Featured speakers include UC President Janet Napolitano

UC Davis and the University of California Global Health Institute will host global health leaders from California and beyond on Saturday, April 26, during the fourth annual UC Global Health Day.

Topics ranging from global health diplomacy, maternal and child health, animal health, emerging infectious diseases, economics, migrant health, and more will be presented by faculty and students from across the 10-campus University of California system.

Keynote speakers will include UC President Janet Napolitano, former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and governor of Arizona.

“When we talk about global health, we are speaking about the health of people not only in developing countries, but also throughout the United States,” Napolitano said. “With five medical centers, world-class health research initiatives and top-ranked educational programs, the University of California is making an enormous impact on the health of populations across the world, including people in need right here in California.”

The annual event, being hosted by UC Davis, rotates among the UC campuses. Past events have taken place at Irvine, Berkeley and Riverside.

“Global health is an increasingly popular field of study at UC Davis and we are thrilled to be hosting UC Global Health Day this year,” said UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, who will give welcoming remarks at the event. “Because of our particular strengths in agriculture, medicine, veterinary medicine and engineering, UC Davis is uniquely positioned to address the biggest challenges of health worldwide.”

Registration for UC Global Health Day is open until April 22: $50 general admission; $25 for students. For more information, visit the UCGHI website at: http://www.ucghi.universityofcalifornia.edu/index.aspx.

Two UC Davis professors — Andrew Hargadon, the Charles J. Soderquist chair in entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Management, and Jonna Mazet, director of the One Health Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine —  will jointly present a talk on “How Breakthroughs Happen.” Jonathan Samet, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Southern California, will speak about “Moving beyond Global Tobacco Control to Global Noncommunicable Disease Control.”

Students and faculty from every UC campus will be in attendance at the all-day event, which will also feature 60 poster presentations and 16 breakout sessions, covering a broad range of global health topics, including:

• Migration and Human Trafficking in the Pacific Rim;
• Innovation and Infrastructure for Slum Health: Advancing Technology to Work in Low-Resource Settings;
• 21st Century Global Health Diplomacy;
• Working Globally at the Human-Animal Interface to Improve Health for All; and
• Measuring Women's Empowerment through Participatory Action.

See a video about the 2013 UC Global Health Day at http://youtu.be/3s5KbWfPU9E.

The UC Global Health Institute was established in November 2009 in response to the growing demand from students and faculty interested in global health research and education.  The UCGHI convenes people from across the UC system to collaborate on research projects, and provides education and training opportunities through workshops, courses, lectures and other events. The UCGHI is composed of three multi-campus Centers of Expertise — Migration & Health; One Health; and Women's Health & Empowerment. These centers lead education and training programs to produce leaders and practitioners of global health, conduct innovative research, and develop international partnerships to improve the health of vulnerable people and communities in California and worldwide.

Patricia Conrad, a professor in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, is co-director of the One Health Center of Expertise and led the planning for 2014 UC Global Health Day.

“It’s exciting to see the enthusiasm for global health at UC Davis and across the UC campuses,” Conrad said. “The diversity of presentations at this year’s event, and the cross-section of disciplines of the faculty and student participants, is quite remarkable.”

The UC Global Health Institute is jointly led by director Haile Debas, former chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine at UC San Francisco, and Thomas Coates, the Michael and Sue Steinberg professor of global AIDS research at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and director of the UCLA Center for World Health. The institute has received $4 million in funding from the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation and $4 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in addition to funds from the UC Office of the President.