IGHS is working to enhance the skills, knowledge, and capabilities of healthcare professionals in California and around the world, especially in resource-limited settings. We offer a range of educational and training programs, focusing on fostering a cadre of well-rounded, competent health professionals and leaders who are equipped to address diverse global health challenges. By leveraging its extensive network of experts and partners, IGHS provides mentorship, technical support, and learning opportunities that emphasize not only clinical proficiency but also leadership, research, and policy-making acumen. We prioritize creating a learning environment that is inclusive, diverse, and conducive to multidisciplinary collaboration. We aim to build the capacity of the global health workforce to enhance health outcomes, reduce health disparities, and improve the overall well-being of communities worldwide. Our Virtual Training Academy has supported the public health response workforce in California through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond through the Pathways Program. The Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia fellowship supports training in surgery and anesthesia and the GLOCAL fellowship supports mentored research for investigators.
Projects
The COVID-19 pandemic clearly illustrated the need for a versatile public health workforce. Cal-PPH is a paid training and job placement program for early-career public health professionals to gain experience working at local health jurisdiction host sites. Cal-PPH fellows and host site preceptors receive ongoing support from the program team of public health professionals of three partner agencies.
Country of activity
United States
Partners
California Department of Public Health, UC Los Angeles
Funder
California Department of Public Health
IGHS Center
Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
More information
California Pathways into Public Health Initiative
VTA+ is a collaboration that rapidly trains, scales and sustains a workforce to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases. It equips a diverse group of state and local health jurisdiction staff with the knowledge, skills, resources and community to provide crucial public health services.
Country of activity
United States
Partners
California Department of Public Health, UC Los Angeles
Funder
California Department of Public Health
IGHS Center
Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Contact
Jess Celentano, MPH jess.celentano@ucsf.edu
More information
Virtual Training Academy
Capacity strengthening is central to the Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) approach. It includes strengthening the skills and competencies of national and subnational program staff to identify priority programmatic questions, increase the use of data for decision-making, and plan, implement, and monitor tailored intervention approaches to address priority questions and gaps in data. Recognizing that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to eliminating malaria, MEI and its network of partners provide tailored capacity strengthening to meet the specific needs of national malaria programs, which promote long-term sustainability and a supportive policy environment.
Countries of activity
Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Ghana, Guinea, Lao PDR, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zanzibar
Partners
Elimination 8, PMI Evolve, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Ministries of Health in all listed countries
Funder
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, President’s Malaria Initiative
IGHS Center
Center for Global Infectious and Parasitic Diseases
Contact
Jennifer Smith, PhD jennifer.smith@ucsf.edu
Andres Aranda-Diaz, PhD andres.arandadiaz@ucsf.edu
Edward Thomsen, PhD edward.thomsen@ucsf.edu
The CHESA Fellowship is a one-year, part-time, non-ACGME fellowship for individuals committed to building careers focused on advancing health equity in perioperative care. The program leverages UCSF resources and expertise to foster the next generation of global surgery and anesthesia leaders who use research, education and advocacy to address disparities in perioperative care.
Country of activity
The program is administered in the United States. Fellows are from Haiti, Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Jordan, Romania, and the United States.
IGHS Center
Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia
Contact
Doruk Ozgediz, MD, MSc doruk.ozgediz@ucsf.edu
Lia Jacobson, MD lia.jacobson@ucsf.edu
Sriranjani Padmanabhan, MD sriranjani.padmanabhan@ucsf.edu
More information
The CHESA Fellowship
CULTIVATE uses virtual reality (VR) to deliver diversity, equity, and inclusion training to health care providers. This project aims to understand if changes in medical education enhanced by VR will improve health access, quality of care, and health outcomes of individuals who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
Country of activity
United States
Funder
Genentech
IGHS Center
Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Contact
Nova Wilson, MPH nova.wilson@ucsf.edu
More information
CULTIVATE
Developing a pipeline for a robust data science workforce is critical in this era of artificial intelligence. IGHS supports data science training for young women in Kenya.
Partners
University of Nairobi, Infectious Diseases Institute in Uganda
IGHS Centers
Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Center for Global Strategic Information and Public Health Practice
Contact
Susie Welty, MPH susie.welty@ucsf.edu
More information
IGHS partners with University of Nairobi to train underserved girls and young women in data science
The Kampala Advanced Trauma Course decreases trauma-related mortality and morbidity by training health care workers in resource-limited settings with evidence-based, context-specific trauma resuscitation skills. We support partner-led expansion through training delivery, curriculum enhancement, and integration with initiatives like developing Uganda’s inaugural trauma fellowship.
Country of activity
Uganda
Partners
Mulago National Referral Hospital, Makerere University, The Laura Case Trust
Funders
The Laura Case Trust, Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia
IGHS Center
Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia
Contact
Doruk Ozgediz, MD, MSc doruk.ozgediz@ucsf.edu
Caroline Stephens caroline.stephens2@ucsf.edu
Martha Namugga kasujjammn@gmail.com
Treasure Ibingira treasurejoelson@gmail.com
More information
Kampala Advanced Trauma Care Course
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Equity Science Scientific Manuscript Development Training is offered to CDC internal employees to build the capacity of CDC scientists to conceptualize, develop and disseminate high-quality scientific work that supports the advancement of health equity. The part-time, six-month training includes mentorship in developing impactful health equity scientific publications and results in peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts focused on priority health equity science issues.
Country of activity
United States
Partners
CDC Office of Science, CDC Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, UCSF
IGHS Center
Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Contact
Maeve Forster, maeve.forster@ucsf.edu
The Informatics Hub focuses on strengthening public health data pipelines. Over 50 staff members bring expertise in general software development and data collection tools, data integration, data warehouses, electronic medical records, dashboards, server management and security, system interoperability, and other emerging technologies and data use. Our approach promotes collaborative relationships with ministries of health, local partners, universities and international donors.
Countries of activity
United States, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Nigeria, the Caribbean, Egypt, Jordan, Paraguay, Thailand, Cambodia
IGHS Centers
Center for Global Strategic Information and Public Health Practice
Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Contact
InformaticsHub@ucsf.edu
More information
Informatics Hub
The Malaria Elimination Toolkit was developed based on gaps identified by national malaria programs to strengthen and accelerate malaria control and elimination efforts at subnational and national levels. The toolkit aims to meet the needs of programs and partners through user-friendly manuals, guides and frameworks geared toward problem-solving. All tools are based on current evidence and align with global normative guidance.
Country of activity
worldwide
Funder
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
IGHS Center
Center for Global Infectious and Parasitic Diseases
Contact
Katie Giessler katie.giessler@ucsf.edu
More information
Toolkit
The Pacific Southwest Center for Emergency Public Health collaborates with local, state and tribal health departments across California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and U.S.-affiliated Pacific territories to strengthen our region’s capacity to prepare for and respond to public health threats.
Country of activity
United States
Partners
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Public Health Institute
- University Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
- University of Nevada, Reno
Funder
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
IGHS Center
Center for Global Strategic Information and Public Health Practice
Contact
Karen Horn, MBA, MPH Karen.White@ucsf.edu
More information
Pacific Southwest Center for Emergency Public Health
Since 2019, STRIPE HIV has played a vital role in maximizing the impact of HRSA’s investment and PEPFAR’s commitment to building health workforce capacity across Africa to achieve HIV epidemic control. Focused on strengthening interprofessional HIV education and improving the quality of care, STRIPE HIV supports academic and clinical educators to facilitate case-based workshops for interprofessional learners so the next generation of health workers is capacitated to deliver high-quality, collaborative, and evidence-informed HIV care.
Countries of activity
Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia
Partners
AFREHealth, UCSF, select universities and institutions across sub-Saharan Africa
Funders
Health Resources & Services Administration, United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
Contact
Maeve Forster, MPH maeve.forster@ucsf.edu
More information
STRIPE HIV
Despite significant progress in the fight against malaria, 239,000 cases were reported in the Greater Mekong Subregion in 2019, with most cases reported in Cambodia. Multidrug-resistant malaria remains a threat to regional elimination goals and global health security, and mobile and migrant populations, including forest-goers and forest rangers, remain at the highest risk for malaria. Moreover, many malaria-transmitting mosquitoes in the region bite and rest outdoors, yet the availability of effective protection against outdoor-biting mosquitoes is severely limited. One vector control project, Project BITE, is assessing the entomological protective efficacy, as well as the acceptability, durability, and cost, of a curated forest pack of bite prevention tools compared to the standard of care among high-risk forest rangers and forest-going populations in Cambodia, following evaluations of the same tools through semi-field studies in Thailand. Ultimately, Project BITE aims to inform the scale-up of effective outdoor bite prevention tools across Cambodia, the Greater Mekong Subregion, and the Asia Pacific region to support near-term malaria elimination goals.
Countries of activity
Thailand, Cambodia
Partners
University of Notre Dame, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Thailand, Kasetsart University in Thailand, Cambodia’s National Center for Parasitology, Entomology, and Malaria Control
Funder
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Innovative Vector Control Consortium
IGHS Center
Center for Global Infectious and Parasitic Diseases
Contact
Elodie Vajda elodie.vajda@ucsf.edu
More information
Project BITE
