Professor Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PHD currently resides in Rwanda and is the Vice Chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), an initiative of Partners In Health. She is a Rwandan pediatrician, who returned to Rwanda in the late 1990s. She worked for 20 years in the public health sector in Rwanda, first as a clinician in public hospitals for four years. Afterwards, she worked in various high-level government positions between 2002 and 2016, serving first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission, then as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and lastly as the Minister of Health for five years.
Professor Binagwaho also serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine, and Professor of Pediatrics at UGHE. Prof. Agnes supports research, data, and education and does so through her work as member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, member of the UNESCO Expert Group on Universities, and as Co-Chair for the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) Scientific and Strategic Advisory Committee and the T20 Italy Task Force on Global Health and COVID-19. To leverage health for both Africa and Europe, Prof. Agnes also serves as Co-Chair for the Africa-Europe Strategy Group on Health. She has published over 210 peer-reviewed articles and was named among the 100 Most Influential African Women for 2020.
Speaking:
October 21st, 8:00 – 8:30 AM:
The Global Movement Towards Health Equity – Opening Plenary
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic—which has exposed the deep-seated racial and social inequities that drive health disparities in the US— the Global Learning for Health Equity Network is bringing together researchers and practitioners to examine how strategies to eliminate health inequities in other countries may also work in US communities. As part of their efforts, they will work with five communities across the US where global learning projects for health equity are underway to develop a framework for adapting global ideas. A very similar model of bringing together and training a new generation of global health leaders who are equipped in not just building, but sustaining effective and equitable health systems has been operating in Rwanda since 2014. The University of Global Health Equity stands alone in both its focus on equity and on pioneering a new way to train emerging, ready-to-develop health care services and systems that connect neglected communities with essential, life-saving attention.
Focusing on health equity is imperative to advancing societal wellbeing and ensuring effective health systems, as well as improving social determinants of health. We will highlight the importance of sharing knowledge and discover how global solutions can be applied to problems at home. Because when it comes to health, good ideas have no borders.
SPEAKERS
Agnes Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity
Yolanda Ogbolu, Associate Professor, The University of Maryland School of Nursing and Co-founder, Global Learning for Health Equity Network
