The University of Virginia

 

Saturday, October 24, 2009

10:00 a.m. at Alumni Hall


U.Va.'s Commitment to Global Health: A Declaration of Interdependence 

 
Dr. Rebecca Dillingham
Health transcends all geographic, cultural, religious and economic barriers and is perhaps one of our most universal and unassailable human values. No sane person would rather be ill than healthy. As such, health provides a shared goal around which we can build desperately needed consensus across our national and global chasms of disagreement and disparity. Furthermore, as reminded by the "swine flu," microbiologically, we are one; we are clearly in it together!

Rebecca Dillingham, M.D., is an expert in tropical infectious diseases and a leader in UVa's pioneering TransUniversity Center for Global Health and argues that our very survival depends upon our learning that "how you do will determine how I do!" Hence our destiny may well be determined by a recognition and declaration of our interdependence. Life changing experiences at U.Va. open this critical perspective upon which our children's future depends.

 

 

Bio

Rebecca Dillingham is an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Disease and International Health and in Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia. Dr. Dillingham received her B.A. from Harvard/Radcliffe College and then traveled to the Ivory Coast where she lived and worked on HIV prevention for two years prior to entering medical school at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She served as a resident in Internal Medicine and as a fellow in infectious diseases in the UVa Health System. She completed her Masters in Public Health at UVa and joined the faculty in 2006. Her major clinical activity is the care of adult patients infected with HIV. Dr. Dillingham’s research projects include the development of improved nutritional approaches for patients infected with HIV and living in resource-poor countries, the use of cell-phone based technology to help vulnerable populations improve adherence to antiretrovirals, and the evaluation of the impact of changes in water and sanitation on the incidence of water-borne disease. This research takes place in Haiti, rural Virginia, and South Africa respectively. She has also led development of global health curriculum across grounds through the National Institute of Health’s Framework Program in Global Health.