Chair’s Message

I am very pleased to welcome you all to the new 2012-2013 academic year.  For returning faculty, staff, and students, I trust that your summer was both productive and restful.  To our alumni – both those who may have just graduated and those for whom HSPH is a more distant memory -  we wish you well on your practice of public health and look forward to hearing about your work around the globe.  To the newest members of our community, please allow me to extend a special welcome to the Global Health and Population (GHP) department.  We are very glad to have you here and, as we begin the fall semester, I hope you all feel the same excitement and anticipation that I do for many opportunities that lie ahead.

Before turning to the upcoming academic term, I would like to recap a few of the many engaging events at GHP last year.   The department was abuzz with our weekly Thursday Brown-Bag series, the Takemi seminars, and our doctoral student series.  The China Initiative hosted the Harvard China-America Health Summit, the Women & Health Initiative led a series of lively book clubs and round-table discussions, and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative launched the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard.  We also introduced the GHP Frontiers in Global Health Seminar Series to welcome distinguished guests from around the globe for discussions on current challenges in and innovative practices of global health.

The coming year brings equal excitement.  In addition to our active series of regular seminars, I am delighted to announce that our department turns 50 years old this year.  In recognition of this significant milestone, we have developed a program of special anniversary events around the theme GHP@50.  Our spotlight events will span the globe, from Boston to China to Tanzania, and they offer us the opportunity not only to celebrate the past but also to highlight today’s learning and consider how we can better improve global health across populations in the future.  We invite you to join these celebrations that will run through the full academic year.

As a community of educators, researchers, practitioners, and students from around the world, GHP works together to produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere.  Our faculty continues to focus on efforts to strengthen our education programs, to integrate disciplines, to stimulate new research, and to build intellectual community.   Our array of term-time courses, winter-term experiences, and special events offer comprehensive portfolios of learning opportunities for our valued student community.  Our alumni are part of a powerful network of public health experts working to devise and implement effective strategies that improve the lives of millions of people around the globe. I am grateful to all of you for your commitment and participation, and I look forward to seeing you at GHP.

Sincerely,

Wafaie Fawzi
Chair, Department of Global Health and Population