In-Person and Virtual
2021 Global Health Case Competition
Pitt’s Global Health Case Competition is designed to give students simulated professional experience in developing strategies to address a real-world global health issue.
Interdisciplinary teams of graduate and undergraduate students will develop a plan to address the scenario in a holistic way. Each team will present its strategy to a panel of experts, with the top team receiving cash prizes and support to participate in the 2022 Emory Morningside Global Health Case Competition. The case competition is sponsored by the Graduate School of Public Health’s Center for Global Studies, Global Health Student Association, the Center for Bioethics & Health Law, and Pitt’s Global Studies Center.
Last year Pitt’s winning team went on to place 3rd out of 53 teams at Emory University’s global competition. View the 2021 first and second place presentations at Pitt’s competition here.
Students must agree to attend all of the following events (this is a tentative schedule):
September 24, 1PM – 3 PM:
Opening Session with Key-Note Address, Case reveal, and Team Assignments
Session will take place in Public Health Building Room G23
October 1, 2 PM – 4 PM:
How to effectively compile and present your case (virtual)
October 15, 2PM– 4 PM:
Presentation on specific case-relevant content (virtual)
October 22, 2 PM – 4 PM:
Presentation on equity and policy implications (virtual)
October 29:
Free Day
November 5, 2 PM – 6 PM:
Case presentations
Session will take place in 1500 Posvar Hall.
Registration Closed.
Questions? Contact Elaine Linn eel58@pitt.edu
Elizabeth
Van Nostrand, JD
Temple University
Elizabeth Van Nostrand is an associate professor of Health Services Administration and Policy at Temple University. Prior to Temple, Elizabeth Van Nostrand, JD served as the Director and Principal Investigator for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Public Health Training Center. She also was an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and the Director of the MPH and the JD/MPH programs. At Pitt, she taught Public Health Law and Ethics at Pitt Public Health and the University of Pittsburgh's School of Law, along with Health Law in the Executive MBA Program at the Katz School of Business. Her current areas of research interest include the opioid crisis and emergency preparedness.
Dr. Cynthia
Salter, PHD, MPH
University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
Cynthia L. Salter, PhD, MPH, is a public health professional focusing on community-based initiatives and maternal health. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health's Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. She currently serves as the Interim Director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Global Health. She has been an affiliated faculty member with Pitt’s Center for Global Studies since 2015, teaching Introduction to Global Health and Special Topics in Global Health. From 2010 to 2013, Salter was director of Pittsburgh’s Birth Circle Community-Based Doula Program, a grassroots non-profit working to improve maternal outcomes among underserved mothers in the Pittsburgh area. She served as principal investigator when the program was awarded one of six national grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration to develop community-based doula services. In 2018, Salter had the opportunity to combine travel with her Global Health teaching, leading 13 University of Pittsburgh undergraduates on a semester-long PittMAP focused on Global Health in Shanghai, China, Sydney, Australia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Bethany
Flage
University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
Bethany Flage is a PhD candidate in the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health with an interest in how hemoglobin type influences transmission stages of Plasmodium falciparum.
Dr. Donald
Burke
Competition Judge
Dr. Donald S. Burke served as dean of the Graduate School of Public Health and associate vice chancellor for global health at the University of Pittsburgh from 2006 through June 2019, making him the longest-serving dean in school history. He is also the first occupant of the Jonas Salk Chair in Population Health and a distinguished university professor of health science and policy. Throughout his professional life, Burke has studied prevention and control of infectious diseases of global concern, including HIV/AIDS, influenza, dengue, and emerging infectious diseases. He has lived six years in Thailand, worked extensively in Cameroon, and conducted field epidemiology and vaccine studies in numerous other developing countries. He has approached epidemic control using strategies “from the bench to the bush.” He has authored or co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed academic publications.
Dr. Manuel
Roman-Lacayo
University of Pittsburgh Center for Latin American Studies
Manuel Roman-Lacayo is the Associate Director of the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh. Upon graduating from Harvard University, he was the recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship and was later appointed director of the National Museum of Nicaragua. Later, he earned a CLAS certificate and PhD in Anthropology as a Heinz Fellow in Latin American Archaeology here at the University of Pittsburgh. After leaving Pittsburgh in 2006, he served as country program manager and as the monitoring and evaluation manager for USAID Public Private Partnerships in Nicaragua and Guatemala, while also working at the Universidad Americana in Managua, where he founded and coordinated the master’s program in Latin American Studies.
Dr. Mohamed
B. Hagahmed
University of Pittsburgh Department of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Mohamed B Hagahmed is an Emergency Medicine Specialist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 2009 with a BS in Emergency Medicine, and an MD with honors from Drexel University in 2015. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and an affiliate with many hospitals including St. Clair Hospital and University of Pittsburgh Medical System.
Dr. Frioz
Amdoel Wahid
Graduate School of Public Health Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
Firoz Abdoel Wahid is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the EOH Department of the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh. He is a native from Suriname, where he graduated as a family physician in 2005, and with a Master’s in Public Health in 2012. He has over 15 years of experience in public health, the last eight of which in environmental health. His public health career started in 2005 as the clinical coordinator of the National AIDS Program in Suriname. He pursued his doctorate in environmental health in 2018 at Tulane University, New Orleans. Dr. Abdoel Wahid is part of the Caribbean Consortium for Research in Environmental and Occupational Health that is focused on the impact of chemical and non-chemical stressors on birth outcomes. At the EOH department of the University of Pittsburgh, he will play a key role in developing global environmental health research and research training and teaching in food safety, pesticide-induced adverse maternal and child health outcomes, and climate and health impact on vulnerable populations.
Dr. Abi
Fapohunda
University of Pittsburgh Department of Africana Studies
Dr. Fapohunda has been teaching since 2008 in the Department of Africana Studies. She was a visiting assistant professor of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences (2010-2012) at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Over the past 10 years, she has conducted several studies among African Americans, Africans in the Diaspora, and on the African Continent. The focus of her research is “Healthy Community for Black Immigrants” in Allegheny County, PA. She has trained healthcare practitioners on cancer awareness, screening, early diagnoses and treatment in Nigeria. She is an epidemiologist and health educator with over 20 years’ experience of running her own consulting company in public health, conducting needs assessments and program evaluations on the effectiveness of numerous community-based initiatives related to health disparities in both behavioral and physical health, including nutrition, smoking cessation, HIV/AIDS, and oral health in Black communities.
Helena
VonVille
University of Pittsburgh Graduate School for Public Health
Helena Vonville currently resides as a research and instruction librarian for the Graduate School for Public Health. Vonville obtained her M.L.S. in academic public services from Rutgers University in 1989 and her M.P.H. in management, policy, and community health. She has previously served as library director at the University of Texas School of Public Health and as a consultant internet liaison officer at Amigos Library Services. Her areas of interest include evidence-based practice within the field of public health and professional training.
Tina Batra
Hershey, JD, MPH
Graduate School of Public Health Department of Health Policy and Management
Tina Batra Hershey, JD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and an Affiliated Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she teaches courses on health care fraud, abuse, and compliance; health law and ethics; and health policy and management in public health. She is also the Co-Director of the Multidisciplinary Master of Public Health program. At Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, she is an adjunct instructor of Health Law. Her current and recent projects include enhancing tribal legal preparedness for public health emergencies through the Tribal Legal Preparedness Project; co-authoring public health emergency law manuals and bench books for the District of Columbia and Louisiana; and using legal epidemiology to examine the impact of laws and policies related to infectious disease outbreaks and natural disasters
Emily
Crisan
University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
Emily Crisan is a M.P.H. graduate student with a concentration in Global Health. She graduated from Duquesne University School of Nursing in 2019 with a B.S. in nursing. She has experience as a research assistant and registered nurse at UPMC. Her current interests include adolescent health, improvement in healthcare and health education, and global health within Spanish-speaking populations.