8:00am PDT (UTC-7)
Video of event
Inequitable global COVID-19 vaccine distribution, coupled with vaccine disinformation, threatens our collective ability to end the pandemic. In particular, the politicization of vaccines, lack of knowledge, and the spread of inaccurate and false information through social media has resulted in low vaccine acceptance in populations around the world. Combating these issues requires a deep understanding of social determinants of health and complex human behavioral dynamics and psychology to create empathetic community-based solutions.
Join us as we bring together a panel of community health practitioners and scientists for a conversation about local and global experiences combating COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and fears. Our global panel will share lessons learned from indigenous communities in Guatemala, to urban Kenya and India, to communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The conversation will share best practices for improving vaccine acceptance in our communities and consider how we can help re-build trust in our health systems.
Host
Moderator
Ngosa Chungu, Zambian filmmaker, storyteller and communications expert
Panelists
- Dr. Vasundhara Rangaswamy, family medicine physician, rural health fellow in India
- Anne Kraemer Diaz, Executive Director of Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq, Guatemala
- Luis Gutierrez-Mock, Public Health Specialist with UCSF Pandemic Initiative for Equity and Action
- Hillary Omala, Executive Director of Carolina for Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya
Speaker Bios
Ngosa Chungu, MSc, MA
Multimedia Producer
Social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Watch e18hteam on Vimeo
Ngosa Whoopi Chungu, aka the Ndhlovukhazi Storyteller, is a multi-award-winning producer of multimedia content. She is best known for producing the award-winning documentary e18hteam (eighteam) about the Zambian National Soccer Team's epic story of tragedy and triumph, which screened during the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 at the invitation of the Mayor, and for which she won Zambian Woman in Film in 2016. She is also known for creating, researching, script writing, presenting and directing the history, culture and natural beauty segments for the Zambian TV program Today with Zamtel.
She holds a BA in Communication from Stanford University and a double masters degree in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics (MSc) and the University of Southern California (MA). Ngosa has experience from Silicon Valley, the BBC, Hollywood, the mobile technology sector in Zambian, African education and global public health.
She currently sits on the board of Baldwin Wallace University's cultural and educational exchange programs in Zambia, is a member of the Biz100 group as a Southern African Correspondent for the BBC Africa show Smart Money Daily and is a digital rights activist. Ngosa is also Chairman in the Board for Tilute (Let's Travel Together) a newly formed creative arts and tourism experiences organization in Zambia. She has participated on panels, in meetings and conducted workshops around cybercrime, digital rights, social media activism and filmmaking and is a communications and media consultant. Mwansa's story, a health animated film she coordinated voiceover production and script translation for, is currently a finalist in the Better Health and Wellbeing category in the WHO Film 4 Health Awards. Ngosa is currently working on three film projects: a story of community philanthropy during Covid, Eagles Rising about youth in Zambia today incorporating advocacy through multimedia content that entertains, informs, inspires and empowers as well as her second football documentary.
Nadia Diamond-Smith, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor, Institute for Global Health Sciences & Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco
Social media: LinkedIn
Nadia Diamond-Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department and Institute for Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Her expertise is in maternal and child health in the developing world, with a focus on gender inequality/women's empowerment, family planning and abortion and nutrition in the preconception and pregnancy period. She is a public health demographer who did her dissertation research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on trends and causes of son preference and uneven child sex ratios in India. Much of her research is in South Asia, although she also works in Africa, elsewhere in Asia, and some in the US and Latin America. She uses mixed method approaches to research, intervention development, and evaluation.
Luis Gutierrez-Mock, MPH, MA
Pandemic Response Specialist, UCSF Pandemic Initiative for Equity & Action
Social Media: Twitter
Luis Gutierrez-Mock, MPH, MA, is a Public Health Specialist at the UCSF Pandemic Initiative for Equity and Action. He is the qualitative lead on several COVID research projects, including a rapid qualitative study on vaccine hesitancy among San Francisco residents (N=97). He also serves as a training lead and subject matter expert for the California COVID-19 Virtual Training Academy, which has remotely trained over 10,000 contact tracers and case investigators. Prior to COVID, Luis worked in transgender HIV prevention for 20 years through direct service, advocacy, research, and capacity building roles. Luis holds an MA in Sexuality Studies, a second MA in Ethnic Studies, and an MPH with an emphasis in community health education. He is currently completing his doctorate in medical sociology at UCSF.
Anne Kraemer, PhD
Co-founder and Executive Director, Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq, Guatemala
Social Media: Twitter, LinkedIn (personal), LinkedIn (org), Facebook
Anne Kraemer Diaz is an anthropologist and one of the co-founders of Maya Health Alliance, an organization created in 2006 to improve health in rural Guatemala. She has served as Executive Director since 2009. Her passion is building high-impact, collaborative, and culturally and linguistically appropriate health and development programs. Anne trained as a cultural anthropologist at the University of Kansas, where she received her master’s degree and did doctoral coursework. She was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in 2007 to examine the relationship between rural Guatemalan communities and the NGOs that serve them. Anne lives in rural Guatemala with her husband and daughters. She speaks Kaqchikel and Spanish. She has been featured in ABC News, NBC News, La Prensa, and Al Jazeera.
Hillary Okhidi Omala, MPH
Executive Director, Carolina for Kibera, Nairobi Kenya
Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (personal), LinkedIn (org)
Hillary has a long history in the nonprofit sector, managing health systems, leading research and policy development, providing program direction, and technical assistance, and leading strategic partnerships. He has spent the past ten years focused on strategic planning and implementation work for non-governmental organizations with an emphasis on capacity building and monitoring and evaluation. Hillary has previously worked with CFK through his role with the CDC in Kenya and served a three-year term as a board member. Hillary serves on six government committees, ensuring the government considers the challenges faced by informal settlements when making decisions and policies. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Communication from the University of Nairobi and has a postgraduate diploma in Project Management from Nairobi’s Centre for Finance and Project Management. Hillary is a finalist for a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the University of Nairobi, majoring in Health Economics and Policy Development, researching healthcare financing.
Vasundhara Rangaswamy, MD, MS
Rural Family Mediicine, Physician in Training, multiple organizations, India
Social Media: LinkedIn; Twitter
Vasundhara Rangaswamy is a family medicine physician in training and a rural health fellow in India. She has a background of a clinical laboratory scientist, medical microbiology, infectious diseases and global health. She has received medical and lab education from Gujarat, India, Stanford Hosp. and clinics, California and Univ. of Alabama USA and in parts of S. America, Africa and SE Asia. Throughout her career, Vasundhara has also been deeply involved with the Association for India’s Development, a not-for-profit USA based organization involved in diverse grassroots activities across India. She is connected in different capacities, with multiple rural health care organizations in different states of India like Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, etc. She has supported global projects on lab capacity building, clinical and laboratory protocol development, low-cost technology design and community awareness. Concurrent to her rural health fellowship and fam med training program, she has been working with various NGOs on preparation of COVID-19 for low-resource settings (here), improving COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake (see BBC article), provision of healthcare provider and community health worker trainings, procurement of PPE for Indian health workers and facilitated transport operations during the migrant laborer crisis as well.