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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

Summer Institute 2024 class photo

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.

CUGH Pre-Conference Flyer
  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

CUGH Plenary Session Flyer

  • 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

  • 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!

Summer Institute 2024 class photo

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.

 

Contact Us

sparkmancenter@uab.edu

(205) 975-7693

517 RPHB 1665 University Blvd Birmingham, Alabama 35233