Karen Lin | To me, defining forward means students actively participating and gaining awareness of critical issues occurring around the world, such as global health, by becoming more involved on campus, conversing with fellow peers, and staying informed of these issues on a daily basis.
Lara Yuan | To me, defining forward means requiring humility, understanding, collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking from government, academia and the private sector for future success in global health.
Victoria Pascoe| To me, defining forward means illuminating barriers that limit women’s access to family planning resources essential to improving health.
Crystal Yan | To me, defining forward in global health means creating partnerships across sectors to address current market gaps and to meet the needs of people who currently lack health equity.
Teresa Tomassoni | To me, defining forward means imagining what a healthy world would look like and its impact on cultural and economic growth, developing innovative solutions to global health issues, and dedicating the resources needed to implement these solutions around the world.
Francesca Garrett | “One person can’t do everything. One person can’t, one foundation can’t, one government can’t. Not alone.” Ted Turner’s words last June spoke of a culture that focuses too often on the individual. And yet the air at last year’s annual conference was electric with collaboration. UNICEF ambassador Sarah Jessica Parker introduced their new HIV/AIDS Innovation Fund, while experts from AMPATH spoke of the success of hiring former patients as informed advocates within their communities. Anne Keeling from the International Diabetes Federation shared staggering new global figures on diabetes and Clifford Panter of Mercedes Benz spoke of their innovative Trucking Wellness Project to fight HIV/AIDS. And the spirit of collaboration extended far beyond the conference walls.
An international audience of over two million viewers from 16 different countries followed coverage provided by the GBCHealth Social Media Corps. We asked your questions in real-time during GBCHealth panels and provided a behind-the-scene glimpse of speakers and award winners. We asked GBCHealth President John Tedstrom when he thought the conference would help put mental health on the map, and Hewlett-Packard’s Gabriele Zedlmayer for insight into innovation.
That same spirit of collaboration will continue this year. As Susan G. Komen for the Cure announces their new workplace breast cancer toolkit and speakers from Deepak Chopra to Michelle Bachelet take the stage, our team of young media and health professionals will once again ensure that your voice is heard. We want your questions, your challenges and your acknowledgements. We want your stories and your suggestions. This May, I can’t wait to define, and move, forward. Together.
Francesca returns to GBCHealth’s Social Media Corps this year as an advisor. She currently works as the Associate Executive Director at San Antonio’s Holocaust Memorial Museum and serves on Medic Mobile’s Advisory Board. Learn more about Francesca here and follow her @medic
Mobola Oyefule | To me, defining forward in global health means to pioneer solutions and innovate strategies that treat global health as the priority that it should be.
When birds are in flight, their priority is to migrate towards more optimal and favorable conditions, with the leader of the pack essentially piloting the flight. It is not exotic; it is essential.
As leaders in global health, GBCHealth should be akin to the pilot bird; rallying its partners together and spearheading long needed efforts to improve global health in today’s world and in the future.
Akash Goel | To me, defining forward means setting aggressive public health goals even when it may not be politically feasible to do so. It means defining issues such as preventable under-five child mortality as completely morally reprehensible. It means striving to provide the best available healthcare universally and viewing health as a fundamental human right.
Francesca Garret | To me, defining forward means developing technologies that involve patients around the world in the global health dialogue.
Photo credit: Priyanka Pathak, Medic Mobile
“A mother from one of the slum wards in Kurmool shows another mother how to use Medic Mobile’s vaccine schedule tracking software on her cell phone.”
Teresa Tomassoni | Before I ever knew I wanted to become a journalist, I spent three years living in Latin America and Asia while earning my bachelors degree through the four-year study abroad program, Global College of Long Island University. During this time, I interviewed sex workers and human trafficking survivors around the world who were afflicted with HIV/AIDS and the stigma associated with the disease. I also spent time talking with Costa Rican banana plantation workers whose health was compromised by the pesticides being used on their crops. When I returned to the U.S., I began working as a counselor for American girls ages 12-24 in New York City who were sexually exploited and trafficked. Many of them suffered from severe mental and physical issues as a result of the trauma and abuse they endured.
These experiences fueled my desire to become a journalist, to educate people about these types of critical global health issues, and help them make more informed decisions in their daily lives. Therefore, I am very excited to report on this year’s GBCHealth Conference.
So far, I have been working towards my goal of becoming a full-time reporter on global health and humanitarian issues by earning my masters degree in journalism from the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. I also spent the last seven months reporting on hunger, housing and the 2012 presidential primaries for The Washington Post and NPR as a Stone and Holt Weeks Fellow.
Now I am interested in learning about how I can continue informing the public, politicians and business professionals on global health issues using other creative journalistic tools like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. I will be covering the conference session: Social Health: The Future of Disease Awareness, Prevention and Treatment. The session’s speakers will discuss ways in which social media is being used to effectively track global health trends, raise awareness and disseminate information about health topics. I will be examining how social media can be used to continue the conversation around global health, even once the breaking news headlines die down about cholera, malnutrition, maternal health and AIDS.
Learn more about Teresa here and be sure to follow her at @TTomassoni
