The Monday after Thanksgiving weekend brought together a robust gathering of global health colleagues from universities across the Bay Area for an enlivened and collaborative dialogue on the opportunities and challenges of global health education and partnerships. This was the fifth gathering of the Bay Area Global Health Seminar Series since its beginning in early 2014, the brainchild of global health leaders from across the campuses of UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, UC Davis, and Stanford University. The series is a platform for faculty and students to engage on pressing global health matters through salon-like discussion, and to unite and create synergies between the diverse breadths of global health strengths of four schools.
The event, held in the cozy theater at the David Brower Center, presented two sets of panels following a warm welcome from Dr. Stefano Bertozzi, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. The first panel, moderated by Dr. Molly Cooke (UCSF), Director of Education for Global Health Sciences at UCSF, featured prominent faculty representatives sharing their personal perspectives on global health education from each school, as well as their experience creating partnerships in the field. The second panel invited both graduate and undergraduate students who shared their global health fellowship experiences, and their perspectives on how young people are trained in global health sciences. Professor Patricia Conrad (UC Davis) moderated this panel and the lively Q&A that followed. Dr. Michele Barry (Stanford University) provided closing remarks.
Discussion spanned a range of topics–from the lessons learned of creating balanced academic partnerships worldwide, to the need to develop global health opportunities and programs that are more accessible to students. What was probably the most exciting part of the program was the nearly 40-minute discussion following the panels. The audience and panels energetically interacted with each other to brainstorm ideas on how faculty and program leads of global health in the Bay Area can work together to best meet the needs of students–at all levels of learning–who are passionate about global health.
A consistent theme brought up in the conversation was the important roles of online learning, social media tools and technology in bringing global health education and programs together. Many panelists shared the same sentiment that it an ideal world, faculty, students, and initiatives would be solidly connected in the virtual space—not just at each school but between the Bay Area schools and beyond. One very important initiative would be to create more online platforms to enhance the “mapping” of global health education and practice in other countries. For example, a “Wikipedia”-like platform for students, faculty, and researchers could help share information on the valuable global health research and education being done in various geographic portals on each campus. Other ideas included encouraging schools to collaborate to share stories, experiences, and photography using social media tools like Instagram and Facebook. Innovative online learning initiatives developed between Bay Area Universities and partnering Universities in countries where research is being conducted can feasibly scale-up more global health professionals in areas where they are most needed.
As with most of the BAGH seminars, the value comes from more than just the ideas generated at the seminar and luncheon afterwards. The seminars, as they have in the past, help serve as a catalyst for people to connect on further collaborative action. Indeed, just in the minutes following the closing remarks, a small group of students representing the four schools had already clustered together, brainstorming ideas on how work together to help enhance global health networks for their fellow students in the Bay Area.