Global Learning Initiative

Welcome to the UMB Center for Global Engagement's Global Learning Initiative

What is global learning? Those involved in global learning – also called global/local, global to local, glocal, and reverse innovation – seek to identify, adapt, and implement ideas for health and health equity outside the U.S. to U.S. communities. It is also a movement within academia that seeks to break down the traditionally siloed fields of global health and community public health and all of the university institutions, scholarship, funding, and jobs that flow from these separate pathways. CGE faculty and staff are leading the efforts to document global learning methods, develop best practices, and operationalize an integrated global learning approach into university teaching, service, and research.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) awarded two UMB faculty members a three-year grant to create and launch the Global Learning for Health Equity Network. The grant is part of RWJF’s “Global Ideas for U.S. Solutions” program. The network will build connections needed to advance global learning and strengthen community capacity to bring global ideas for adoption, adaptation, and implementation within U.S. communities. Dr. Yolanda Ogbolu (School of Nursing) and Virginia Rowthorn, JD, LLM (Center for Global Engagement) are co-PIs on this cutting edge initiative designed to facilitate the translation of health equity initiatives from around the world to communities in the United States.

"Practice, Programming, and Policy in the Face of Twin Pandemics: COVID19 and Racial/Ethnic Inequity" is an international, inter-professional elective that brings together a cohort of students from UMB and University of Haifa (Israel) to explore social justice implications to identify hurdles and opportunities for promoting social justice across disciplines, cultures, and social systems; and share global knowledge that can inform their future practice. On the UMB side, the course is led by Dr. Corey Shdaimah (School of Social Work).
“Intercultural Leadership Competencies for Global Collaboration,” a course about cultural awareness, cross-cultural communication, and cross-cultural crisis management for health profession students from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health in Brazil. This course is taught on the UMB side by Dr. Isabel Rambob (School of Dentistry).
“Environmental Justice, Human Rights and Public Health,” a course taught by Maryland Carey School of Law faculty (Bob Percival, Peter Danchin and Diane Hoffman) and University of Malawi’s Chancellor College Faculty of Law faculty, led by Chikosa Banda. The course builds upon previous work by these faculty members who have fostered a working relationship between the two schools addressing public health and environmental issues. This course focuses on how environmental law, human rights law, and public health law frame environmental justice challenges driven by climate change.

"Decolonizing Global Health Education" Global Health Summit led to a special collection in the Annals of Global Health centered around the theme of decolonization broadly, emphasizing how coloniality and neo-colonial thought are woven through and still affect higher education. Through this issue, authors (faculty, researchers, practitioners, students, and administrators) expressed their vision of what a decolonized global health field looks like.
“RISING Baltimore: Managing Tensions in Communities,” UMB hosted a cutting-edge symposium with the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University (United Kingdom) at the UMB campus in Baltimore. The event was co-sponsored by the University of Maryland, Baltimore Graduate School, the UMB Center for Global Engagement, and the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations. The RISING forums held in Coventry bring together global leaders, practitioners, and advocates working for peace with brave and creative ideas.
"Bringing Global Health Home," a 2017 national roundtable organized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, featured Dr. Yolanda Ogbolu (SON), Dr. Carla Alexander (SOM), Ashley Valis (Community Engagement Center), and Virginia Rowthorn (CGE).
“Making the Global to Local Link in Academia: Concepts and Model" panel presentation at the 2017 Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference in Washington D.C. was organized and moderated by Virginia Rowthorn (CGE). List of participants and copies of the presentations are available here.
"Zika Global to Local: Addressing the Epidemic through an International and Interprofessional Lens" was sponsored by CGE and the Law & Health Care Program at Maryland Carey School of Law.
UMB hosted Dr. Marcio Oliveira, a provider from the Exchange with the State Specialized Center for Diagnosis, Treatment, and Research (CEDAP) in Salvador, Brazil in 2017. The visit was part of an ongoing collaboration between CEDAP and UMB that was started by Dr. Isabelita Rambob with the School of Dentistry.
"Bridging the Global-Local Divide in Academia: Best Practices and Models" national working conference was organized by CGE at UMB in 2016. List of participants and copies of the presentations are available here.
"Global/Local: What Does It Mean for Global Health Educators and How Do We Do It?," a satellite session at the 2015 Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference in Boston, was organized by CGE and co-sponsored with USAID's Global Health Fellows Program II. List of participants and copies of the presentations are available here.
"Roundtable on Clinical Trials and Access to Essential Medicines in African Countries," a two-day symposium led by UMB Carey School of Law professors in 2015, which brought together an international group of legal academics, bioethicists, lawyers, and medical researchers from North America and southern Africa to examine the ethical and legal challenges to developing and distributing essential medicines in African countries.

Not Above the Law: A Legal and Ethical Analysis of Short-Term Experiences in Global Health, Rowthorn, V., et al., Annals of Global Health, 85(1), p.79 (2019).
Reconfiguring a One-Way Street: Why and How to Achieve Equity in Global Physician Training, Hudspeth, J., Rowthorn, V., et al., Academic Medicine (Spring 2019).
Legal and Regulatory Barriers to Reverse Innovation, Rowthorn, V., et al., Annals of Global Health Vol 82 No. 6 (Nov-Dec 2016).
Global to Local: Methods and Models, Annals of Global Health. Guest editors of this special issue are UMB’s Lori Edwards, Jane Lipscomb, Jody Olsen, and Virginia Rowthorn.
“Creating Global Experiences With Local Impact for Pharmacy and Medical Students,” Mark N. Brueckl, Gregory B. Carey, Toyin Tofade, Annals of Global Health 15 Mar 2017.
“Global Learning Experiences, Interprofessional Education, and Knowledge Translation: Examples From the Field,” Leslie B. Glickman, Isabelita Rambob, Mei Ching Lee, Annals of Global Health, 15 Mar 2017.
“Facilitating Student Safety in Communities: Applying an International Model in an Urban U. S. City,” Lori Edwards, Jody Olsen, Heidi Fancher, Helen M. Nichols, Annals of Global Health, 15 Mar 2017.
“Exploring Social Justice in Mixed/Divided Cities: From Local to Global Learning,” Corey Shdaimah, Jane Lipscomb, Roni Strier, Dassi Postan-Aizik, Susan Leviton, Jody Olsen, Annals of Global Health, 15 Mar 2017.
“Building Sustainable Local Capacity for Global Health Research in West Africa,” Nadia A. Sam-Agudu, Elijah Paintsil, Muktar H. Aliyu, Awewura Kwara, Folasade Ogunsola, Yaw A. Afrane, Chima Onoka, Gordon A. Awandare, Gladys Amponsah, Llewellyn J. Cornelius, Gabou Mendy, Rachel Sturke, Anita Ghansah, George K. Siberry, Echezona E. Ezeanolue. Annals of Global Health, 15 Mar 2017.
Global/Local: What Does It Mean for Global Health Educators and How Do We Do It?, (2015). Annals of Global Health, 81(5): 593-601.
Global/Local: Much Discussed, Little Understood, and the Right Thing To Do, V. Rowthorn, blog post on GlobalSL.org.

"Social Justice and Health: Are They Related in My Community?," UMB's innovative global student course with Haifa University in Israel and the bi-directional learning when Haifa faculty and students visited Baltimore.
Interprofessional Care Teams in Salvador, Brazil project, developed by Dr. Isabelita Rambob (School of Dentistry) with partnering agency CEDAP: Centro Especializado em Diagnóstico, Assistência e Pesquisa, a state-specialized center for diagnosis, treatment, and research of STDs and HIV/AIDS.
Read about retired UMB faculty member Leslie Glickman's visit with George Chimatiro, MSc, a Malawi physiotherapist, to discuss culture and health care with students and teachers at Southwest Charter School in Baltimore.

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Global Learning Initiative