CUGH 2026 Recordings

Welcome remarks by CUGH and our CUGH 2026 partners

Nancy Reynolds

Chair, CUGH, Associate Dean Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Keith Martin

Executive Director, CUGH

Patricia J. Garcia

Host CUGH 2027, Professor of Public and Global Health, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

William Mallon

Senior Director of Strategy and Innovation Development, AAMC

Charles Holmes 

Director of the Georgetown Center for Innovation in Global Health, Georgetown University

​​Wendy Ellis 

Director of the Center for Community Resilience, George Washington University

Mary Lou Valdez 

Deputy Director, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)

Chris Moore 

Executive Director, Global Health Advocacy and Global Health Director, Better World Campaign, UN Foundation

Moderators:

Ximena Garzon-Villalba

Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Patricia Garcia

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, School of Public Health

Speakers:

Joaquin Barnoya Pérez

Ministerio de Salud Publica y Asistencia Social

Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr

PAHO

Join us in revisiting this memorable and inspiring moment, where we had the opportunity to meet and honour an array of leaders and innovators from around the world who have made significant contributions to making our planet a healthier, safer, and more environmentally sustainable place for all. Individuals and organizations received their awards, and several of them shared their experiences with the audience.

View the full list of awardees here.

This session brings together global leaders to explore how academic health systems can accelerate climate action by addressing the environmental determinants that shape health and deepen inequities. Through leadership, research, and cross-sector partnerships, the session will showcase strategies for building more resilient, just, and sustainable health systems worldwide.   

Moderator:

William Mallon

Association of American Medical Colleges

Speakers:

Renee N. Salas
The Cooperative, Mass General Brigham

Carlos A. Faerron Guzman
CISG / UMB / PHA / JHU

Michael Boninger
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center / University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Evidence rarely speaks for itself. In today’s global health environment, the successful translation of research into policy depends not only on what we know, but on how decision-makers think, reason, and act - shaped by constrained financing, political will, entrenched inequity, and the disruptive rise of artificial intelligence. This plenary session examines the conditions that make research-to-policy translation succeed or fail, drawing on real-world cases spanning geriatrics in Nepal, community resilience in fragile settings, health economics and financing in Africa, metacognition in medical education, and cross-sectoral implementation science. Together, panelists will explore what it takes to move evidence into action when the system itself is under pressure.

Moderator:

Ivan Teri

Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University 

Speakers:

Malabika Sarker

Brown University School of Public Health

Barbara Kamholz 

University of California, San Francisco

Quentin Eichbaum 

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center 

Peter Berman T.H. Chan School of Public Health 

Wendy Ellis

Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University

The Americas have a long history of communicable disease elimination, with major achievements such as the eradication of smallpox and interruption of transmission of polio and important progress toward eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, malaria, measles, rubella, and other communicable diseases as public health problems. Today, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence are opening new possibilities to accelerate this historic mission by improving how health systems detect risks, support prevention, organize services, and communicate with populations. 

This panel will examine how artificial intelligence can accelerate communicable disease elimination in the Americas through practical applications aligned with the Disease Elimination Initiative led by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and its Best Buys, highlighting how innovative tools such as telehealth, disease screening, digital tracking, decision-support systems, and data-driven approaches can strengthen prevention, service delivery, surveillance, and operational responsiveness.

Moderator:

Marcelo D'Agostino

Pan American Health Organization/WHO 

Speakers: 

Martha Saboyá

Pan American Health Organization 

Myrna Marti

Pan American Health Organization

This plenary session brings together leaders from policy, public health, clinical medicine, and health systems strengthening to explore the essential role of nurses in achieving health system resilience worldwide. As the largest segment of the global health workforce, nurses are pivotal to advancing universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness, and equitable care delivery. Through a cross-sector dialogue, this session will highlight evidence, innovations, and policy strategies that position the nursing workforce not only as frontline providers but as critical architects of sustainable and responsive health systems.

Moderator:

Nancy Reynolds

John Hopkins University School of Nursing / CUGH

Speakers:

Judy Khanyola

AFREhealth

Patricia Davidson

University of New South Wales Sydney

Eduardo Benjamin Puertas

PAHO/WHO

Sheila Davis

Partners in Health

This forward-looking panel will explore how innovative financing and cross-sector collaboration can reshape global health systems. Panelists will discuss key strategies for capacity building, research and education reforms, and strengthening sustainable, locally led health initiatives worldwide.

Moderator:

Mark Dybul 

Georgetown University

Speakers:

Mike Muldoon

The Rockefeller Foundation

Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin

Harvard University

Jennifer Bouey

Georgetown University

Under the America First Global Health Strategy announced last fall, the U.S. State Department is negotiating bilateral agreements supporting critical global health programs with dozens of countries around the world. Key to the strategy is a robust health workforce, which is vital to the success of America’s global health programs. This is especially urgent since nearly half of the world’s population, approximately 4.5 billion people, still lacks access to critical health services. As the U.S. transitions it’s global health programming, academic institutions can ensure partner nations have a well-trained, well-equipped, and well-supported workforce.

Moderator:

Chris Moore

UN Foundation

Speakers:

Crystal Lander

CARE

Mary Dirks

National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)

Susan Michaels-Strasser

Columbia University

Rachel Wisthuff

UNICEF USA

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading causes of ill health and mortality worldwide. Four major NCDs - cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease - account for around 80% of all deaths. The impact of the NCD epidemic extends far beyond the health sector, impeding socioeconomic development and threatening progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Decades of research provides strong evidence that NCDs can be prevented, but despite the clear vision, global strategies, and high-level political commitments, including four declarations by the UN General Assembly, progress has been slow and fragmented. This session will outline the key barriers to addressing NCDS progress and how they can be overcome.

Moderator:

Ala Alwan

University of Oxford

Speakers:

Patricia Davidson

University of New South Wales Sydney

Christine Ngaruiya

Stanford University

Ayman El-Mohandes

CUNY School of Public Health

The world is undergoing a rupture. The structures, norms and rules that have governed international relations since WW2 have been irrevocably changed. This is a fork in the road that can push the world into a state of increasing insecurity, economic inequality, environmental crises, declining development and worsening health outcomes. Alternatively , this is an opportunity to build forward better. What is the role of the global health ecosystem in this age of uncertainty? This panel of global health experts from various backgrounds will navigate these issues and share ways in which the global health community can impact the challenges before us in these unstable times. 

Moderator:

Keith Martin

Consortium of Universities for Global Health

Speakers:

Teri Reynolds
World Health Organization

Francis Collins
NIH

Nelson Sewankambo
Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Olusoji Adeyi
Resilient Health Systems