Global Health Institute

What formative personal and professional experiences have shaped your approach to global health as executive vice president of health sciences at GUMC?

My mom was a community mental health worker, and I would sometimes go to work with her when I was a child. She would frequently tell me that people struggle way more than they should, and she would stress that we have to do something about that.

My mom inspired me and fueled my desire to commit my life to that goal, just as the people working in global health are dedicated to lessening the struggles of others. And so, in my journey, I set about to do that as a clinician, a researcher, and an educator, and eventually in leadership roles at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Washington, Michigan State University, and now Georgetown.

At Johns Hopkins, I attended the School of Public Health. The curriculum was based on imbuing students with an awareness of health disparities locally and across the globe. As a department chair at the University of Washington, we established programs in Africa focused on improving birth outcomes and established a research center and clinical trials program in China focused on improving stroke diagnosis and outcomes. I also had the opportunity to co-author a proposal that was funded and became the Population Health Initiative,which made it possible to bring together the research and resources of the university and partners to improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Within the Health Sciences at Michigan State, we had a long-established Institute for Global Health that supported health education, research, and capacity building.

What really drew me to Georgetown was this sense of urgency that the magnitude of struggle in our world is too great. Georgetown is uniquely positioned to lead the way in addressing and bringing health, hope, and healing to people. The Global Health Institute platform enables us to converge strengths in the university and with partners. Together, we can make sure that regardless of where one lives, people do not feel alone in their time of need.

You have often spoken about the importance of healing and hope. How do you define “hope and healing,” and what do they look like to you in the context of global health?

Health care, done correctly, is when people know they are not alone, they are cared about, and that they matter. That is hope. Healing can be delivered in many ways through medicine, compassion, and/or hope. In this way, hope and healing are truly intertwined. Everyone deserves hope and healing—from Southeast Washington to the many corners of the world—and Georgetown has the capacity to be a leader in delivering hope and healing in all that we do.

In what ways does the intersection of faith and health shape your leadership at GUMC?

Faith has been so important to me in my journey as a person, as a dad, as a husband, as a doctor, and as a teacher. I think in all faiths, there are guiding lessons about a life of purpose and service to others—they are lessons that unite. Too many do not know where to turn for help, hope, or healing. Faith, all faiths, also remind us that we are not alone, there is a place to turn to, and we are cared about. We have the opportunity to bring together faith and spirituality with healing and health. In this synergy, we can better serve the nation and the world. We can illuminate the path toward meeting the health needs of all.

You have mentioned the importance of partnerships in your work. Particularly at GUMC, what role do partnerships play in advancing global health initiatives, and what steps are necessary to turn that vision into a reality?

I believe that the solution to providing what people deserve is bringing to bear the collective strengths of a university in solving the health needs of our nation and world. At Georgetown, we have many avenues to pursue the improvement of global health through our deep expertise across the university: medicine, nursing, health care administration, biologic sciences, policy, business, law, and the humanities. Partnerships within and with external collaborators is critical to successfully addressing the many needs our world faces. We should not be doing this work in silos. Furthermore, the key partnership is with the communities we serve. They should decide the needed direction, and we are obliged to support their decisions. A major hurdle that we can cross through partnerships is the act of coming together and combining our strengths to deliver more holistic solutions to some of society’s most challenging problems. If we do not partner as we organize our work, we are not at our best and we are not moving forward as quickly and efficiently as we need to in order to address the pressing needs. Therein lies the power and potential of the Global Health Institute.

After almost a year of immersing yourself at GUMC and across the broader university, what are the areas where you think Georgetown could have a transformative impact in global health?

We have faculty members with a wealth of experience in this area—some known to me and others yet to be met. We have pockets of amazing work in our schools and whole departments dedicated to educating future leaders in this space. We have amazing experiential learning opportunities to complement the didactic education. Also, we have centers investing in communities around the world and looking at problems from so many angles, including health and medicine, technology, policy, law, and advocacy. What is unique and a particular strength at the medical center is our ability to build in-country capacity. We can do this better than any other place. Our focus on building infrastructure and systems is designed so that each country can manage without dependence on the external entity guiding the specific program. If we didn’t do that and a program lost funding, then all the work would be for naught and the people we want to help would be left to start over. Taken together, the whole of our work delivers tangible outcomes and is making a real difference around the world.

What role could the Global Health Institute pay in achieving that vision and further strengthening our global health community and impact?

I believe that higher education exists to address society’s greatest challenges. I believe that too many people lack access to health, healing, and hope. And I believe that the solution to providing what people deserve is bringing together the strengths of a university to bear in solving the health needs of our nation and world. The role of the Global Health Institute is to understand the activities and goals of individuals and centers of excellence in global health at Georgetown. It is to bring attention to and recognition of the work in a fashion that attracts resources and collaborators. Ultimately, it is to establish confidence amongst all those doing the work that there is a community of collaborators and opportunities to do better together. Finally, it is to bring visibility to the resources needed to increase our impact around the world, especially in light of shifting U.S. support for foreign initiatives.

Through the Global Health Institute, we must practice cura personalis (“care for the person”), and we must be generous with our knowledge and skills through service and outreach and by supporting nations across the world to build resilience and in-country systems ready to respond to health challenges. This is the place. Now is the time.