3rd Annual VCU Global Health Showcase: Making it Work, Getting it Right

The 3rd annual Virginia Commonwealth University Global Health Showcase is coming up on April 20, 2015. This is an all day event featuring an exciting keynote from Dr. Tom Kerkering discussing his experience with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, several breakout sessions and a poster session featuring global-health related work from trainees across the university. This year's meeting is called "Making it Work, Getting it Right." The theme of the meeting is giving students and faculty key tools to engage in global health work.

VCU EWB students trailing a novel water catchment device
in Yoro, Honduras, June 2014

Prior showcases have been a wonderful opportunity to network, share ideas and build new relationships. The first showcase led to our program's (the Global Health & Health Disparities Program, GH2DP) current partnership with VCU's Engineers Without Borders (EWB) student chapter. This relationship has led to the development of several novel clean water technologies for use in rural Latin America as well as helped support or ongoing clean water campaign in Yoro, Honduras.

VCU EWB students trailing a new biased filter,
Richmond, VA, 2015

It is not too late to register and come out for the showcase on April 20th! Details about the showcase (including the agenda) can be found here.

Global Health Resources Guidebook for Students, Residents and Fellows

In preparation for a 'breakout' session at the upcoming 3rd Annual Virginia Commonwealth University Global Health Showcase I put together a resource guidebook for students, residents and fellows interested in global health; this can be found here.

This 'book' contains a number of links to great online resources: from lists of post-graduate training programs in global health to international and domestic volunteer opportunities to lists of great global-health related books and journals. Additionally, it links to a number of free (!!) online training resources for global health.

VCU Honduras Outreach Projects Presented at Global Health Showcase, International Congress on Infectious Diseases

Audrey Bowes (VCU second year medical student)
presenting on an outreach project on indoor air pollution
in Yoro 

The second VCU Global Health Showcase was held on April 1, 2014, and involved a series of oral presentations as well as a poster session. Multiple students and fellows who have been involved with global health work at our Global Health and Health Disparities Program (GH2DP) site in Yoro, Honduras, presented on their findings.

Audrey Bowes, a VCU second year medical student, presented on an education project focused on indoor air pollution in Yoro.

VCU Engineers Without Borders students
presenting on their work on novel water catchment
technology (left to right: Matt Beckwith,
Katelyn Boone, Viktoria Pretzman,
Kristina Kelly, Lucas Potter)

VCU undergraduate engineering students from the group Engineers Without Borders (EWB) presented on their work creating novel water catchment technology. Members from the EWB group will be traveling to our Yoro, Honduras site in June to trial this technology.

Additionally, Summer Donovan, a pediatric Infectious Diseases fellow at VCU, presented on her 2013 project looking at Chagas disease knowledge and attitudes in Yoro.

With Dr. Gonzalo Bearman at Gaby Halder's
poster on clean water storage, International
Congress on Infectious Diseases, Cape Town,
South Africa 

Gaby Halder (a 4th year medical student who will be graduating in May) also had her research on clean water storage presented at the International Congress on Infectious Diseases meeting that just concluded in Cape Town, South Africa.

Congrats to all of these outstanding student/ fellow researchers!