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migration
migration
Featured Featured

A Perpetual Crisis: Reflections on Renewed Public Health Failures at the U.S./Mexico Border

In March 2021, a record number of children arrived at the U.S./Mexico border, challenging capacity at US Customs and Border Protection facilities and placing newfound pressure on the Biden Administration to act promptly. However, this humanitarian crisis is not new, nor is it a direct result of a new U.S. government administration. For decades, the U.S. has failed to improve a system ill-equipped to handle the needs of vulnerable refugees and migrants. As children wait in overcrowded jail-like structures and COVID-19 remains a threat, concerns about who will continue to suffer at the border, and for how long, persist. The Harvard Global Health Institute and FXB Center for Health and Human Rights invite you to join us on Thursday, May 13th for a follow-up conversation building off 3 previous events focused on the health crisis at the border. Given the historical patterns of inaction from the U.S. and Mexico governments, and the evolving humanitarian crisis at the border, expert panelists will critically evaluate the current situation and address what steps must be taken to establish a humane environment at the border. Register here!
Global Mental Health
Global Mental Health
Featured Featured

Young Mental Health Leaders Series: Peer Support & Youth Mental Health

Co-Hosted by GlobalMentalHealth@Harvard & Mental Health America  Register for the webinar here!  With increasing rates of distress among young people, young leaders are stepping up to transform how we approach mental health. Youth peer support programs are growing in popularity because young people want them and because research shows peer support works. To build on this momentum, we must equip young people with the tools and skills to support themselves and their peers and invest in youth peer support programs wherever young people spend their time. Join us for the first webinar in Mental Health America and the GlobalMentalHealth@Harvard Initiative’s Young Mental Health Leaders Series, Peer Support and Youth Mental Health. Satvik Sethi of Runaway App will discuss how his app creates opportunities for young people to receive support and promote positivity. Martin Raffety and Tia Barnes of Youth Era will discuss UpLift, a 5-day virtual event developed alongside the University of Oxford that empowers young people with the tools to support themselves and their peers. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Cindy Liu, Director of the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Program within Pediatric Newborn Medicine and Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.   Panelist and Moderator Bios:   Satvik Sethi is a 22-year-old mental health activist and social entrepreneur on a journey to make the world happier. Originally from New Delhi, India, Satvik currently lives and works in New York. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Runaway, a social venture promoting mental health awareness and helping those in need of emotional support. Runaway has been featured by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, Vice, etc. Satvik also serves as an Independent Expert Advisor at Wellcome Trust UK to guide research and policy development for youth mental health. Martin Rafferty is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Youth Era, a national nonprofit that is revolutionizing current thinking about how we view youth engagement. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center highlighted Martin Rafferty as one of eight global changemakers. He was awarded the “2010 Oregon Mental Health Award of Excellence”, “Advocate of the Year” by the Oregon Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2013 and was named one of the “20 Under 40 Rising Business Stars” in 2018. Most recently, Martin was awarded the “2020 Henry J. Grass MD Access Award” by the Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association. Tia Barnes is the Chief Program Officer at Youth Era where she oversees the organization’s international direct services, program development, and national technical assistance. She was a key designer of the Youth Era Drop Model, a co-creator of Youth Peer Support Specialist certifications across the nation and has provided training to agencies to increase youth voice within their programs. Most recently, she was a lead designer of an international cultural responsiveness training for youth and young adults. Barnes was one of the authors to create UpLift, an international peer-to-peer course provided to high schoolers from four different countries as a joint research project with the University of Oxford. In addition to her extensive experience, among other honors, Tia received an Award of Excellence in the Field of Youth Peer Support in 2015. Dr. Cindy H. Liu is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, the Director of the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Program within the Departments of Pediatric Newborn Medicine and Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on stress and mental health within the lifespan, including the perinatal period and young adulthood, and she is currently a principal investigator for the COVID-19 Adult Resilience Experiences Study, a longitudinal study that seeks to understand the experiences of college students and young adults throughout the pandemic. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and featured in various outlets included the New York Times, USA Today, and CBS News.
health justice
health justice

Decarceration as a Public Health Strategy: Stopping the Spread of COVID-19

The second event in our series will consider prison depopulation or decarceration in response to the threat of COVID-19 in places of incarceration. In response to the growing number of COVID-19 outbreaks in these facilities, public health experts, civil rights attorneys, and advocacy groups have made urgent appeals for decarceration. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, prison decongestion measures have been adopted in over 100 countries worldwide. However, decarceration and prison depopulation isn’t straightforward. It raises a host of questions and challenges around issues such as recidivism, racial equity, and support systems for those reentering society.   To examine these issues, this webinar will bring together a diverse panel of researchers, practitioners, and activists to discuss the role of decarceration as a part of the public health response to COVID-19 and examine current decarceration efforts around the world.   Speakers: Rahul Vanjani Rahul Vanjani (he/him) is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Rahul received his MSc at the University of Oxford in Integrated Immunology, and MD at George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian. Rahul is a primary care physician with board certifications in Internal and Addiction Medicine. His clinical work is based out of the Rhode Island Hospital Center for Primary Care, the academic residency clinic of Brown University’s Internal Medicine residency program. There, he works in the Transitions and Recovery Clinics, where, in partnership with community health workers/peer recovery specialists, he provides primary care and wraparound services to patients with histories of carceral exposure and substance use. Rahul’s clinical practice also includes street medicine outreach once weekly in partnership with peers and case managers from House of Hope. Partnering with and teaching medical students and residents is a central part of his clinical work. =Rahul’s research interests include structural violence with a focus on the intersection between the carceral and medical systems, use of buprenorphine in the treatment of opioid use disorder, the roles and responsibilities of community health workers in health systems, and the public defender-medical partnership. Rahul also directs the Social Medicine course, a month-long clinical elective for third- and fourth-year Brown University medical students with three central tenets: providing housing and other forms of advocacy support to patients via a Social Medicine Assistance Clinic, participating in patient care with peers, social workers and health care providers who practice street outreach and addiction medicine, and engaging in a weekly social medicine reading group that grounds the work in theory.   Madhurima Dhanuka Madhurima Dhanuka is the Programme Head of the Prison Reforms Programme. In this capacity, she leads, manages and develops initiatives of the team in order to improve prison conditions; strengthen prison oversight mechanisms; strengthen pre-trial decision making; ensuring access to prompt and effective legal aid for persons in custody; and protecting rights of vulnerable prisoners including women, transgenders and foreign nationals. She is a lawyer with an LL.M. in Criminal Justice from the University of Nottingham, UK.  She has been associated with CHRI since 2008, and has published numerous studies, reports and resource materials on issues relating to prisoners, legal aid and the criminal justice system.    Lisa Puglisi Lisa Puglisi, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale University where she practices primary care and addiction medicine. She is the director of Transitions Clinic-New Haven, a multi-disciplinary clinic that is part of a national network of programs that focus on care of individuals who are returning to the community from incarceration. Her clinical practice includes treatment of addiction and hepatitis C in primary care and she also oversees a medical legal partnership. She has developed specific skills in training, hiring and supervising community health workers and directing interdisciplinary teams of physicians, midlevel providers, community health workers, research personnel and legal colleagues around the work of clinical care and research to improve the health of people with recent incarceration. She is originally from the New Haven area and deeply committed to the community. Lisa received her undergraduate degree from Tufts University, her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her medical training at Yale New Haven Hospital. Leslie Credle Leslie Credle was released from Federal Prison in 2018. Since release she has been on a mission to dismantle the carceral system and end incarceration for women and girls. Sadly, while incarcerated, Leslie endured the loss of her beloved daughter, Brianna aka “Breezy” to gun violence. Turning her pain into purpose, utilizing her lived experience, Leslie has become a fierce prison abolitionist and social justice advocate. You can find Leslie advocating for formerly incarcerated individuals and those with a criminal record to obtain sustainable equitable housing.   Through her creative soul, Leslie developed a model, Hands On Defense (HOD), which is designed to disrupt the screening criteria used by Public Housing Authorities, who determine if justice-involved applicants merit housing. Northeastern University Alumni and 2020 Cohort of Columbia University, Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute, Leslie is someone to pay attention to.  She is destined to be a future leader in the movement to end incarceration of women and girls.  

pandemics
pandemics

Reimagining Pandemic Preparedness: Making Equity a Strategic Priority

Disjointed, nationalist treatment and prevention efforts have largely characterized the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure by governments to establish an equitable, coordinated pandemic response has perpetuated oppressive global inequities. Nowhere is this more apparent than with vaccine distribution efforts. Despite the rapid development of life-saving vaccines, nationalist distribution approaches and weak global solidarity have left the most vulnerable populations with inadequate support. Given that global infectious disease outbreaks will only become more common in the future, identifying ways to center equity in pandemic preparedness remains more relevant and critical than ever. Join us on Thursday, April 29th from 9:00 – 10:00 AM EST for a forward-looking discussion with global experts on how we can learn from the failures of the COVID-19 pandemic response to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. Register here
pandemics
pandemics

Building Vaccine Confidence: Global Trends and Practical Solutions

Despite the rapid development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, resistance to immunization threatens to prolong the arc of the pandemic globally. The drivers of vaccine concern are both vast and population-specific, ranging from misinformation and media manipulation campaigns to historical legacies of medical exploitation among marginalized communities. As such, responses must be intentional, data-driven, and account for the full spectrum of motivations that may prompt resistance to immunizations. Addressing a truly multidisciplinary challenge, efforts to build vaccine confidence require engagement from an array of key stakeholders, including civil society, government officials, academics, and the private sector. Join us on Thursday, April 8th from 9:00 – 10:30 AM EST for a timely discussion on the global implications of vaccine concern, sociotechnical drivers of resistance, and strategies for increasing vaccine confidence among the most vulnerable communities. Register here!

COVID-19 Crisis in Prisons, Jails, and Detention Centers: Historical Perspective and Global Context

COVID-19 Crisis in Prisons, Jails, and Detention Centers: Historical Perspective and Global Context is the first event in a new series hosted by the Harvard Global Health Institute in partnership with Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. This webinar will bring together a diverse set of panelists to address the current state of the COVID-19 virus in places of detention and incarceration around the world, and discuss how historical contexts for present-day carceral conditions, like overcrowding, and current practices, such as solitary confinement, have enabled the virus to spread. By critically examining the history of global carceral systems, we aim to highlight how deliberate design has exacerbated harm to this population, reinforcing inequality and discrimination, and thwarting efforts to respond to the virus. REGISTER HERE Speakers:  Keynote Speaker & Panelist: Bruce Reilly Bruce Reilly, is Deputy Director of both VOTE, and Voters Organized to Educate. He is a writer, and founding member of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM). Bruce provides expert analysis on discrimination in employment, housing, and voting rights. Originally born into foster care, he found his identity as a young jailhouse lawyer for 12 years before his parole, and a 2-hour bus ride to a minimum wage job. Bruce put his knowledge to work by joining Direct Action for Rights & Equality in 2005, and played a vital role in passing significant criminal justice reforms, such as the restoration of voting rights, eliminating mandatory minimums, statewide Ban the Box, the Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Act, unshackling incarcerated pregnant women, and probation violation reform. In 2011, Bruce moved to New Orleans, team up with VOTE, and enroll in Tulane Law School, despite having no undergrad degree, and graduated in 2014. Bruce co-founded Transcending Through Education Foundation (TTEF) with two friends who also entered prison at a young age, and earned law degrees after being released. He is the author of “Communities, Evictions, and Criminal Convictions,” a foundational report on public housing, and “The Racial History of Felon Disenfranchisement in Louisiana,” which served as a key building block to VOTE v. Louisiana and the re-enfranchisement of 40,000 people, including himself. Bruce serves on the board of All Square, a reentry/restaurant program in Minneapolis; the National Clean Slate Clearinghouse Advisory Committee; Steering Committees for Unanimous Jury Coalition, Louisianans for Prison Alternatives, Power Coalition; the IRB for American Institutes of Research; and advisory board of Prison Policy Initiative.  Bruce is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leader, and has also worked as an artist, lighting designer, DJ, and theatre director. Moderator: Salmaan Keshavjee MD, PhD, ScM Salmaan Keshavjee MD, PhD, ScM, is Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Global Health Delivery.  He is also a physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he is Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Keshavjee is a leading expert in tuberculosis treatment and the anthropology of health policy. He is the author of Blind Spot: How neoliberalism infiltrated global health­.  He has worked extensively with the Boston-based non-profit Partners In Health (PIH) on the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).  Over the last 20 years, Dr. Keshavjee has conducted clinical and implementation research on MDR-TB in Russia, both in the prison and civilian sectors.  He was Deputy-Director for the Partners In Health’s health programs in Lesotho (2006-2008), launching one of the first community-based treatment programs for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis/HIV co-infection in sub-Saharan Africa. More recently, he has been working with Advance Access & Delivery, a non-governmental organization for which he is a co-founder and clinical advisor for projects in India and South Africa.  His research has resulted in a number of clinical and policy manuscripts on TB and MDR-TB, which have had significant clinical and policy impact. Dr. Keshavjee is the Chair of the Steering Committee for the Zero TB Initiative, a global coalition of implementers, policy-makers and activists working to create islands of tuberculosis elimination in a number of countries worldwide.  He was the Chair of the World Health Organization/Stop TB Partnership’s Green Light Committee for Multidrug-resistant TB from 2007-2010.  He has been involved in a number of global guidelines for tuberculosis treatment including at the World Health Organization and the American Thoracic Society.  During the Covid-19 epidemic he has been involved with the work of the START coalition, committed to using layered technologies to keep public spaces safe from airborne disease transmission. Panelists:  Dr. Rosemary Mhlanga-Gunda Dr. Rosemary Mhlanga-Gunda is a public health specialist and researcher with over 30 years of experience. Her broad experience lies in health systems research, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public health interventions inclusive of HIV/AIDS, maternal, child and adolescent health. She has conducted evaluations in public health interventions within Zimbabwe and the SADC region. She currently works as a researcher and technical advisor within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Family Medicine, Global and Public Health Unit, Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Interventions, University of Zimbabwe. In the past seven years she has mainly focused on research on health of people in penal institutions within the Southern African Region. She is a reviewer for the International Journal of Prisoner Health. In 2020 she was appointed a committee member for the World-Wide Prison Health Research and Engagement Network (WEPHREN) Scientific Conference but this was postponed to a date yet to be announced due to Covid-19 global pandemic. Charlene J. Fletcher Historian, educator, and writer, Charlene J. Fletcher, is the Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Research Associate in Slavery and Justice at Brown University. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Indiana University, specializing in 19th century United States and African American history and gender studies. Prior to attending IU, Charlene led a domestic violence/sexual assault program as well as a large reentry initiative in New York City, assisting women and men in their transition from incarceration to society and also served as a lecturer of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. She currently serves as National Publications Director for the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH).     Marcelo Bergman Marcelo Bergman is a Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Argentina and writes on a variety of issues related to crime, public security, illegal drugs and public policies in Latin America. Other areas of research include taxation, compliance and rule of law in the region. Bergman is particularly interested in evidence-based research on criminal justice, citizen security and illegal drug polices in Latin America, with a focus on sound data collection. Over the past two decades, he has dedicated much of his work to developing data sets for the analysis of these social issues.
Global Mental Health
health systems
Global Mental Health
health systems

Protection and Mental Health Assistance for Communities Affected by COVID-19 in Peru

Virtual: Zoom
Carmen is a Visiting Scientist at the Department of Global Health and Population. She is also a Harvard LEAD Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute. Currently, Carmen serves as the Director of Mental Health at Socios En Salud (Partners In Health) in Peru where she coordinates diverse research projects on the understanding and improvement of tuberculosis (TB) affected populations, community health, and mental health. She has over 25 years of experience as a public health professional. This event is open to the public. No registration is necessary!
Free

pandemics
pandemics

Promoting Vaccine Equity: A Global Perspective on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Promoting Vaccine Equity: A Global Perspective on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution is the first event in a new series focused on global vaccine equity hosted by the Harvard Global Health Institute, in partnership with Ariadne Labs and the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). In this webinar, global experts will convene to lay the groundwork for understanding the current scope of the vaccine distribution crisis and the historical relevance of its challenges. Panelists will review the status of national and bilateral vaccine distribution efforts, offer insights into pertinent lessons learned from analogous public health responses, and discuss anticipated on-the-ground challenges to vaccine rollout in countries in Africa and across the globe. Join us on Thursday, March 11th from 9:00am EST – 10:30am EST as we consider the current state of global COVID-19 vaccine distribution and necessary steps for a path towards equity. Register here!  
fellowship
fellowship

Creating Women Leaders: The Missing Links of Mentorship and Networking

The Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) invites you to participate in a dynamic satellite session, “Creating Exceptional Women Leaders: The Missing Links of Mentorship and Networking.” This event will feature a power-packed panel discussion with HGHI’s esteemed LEAD Fellows, a skills workshop with an executive leadership coach and exclusive mentorship mini-meets. Participants will gain insights on applicable lessons learned from the professional journey of women leaders from around the world, get answers to courageous questions on cultivating leadership in your context, build networking skills and experience flash-mentorship. Join us in what will be a phenomenal opportunity to unleash your leadership potential.

health systems
leadership
health systems
leadership

Donald R. Hopkins, MD, MPH: “Eradicating the Guinea Worm: Challenges in the Beginning and at the End”

The global Guinea Worm Eradication Program began at the CDC in 1980 and has been led by The Carter Center since 1986 in cooperation with the endemic countries, CDC, WHO, UNICEF and other partners.  It has reduced the number of human cases of Guinea worm disease from an estimated 3.5 million in 20 countries in 1986 to 54 cases in 5 countries in 2019.  After successfully overcoming several challenges such as under-reporting, misunderstanding, and lack of funding at the outset, the campaign now faces end-stage challenges such as unexpected infections in some dogs and other animals, as well as insecurity and unsafe access to some endemic areas.  New or modified control measures and robust research efforts are in place to help stop transmission in the remaining areas.
Free
health systems
pandemics
health systems
pandemics

Seminar Series: COVID-19 and the Law: The Use of Biotech in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Join us on February 23 for the third installment of the COVID-19 and the Law: Disruption, Impact, and Legacy Seminar Series. This seminar series will consider the ethical, legal, regulatory, and broader social and institutional impacts that COVID-19 has had, as well as the longer-lasting effects it may have on our society. This third seminar in the series will focus on the use of biotech in the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all aspects of life in the United States and around the world, disrupting the global economy as well as countless institutions. The issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic present a critical juncture for the U.S. and other countries around the world. Our actions now have the potential to shape responses to future pandemics, and to ensure institutions serve all of our populations. How have our institutions, including the structure of our health care system and its attendant regulations, affected the evolution of the pandemic? What lasting changes have legal responses to COVID-19 introduced? Which institutions and intersectional issues have worsened or complicated the impact of and response to the pandemic? Join us for a critical reflection on changes the pandemic has introduced and their anticipated legacy.
Free
health systems
nutrition
health systems
nutrition

Global Diet Quality Score: A New Method to Collect and Analyze Data on Diet Quality

This remote launch event will include a series of presentations to describe final results of work to develop and validate the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS), a new metric of diet quality appropriate for use in low- and middle-income countries. Participants will have an opportunity to learn about a GDQS-focused supplement submitted to the Journal of Nutrition and to preview the technology assisted data collection system that has been developed for collecting GDQS data in population-based surveys.
Free