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Epidemiology is a core tool for effective public health response during humanitarian crises. Increasingly, modern analytical methods, like mathematical modelling, have been added to the epidemiological toolbox to attempt to describe the epidemiology of communicable diseases, decipher disease transmission dynamics, and simulate promising public health interventions among crisis-affected populations.

Using the lenses of cholera response in crises and decolonial practices in global health, this seminar will explore the potential uses and challenges for modelling in crises to aid evidence generation and real-time decision-making.

Speaker Profile

Ruwan is a field epidemiologist and modeler with considerable experience in humanitarian crises. Currently, he works with colleagues at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to integrate the modelling of communicable disease, acute malnutrition, and excess mortality with traditional field epidemiology methods to provide insights that can hopefully drive public health actions in crises worldwide.

As a CIHR Doctoral Foreign Scholar, he completed a mid-career PhD in mathematical modelling at LSHTM, in collaboration with Epicentre-Médecins Sans Frontières, where he evaluated the effects of targeted interventions for cholera outbreaks using mathematical modeling and observational studies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Before this, Ruwan was the Senior Epidemiologist for the International Rescue Committee, where he supported health programs primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and for the Syria regional crisis. He also trained with the Canadian Field Epidemiology Program of the Public Health Agency of Canada. He published both research and public health guidance, including articles recently in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and guidelines for early warning surveillance systems in emergencies for the WHO.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, December 18, at 1 p.m. ET

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There is global consensus in the scholarly and international development spaces that global health should/must be decolonized. Some authors are increasingly becoming concerned that the movement will be limited to buzz creation rather than creating impact. Others have recognized that the movement has been captured by the Global North Elite, a strong predictor of an unchanging status quo in the space. Epistemic violence, epistemic disrespect, epistemic dominance, and epistemic arrogance are growing concepts in the decolonization of global health literature. What does is truly mean to effectively decolonize global health? This lecture will attempt an answer to this complex question by highlighting the why and the how of a paradigm shift, if a meaningful decolonization of global health movement must thrive.

Speaker Profile

Dr. Luchuo Engelbert Bain is a global public health physician, implementation research scientist, and empirical bioethicist with over 15 years of global health experience.

Currently, he is the Head of International Programs at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Nairobi Kenya. He has previously served as a senior program officer with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa, as a senior research fellow in global health with the University of Lincoln in the UK, and has worked as a consultant for various international organizations, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Population Services International (PSI).

Luchuo is an associate professor of global health and bioethics with the EUCLID University, a research fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research at York University in Toronto Canada, a senior research associate with the department of psychology of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and an inaugural fellow on climate change and health of the Geneva learning foundation (TGLF). Luchuo is a current member of the World Health Organization’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH) Sexual Health and Well-being Advisory Group (SWAG) and a technical working group member to the Africa CDC supporting the development of its annual Public Health Intelligence Report. Luchuo has reviewed proposals for the National Institute of Health Research and Primary Care (NIHR) in the UK, and the European Commission.

Dr. Luchuo holds a Ph.D. in Transdisciplinary Global Health Solutions from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, an executive MBA in Strategic Human Resources Management from UNIR, a Master’s of Science in Bioethics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, a Master’s of Public Health from Hebrew University, an MD from the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon, and executive training in global health diplomacy from the University of Toronto. He has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals on various topics including sexual reproductive health and rights, ethics, decolonization of global health, community engagement in research, HIV medicine, and health policy.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, January 8, at 1 p.m. ET

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Canada, Australia and Kenya are all signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Yet, each country retains domestic laws that continue to sanction human rights violations, such as involuntary detainment, forced treatment, seclusion, and restraints. This seminar will present findings from field research and policy and legal analysis from the Realizing Human Rights and Social Justice in Mental Health project (www.socialjusticeinmentalhealth.org). We begin with an overview of the relationship between colonization and psychiatry to illustrate how mental health law has come to be used disproportionately against racialized communities.

We shed light on the structure of psychiatric power by sharing narratives from interviews with individuals who have experienced human rights violations in mental health. These stories reveal how psychiatric power is influenced by intersecting experiences of colonialism, racism, sexism, poverty, and sanism. Through this illumination, we expose the profound social and structural inequities that permeate the mental health care system, perpetuating social injustices. We argue that system change must move beyond legal and policy reform to support a paradigm shift in mental health care that will bolster innovative recovery and human rights-oriented community care that supports the autonomy, dignity and well-being of people.

Speaker Profile

Marina Morrow, PhD is a Professor at the School of Health Policy and Management in the Faculty of Health at York University and a renowned international expert on mental health, policy, and equity. Her research has developed novel intersectional approaches and academic-community engagement models that have been translated into mental health policy and practice in Canada and internationally. In her work, Morrow uses mad studies approaches to better understand the social, political, and institutional processes through which mental health policies and practices are developed and how social and health inequities are sustained or attenuated for different populations.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, January 15, at 10 a.m. ET

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This seminar will provide an overview of HIV/AIDS among Girls and Women in the Asia-Pacific Region including country wise variations. Further, key challenges faced by Women Living with HIV (WLHIV) and interventions/strategies that works in supporting WLHIVs will be shared. Some key recommendations to address the challenges faced by WLHIVs will be also presented.

Speaker Profile

Rajnish Ranjan Prasad is currently working as Programme Specialist- Gender Equality and HIV/AIDS with the UN Women’s Asia-Pacific Regional Office. He has 17 years of experience in addressing inequalities, empowering marginalized communities and providing technical support to Governments. He is working with UN Women Country Offices in the Asia Pacific region to address gender inequality in planning, and utilization of health services.

He has previously worked with UNFPA and supported Government of Rajasthan, India in strengthening of large-scale programmes for holistic development of young people specially girls, addressing gender inequalities and to promote youth leadership. He has also worked with National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Government of India and managed large-scale HIV/AIDS programme. He has received PhD in the area of Public Health from IIHMR University, India.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, February 5, at 9:30 a.m. ET

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