The Latest News from VIGH

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) recently hosted its 2012 National Consultation conference in Washington, D.C. The conference attracted a record number of refugee service providers, partner agencies, honored guests and attendees who shared best practices and personal stories centered on this year's theme: Transforming Hope into a Brighter Future.

Dr. Sten Vermund, VIGH Director, began involvement in Zambia after attending a research needs assessment conference in 1998. Dr. Vermund co-chaired the HIV Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Working Group with Dr. Chewe Luo and in 2000 he co-founded the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) located in Lusaka.

Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies Director Ted Fischer developed a project called Mani+ in 2008 to combat chronic malnutrition in Guatemalan children. Several teams of Project Pyramid students from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, led by Bart Victor, recently helped develop a business plan for the project. Sarah Roper, Hudson Baird, Thomas Davis, Jillian Currie and Robert Tauscher were among an interdisciplinary group of Vanderbilt students who contributed to the business and implementation plans.

Members of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) Student Advisory Council gathered August 28 for a fall retreat. Undergraduate and graduate students from across the university met to update each other on developments at the Institute and set goals for the upcoming academic year.

Brian Heiniger, a second-year student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, recently returned from a two-month stay in Lusaka, Zambia where he conducted research at the University of Zambia (UNZA) teaching hospital.

Developmental Disabilities Grand Rounds on 11/7/12 “Developing Child Mental Health Capacity in the Developing World, in General and for ASD” Presented by: Bahr Weiss, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology & Human Development 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Milton and Fred Ochieng' have been selected to receive the Peace Corps' 2012 annual Director's Award at the Franklin H. Williams Award ceremony in Washington, D.C. on September 20. The Ochieng' brothers are Vanderbilt University School of Medicine graduates and founders of the non-profit Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya, Africa. The Director's Award recognizes the brothers for their work with the Lwala Community Alliance.

Doug Heimburger, M.D., M.S.

Dr.

Listen to Dr. Vikrant Sahasrabuddhe's interview about HIV-related cancer research posted on The Bush Center Blog. Young Scholar Honored for Role in Saving Women from Cervical Cancer

The Vanderbilt-Emory-Cornell-Duke Global Health Fellowship Consortium (VECD) is pleased to announce the selection of the 2012 VECD Fellows. Funded by the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health this fellowship program, which is in its first year, provides year-long global health mentored research traineeships for 8-14 fellows annually.  The first cohort of fellows includes two U.S. medical students, 9 U.S. post-doctoral fellows and 3 post-doctoral fellows from Haiti, Zambia, and Vietnam.

VIGH Core and Affiliated Faculty Publications July 2012

Three students in the School of Nursing’s Master of Science in Nursing program and three rising fourth-year School of Medicine students have been selected as 2012 Frist Global Health Leaders. The program, established by Hope Through Healing Hands, provides young health professional students, residents, and fellows the opportunity to serve and train abroad in underserved communities for up to one semester.