Fourth Annual GillingsX Talks Showcased Students’ Global Health Work
March 27, 2017
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Six students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health gave presentations about their global health research experiences during the fourth annual GillingsX talks on March 23. About 120 people attended the event.
The event, hosted by Gillings’ Student Global Health Committee (SGHC), is modeled after the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) talks, which aim to communicate important ideas through short, powerful lectures.
This year’s theme, “Global Health: Mission Possible,” focused on ways the students had helped to develop or implement ideas, policies or programs that improved people’s health in countries where they had conducted research.
Speakers included Alexis Hoyt, health behavior master’s student, who spoke about cervical cancer in India; Amy Shipow, master’s student in the joint maternal and child health and social work program, who spoke on refugee communities from the Democratic Republic of the Congo living in the North Carolina triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill); Diego Garza, master’s student in the Public Health Leadership Program, who spoke about telemedicine around the world; Eric Rubenstein, doctoral student in epidemiology, who spoke about autism in Bangladesh; Kate LeMasters, doctoral student in maternal and child health, who described pregnancy experiences in Romania; and Zainab Alidina, master’s student in maternal and child health, who talked about mental health in Tanzania.
“GillingsX is a unique opportunity for students to showcase their work in global health,” said Christie Pettit-Schieber, master’s student in public health leadership and SGHC leader. “We couldn’t be more proud of this year’s speakers, who shared some fascinating information about new opportunities in the field of global public health.”
Jim Herrington, executive director of the Gillings Global Gateway and professor of the practice of health behavior at the Gillings School, congratulated the Student Global Health Committee for organizing the wide-ranging program.
“The students who presented at this year’s GillingsX epitomize the Gillings student body with their scholarship and their artistic and communication skills,” Herrington said. “Kudos to all involved.”