Envisioning the future of the global health professional

This presentation will focus on public health practice within the global context, focusing on activities both domestic and abroad. Interactive exercises will be incorporated to emphasize the power of values and culture in international development and, in particular, global health. Participants will be taken through various small group activities to help them pull up unspoken values related to differences such as gender, power, outsider/insider dynamic. These scenarios will offer an increased understanding of the role these aspects play in global health work. Case examples will also showcase innovative ideas in the field. Through these discussions and exercises participants will be privy to the skills and knowledge needed in the field thus helping participants to recognize the applicability of their public health course work in “real life” scenarios. The presentation is aligned with the overall goal of this course which is to help students hone their public health leadership skills to be effective assets to global health work. This session will incorporate information gathered from the “Summit on the Future of the American Global Health Professional”. In the Summit key representatives of three segments of the global health industry convened including the schools and universities who train, teach and prepare people coming into the field of global health, the non-profit, for-profit public and private sector companies and organizations who hire and in which many global health professionals implement their work and the donors and governments who fund the work and whose strategic vision influences the course of global health. Outcomes from this meeting included showcasing real world competencies that represent all three perspectives and ways to ensure diversity of the American global health professional. All of which frame this training for the participants.

Students will participate in group exercises where they are presented with a scenario regarding a global heath issue and have to identify ways in which they will respond based on what was covered during the didactic portion of the course as well as from their individual and collective experience. Ultimately, the session will prompt students to start thinking of potential ways they can impact the field of global health.