Dean of the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work Tomás R. Guilarte and Global Health Consortium Director Dr. Carlos Espinal will participate in academic initiatives as visiting professors at the University of Cartagena in Colombia.
The pair will be working on several projects between Miami and Cartagena as they choose to take on various seminars and other teaching activities and conduct collaborative research.
“This represents an excellent chance to strengthen a relationship that has tremendous possibilities for improving public health, expanding education and resource sharing, and tackling projects of critical importance throughout the region,” Guilarte said. “We look forward to developing a longstanding exchange that will serve both institutions while making a positive impact in Colombia and beyond.”
In addition to hosting Guilarte and Espinal, the University of Cartagena will actively support the 2021 Global Health Conference of the Americas. An annual event of the Stempel College’s Global Health Consortium, it aims to share public health research with the widest possible audience. The university will provide a venue on its campus from which Espinal, an infectious disease expert, can host several sessions.
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Carlos Espinal[/caption]
The worldwide gathering will take place over four days in December as a hybrid event, with both in-person and online participation. It follows upon a record attendance of more than 2,500 for the 2020 conference, which was livestreamed in English and Spanish and welcomed attendees from more than 60 countries.
Ties between the two institutions were forged in early 2019 and 2020 when Guilarte and Espinal led delegations from FIU that included FIU President Mark Rosenberg. The group visited several cities in Colombia as part of efforts to build partnerships and improve public health in that country as well as throughout Latin America.
The tour was a chance for researchers and leadership to engage with local stakeholders and organizations to boost opportunities for collaborative health research in a region that grapples with a host of public health issues.
“Understanding the need to study health disparities, neurodegenerative diseases, mental health, drug use and their impact on overall health were topics that we discussed throughout the trip,” environmental neuroscientist Guilarte said at that time. “Partnering with Colombian agencies and universities will give us new opportunities for our research, student and faculty exchange, and the work we are doing to improve global health.”
Among the first visible outcomes of the trip: a government-funded $3 million collaboration between the college and two other Colombian universities to evaluate the levels of mercury and cyanide contamination in the Atrato River basin in the northwest and its health impact on the local population.
The new activity with the University of Cartagena represents the start of Stempel College’s larger efforts in Colombia, Guilarte says.
“We hope that in the near future we may have a physical presence there, an FIU-Stempel College office to enhance student exchange and research. They have very prominent programs in toxicology and environmental neuroscience, and we look forward to working with them as well as other universities in the country to make significant and lasting contributions.”