About CCGH promoting global health research, service, and training

smiling children
All smiles

Mission

To improve world health by fostering mutually beneficial relationships between UTMB and international partners in global health to promote excellence in education, research and training

Values

UTMB CCGH provides academic leadership to nurture relationship, respect and integrity:

Relationship

• Build mutually beneficial and value-adding relationships with international partners
• Promote strong collaborations that are consistent with UTMB mission and goals
• Maintain a long-term outlook including programmatic synergism and sustainability

Respect

• Foster a culture of collegiality in which we value our partners’ contribution as we expect them to value the UTMB contribution
• Inspire everyone to adopt ethical practices in global health

Integrity

• Seek excellence in all initiatives
• Be honest and transparent in partner dealings with and on behalf of our partners
• Set realistic and measurable goals with clear measurable outcomes

Strategic Focus Areas

1. Establish a robust global health working structure in UTMB
• Coordinate and promote synergy in campus-wide global health efforts through an umbrella administrative structure
• Develop and promote institutional goals and strategies in global health by leveraging existing initiatives
• Establish a framework for evaluation and continuous improvement of UTMB global health efforts

2. Develop global health logistics/information systems
• Facilitate the international movement of students, faculty, and staff to and from UTMB
• Enhance grant management and administrative capacity for initiatives that internationalize the University

3. Provide academic leadership in developing and sustaining institutional partnerships
• Identify strategic partnerships
• Ensure institutional relationships are established e.g. Affiliation agreements
• Provide information on partnerships to promote increased involvement from UTMB faculty and trainees

Centers and Institutes
Center for Global Health Education
Center for Tropical Diseases
Center to Eliminate Health Disparities
Hispanic Center of Excellence
Galveston National Lab
WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center for Aging and Health
Institute for Human Infections and Immunity
Sealy Center for Vaccine Development

Organizational Structure

CCGH Organizational Structure
A. Clinton White, MD
A. Clinton White, MD
Executive Director
After completing post-doctoral training, Dr. White worked for 6 months as a visiting scientist in Venezuela before coming to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas in 1989, where he rose through the ranks to full professor. At Baylor, he developed the International Health track for medical students. He was recruited to UTMB in 2007 to direct the Infectious Disease Division, in the Department of Internal Medicine. He co-founded and co-directs the global health track for medical students. He developed the NIH-funded Galveston Global Health Consortium, an umbrella organization for global health efforts on campus. He is a past president of the clinical group and former councilor of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and serves on the examination committee for the ASMTH certificate of knowledge in tropical medicine and travel health. He serves on the editorial board of a number of journals and writes chapters in major Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases textbooks. Dr White's clinical interests include parasitology, tropical medicine, HIV, and opportunistic infections.
Matthew Dacso, MD, MSc
Matthew Dacso, MD, MSc
Associate Executive Director
Director of Education and Service
Dr. Matthew Dacso is a board-certified Physician and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. He also serves as the Director of the Center for Global Health Education at UTMB and as an Associate Executive Director of the Coordinating Center for Global Health. He earned his M.D. degree from UTMB and completed his Residency and Internship at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. He holds a master's degree in International Development Studies from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. Prior to joining the UTMB faculty, Dr. Dacso served as a clinician-educator with the Botswana-UPenn Partnership in Gaborone, Botswana. There, he managed a continuing education outreach program to district hospitals, assisted in the development of national treatment guidelines for acute and chronic HIV comorbidities, and provided support to the University of Botswana medicine residency training program. He remains an adjunct member of the University of Botswana School of Medicine faculty. His research interests include global health medical education, HIV/TB and non-communicable diseases, social and economic determinants of health, medical decision-making in resource-limited settings, and traditional medicine.
Lexi Nolen, PhD
Alexandra "Lexi" B. Nolen, PhD, MPH
Associate Executive Director
Alexandra (Lexi) B. Nolen, PhD, MPH, serves as the Director of the Center to Eliminate Health Disparities UTMB. Dr. Nolen served on the Secretariat of the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health, was the Coordinator of the Global Equity Gauge Alliance, and was a technical officer for the Pan American Health Organization in the Division of Health and Human Development. She has experience coordinating community-based research and interventions as well as policy development on issues of health disparities and public health in a number of country contexts. Her work encompasses issues of health and health information systems development, strategies for advancing health equity, the impact of globalization and trade on health in Africa, and development of training materials on health equity and the social determinants of health. She is especially interested in translation of research for policy, and research-to-policy processes. In 2009, Dr. Nolen was elected to the Board of the International Society for Equity in Health.
Peter Melby, MD
Peter Melby, MD
Director of Research
Dr. Melby joined UTMB in 2010 as Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the UTMB Center for Tropical Diseases. He has an active research program related to the immunopathogenesis of parasitic diseases, with a particular focus on leishmaniasis. His laboratory has been involved in vaccine development, studies to determine immunopathological mechanisms of disease, studies to define the impact of malnutrition on innate immunity and visceral leishmaniasis, and drug discovery. Dr. Melby's interest in tropical diseases and the neglected diseases of resource-poor developing countries started thirty years ago when he first worked overseas in a hospital laboratory in rural Egypt. He subsequently returned to the U.S. to attend medical school at the University of Colorado and then went on to complete his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Missouri, a research fellowship in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, and a clinical infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. He is active in the clinical practice of infectious diseases and in the teaching of medical and graduate students, as well as clinical residents and fellows.
Nisha Garg, PhD
Nisha Garg, PhD
Director of Global Health Policy, Epidemics, International Organization
Dr. Garg serves as Professor of the Departments of Microbiology and Immunology and Pathology, Associate Director of the Center for Tropical Diseases, and Co-director of the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary course in Integrated Medical Curriculum at UTMB. She serves as a member of the NIH study section and the American Society of Microbiology International Education Board; Associate editor of the American Journal of Pathology and the Journal of Neuroparasitology; and on the Editorial Boards of the Infection and Immunity Journal and the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology. Recently she served as Senior Scientific Advisor at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), engaged in implementation of Neglected Tropical Diseases Initiative of the US Government in Latin America. Dr. Garg’s lab efforts are targeted to win the human fight against Trypanosoma cruzi that causes Chagasic cardiomyopathy. Her ongoing translational research with multiple international collaborations focuses on identifying the potential vaccine candidates, and using these candidates to develop multi-component vaccine(s) that provide protection against different T. cruzi strains in multiple animal hosts and humans. Working with young students and scientists, Dr. Garg utilizes innovative approaches to understand the role of free radicals in initiation and/or sustenance of the pathological processes, i.e., inflammation, oxidative damage, and clinical severity of cardiac disease.
Philip Keiser, MD
Philip Keiser, MD
Kenya Liaison
Dr. Keiser primary interest is in the care and treatment of HIV and its related infections. He has been actively treating HIV infected individuals for over 20 years. He is the Chairman of the Texas AIDS Drug Assistance Program Advisory Board in the Principal Investigator for the Texas Oklahoma AIDS Education Center. Dr Keiser has been actively involved in HIV clinical research and has been an investigator in over 50 clinical trials. Since 2006, Dr Keiser has been involved in the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and has been involved in HIV clinical care, teaching and research in Kenya. He has an active clinical research program that is centered on the outcomes of patients treated with anti-retroviral medications in Central Kenya.
Jonathan Mwiindi, BPA, Dip Pharm, Dip HCM
Jonathan Mwiindi, BPA, Dip Pharm, Dip HCM
Program Manager
Mr. Mwiindi is a Kenyan who has worked as the HIV Services Manager for AIC Kijabe Hospital. As the program Director the the AIDS Relief Program at the hospital, he managed a staff of 53. Mr. Mwiindi has also served as the Country Program Manager for the University of Maryland School of Medicine AIDS Relief Program in Kenya. This program provides clinical mentorship and technical advice to over 25 hospitals across Kenya providing HIV care to over 60,000 individuals. Mr. Mwiindi is highly skilled at program development and implementation, budget development and management, system strengthening, and mentoring of health-care administrators. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Healthcare Administration.
Caley A. Satterfield, MEd
Caley A. Satterfield, MEd
Program Manager
Caley Satterfield joined the staff of the Center for Global Health Education (CGHE) as Program Manager in May 2009. She holds a Masters in Education in Higher Education Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, both from the University of Arkansas. Caley manages the global heatlh education training program at UTMB. In addition, she also manages the Fogarty International Research Fellowship Program. Caley is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Instructional Technology at the University of Houston.
Jennifer Ellis
Jennifer Ellis
Program Coordinator
Jennifer rejoined UTMB in April of 2011 to serve as the Program Coordinator for the Center for Tropical Diseases (CTD). She was previously at UTMB for 10 years and has worked for the Division of General Medicine, the Associate Deans of Research, and the Provost. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Healthcare Administration.

NEWS

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