November 9, 2009

UCSF Forum Launches UC Global Health Institute, Reports State Impact

Haile Debas

UCSF Global Health Sciences and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) today launch a UC Global Health Institute with a forum featuring top experts in the field and the release of a report showing the $75 billion impact of global health in California. Read the news release.

The forum, to be held in Genentech Hall at UCSF Mission Bay, will focus on the future of U.S. and California leadership in global health and feature leaders in global health from the CSIS and UCSF Global Health Sciences, authors of the economic impact report and students entering global health careers.

Panelists at the forum will include three members of the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy, as well as experts from UC, Stanford University and private industry. UC and Stanford students also will participate in roundtable discussion.

The event will accessible via UCTV webcast.

The new UC Global Health Institute aims to galvanize global health research and education across the university’s 10-campus system to help address the most pressing global health issues – from HIV/AIDS to H1N1.

Global Health Leader

UCSF Global Health Sciences (GHS) has flourished since its founding by Chancellor Emeritus Mike Bishop, MD, in 2003.

In fact, UCSF Chancellor Emeritus Haile Debas, MD, executive director GHS and the Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor of Surgery and dean emeritus, was a major champion of the new institute.

Debas has long brought international wisdom and expertise to UCSF. A native of Eritrea, he received his MD degree from McGill University and completed his surgical training at the University of British Columbia. Prior to becoming dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, he served as chair of surgery at UCSF for six years.

Global health captures the interest and imagination of students and faculty, who continue to forge new relationships for training and research and enjoy sharing their knowledge with the wider world and learning from other societies and cultures.

GHS currently has many active partnerships and projects in scores of countries throughout the world, representing all four of its professional schools, the basic science departments, and specialized interdisciplinary units, such as the AIDS Research Institute.

Serving the local, regional and global health communities is one of the seven directions outlined in the first-ever campuswide strategic plan, released in 2007.

Global Health Leader

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