Letter From the Director
Dear Friends of Global Health Studies at Northwestern,
Summer and fall 2024 have been a productive period of transition and continued growth for Global Health Studies, and as we move into the holiday season, I find myself sitting in gratitude for the wonderful people who have helped make this Program so special.
Our Program is now home to over 400 declared GHS majors and minors. This kind of growth has only been possible due to the wonderful support we’ve gotten from our donors, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and our dedicated faculty and staff.
To that end, in Fall 2024 we were thrilled to officially welcome our newest faculty member, Dr. Sokhieng Au, who had previously served as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Dr. Au’s expertise is in the history of modern medicine, with regional foci in Southeast Asia and Central Africa, in addition to real-world experience as a former public health analyst with Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF). The addition of Dr. Au expands GHS’s course offerings in topics of high demand among GHS students: infectious disease and outbreaks, epidemics, organs trafficking, humanitarian aid, and medical cultures.
The 2nd year of our annual Global Health Studies Speaker Series got off to a successful start with a lecture by Dr. Eugene Raikhel from the University of Chicago. His talk, Crisis and Critique in College Mental Health, discussed his research investigating how university mental health professionals interpret the uptick of mental health needs among undergraduate students. The lecture was well attended and even got a shout out in the Daily Northwestern. GHS is grateful to Dr. Peter Locke for spearheading the Speaker Series this year, and to the Provost’s Hollister Lecture Fund for supporting the speaker series.
Fall 2024 marks the inauguration of GHS’s new PhD Certificate in Global Health, under the direction of our founder and former Director Dr. Bill Leonard. Graduate students have long requested possibilities for involvement with our program to expand their knowledge of Global Health as an interdisciplinary domain. The Certificate expands our community, offering Ph.D. students important learning, teaching, and networking opportunities.
I want to provide a heartfelt shout out to our staff, Greg Buchanan and Lauren Carr, and to faculty members Sarah Rodriguez, Peter Locke, and Béatriz Reyes, who have been undertaking substantial additional labor with regards to operations, policies, and curricula. This labor is often invisible, but it’s also entirely critical to the functioning and planned growth of a program. Everything about their partnership has made my transition into the Director role smoother, and I’m tremendously grateful.
Finally, a huge thank-you to all our donors and alumni, whose support has been so critical to ensuring GHS can continue to grow and create great learning and professional opportunities for our community. Wishing everyone happy holidays!
Noelle Sullivan, Ph.D.
Director, Program in Global Health Studies