Global Health Educators Community (GHECo)
The CUGH Global Health Educators Community (GHECo = “gecko”) provides professional development and networking opportunities for professors who teach global health courses, design curricula and experiential learning activities for nonclinical undergraduate and graduate programs, and oversee baccalaureate majors and minors, academic master’s degrees, and research-based doctoral degrees.
Committee Information and Resources
Membership
GHECo is an international, multidisciplinary community of practice for global health educators that began hosting monthly Virtual Teachers’ Lounges (VTLs) and other events in September 2023. GHECo membership is free to everyone; CUGH membership is not required. To receive invitations to the monthly online GHECo meetings and special events, please sign up for the mailing list using the form. Questions about GHECo may be directed to the founding co-chairs, Kathryn H. Jacobsen (University of Richmond) and Caryl E. Waggett (Allegheny College)
Events
To receive invitations to the monthly GHECo meetings and special events, please create an account. All global health educators are welcome to join the listserv and attend GHECo events. CUGH membership is not a requirement for participation in the community.
Global Health Learning Objectives
Values
Describe the history, values, and functions of global health.
Globalization
Explain how travel, trade, and other aspects of globalization contribute to health, disease, and health disparities.
Socioeconomics
Summarize the economic, social, cultural, and political contributors to individual and population health.
Environment
Examine the connections between human health and environmental health, including considerations of water, sanitation, air quality, urbanization, ecosystem health, and climate change
Ethics
Discuss the relationship between human rights and global health.
Healthcare Systems
Compare the financing and delivery of medical care in countries with different types of health systems and different income levels.
Governance
Examine the roles, responsibilities, and relationships of the agencies and organizations involved in prioritizing, financing, and implementing public health interventions locally and internationally.
Epidemiology
Compare the burden of disease, disability, and death from infectious diseases, reproductive health issues, malnutrition, noncommunicable diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries in countries with different income levels
Interventions
Identify evidence-based, cost-effective, sustainable interventions for promoting health and preventing illness across the lifespan from the prenatal period through older adulthood.
Evaluation
Evaluate policies that seek to solve major population health concerns and achieve health equity.
Planetary Health Learning Objectives
Earth System Changes
Identify the natural and human-generated causes of altered biogeochemical flows, climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental pollutants, land-system change, freshwater change, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, stratospheric ozone depletion, and other global environmental changes.
Ecological Systems
Describe how the ecosystems formed by human, domestic animal, wildlife, plant, and other biotic populations are affected by human actions across trophic levels, geographies, and time.
Human Health Outcomes
Explain how extreme temperature and precipitation events, reduced air and water quality, population displacement, and other global changes increase incidence, prevalence, and mortality from infectious diseases; malnutrition; respiratory, cardiovascular, and other noncommunicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health issues; psychosocial health disorders; and injuries.
Risk Assessment
Analyze how economic, social, cultural, political, environmental, technological, and health systems affect ecosystem and human vulnerability and resilience to environmental change.
Governance
Evaluate how local, national, and international laws and policies have contributed to environmental problems and solutions.
Actions
Compare the roles and responsibilities of governments, the commercial sector, civil society organizations, communities, and individuals in promoting conservation, restoration, mitigation, and adaptation related to environmental change
Ethics
Articulate the principles of intragenerational, interspecies, and intergenerational environmental justice.
Communication
Demonstrate environmental and health literacy by accessing, evaluating, and communicating reliable scientific information about global environmental change.
Newsletter
May 1, 2026
GHECo Conversation with the Editors of Global Health NOW | May 12
Global Health NOW (https://globalhealthnow.org/subscribe) is a free daily (weekday) newsletter that provides more than 50,000 subscribers with news about global health research, trends, and events. The editors of GHN, Brian W. Simpson (editor-in-chief) and Dayna Kerecman Myers (managing editor), will be participating in a special conversation with GHECo members on May 12 (Tuesday) at 11am New York time. Learn more about how GHN selects stories to feature, upcoming features, and how GHN can be used as a teaching resource. Register for the conversation at https://urichmond.zoom.us/meeting/register/kD5kmAnsQEyfb6UVRQGsZw.
GHECo Virtual Teachers’ Lounges | May 5 & June 3
- The May GHECo VTL will be held on May 5 (Tuesday) from 1pm to 2pm New York time. Register at https://urichmond.zoom.us/meeting/register/iKEPWp7IQMqca6_ZmM0wZg to receive a Zoom link and a calendar invite for this event.
- The June GHECo VTL will be held on June 3 (Wednesday) from 10am to 11am New York time. Register at https://urichmond.zoom.us/meeting/register/fLlL_ENNSxaFqVnoYiCNEw.
As always, all are welcome to participate in these no-agenda conversations about global health teaching, training, program management, advising, and mentorship.
FEEDBACK REQUESTED: One Health University Assessment Tool
Prof. Elmoubashar Farag (Qatar University) and colleagues from WHO’s One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) have developed a draft One Health / Planetary Health University Self-Assessment Tool. Beyond assessment, the tool aims to support institutional transformation and global benchmarking, with potential to inform future ranking and certification systems. GHECo members are warmly invited to provide feedback on the draft tool. Email mobash2022@gmail.com to be added to the review panel.
GHECo Book Club with Tom Frieden | September 10
Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. CDC and current CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, was the featured speaker for a GHECo webinar on April 23. Resources for teaching with his new book The Formula for Better Health are available at https://formulateaching.theformulaforbetterhealth.net/. Next up: Anyone who reads the book in the next few months is invited to participate in a “book club” conversation with Dr. Frieden on Zoom on September 10 at 3pm New York time. Save the date, and start reading!
CUGH 2027 in Lima, Peru | February 25–28
The 2027 meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) will be held in Lima, Peru. Registration is already open, and the organizers are ready to assist participants with visa letters and other logistics. (Workshops begin at 9am on February 25, and attendees will want to plan to arrive in time to join in on morning activities.) Learn more at https://cughlima2027.org.
Other Upcoming Events (all are free!)
- DISASTER MANAGEMENT | May 7: Harvard School of Public Health is hosting a webinar on “Global humanitarian and disaster management one year after the dismantling of USAID” with Altaf Musani (WHO) and Michael J. VanRooyen (Harvard Humanitarian Initiative) at 10am New York time. Details at https://hsph.harvard.edu/events/global-humanitarian-and-disaster-management-one-year-after-the-dismantling-of-usaid/.
- NCDs | May 12: The NCD Alliance and The Partnership for International Politics and Diplomacy for Health are hosting a free webinar on “Shifting the paradigm for NCDs in global health architecture” at 14h Geneva time. Register at https://ncdalliance.org/stories/events/2026/the-pulse-of-tomorrow-shifting-the-paradigm-for-ncds-in-global-health.
- PLANETARY HEALTH | May 22: On World Biodiversity Day, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (Netherlands) is hosting a free symposium on “How can we actively shape tomorrow through planetary health?” Virtual participants can participate from 13h–15h Rotterdam time. Register at https://www.eur.nl/en/eshpm/events/how-can-we-actively-shape-tomorrow-through-planetary-health-2026-05-22.
- DATA FOR ACTION | May 27: The Global Network for Academic Public Health is hosting a webinar on “From data to action: Global Burden of Disease and the role of academic public health” at 11am New York time. Register at https://globalnetworkpublichealth.org/events/from-data-to-action-global-burden-of-disease-and-the-role-of-academic-public-health/.
CUGH Capacity Strengthening Platform: Share your resources!
The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Capacity Strengthening Platform is a free online hub that connects institutions, programs, and individuals in low-resource settings with global expertise, training programs, and mentorship opportunities to help address health workforce shortages and strengthen capacity in clinical, technical, and research domains. Register at https://www.CUGHcapacitybuilding.org to share established training and mentorship opportunities or to request training or mentorship support for you or your institution. Please share the platform widely with your networks, circulate it on relevant listservs, and consider formally integrating the platform into any training programs you offer to increase your training reach, impact, and growth. Contact CapacityBuilding@CUGH.org to learn more.
Call for Nominations: 2026 Paul Farmer Lectureship and Award for Global Health Equity
The McGill School of Population and Global Health is now accepting nominations for the 2026 Paul Farmer Award for Global Health Equity at https://www.mcgill.ca/spgh/about-us/paul-farmer-lectureship-and-award/call-nominations. Established in 2024, this annual award honours individuals whose work embodies Dr. Paul Farmer’s vision of a “preferential option for the poor” and advances health equity in underserved communities. Please share the call for nominations widely across your networks and consider nominating practitioners with a sustained track record of advancing health equity at the community level for this award. Nominations are due June 12.
New Resources
- SHORT VIDEO: GHECo member Shashika Bandara (Monash University, Malaysia) has released a short video about the future of global health that features multiple inspiring voices in the global health space from around the world sharing about key challenges, what gives them hope, and advice for students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Z4I91YCic.
- HOPE: Madhukar Pai (McGill University, Canada) recently published “What will bring the next generation of global health students hope?” in Science Politics: https://sciencepolitics.org/2026/04/17/what-will-bring-the-next-generation-of-global-health-students-hope/.
Help us grow GHECo
If you have colleagues and friends who are involved in global health education but are not yet on the GHECo mailing list, please invite them to sign up at https://cugh.groups.io/g/gheco.
Do you have items for the GHECo Newsletter?
All of the items in this newsletter have been shared by GHECo members. Thank you for your contributions! Please email information about upcoming events and new resources related to global health education to kjacobse@richmond.edu and cwaggett@allegheny.edu so that we can share them in the next GHECo newsletter.