’t dance studios, reading books on the floor, or dreaming about meals she doesn’t have the patience to cook. You can follow her on Twitter @tsaiduck77.

Photo of David Flood, guest speaker

Global Health Equity Rounds: David Flood

Reflections on Global Health, Career Paths for Young Physicians

Feb 18, 2021
12 pm - 1 pm

Dr. David Flood is currently a health services research fellow in the National Clinician Scholar Program at the University of Michigan and an Associate Investigator at the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (in Guatemala). He received his master's in health policy at the London School of Economics and his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. He returned to Michigan in 2019 for his research fellowship after completing his residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota in 2019. He is primarily interested in implementation research to improve the adoption of evidence-based chronic disease interventions with a focus on chronic malnutrition in children and cardio-metabolic diseases in adults (and the links between these two conditions across the lifespan). 

Photo of guest speaker Scott Stonington

Global Health Equity Rounds: Scott Stonington

Ethical Complexity in Global Health: Avoiding Unintended Consequences as Anti-Colonial Practice

Dec. 3, 2020
12 pm - 1 pm

Dr. Scott Stonington is a medical and cultural anthropologist, and an internal medicine physician.  His research broadly addresses the globalization of biomedical ethics and expertise. His first project in this area focused on decision-making at the end of life in Thailand, where individuals face a complex combination of ethical frameworks generated by high-tech medical care, human-rights politics, and the metaphysical demands of dying.  Dr. Stonington spent two years accompanying Thai elders at their deathbeds, documenting their children’s attempts to pay back their “debt of life” via intensive medical care, as well as the ensuing “spirit ambulance,” a rush to get patients on life-support home at the last possible moment to orchestrate the final breath in a spiritually advantageous place.  

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Photo of guest speaker LaTricea Adams
Photo of guest speaker Michelle Mabson

Global Health Equity Rounds: LaTricea Adams & Michelle Mabson

Environmental Racism: The New Jim Crow

Nov. 23, 2020
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

We were honored to host LaTricea Adams, MAT, EdS and Michelle Mabson, MPH, MSc, founders of the grassroots environmental justice and civil rights organization Black Millennials 4 Flint (BM4F). They spoke about the Flint water crisis, the history of the environmental justice movement, and how health professionals like us can help.

To learn more about Black Millennials 4 Flint,  please visit their website at http://www.blackmillennials4flint.org/. You can also follow them on Twitter @BM4Flint

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Global Health Equity Rounds: Adrienne Lapidos

"Scandal of Premature Mortality": Preventable Physical Illnesses among Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities  

Nov. 16, 2020
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

We were honored to host Dr. Lapidos as she discussed the alarming inequities experienced by individuals with mental illness.  Adrienne Lapidos is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, Department of Psychiatry. Her research focuses on innovations designed to improve access to care, especially novel interventions led by community health workers that integrate physical, behavioral, and oral health. As a practicing clinical psychologist at Michigan Medicine, she serves individuals living with psychosis, depression, and PTSD.

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Photo of guest speaker Paul Fleming

Global Health Equity Rounds: Paul Fleming

Immigration Policy is Health Policy: The evidence & how health professionals can advocate for change

Oct. 29, 2020
12 pm - 1 pm

Paul Fleming, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Currently, his mixed-methods research focuses on the root causes of health inequities, with a particular focus on developing and evaluating interventions in poor and marginalized communities in Michigan and abroad. In his work in Michigan, he uses a community-based participatory approach with Latino immigrants to examine how policies and discrimination contribute to poor physical and mental health outcomes. He also helps to lead the Michigan Chapter of Public Health Awakened, an advocacy organization at the intersection of public health and social justice. To learn more, follow Dr. Fleming on Twitter @FlemingPaulJ, and visit the Public Health Awakened website here. 

Cover art from "I Don't Want to Die in Prison" white paper - Life Means Death, by artist Yusef Quails-El

Journal Club: "I Don't Want to Die in Prison"

"I Don't Want to Die in Prison" - Prison Conditions, Decarceration, and Mutual Aid in the Age of COVID-19

Oct. 27, 2020
7 pm - 8 pm

We discussed this white paper by the American Friends Service Committee - Michigan Criminal Justice Program Carceral State Project. Download the PDF here.

This event was a follow-up to the Global Health Equity Rounds entitled "The University of Michigan in the Era of Black Lives Matter and Mass Incarceration." 

Photo of guest speaker Dike Ojji
Photo of guest speaker Mark Huffman

Cardiovascular Medicine Grand Rounds/Global Health Equity Rounds: Dike Ojji & Mark Huffman

Global Cardiovascular Health in Covid Era

Oct. 8, 2020
12 pm - 1:15 pm

In this special event, we had the privilege of hosting two high-profile clinician-investigators from across the globe.  Dike B. Ojji, MBBS, PhD is a member of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, and Mark D. Huffman, MD, MPH is the director of Northwestern University's Institute for Global Health - Center for Global Cardiovascular Health.

Photo of guest speaker Nora Krinitsky

Global Health Equity Rounds: Nora Krinitsky

The University of Michigan in the Era of Black Lives Matter and Mass Incarceration 

Oct. 1, 2020
12 pm - 1 pm

Nora Krinitsky, PhD is the interim director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. To learn more about the Prison Creative Arts Project, visit their website or follow them on Twitter @umichPCAP

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Cover image from Captive Genders

Journal Club: Captive Genders

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex

Sept. 16, 2020
7 pm - 8 pm

We discussed trans health and incarceration, using the introduction of this book (edited by Eric A. Stanley and CeCe McDonald) as a jumping-off point.

This event was a follow-up to the Global Health Equity Rounds entitled "Just Cities and Public Health." 

Stylized image of drinks on a computer screen background
Image by Danielle Carson

Kickoff Event: Virtual Cocktail Hour

Sept. 3, 2020
8 pm - 9 pm

At this pandemic-safe Zoom event, we met as an interdisciplinary group to get to know each other, enjoy each other's company, and share our mission and vision for the next year.

Photo of guest speaker Casey Rocheteau

Global Health Equity Rounds: Casey Rocheteau

Just Cities and Public Health

Aug. 27, 2020
12 pm - 1 pm

Casey Rocheteau is the communications manager of the Detroit Justice Center. Casey is an author and artist originally from Cape Cod, MA. They moved to Detroit in 2014 as the inaugural winner of the Write A House residency. Formerly a writer in residence at InsideOut Detroit, Casey has taught writing in DPS classrooms across Detroit. They have an MA in Historical Studies from The New School where they wrote their thesis on the two Black Panther Parties in New York City.

To learn more about the Detroit Justice Center, visit their website or follow them on Twitter @justcitydetroit

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Paiinting: Creation of Crow, Rick Bartow (2014).
Paiinting: Creation of Crow, Rick Bartow (2014).

Journal Club: Embodiment of Historical Trauma

"Bodies Don't Just Tell Stories, They Tell Histories: Embodiment of Historical Trauma among American Indians and Alaska Natives" 

Aug. 19, 2020
7 pm - 8 pm

We had a thought-provoking discussion on this article by Walters et al. Missed the event? You can still read the article! Here are some questions to consider as you read:

This event was a follow-up to the Global Health Equity Rounds entitled "An Introduction to American Indian Health & Family Services of Southeastern Michigan: Minobinmaadziwin." 

Global Health Equity Rounds: Marilyn Roubidoux

An Introduction to American Indian Health & Family Services of Southeastern Michigan: Minobinmaadziwin 

Jul. 30, 2020
12 pm - 1 pm

Dr. Marilyn Roubidoux is an enrolled member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, a 38 year member of the American Association of Indian Physicians and is Professor of Radiology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. She is an author of 106 peer reviewed scientific publications,  286  scientific presentations and a funded investigator of NIH grants in Radiology. She is on the Board of Directors of the American Indian Health and Family Services urban clinic of Detroit. 

To learn more about American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeastern Michigan, visit their website here.

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