November 4, 2021

Eighth Annual Triangle Global Health Conference

on Thursday, November 4, 2021

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Reframing Global Health in a Changing World

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How does the global health sector evolve to continue to deliver impact in a changing world? The TGHC 2021 annual conference is taking place after a year in which we experienced, and continue to experience, unprecedented health and social challenges. Whilst the impact of these challenges has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, many are deep-rooted, structural inequities that have existed for years. The pandemic has also drawn attention to the interconnectedness of our health systems and the critical importance of global public health.

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The conference will explore innovative and adaptive approaches that have emerged in response to these inequities and challenges. How can we leverage the lessons learned throughout the pandemic, to prevent and better prepare for future pandemics, and tackle ongoing critical health needs and inequities? How can we reframe our global health guidelines, practices and policies in a changing world?

This program will provide an opportunity for thought leaders, innovators, policy makers, students, and researchers to share their experiences and questions through a mix of keynote speakers, panels, workshops, and poster sessions. 

We hope you will join us! 

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Thank You to Our 2021 Annual Conference Sponsors!

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Please click on each logo to learn more about each organization

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Partners

Triangle Healthcare Executives’ Forum of NC has partnered with Triangle Global Health Consortium to offer attendees 10 hours of ACHE Qualified Education credit toward advancement or recertification in the American College of Healthcare Executives. Participants in this program should list their attendance in their ACHE profile to have the credits applied.

Jon Kidwell | The Kidwell Team

Being a servant leader today is challenging. You're either seen as too soft or too focused on results. Jon is a leadership and business coach who develops leaders to deliver tremendous impact for their mission with a people-centered approach to achieving results. He brings over 15 years of leadership experience in nonprofit and business. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor of Organizational Leadership at the Townsend Institute at Concordia University Irvine.

2021 Annual Conference Speakers

Dr. Jennifer Adams

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Opening Keynote Speaker

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Dr. Jennifer Adams is currently the Acting Assistant Administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Global Health. Dr. Adams has served in USAID for 25 years holding positions in the Central Asian Republics, Senegal, Brazil, Mozambique, and Washington, D.C. Her positions included economist, and managing social sector portfolios, including health, education and environment projects. Dr. Adams graduated from Johns Hopkins University, has a Master of Philosophy degree from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and a Ph.D. in Economics from Cambridge University.

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Emilie Koum Besson, MSc

Mid-Morning Keynote Speaker

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Dr. Roopa Dhatt

Afternoon Keynote Speaker

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Dr. Roopa Dhatt is an advocate for gender equality in global health and a leading voice in the movement to correct the gender imbalance in global health leadership. She is also a practicing Internal Medicine physician. Dr. Dhatt is particularly committed to addressing issues of power, privilege, and intersectionality that keep many women from global health leadership roles and to opening up spaces for the voices of these women to be heard. Determined to build a movement to transform women’s leadership opportunities in health, Dr. Dhatt co-founded Women in Global Health in 2015. Today, Women in Global Health has more than 25,000 supporters in more than 90 countries and continues to grow.

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Main Session Panel: 

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Dr. Heidi Larson, Dr. Kenneth Y. Hartigan-Go, Dr. Raji Tajudeen

Emilie Koum Besson is a research fellow in Humanitarian Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is currently working on excess mortality estimation in conflict-affected states with a focus on Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is a scholar activist who has written from her perspective as a Francophone African public health researcher on power, privilege and racism in global health. Her work has been featured in a recent publication in the Lancet on 'Confronting Whiteness and Decolonizing Global Health Institutions'. Her keynote session will be titled "From Global Health to Global Public Health: Breaking the hierarchy between knowledge systems".

The main session panel will be titled "Combatting misinformation and rumors: Strategies to build trust and confidence in vaccines". 

Dr. Heidi Larson is a professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science and is the Founding Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Dr. Larson will be moderating the conference main session panel on vaccine misinformation and implications for global pandemics.

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Dr. Kenneth Y. Hartigan-Go has more than 25 years of experience as a clinician, professor, and manager of health programs. He holds Doctor of Medicine degrees from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Dr. Hartigan-Go served as the Undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Health, was the Director General for the Philippine Food and Drugs Administration, and Manager of the Philippine National Drug Policy Program. Dr. Hartigan-Go is a former member of the WHO Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicinal Products and Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Asian Institute of Management and a Senior Fellow of the Ateneo School of Government.

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Dr. Raji Tajudeen is a medical doctor with postgraduate qualifications in Pediatrics and Public Health. He is currently the Head of Public Health Institutes and Research of Africa Centers for the Africa CDC. Dr. Tajudeen coordinates the establishment and strengthening of National Public Health Institutes across the 55 African Union Member States. He also oversees the establishment of the five Africa CDC Regional Collaborating Centers and coordinates the Africa CDC Institute for Workforce Development and oversees the continental public health research agenda. Dr. Tajudeen heads the healthcare preparedness and countermeasures section of the Africa CDC COVID-19 response.

Fireside Chats: 

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir & Dr. Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir is a Product Policy Manager at Facebook, an Adjunct Faculty for Information Policy at Syracuse University, and the previous Inaugural Senior Strategist for Racial Justice at the ACLU of New York.

Dr. Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola is the Director of the Stellenbosch University Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management.

Abdul-Qadir and Dr. Dubula-Majola's fireside chat will be titled "Drawing Lessons Learned from Social Justice Movements to Inform our Public Health Work Globally and Locally". 

Dr. Anu Kumar and Marissa Velarde, MPH

Dr. Anu Kumar is the President and CEO of Ipas. Dr. Kumar's fireside chat will feature Marissa Velarde, a doctoral student at UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health. Their fireside chat will focus on reproductive justice in a local and global context and will be titled "Reproductive justice in a local and global context: Why it matters now more than ever”.

Mentoring and Networking Session

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Navigating Career Transitions and Professional Development: An Interactive Session for Students and Professionals

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A changing landscape combined with countless options can make navigating a career in the global health sector seem scary at times. Join this interactive discussion to learn how our experienced panelists do it, and what they advise others to do. You will leave with tangible pieces of knowledge you can apply, plus have the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other professionals. We hope you will join us!

Jon Kidwell is a leadership and business coach who develops leaders to deliver tremendous impact for their mission with a people-centered approach to achieving results. Jon brings over 15 years of leadership experience in nonprofit and business. Additionally, he is an Adj. Professor of Organizational Leadership at the Townsend Institute at Concordia University Irvine.

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Felicia Browne, ScD, MPH, is a Senior Research Social Epidemiologist at RTI. Her research areas include developing and evaluating multilevel HIV risk-reduction interventions for adolescents and young adults and health disparity populations, particularly with the use of mHealth technology, and understanding and addressing social determinants as they relate to HIV/STI risk. Dr. Browne has more than a decade of experience in key roles on HIV behavioral intervention studies for populations at risk for HIV in the United States and South Africa. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Health Behavior at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

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Aubrey Weber, MPH, is currently a Technical Officer II for Science Facilitation in the Global Health, Population & Nutrition operating unit at FHI 360. She has more than eight years of experience spanning global, nonprofit, public health, research, communications, education, editorial, and journalistic settings. Weber's areas of expertise include digital engagement, writing and editing, virtual learning and adaptation, knowledge management, and basic graphic design. Most recently, Weber's work includes project managing and leading the development and production of a virtual HIV prevention trainers’ workshop; creating and facilitating a project-based digital engagement training series on virtual competencies, social media, and writing and dissemination skills; consulting on and contributing to digital engagement, research utilization, and communications strategies; and building, monitoring, and managing social media work plans for global projects with a combined following of more than 58,000 individuals across platforms. Since 2016, she has published more than 30 blog posts on 10 websites and in two print and e-magazines. Weber is also an active leader of FHI 360’s Young & Emerging Professionals Employee Resource Group.

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Laura Hoemeke, DrPH, is an independent consultant and adjunct professor at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Hoemeke has experience in health policy development and analysis, program design and management, advocacy, and communications. She has expertise in health systems strengthening, primary health care, governance, and health financing. Her experience includes 15 years of residence in Francophone Africa and more than two decades of short-term assignments throughout Central, East, West Africa and Asia. Dr. Hoemeke has a doctorate from UNC’s Gillings Global School of Public Health and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Noé Rajerison is a public health professional with extensive experience working with NGOs and community-based organizations as well as Ministries of Health in low- and middle-income countries. He’s passionate about improving and increasing healthcare services delivery to the underserved communities and has been key to the growth of the MiracleFeet-supported programs in Francophone and West/Central Africa during his previous role as a regional program manager. Noé brings his expertise in project management and health programming to the global partners of MiracleFeet, where he currently serves as Associate Director of Programs.

Breakout Panels: 

• Impact of Legal Agreements, Non-Transparency, and Power Dynamics on Equitable Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines

• The Role of Advocacy in Addressing Health Inequities

• Deploying Telehealth Solutions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The FHI 360 Experience in Africa and Asia

• Human Rights Advocacy in an Evolving Global Health Landscape

• Adapting Global Public Health Research and Implementation during COVID

• Changing Frameworks of Global Health Practice for Marginalized Populations to Address Inequities in HIV Testing and Care in Vietnam and Thailand

• Empowering Regional Economic Communities with Legal Frameworks for Health Data Governance and Protection to Foster Data Sharing and the Culture of Using Data for Policy and Practices

• From Security to Solidarity

• Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitation and the Christian Community Responsibility

• Barriers and Facilitators in Patient-Centered Care Globally During the Time of COVID-19

Workshops:

• Building Equitable Partnerships in Global Health Research: Best Practices from Efforts to Decolonize Global Health in Zambia

• Mobile Phone Surveys in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Design and Implementation

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Along with 4 story-telling sessions, 36 posters, and more! 

2021 Triangle Global Health Virtual Annual Conference Planning Committee: 

• Suzanne Maman, PhD [Chair]: Professor and Associate Dean, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

• Sumedha Ariely, PhD: Associate Professor of the Practice of Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute

• Valerie Flax, PhD: Senior Research Public Health Analyst, RTI International

• Laura Hoemeke, DrPh: Founder and Principal, Hoemeke Global Ltd.

• Noé Rajerison: Associate Director of Programs, MiracleFeet

• LaHoma Romocki, PhD: Associate Professor, North Carolina Central University

• Brittany Trottier, MPH: Health Specialist, Superfund Research Program, NIEHS

• Heather Vahdat: Executive Director, Male Contraceptive Initiative

• Naya Villarreal, MPH: Associate Director, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

• Kathy Walmer: Executive Director, Family Health Ministries

• Aubrey Weber, MPH: Technical Officer, Research Utilization, FHI 360

• Sydney Nadel: Triangle Global Health Consortium 

• André Anthony: Executive Director, Triangle Global Health Consortium

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