Lecture Dates
November 4: Global Health and the Aftermath of the U.S. Elections
November 16: Mental Health and Human Development: The Links in Developing Countries
November 22: Global Health: Are Multinational Corporations Part of the Problem or the Solution?
December 2: AIDS & Global Health
Event Information (subject to change without notice.)
Global Health and the Aftermath of the U.S. Elections
Laurie Garrett
Thursday, November 4, 5:30 P.M.
Neurological Institute Alumni Auditorium
One of the most highly renowned science journalists in the United States, Laurie Garrett is the only person ever to be awarded all three of the major prizes in journalism: the Peabody, the Polk, and the Pulitzer (for which she has also been a finalist three times.) Following an early radio broadcasting career in California, Garrett moved overseas, working as a freelance reporter in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Europe. She then spent eight years as a science reporter for NPR, where she garnered numerous awards for her journalistic excellence. Garrett began her current position on the science writing staff of Newsday. In early 20034, the Council on Foreign Relations named her the first Gates Science Fellow in Global Health, a new fellowship created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in recognition of the increasingly important role that global health issues pose to national security.
In addition to her many radio documentaries, magazine and newspaper articles, and book chapters, Garrett is the author of two books, the best-selling investigation of public health:
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance and
The Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Public Health.
Garrett holds two honorary doctorates, one from Wesleyan Illinois University and the other from University of Massachusetts, Lowell. A native Los Angeleno, she graduated with honors in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. During her PhD studies in Bacteriology and Immunology at UC Berkeley and Stanford University, Garrett began reporting on science news, a hobby that evolved into her illustrious career in science journalism.
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Mental Health and Human Development: The Links in Developing Countries
Vikram Patel, M.Sc., M.R.C.Psych., Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Chairperson, The Sangath Society, India
Tuesday, November 16, 5:30 P.M.
Hammer 301
Vikram Patel M. Sc., M.R.C.Psych., Ph.D is a Senior Lecturer at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (LSTMH) as well as Chairperson of the Sangath Society in India. He is a psychiatrist with a special interest in public health aspects of mental health in developing countries. He is the author of
Where there is No Psychiatrist: A Mental Health Care Manual, a practical guide to mental health care in developing countries. At present, Dr. Patel is based in Goa, India. Working with local NGOs and governmental health services, he has co-founded two NGOs devoted to mental health service development, research, and advocacy.
At LSTMH, he is developing a study unit for mental health for the MSc program in epidemiology, and new teaching programs for mental health from an international context with colleagues in the Institute of Psychiatry, London and other institutions. He is also closely involved with new initiatives launched by the WHO and agencies in India to build research capacity in mental health in developing countries.
His main research in recent years has focused on the cultural concepts, epidemiology, and treatment of common mental disorders in general health care settings in India. Currently, Dr. Patel is examining the relationship between depression with reproductive health in three areas: gynecological morbidities, adolescent risk behaviors and maternal and child health.
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Global Health: Are Multinational Corporations Part of the Problem or the Solution?
Derek Yach, MBChB, M.P.H.
Executive Director of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health,
World Health Organization (WHO)
Professor of Global Health, Yale School of Public Health
Monday, November 22, 5:30 P.M.
Neurological Institute Alumni Auditorium
Derek Yach, MBChB, M.P.H. is Professor of Global Health at Yale School of Public Health as well as the Executive Director of the Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health cluster at the World Health Organization (WHO).
At WHO, he oversees overall policy development and management for WHO of those programmes aimed at the prevention of major risk factors for chronic diseases (tobacco, alcohol, diet/nutrition and physical activity), the management of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders and genetics, and the prevention of inuries and violence. Previously he developed WHO's Tobacco-Free Initiative. From July 1995 to May 1998, Dr Yach was responsible for the design and implementation of the World Health Organization global consultative process that resulted in the development of the new global health policy, Health for All in the 21st Century, adopted at the May 1998 World Health Assembly.
Prior to joining WHO, he held a variety of senior research and policy positions in South Africa, and served on a number of international and national Advisory Committees dealing with a wide range of public health issues. He established the Centre for Epidemiological Research at the Medical Research Council. A particular focus of his writing has been the need for global actions to complement national policies in many areas of public health, as well as emphasizing the relationship between research, policy development and implementation. His research in South Africa focused on quantifying inequalities in health, the impact of urbanization on health, and on the epidemiology and effectiveness of control measures to address tuberculosis, measles, diarrheal disease and tobacco.
He has degrees in medicine (Cape Town), epidemiology (Stellenbosch) and public health (Johns Hopkins). He has published over 200 original articles, editorials and chapters.
His current research interests are two-fold: strengthening the analytic basis for studying the positive and negative impacts of globalization on health, and secondly, on expanding developing country involvement in chronic disease prevention and control with a particular emphasis on issues related to nutrition transition, tobacco and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.
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AIDS & Global Health
David D. Ho, M.D.
Thursday, December 2, 5:30 P.M.
Hammer 301
David Ho, M.D., is the founding Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC). He is also the Irene Diamond Professor at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Ho is a world-renowned AIDS researcher and has been actively engaged in AIDS research for 20 years; he has published over 250 papers on the subject. Dr. Ho was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1996 and was the recipient of a presidential medal in 2001. Dr. Ho has received numerous honors and awards for his scientific accomplishments, and he is an honorary professor at both Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. He currently serves on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology.
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