CUGH
The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) is a rapidly growing Washington, DC-based organization of over 190 academic institutions and organizations from around the world engaged in addressing global health challenges. CUGH supports academic institutions and partners to improve the well-being of people and the planet through education, research, service, and advocacy.
CUGH Annual Conference
The Sparkman Center is a 2025 CUGH annual conference co-host. The conference is titled Innovating and Implementing in Global Health for Sustainable Future and will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, February 20-23, 2025.
Visit the CUGH annual conference site below for more details and event registration.
2025 CUGH Conference UAB Sessions
The Sparkman Center has organized a satellite pre-conference workshop and a plenary session for the 2025 CUGH annual conference. Please see below for more details.

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Moderators
Moderators
Anna Helova, DrPH, MA, MBA, MPH
Assistant Professor and Deputy Director, Sparkman Center for Global Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States & CUGH GHOC Co-Chair
Olakunle Alonge, MD, PhD, MPH
Professor and Director, Sparkman Center for Global Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States & Executive Board Member, CUGH Board of Directors
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UAB Speakers
UAB Speakers
Olakunle Alonge, MD, PhD, MPH
Professor and Director, Sparkman Center for Global Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States & Executive Board Member, CUGH Board of Directors
Janet Turan, PhD, MPH
Professor, UAB School of Public Health
Renee Hefron
Professor, UAB School of Public Health
Sadeep Shrestha, PhD MHS MS
Professor, Quetelet Endowed Professorship in Public Health, Director - Nepal Health Research Initiative; Director - Laboratory & Program in Epidemiology of Inflammation, Infection & Immunity, UAB School of Public Health
Ada Markaki, RN, PhD, FAAN
Professor & Co-Director, UAB School of Nursing PAHO/WHOCC for International Nursing
Rebecca Edwards, RN, PhD, DNP
Assistant Professor, UAB School of Nursing
Lynn Matthews, MD
Associate Professor and Associate Director for Global Health Research and Partnerships, Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health, UAB Heersink School of Medicine
Tina Reuter, PhD
Director, Institute for Human Rights, Director, Social Science and Justice Research, Professor, Political Science and Public Administration, Anthropology, Social Work, UAB College of Arts and Sciences
Lori Bateman, PhD
Assistant Professor, UAB Division of General Internal Medicine & Population Science
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International Speakers
International Speakers
STRIPE Consortium Partners on the Global Polio Eradication Initiative
Bangladesh: Humayra Binte Awar, BDS, MPH PhD
BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University
Ethiopia: Wakgari Deressa, PhD
Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Indonesia: Yodi Mahendradhata, MD, MSc, PhD
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
Nigeria: Eme Owoaje, MBBS, MPhil
College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
India: S.D. Gupta, MD, PhD
IIHMR University, Jaipur, India
Democratic Republic of Congo: Eric Mafuta, MPH PhD
Kinshasa School of Public Health, DRC
Onono Maricianah MBChB, MSc, PhD
Senior Principal Clinical Research Scientist, Country Director: The Kenya Study on HPV-Vaccine Efficacy, KEMRI CMR, Kar Geno Research and Policy Hub, Kenya
Andrew Mujugira
Head of the Infectious Diseases Institute Kasangati, Makerere University, Uganda
Dr. Biraj M. Karmacharya
Dhulikhel Hospital Kathmandu University Hospital, Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, Nepal
Archana Shrestha, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, Dhulikhel, Nepal; Assistant Professor Adjunct - Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Center of Methods for Implementation and Prevention Science, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, USA; Director Institute for Implementation Science and Health, Kathmandu, Nepal
Karen Cox MBBS, MRCGP, MSc and SCE Palliative Medicine
Associate Clinical Instructor - University of the West Indies, Department of Public Health and Primary Care/Family Medicine, Trinidad and Tobago
Francisca Marquez Doren, RN, PhD
Associate Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Escuela de Enfermería, Santiago, Chile
Esther Atukunda, PhD
Pharmaco-epidemiologist and Senior Lecturer
Winnie Muyindike, MBChB, MMED
Director of ISS Clinic, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda
Achala Gunasekara Rockwell, PhD
Assistant Professor of World Cultures; UAB College of Arts & Sciences
Waleed O. Arafat, MD, PhD
Alexandria University Faculty of Medicine, Egypt
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Partner Projects
Partner Projects
“Synthesis and Translation of Innovations and Research from Polio Eradication (STRIPE project)”
UAB: Olakunle Alonge, MD, PhD, MPH, Bangladesh: Humayra Binte Awar, BDS, MPH PhD, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Ethiopia: Wakgari Deressa, PhD, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, Indonesia: Yodi Mahendradhata, MD, MSc, PhD, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, Nigeria: Eme Owoaje, MBBS, MPhil, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, India: S.D. Gupta, MD PhD, IIHMR University, Jaipur, India, Democratic Republic of Congo: Eric Mafuta, MPH PhD, Kinshasa School of Public Health, DRC
“Integration of a collaborative care model for perinatal mental health and HIV in Kenya - Tunawiri Study”
Janet Turan, PhD, MPH, Onono Maricianah MBChB, MSc, PhD
“Integrating PrEP delivery into harm reduction spaces in Uganda to bring services to people who use drugs”
Renee Hefron, Andrew Mujugira
“Nepal Health Research Initiative”
Sadeep Shrestha, PhD, MHS, MS, Dr. Biraj M Karmacharya, Archana Shrestha, PhD
“Leveraging Partnerships for Palliative Care: Experience from the Americas”
Ada Markaki, RN, PhD, FAAN, Karen Cox, MBBS, MRCGP, MSc and SCE Palliative Medicine, Francisca Marquez Doren, RN, PhD
“Implementation of a safer conception programme for HIV-affected men and women in rural Uganda”
Lynn Matthews, MD, Esther Atukunda, PhD, Winnie Muyindike, MBChB, MMED
“Assessing the Health Status of People with Disabilities in Sri Lanka: Stigma, Quality of Life, and Acceptability of Prosthetics in Lower-Limb Amputees”
Tina Reuter, PhD, Achala Gunasekara Rockwell, PhD
“Developing an Egyptian - US Collaborative Partnership to Address Colorectal Cancer Prevention and Control Research”
Lori Bateman, PhD, Waleed O. Arafat, MD, PhD
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Session Moderators
Session Moderators
Olakunle Alonge, MD, PhD, MPH
Professor and Director, Sparkman Center for Global Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States & Executive Board Member, CUGH Board of Directors
Anna Helova, DrPH, MA, MBA, MPH
Assistant Professor and Deputy Director, Sparkman Center for Global Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States & CUGH GHOC Co-Chair
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Session Panelists
Session Panelists
Malabika Sarker, MBBS, PhD, MPH, Chair & Professor of Practice, Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the Brown School of Public Health, Brown University, USA, former Associate Dean BRAC JP Grant School of Public Health, Bangladesh
David Peters, MD, DrPH, MPH, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Health, School of Global Health, York University, Canada
Yodi Mahendradhata, MSc, PhD, FRSPH, Professor & Dean Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
CUGH Membership
As an institutional member of CUGH, all UAB students, staff, and faculty can create an account and take advantage of the various member benefits.
CUGH has also introduced a membership management portal for easy updates for all users.
For more information and to create an account, visit the CUGH website below.
Sparkman Summer Institute
The Sparkman Center for Global Health Summer Institute is a one-week intensive workshop that introduces implementation research (IR) in global health settings and provides training on how to apply IR concepts and methods to address health inequities in global health research and practice.
Save the Date!
The 2025 Sparkman Summer Institute will be held July 16-20, in Birmingham, Alabama at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health.
Approach
Implementation research helps to solve a range of implementation problems with evidence-supported interventions – and facilitates real-world health impact at scale. However, real-world impact cannot be achieved without addressing issues of health inequities – and this is especially true for global health. While there are several degrees and training programs in implementation research relevant to global health – there are very few that explicitly target issues of health inequities contextualized to global health settings[1].
The workshop combines 4 modules taught over 5 days, including:
- High-level lectures | introducing IR in global health, and relevant IR concepts and approaches for addressing health inequities in global health research and practice.
- Case examples | demonstrating the application of concepts and approaches from the lectures to real-world global health research and practice cases.
- Problem-solving clinic | working with participants to apply IR concepts and approaches to their own global health research, practice, and/or policy cases to address health inequities.
Registration
Registration will open in Spring 2025.
Limited, needs-based scholarships are available. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please check back for further details.
D43 Insight Training Grant
The Sparkman Center is excited to be a member of the Integrated Networks of Scholars in Global Health Research Training (INSIGHT) consortium, part of the Fogarty Launching Future Leaders in Global Health Research Training Program. The INSIGHT consortium brings together four top-ranked universities, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), the University of Maryland Baltimore, the University of Pittsburgh, and their respective international research training sites in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
INSIGHT aims to provide the next generation of aspiring global health researchers in the U.S. and in LMICs by giving scientists, early in their careers, a mentored research training experience in global health at established biomedical and behavioral research sites across 24 LMIC institutions in 20 countries. Trainee research projects are supported by experienced and dedicated mentors with expertise in clinical, public health, laboratory, and implementation research.