By Lynn McCain 
 

The Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE) at the University of Michigan announced the winners of their CGHE Grant competition and two of Pathology’s faculty were among the four award recipients. Dr. Rouba Ali-Fehmi and team were awarded one of three CGHE Seed Grant Awards and Dr. Lee Schroeder and team received the year’s only Impact Accelerator Program Award.

The Seed Grant program seeks to stimulate exploratory projects that foster fresh ideas and partnerships, laying the groundwork for substantial future projects. Projects must have a clear, collaborative ethos involving partners in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Dr. Ali-Fehmi’s project is a pilot study to assess the sexual, reproductive, and mental health educational needs among healthcare providers and refugee women in Lebanon. The project team leaders include Drs. Rouba Ali-Fehmi (Pathology), Amy Pienta (Institute for Social Research), Elizabeth King (Public Health), and Hala Darwish (Nursing), in collaboration with Amel Association International in Beirut, Lebanon.

CGHE's Impact Accelerator Grants aim to support action-oriented projects focused on designing, piloting, or testing solutions that improve health outcomes for people in low- and middle-income contexts with extended project durations and larger-scale impact. During this latest round, funds were awarded to Drs. Lee Schroeder (Pathology), Derek Van Berkel (SEAS), Jon Zelner (SPH), in collaboration with partners at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana. Their project is titled, Integrating climate change and geospatial analytics into next-generation surveillance of epidemic-prone disease in Ghana.

The CGHE announcement stated, “These awards manifest the University of Michigan's ongoing commitment to nurturing collaborative global health equity research and innovation. With principal investigators from a range of disciplines and departments, the supported projects epitomize interdisciplinary excellence and the potential for genuine impact.”

Please join us in congratulating Drs. Rouba Ali-Fehmi and Lee Schroeder on these global project awards!