This year’s Husky 100 awards have recognized two students within the Department of Global Health (DGH) for making the most of their time at the University of Washington. These students truly exemplify the Husky experience, applying what they learn to make a difference inside the classroom, in our communities and beyond.  

Congratulations to our student global health leaders!   

Power, Privilege, and Allyship: A ‘Double Agent's’ Perspective on the Effort to Deconstruct Colonialism in Global Health

Global health was born out of colonialism. Even today, it is neither diverse nor truly global. Every aspect of global health is dominated by those with power and privilege. If global health is be reimagined or decolonized, people and institutions who typically hold power and privilege must shift from saviorism to allyship. 

In a recent conversation with Anand Giridharadas, author of the Department of Global Health (DGH) 2022-23 Common Book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, the DGH community examined the increasingly powerful role billionaire philanthropists have assumed in setting the social change agenda, including in public health. His critiques speak to the challenges we face in our efforts to decolonize global health research and practice, center the priorities of the Global South, and promote equity in our work.  

The Department of Global Health (DGH) seeks to improve health for all through research, education, training, and service. In honor of National Reading Month, DGH has created a roundup of books authored and edited by DGH faculty in 2022 that cover a wide range of topics, from personal memoirs to public health textbooks.  

The Department of Global Health selected Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas as the department Common Book. This is meant to serve as a platform for our community of students, staff, and faculty to highlight important issues that we think impact global health as a discipline. And we felt Winners Take All really challenged us in many ways.

New research warns that nearly 800,000 residents would need emergency medical care for heat stroke and other illnesses in an extended power failure. Other cities are also at risk.

Kristie Ebi, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW, is quoted.

More severe and numerous floods, droughts, and heat waves impact a wide range of health outcomes, and shifting biomes may spread diseases to new places. How do scientists understand which portions of health effects are caused by climate change, and how can health organizations be prepared?

Kristie Ebi, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW, is quoted.

Record-breaking April temperatures in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa were made 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change and would have been almost impossible in the past, according to a new study.

Kristie Ebi, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW, is quoted.

Tina Mensa-Kwao is a doctoral student in the Global Health Implementation Science & Metrics program at the University of Washington School of Public Health, where she focuses on understanding how to enhance the implementation of evidence-based practices to improve the mental health of young people globally. In this Q&A, she shares why she’s passionate about global health, her research efforts and its potential impact, her future goals as a professional, and advice for new students. 

Climate change is making a safe, slow adjustment to heat much harder by upending what we’d typically expect as seasons change. Summers are getting longer and more intense, encroaching on winter and extending long into the fall. Large parts of Asia have been hit particularly hard the past two weeks. Axios reported how heat records have fallen throughout China, India, Bangladesh and Thailand, as areas have surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).

Kristie Ebi, professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UW, is quoted.