The UCLA School of Public Health seeks to partner with the clinical health sciences schools (Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Dentistry) and with UCLA's California Center for Population Research, an organized research unit that is the home to substantial NIH-funded research on global health from social science perspectives. Our goal is to develop a framework and structure that substantially advances graduate education and postdoctoral training in global public health and increases UCLA's visibility in this field nationally and internationally. We will form a Global Health Faculty that spans the participating units; a steering committee including representation from all participating units; and an international external advisory committee consisting of scientists from low- and middle-income countries who have sustained collaborations with UCLA faculty. We will develop a value-added Specialization in Global Health within the Master of Public Health program, for which MPH students in any of the School of Public Health's five departments will be eligible. A core set of two full (quarter-long) courses-one an existing introduction to Global Health Problems and the other a to-be-developed course in Responsible Conduct of Research in Global Health-will combine with a rich set of elective coursework to make possible individualized curricula for doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees. The core courses and the MPH will, of course, be available to students in the clinical health science schools and in social science disciplines and area studies on the campus. A vigorous set of supporting activities will include a Program website, structured career advising, international internship experiences for both master's and doctoral students, and an interdisciplinary mentoring/advisement structure. We anticipate that the integration and visibility that the Framework Program can bring to UCLA's rich resources in global health will result in a center of excellence in global health that will contribute substantially to training the next generation of scientists and public health professionals in global health. ? ?
