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.
What year did you graduate:
2020
Favorite part about grad school:
The community of students in Pathobiology, and being a part of the larger science and global health community in Seattle. I loved how interdisciplinary the training was in Pathobiology. I felt like I learned how to listen to and present to colleagues across a wide spectrum of specialties within infectious disease and global health research.
Favorite Pathobiology memory:
Each year the UW Department of Global Health is able to provide partial to full funding to recruit top applicants. In addition to financial support, some recipients also receive mentorship and real-world experience through research assistant positions. For the 2022-2023 academic year, 14 outstanding graduate students received funding to support their studies. Learn more about this impressive cohort, including their journeys to arrive at UW and the impact they hope to have on the field of global health.
When did you join the program:
I joined Pathobiology in 2021. My permanent lab is the McGuire Lab at the Fred Hutch where we study protective antibody responses against viral infections to design effective vaccines.
Favorite part about grad school:
I really enjoy how collaborative and helpful students and faculty are at UW! Cool science with cool people.
Favorite grad school memory:
The Department of Global Health is pleased to announce that Abraham Guizar has accepted the position of Director of Finance and Administration. “I have great confidence that Abraham has the experience, skillset, personality, and attitude necessary to lead DGH as the next Director of Finance and Administration,” said Interim DGH Chair Dr. Carey Farquhar. “He understands the advantages and challenges of sitting in SPH and SOM and the complexity of navigating our decentralized CPI model.
The Department of Global Health (DGH) at the University of Washington, which bridges the Schools of Medicine (SOM) and Public Health (SPH), is recruiting new faculty members to join our faculty as assistant teaching professors.