Faculty Highlights
This has been a particularly exciting academic year for faculty at GHS.
In Fall 2023, Dr. William Leonard was named the Watkins Family Professor of Global Health, a endowed chair title honoring his tremendous contributions in global health and biological anthropology research, as well as his work building the Program in Global Health Studies over the last twenty years. We are incredibly thankful to the Watkins family for their contributions to this new named chair position.
GHS also was able to hire our Visiting Assistant Professor, Sokhieng Au, to a permanent teaching line appointment in Global Health Studies. Dr. Au’s background bridges research and practice and significantly diversifies our faculty in terms of disciplinary, topical and regional expertise. We’re thrilled to add her to our team!
Further, Dr. Peter Locke was promoted to Professor of Instruction, acknowledging his instrumental role in teaching excellence, study abroad program development, GHS program support and service, and cutting edge research on conflict, trauma, and mental health in the former Yugoslavia. Dr. Sera Young was also promoted to Professor in Anthropology, and her innovative work on water and food insecurity continues to devise metrics for measuring experiences of insecurity so that interventions can be targeted where they are needed most. 
Meanwhile, our faculty continued their engagements with communities within and beyond Northwestern. Dr. Elham Hoominfar (pictured right) and collaborators received a Buffett Institute Global Collaboration Grant to host a conference at Northwestern with Iranian and US-based feminist scholars, and gave a talk on the Women’s Movement in Iran to the Zahra Institute. Dr. Charlayne Mitchell participated in a Buffett Idea Incubation Workshop on water insecurity along with Dr. Young and colleagues, and gave a talk at the National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Methods Program. Dr. Sarah Rodriguez presented a lecture to the Tulane University School of Medicine, while Dr. Locke led a session for an international workshop on research ethics at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal.