A Global Movement to Advance Equity in Health
Joseph C. Kolars and Amy Conger
Can you imagine a world where health is not an obstacle to education, employment, and the pursuit of a fulfilling life?
At the Center for Global Health Equity, we can envision such a world. And with our many partners around the globe, we are pursuing novel, interdisciplinary solutions to some of our most daunting health equity challenges.
Download the Full 2022 Impact Report
What’s different about Michigan’s approach to global health? Our founding donor, the late Tachi Yamada, was so passionate about health equity that our Center is one of the few to include equity in its name. We are motivated by a conviction that, while our health is greatly influenced by the circumstances into which we were born, these barriers can be overcome. While the Center opened its doors during the pandemic, and we mourn the loss of Tachi, we are now operating at full speed to fulfill our charge. As you read about our early successes in this inaugural Impact Report, we hope you will appreciate some unique elements of the Center.
We partner differently. Our partners in low- and middle-income countries define our partnerships and projects. They identify the most critical needs in health equity for their communities and develop the research questions that guide our shared work. We are committed to sharing resources and ensuring that our partners benefit from Center funding and enabling structures. We have members around the world, and they confirm with us that our approach to global health collaboration is different.
We support a movement. We prioritize and invest in projects that advance the global health equity movement in every way possible. Our work strengthens systems to improve health and health equity, informs public policy, creates new technical solutions for community health, and empowers women as health leaders in their communities. We know there are ways to solve the seemingly intractable problems that plague global health, and we are committed to finding them.
We maximize our resources. We are doing all of this while based at the University of Michigan, the leading public research university in the US. By leveraging the unique strengths of this excellent institution, we reach across disciplines to create solutions. In addition to supporting innovative research, we have launched educational opportunities for our students and extended training and capacity sharing pathways for global partners. These efforts are changing the way we do global health work. This is a big part of the movement—changing the model itself.
We are dreaming big. Because this is our inaugural impact report, we have included an overview of the Center’s history. We are proud of the foundation we have built and are preparing to take some big next steps. We engage more faculty and global partners every month. Our research models are constantly evaluated and improved so that our partnerships set the standard for collaboration and co-design. We have already deployed a series of seed grants that have led to much larger national and international grants, many of which include global research partners as lead investigators. And we are developing new models for student engagement to prepare future generations of researchers to be leaders in the global health equity movement.
When we are successful, people in the communities we engage will live longer, healthier lives.
Thank you for supporting the movement.
Joseph C. Kolars, MD, MACP
Director, Center for Global Health Equity Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Medicine
Josiah Macy Jr. Professor of Health Professions Education,
U-M Medical School
Professor of Health Management and Policy,
U-M School of Public Health
Amy Conger, PhD
Managing Director, Center for Global Health Equity
Faculty Associate, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education
University of Michigan