Three UCSF Faculty Tapped as Leaders in Global Health Research

By Kristen Bole

By Three members of the UCSF faculty have been named among the nation's 23 foremost experts on global health research by the Research!America Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research. Chosen as this year's Global Health Research Ambassadors, the experts have been selected to help raise the visibility of global health research through the media, public policymakers, opinion leaders and the public. From UCSF, the ambassadors represent the schools of dentistry, medicine and nursing, and include:
Deborah Greenspan
Deborah Greenspan, BDS, DSc, interim chair of the Department of Orofacial Sciences at the UCSF School of Dentistry, clinical director of the Oral AIDS Center and national expert on HIV/AIDS;
Philip Hopewell
* Philip Hopewell, MD, professor of medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, principal investigator at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded Francis J. Curry National Tuberculosis Center and a renowned expert in tuberculosis research and control;
Carmen J. Portillo
* Carmen J. Portillo, RN, PhD, professor in the School of Nursing's Department of Community Health Systems and a prominent researcher in Hispanic health, particularly the health and mental health of Hispanic women and the impact of HIV/AIDS on Hispanics.
The Rogers ambassadors will work to build a national discussion about global health research and will stress the importance of effective collaboration among the nation's government, industry, academic, patient advocacy and philanthropic research sectors. The national acclaim comes at a time when UCSF has refined its strategic vision as a global health leader, with a guiding principle of finding innovative solutions to global health needs through collaboration within and between its four schools, as well as through partnerships to advance health worldwide. The entire UCSF Strategic Plan is posted here. This year's experts were selected from the nation's top universities and medical centers, including Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Princeton. Columbia was the only other university to have more than one faculty member selected as a finalist. Rogers ambassadors represent leaders in a variety of global health areas, including HIV/AIDS research, tuberculosis, vaccines, nutrition and environmental hazards. They join last year's appointees to make up the first 50 ambassadors in the Rogers Society. The society was founded in 2006 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was named for former Florida Congressman Paul G. Rogers, who championed research to improve health. It aims to increase awareness of - and to make the case for greater US investment in - research to fight diseases that disproportionately affect the world's poorest nations. Related Links: Research!America UCSF Strategic Planning Initiative advancing health worldwide™ Website