Global Health

The mission of the Department of Global Health is to improve the health of underserved global populations through policy-relevant research; empowerment of citizens, governments, and organizations; and education of future global health leaders. We focus on the world’s three overriding health problems: poverty, disease, and inequity. The department focuses on infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS), maternal and child health/reproductive health, non-communicable diseases, access to medicines, health systems strengthening, and economic and policy analysis.

The department emphasizes research and evaluation methods for global health program management. Practice-based education is an area of particular focus, with coursework that teaches skills relevant to running programs to reduce disease and inequality in lower-middle and low-income countries. Increasingly, we are expanding our educational offerings to include data science as an exciting new way to understand health and risk of disease in resource-limited settings.

Our faculty have major research programs in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India, and other research in Mexico, Ghana, The Gambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Lebanon. Faculty in the Department of Global Health mentor students in the MPH degree and interdisciplinary master’s and doctoral degrees across the School of Public Health.