From IDS reports
The IU School of Public Health-Bloomington will partner with the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy this summer to be host to a cohort of Egyptian public health scholars in a 10-week seminar.
The seminar, which will teach methodology, pedagogy, technology and more, will be a part of the Fulbright Junior Faculty Development Program, an educational exchange program funded through federal appropriations.
Seeking collaboration as a major goal of its program, the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington invited the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy to join IU’s proposal, allowing participants complete a Population Health Informatics course and study for two weeks on the CUNY campus, according to an IU press release.
IU and CUNY house the only public health programs selected for the program in 2016, according to the release.
Shawn Gibbs, executive associate dean for academic affairs at the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, is the principal administrator of the Fulbright Junior Faculty Development Program and has served previously as a faculty Fulbright Scholar to Egypt.
“We are honored to be selected to host these scholars and begin what we hope will be a long-term collaborative relationship between our schools and the junior faculty from Egypt,” Gibbs said in the release.
The Fulbright Program has allowed more than 318,000 students, teachers, scholars and more to teach, study and conduct research with a goal of finding solutions to shared international concerns, according to the release.
Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, is an Egyptian native and has worked with Gibbs in a scholar program in Nebraska.
“I am certain that our two institutions will give the junior faculty members from Egypt an excellent experience and am confident that they will have a positive impact on public health in Egypt,” El-Mohandes said in the release.
El-Mohandes and Gibbs had been looking for additional opportunities to partner together after previously collaborating as hosts to scholars from Libya.
In the IU and CUNY programs, the visiting scholars, who are full-time university faculty, will participate in an academic program and mentoring, along with various cultural experiences.
“Working with these scholars from Egypt, a country for which we have so much respect, is the perfect way to collaborate and truly give the scholars the benefit of experiences at two Schools of Public Health,” Gibbs said in the release. “We’re committed to providing the visiting scholars a positive experience and know they will leave with a greater understanding of curriculum development and the teaching competencies necessary in public health.”
Carley Lanich
