Tufts University Faculty with Global Health Interest/Experience
Julian Agyeman, PhD
Keywords: sustainable communities; environmental justice; community food security; transportation
justice; climate justice.
Julian Agyeman is Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy at the Graduate School of
Arts & Sciences. His courses “Developing Sustainable Communities” and “Environmental Justice” have
global reach, and Dr. Agyeman welcomes the opportunity to include more explicit links to health and
health disparities in his teaching and research projects. His interests in community food security (where
“social justice and sustainable development meet”), transportation justice and climate justice, all carry
significant global health implications and provide opportunities for interdisciplinary research
collaborations with public health faculty. Dr. Agyeman is interested in developing a dual degree program
(MA/MPH or MPP/MPH) between UEP and PH/FM.
Astier M. Almedom, MA, D.Phil
Keywords: human resilience as a function of human adaptation; psychosocial and mental well-being in
post-conflict and post-disaster settings; water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion in East Africa,
Horn of Africa, India and Afghanistan; international humanitarian policy and public health; socialecological resilience and sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Almedom, an anthropologist, is the Henry R. Luce Professor in Science and Humanitarianism and
Fellow of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University. Her interdisciplinary courses,
“Humanitarian Policy and Public Health” and “Social Capital and Mental Health,” designed for both
graduate and upper-level undergraduate students, are strongly oriented towards international health/global
health policy and practice. Both are electives for MPH candidates, Pre-Meds, Biology, Community
Health and International Relations majors and Africa and the New World interdisciplinary minors.
Her main research interests are the socio-cultural determinants of resilience; the role of social capital
(social support, social cohesion, informal and formal institutions that sustain shared values, trust and
reciprocity) in promoting and sustaining psychosocial and mental well-being. Dr. Almedom is also
engaged in advising masters and doctoral students whose research projects range from ethnobotany,
cultural and social-ecological resilience to water resources management and sustainability. She serves as
core faculty advisor in the Water: Science, Systems and Society (WSSS) cross-school Program; and
several of the undergraduate-focused programs of the Institute for Global Leadership including EPIIC,
Voices from the Field, Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and the newly established local student-led,
precedent-setting Chapter of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Dr Almedom brings a holistic
international perspective to the study of health, culture and sustainability.
Dr. Almedom directs the Luce Program, which has offered highly valued interdisciplinary research and
internship opportunities in public health to Tufts students (graduate and undergraduate) both on campus
and in the field; including the competitive Luce-IGL student research scholarship in collaboration with the
International Relations Program. She is also collaborating with the MPH Program on a new course,
“Media, Health and Complex Emergencies” to be offered in 2007.
Websites: http://ase.tufts.edu/BIOLOGY/faculty/bios/almedom/almedom.html
http://www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/
Wayne Altman, MD
Keywords: family medicine; residency programs; India.
Dr. Wayne Altman directs the Family Medicine Clerkship for 3rd and 4th year medical students at the
Tufts School of Medicine. Dr. Altman is currently working to develop a family medicine residency
program in India, in collaboration with Christian Medical College. (Dr. Harris Berman, Dean of the Dept
of Public Health, is also working with CMC to set up their first school of public health). Dr. Altman is
working with partners in Australia, Canada and England on the project.
M. Sawkat Anwer, DMVH PhD
Keywords : Liver disease, NIH training grant, Research in International health, Research in Global health
Dr. Anwer is Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary
Medicine. He received his MS from Dhaka University in Bangladesh, his PhD from Kansas State
University, and his DMVH from Munich University in 1980. He has served as Interim Dean twice, most
recently during the 2005-2006 academic year.
For many years he has served as the Program Director on an NIH research training grant which has
supported DVM student research projects. This grant has at times funded research projects with a global
health focus, and DVM or DVM/MPH students are urged to consider this potential source of support for
their work. Typically, about one third of the students supported on this training grant have an international
orientation. Information on this training grant is usually made available in November, and applications are
due at the end of January. Students with the desire to conduct research in an international or global setting
are strongly advised to begin the search for an appropriate mentor at the earliest opportunity. Dr. Anwer
welcomes inquiries around the suitability of research projects as applied to global health topics.
Prof. Anwer’s principal area of research is in the functional abnormalities associated with various liver
diseases. Further details of his interests and work are available at
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/facpages/anwer_ms.html.
Harris A. Berman, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Harris A. Berman, MD is Dean of Public Health and Professional Degree Programs, and Professor and
Chairman of the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of
Medicine. Prior to that, he was a pioneer in the development of managed care in New England, and for
17 years, the CEO of the Tufts Health Plan. During that tenure, Tufts Health Plan grew from 60,000 to
over a million members.
Before joining Tufts Health Plan, Dr. Berman co-founded the Matthew Thornton Health Plan in Nashua,
NH, one of the first HMOs in New England. He served initially as the HMO’s Medical Director
beginning in 1971, then as its Executive Director. He has served as chairman of the Massachusetts
Association of HMOs, chairman of Affiliated Health Information Networks of New England, a director of
the American Association of Health Plans, and is still Chairman of the Board of the Bank of America
Celebrity Series and a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Medical Center, AvMed
Health Plan of Florida, and Hebrew Senior Life. Dr. Berman recently became Chairman of the Board of
the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners. In addition, Dr. Berman has international experience as a
Peace Corps Physician and a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development in several
international projects.
A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr.
Berman served as a resident on the Harvard Medical Service of Boston City Hospital and at Tufts-New
England Medical Center, and an Infectious Disease fellowship at Tufts-New England Medical Center. He
is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Odilia I. Bermudez, PhD, MPH, LND
Keywords: Public health, International nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, dietary assessment, poverty,
food security, Spanish, Latin America, Central America, Panama
Dr. Bermudez is an Assistant Professor at Tufts University Medical School, Department of Public Health
and Family Medicine. She also holds secondary appointments as Research Scientist at the USDA Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging and as Assistant Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of
Nutrition Science and Policy, both at Tufts University. Dr Bermudez holds a Ph.D. in Nutrition
(University of Massachusetts), a Master’s in Public Health (University of San Carlos, Guatemala), and
advanced training in Food, Nutrition, Biotechnology and Poverty from the United Nations University
(Chile and Guatemala). Her expertise includes areas of international public health and nutrition,
nutritional epidemiology, nutritional assessment, and poverty and food security. She is fully bilingual in
Spanish and English.
Originally from Panama, Central America, Dr Bermudez has worked extensively in Latin America,
particularly in Central America, where she has served as short-term consultant for the government of
Panama and for regional organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization. Currently, she has
research activities with the Guatemalan Center for Studies of Sensory Impairment, Aging and
Metabolism. In addition, she is a consultant on nutrition evaluation, dietary assessment and food security
for a Regional Program on Food Security funded by the European Union, and for the Institute of Nutrition
for Central America and Panama.
Both nationally and internationally, her current research is focused on the health, nutritional and dietary
status of population groups and relationships between diet, nutrient intake, health and chronic conditions,
particularly obesity, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome of ethnically and culturally diverse population
groups. She also researches dietary and nutrition assessment methodologies related to socio-cultural and
environmental determinants of food intake and health status of population groups.
Dr Bermudez is working with Dr. Jeff Griffiths in developing our new concentration in Global Health
within the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, which includes the development of a new
course on Research Methods in Global Health. She also directs the Panama site of the Global Health
summer experience for medical students. And is the director of the MPH/HCOM course on Race, Culture
and Ethnicity.
Catherine Coleman, M.S.
Keywords: cardiovascular health; CVD prevention and treatment; mass technology and health
communication
Catherine Coleman is an Adjunct Clinical Instructor of Public Health and Family Medicine, and is in her
fifth year teaching in the MS Health Communication/MPH program. Ms. Coleman teaches a course on
Mass Technology and Health Communication, which includes significant global content, and is required
for all students in the dual degree program.
Ms. Coleman is also Editor-in-Chief of ProCOR, a global health communication network which promotes
cardiovascular health in developing countries. Founded in 1997, ProCOR provides access to information
to physicians, health care workers, and directors of world health organizations that stresses low cost,
preventative strategies to stemming the impact of heart disease worldwide. ProCOR’s news and
discussion forum engages participants from 100 countries. Information is delivered in plain text email
format in order to reach rural areas with poor internet access. According to Coleman, the website for
ProCor (www.procor.org) acts as “a bridge between the developing and developed world” and provides a
dynamic international forum where health care providers, researchers, public health workers and the
general public can share timely information and participate in raising awareness about this emerging
public health challenge.
Ms. Coleman views health communication as essentially global knowledge sharing, and would like to see
a course developed on the role of technology in the global environment (particularly on how to provide
information to isolated areas). She is also interested in the possibility of developing ALE experiences for
students interested in working with ProCOR.
John Durant, PhD, P.E.
Keywords: environmental chemistry; air pollution; schistosomiasis; hydrology; Ghana; Ecuador.
Dr. Durant is professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering, and teaches
courses to both undergraduates and graduates on environmental chemistry, and chemical fate and
transport. His research interests involve the human health consequences of environmental chemistry,
particularly in air and water. Currently he is working on two major international projects. The first
project, in Quito, Ecuador is studying the effects of air pollution on health – hope to use findings to
influence the establishment of air quality regulations. Dr. Durant’s second major project is in Ghana
studying the influence of surface mining on changes in hydrology, and its impact on the spread of
schistosomiasis in the region.
Website: http://ase.tufts.edu/cee/faculty/durant/bio.asp
Janet E. Forrester, PhD
Keywords: Caribbean, IDU, micronutrients, HIV, nutritional status, antioxidants
Dr. Forrester is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine. She has
been involved in international research for more than a decade. She has a Bachelors degrees in
Immunology and Microbiology, Medical Laboratory Science, a Masters degree in Parasitology, and a
PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics. Her research interests are infectious disease-nutrition interactions,
and the transmission of HIV/AIDS as well as the transmission and control of parasitic infections including
helminth infections, Chagas' disease, malaria, leishmaniasis and onchocerciasis and trachoma. She
conducted epidemiologic field studies on infectious disease transmission, including clinical trials over
many years in Latin America and the Caribbean, and speaks Spanish and French fluently. She has acted as
a consultant for several international agencies throughout Latin America and the Caribbean including
UNICEF, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Canadian International
Research Development Agency (IDRC) and Partnership for Child Development (program of UNESCO,
World Bank, Rockefeller and McConnell Clark Foundations). Abroad, she has held positions at the
Mexican Institute of Tropical Diseases, Centro de Investigaciones Ecologicas del Sur Este and the
Mexican National Institute of Public Health. Currently she is collaborating on HIV transmission in noninjection drug users in the Caribbean.
Sherwood L. Gorbach, MD
Keywords: diarrheal disease, E. coli toxins, malnutrition, HIV, India, Vietnam, Argentina, South Africa,
Injection drug use
Dr. Gorbach is a Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Microbiology at the Medical School. He is
also a Professor at the Nutrition School and former Chair of the Division of Geographic Medicine and
Infectious Diseases and of the Division of Nutrition and Infection. He has been involved in research
related to global issues in nutrition and infectious disease for the last 45 years. He worked in Calcutta in
the 1960’s, he and his groups made the original description of toxin production by E. coli bacteria (ETEC)
as causative agents for watery diarrheal disease. At the same time he worked with colleagues in South
India to describe the epidemic form of tropical sprue. Dr. Gorbach has been continuously funded by the
NIH for more than 30 years to conduct research in diarrheal disease, nutritional and metabolic status in
HIV, and manifestations of HIV infection in individuals with co-morbid hepatitis B and C . He is also
working with a group of investigators in South Africa on manifestations of HIV disease in a pediatric
population, in which the role of malnutrition and diarrheal disease is quantified. He has worked in Mexico
and other regions in South America as well as in Africa and India. He is currently the PI of a NIDA
funded study of metabolic abnormalities in drug using populations in Hanoi Vietnam, Chennai,
Tamilnadu, India and Buenos Aires, Argentina. He sits on the CFAR executive committee and is the
director of the GI, Nutrition and Metabolism Core, which has supported work in India and Vietnam, and
he is the PI of the NIDA funded Center for Drug Abuse and AIDS Research (CDAAR).
Jeffrey K. Griffiths, AB (Harvard) MD (Albert Einstein) MPH&TM (Tulane)
Keywords: Global Health, infectious diseases, innovative curricula, diarrheal diseases, cryptosporidiosis,
pneumonia, micronutrients, measles, vaccines, waterborne diseases
Dr. Griffiths is Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Public Health and Family
Medicine, and is the Global Health concentration leader in the MPH program. He teaches Infectious
Diseases Epidemiology, the Biology of Water and Health (with Dr. David Gute, a core Water: Science,
Systems and Society Program course), and the Introduction to Global Health course (with Drs. Ronald
Ruffing and Nupur Gupta). At Tufts, he is a Steering Committee member of the WSSS program and
Board Member of the Institute of Global Leadership. By training he is an infectious diseases physician
who did his postgraduate training at Yale (Internal Medicine, Pediatrics), Harvard (Tropical Public
Health) and Tufts (Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases). He has worked internationally since
1981. He was the Director of the Graduate Programs in Public Health for 5 years, including when it was
ranked the #1 departmental public health program in the USA.
Dr. Griffiths is a member of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council and the Science Advisory
Board (Water Panel) of the US EPA; reviews for NIH and numerous journals; has participated in national
Academy of Sciences panels; and is the Editor for Infectious Diseases for the7-volume Encyclopedia of
Public Health in preparation by Elsevier Press.
His major research interests and recent activities include:
 The epidemiology of diarrheal diseases, with a special interest in cryptosporidiosis, in the US,
Ecuador, Uganda, and Kenya (multiple studies);
 The amelioration of pneumonia and diarrhea with micronutrients (Ecuador);
 The interplay between malnutrition and air pollution that results in respiratory disease and pneumonia
(multiple studies, Ecuador);
 The development of a heat-stable measles vaccine, modeled on the heat-stable rinderpest vaccine
developed by Jeffrey Mariner at Tufts in the late 1980s, for use in sub-Saharan Africa;
 The use of innovative, internet-based educational methods to share learning between Tufts and
excellent educational institutions in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, India, and possible other sites in future.
This work builds on the pedagogical work of Prof. Pearl Robinson and utilizes the TUSK (“Tufts
University Science Knowledgebase”) course management software system;

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Environmental influences on the incidence of diarrheal disease and respiratory disease (US, Kenya,
Ecuador), such as climate, temperature, and precipitation; and
Natural immunomodulation by agents such as Helicobacter pylori and Toxocara in children in the
developing world (Ecuador).
In order to pursue these varied interests, Dr. Griffiths has assembled or participated in interdisciplinary
research teams with colleagues from the Schools of Nutrition, Veterinary Medicine, Fletcher, and
Engineering. An example of the latter is the developing schistosomiasis project in Ghana.
In order to promote a University-wide development of interest in Global Health, Dr. Griffiths obtained
funding from the National Institutes of Health for integrative, collaborative development of a ‘Framework
in Global Health’ at Tufts with the support of President Bacow and the Deans of the various Schools. It is
through this funding that this workshop is being held.
David M. Gute B.A. (Connecticut College), M.P.H. (Yale University), Ph.D. (Yale University)
Key Words: epidemiology, occupational and environmental health, community based interventions,
community-based participatory research
David M. Gute is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University. He
holds a joint appointment with the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at the Tufts
University School of Medicine as well as at the Dr. Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of
Nutrition Science and Policy. He directs a M.S. program in Environmental Health in Civil and
Environmental Engineering, serves on the Policy Board of the Community Health Program and is
entering his second year as a Faculty Fellow of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Participation.
Dr. Gute is an epidemiologist who received his Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in Health Services
Administration and Ph.D. in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University. He is the Principal
Investigator of a four-year, $900,000 grant from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
investigating occupational risks among immigrant populations in Somerville, Massachusetts.
In the environmental arena under the direction of Dr. Gute, Tufts environmental health faculty have acted
as objective reviewers of technical materials produced predominately by the regulatory community. Such
review is communicated to community groups and used as input in local decision-making on specific
environmental problems. This work was honored in 2002 by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency-New England with an Environmental Merit Award for work on the Went Field site in Bridgeport,
Connecticut.
Prior to joining Tufts faculty in 1988, Dr. Gute served as an Assistant Commissioner responsible for
personal and environmental disease risk factor reductions with the Massachusetts Department of Public
Health and as an Epidemiologist with the Rhode Island Department of Health. He has served as a
consultant for a number of organizations including the World Health Organization and the Alpha Center.
He is interested and committed to offering environmental and public health training in a variety of settings
including international venues, having lead and co-directed training programs in Brazil and the
Philippines. He and his colleague, Associate Professor John Durant, have recently lead two cohorts of
Civil and Environmental Engineering seniors to assess and devise control strategies for schistosomiasis in
Kwabeng, Ghana.
Web presence: http://www.tufts.edu/home/feature/?p=gute
http://www.tufts.edu/home/feature/?p=archives
http://activecitizen.tufts.edu/?pid=38
John Hammock, PhD International Relations
Keywords: Humanitarian Aid; ethics in international development and humanitarian aid; NGO
Management; Latin American development; Central American migration and Latino studies
John Hammock is the former Executive Director of Oxfam America (1984-95), former Executive Director
of ACCION International (1973-80), and the founder and former Director of the Feinstein International
Famine Center, Tufts University. He also served as a consultant Women's World Banking and USAID,
and holds a joint faculty appointment at the Fletcher School and the Friedman School of Nutrition.
Current work includes a project on “practical idealism,” supported by the Tisch College of Citizenship
and Public Service at Tufts. Dr. Hammock is using interviews with 27-33 year olds working in nonprofit, non-corporate jobs to explore the question if it is possible to both have a meaningful career and
make a decent living. The project is being developed into a book . Dr. Hammock teaches a course at
Fletcher addressing similar questions entitled “Globalization, Development and Humanitarianism: Ethics
and Personal Transformation”. In addition, Dr. Hammock is working on a project on human development
and economic change in collaboration with the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard and Oxford University.
He will be leaving Tufts on sabbatical in January 2007 for a year and a half to pursue work on this project.
Website: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/hammock/profile.asp
Kristy M. Hendricks, RD, ScD
Keywords: Nutrition, HIV, child hood diarrhea, malnutrition
Kristy Hendricks is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine,
Division of Nutrition and Infection at the Medical School and Associate Professor in the Nutrition School.
She has been engaged in international research and training for more than 20 years. Her primary research
interests include maternal and child health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS and nutrition assessment. She has
collaborated on research and training projects in Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, India,
Thailand and Argentina. Currently she is involved in a project related to growth faltering in a birth cohort
in Pakistan and studies of nutritional and metabolic status in HIV infection in Vietnam, India and
Argentina. She is working to develop country/region specific databases for assessment of nutrient intake.
Patricia L. Hibberd, MD, PhD
Keywords: clinical research; clinical trials; childhood acute respiratory infection; childhood diarrheal
disease; breastfeeding to prevent early childhood mortality and morbidity; India, Peru, West Africa.
Dr. Hibberd is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, an Infectious Diseases Physician and an
Epidemiologist. She directs the Center for Global Health Research, established in 2006 in the Department
of Public Health and Family Medicine, Nutrition and Infection Division. Building on a highly successful
model for the support of US based research, the Center focuses on assisting junior investigators in the
Tufts community with the design and conduct of clinical research on key international health issues, to
enable them to obtain external funding for their research activities. Dr Hibberd also mentors fellows on
several T32 training grants, many of whom conduct international research during their research training.
Dr Hibberd has been active in International Research for almost 12 years. Her research focuses on new
ways to treat and prevent the two major killers of children worldwide - respiratory infection/pneumonia
and diarrhea. She has worked with the World Health Organization for more than a decade on the design
and conduct of large multi-country studies to test new strategies for these serious childhood illnesses. She
has worked in Peru on community based projects to prevent childhood diarrhea, India on community
based treatment of severe pneumonia and very severe pneumonia, Pakistan on antimicrobial resistance in
respiratory pathogens and Morrocco, Tunisia and Benin on community based strategies to protect water
supplies and reduce childhood diarrheal disease.
Raymond Hyatt, PhD Sociology
Keywords: Macro-micro linkages of social factors and individual behavior that affect obesity; the effect
of social and economic inequalities on health outcomes; understanding the mechanisms of community and
the effect on individual behavior; clarifying the concept of social capital and understanding how it affects
individual, family, and community health outcomes.
Dr. Hyatt is Assistant Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a Research
Associate at the John Hancock Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Tufts University. Dr. Hyatt is
a medical sociologist interested in using both quantitative and qualitative approaches in social
epidemiology and research. Dr. Hyatt completed his doctoral work on social capital in the international
community, where he studied state membership in international organizations. He offers a course entitled
“Globalization and Health” (offered through the Community Health department in the School of Arts and
Sciences) and has recently published an article in the book “Globalization and Health.” (Oxford
University Press) Dr. Hyatt is currently working on an NIH-funded project on the occupational health of
Brazilian domestic workers in Somerville with David Gute, School of Engineering.
Website: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/faculty/hyatt_raymond.html
Michael R. Jordan, MD, MPH
Keywords: HIV Drug resistance, Resource limited setting, HIV-1 Subtypes, HIV evolution
Dr. Jordan is an Assistant Professor of Medicine Tufts University School of Medicine in the Division of
Geographic Medicine and Infectious Disease and works with the Nutrition Infection Unit at Tufts
University. He conducts a virology sub-study as part of the Nutritional Status of HIV Positive and
HIV Negative Drug Users in Hanoi, Vietnam (Principal Investigator: Sherwood Gorbach MD). The
purpose of the sub-study is to document baseline HIV drug resistance in a population with easy access to
informal antiretroviral therapy and to document the impact of HIV drug resistance, including low
frequency drug resistance as measured by cloning and allele-specific PCR, on successful outcome. The
development of drug resistance will be correlated with measures of adherence, drug use, nutritional status,
and clinic prescribing practices. Additionally the evolution of HIV-1 diversity and divergence as reflected
in the development of drug resistance will be measured in non-subtype B virus.
Additionally, Dr Jordan is the global co-principal investigator along with Donald Sutherland MD of the
World Health Organization and Diane Bennett MD of the United States Center for Disease Control and
Prevention for the World Health Organization’s HIV Drug Resistance Monitoring Strategy for
Populations Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Resource Limited Settings
(http://www.who.int/hiv/drugresistance/HIVDRMonitoringProtocol2006.pdf). As principal investigator
he has forged a collaboration between Tufts University and the World Health Organization. The strategy
is designed to monitor the emergence of HIV drug resistance in populations beginning first-line ART in
developing countries and to identify individual and clinic factors associated with drug resistance. The
strategy sets thresholds for HIV drug resistance and provides guidelines for Ministries of Health to correct
factors associated with unnecessary drug resistance with the goal of maximizing the effectiveness and
maintaining the long-term durability of first-line ART regimens. An additional goal of the project is to
develop a global data base of HIV-1 primarily HIV-1 non-subtype B sequences which will augment our
understanding of the natural history of HIV-1 non-subtype B infection.
Sheldon Krimsky, MA Physics, MA Philosophy, PhD Philosophy
Keywords: commercialization of science, biotechnology, globalization and ethics, environmental ethics
Dr. Krimsky is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning, in the Graduate School of Arts
& Sciences. His work focuses on the intersection of science and technology, culture and ethics, and
public policy. Of particular interest to Dr. Krimsky is the commercialization of science, environmental
ethics, and the social issues surrounding biotechnology such as stem cells, cloning, and human gene
therapy.
Sheldon Krimsky has offered the following courses: Biotechnology, Nature & Society; Chemicals, Health
and the Environment; Foundations of Public Policy (Only for UEP students); Political Economy, Ethics
and the Environment. He will be on sabbatical Spring 2007.
Dr. Krimsky is a member of a new ad-hoc University-wide committee on globalization and ethics. The
committee is currently identifying interested faculty, related activities to ethics and globalization, and the
needs/gaps in current scholarship to possibly setting up a Center for Globalization and Ethics and/or
creating a signature Tufts educational program.
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/~skrimsky/
Tamsin A. Knox, MD, MPH
Keywords: GI function, diarrhea, hepatology, HIV, nutritional status
Dr. Knox is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine in the
Medical School. She has had interests in international research for more than a decade. She leads a
research program in diarrheal disease and intestinal dysfunction in a multiproject HIV research program
in Africa. Her work currently focuses on the impact of hepatitis B and C infection on the metabolism of
individual antiretroviral agents.
Brett A. Leav, MD
Keywords: cryptosporidia, India, diarrhea, immune response
Dr. Leav is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geographic Medicine and
Infectious Diseases. Dr Leav’s NIH-funded research program is focused on immune responses to the
enteric pathogen, Cryptosporidium parvum. He is particularly interested in the early, or innate immune
response in the hope of learning how to enhance resistance among humans to this parasite which is a
major cause of acute and chronic diarrheal illness in developing countries. Dr. Leav is currently working
with Dr. Ward to develop methods to analyze Cryptosporidium-specific cell mediated and innate immune
responses in children with cryptosporidiosis in Vellore, India.
Stuart Levy, MD
Keywords: drug resistance, infectious disease, antimicrobials
Dr. Stuart Levy is Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology and also Professor of Medicine. He
has extensive international experience, having worked in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti, the Dominican Republic
and Indonesia (with WHO/PAHO). His research interest is in drug resistance as related to infectious
disease. Although he conducts mostly basic science research, Dr. Levy is very interested the public
health, particularly global health, implications of his work on antibiotic resistance.
Dr. Levy founded the non-profit organization “Association for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics”
(established through Tufts) and which has members in over 100 countries and 56-affiliated national
chapters. (www.apua.org) APUA promotes appropriate antimicrobial access and use and controlling
antimicrobial resistance on a worldwide basis. APUA stands as the world’s leading global organization
conducting applied antimicrobial resistance research, education, capacity building and advocacy at the
global and grassroots levels. (collaborates with WHO, PAHO, AID, NIH, CDC) Have sent students
abroad to work on related projects (vet student studied antibiotic resistance in baboons, another went to
Nepal). Dr. Levy views drug resistance as a “community problem.”
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/med/apua/About_us/SBLbiosketch.html
Joann M. Lindenmayer, DVM, MPH
Keywords: veterinary medicine, public health, population health, surveillance, Curriculum
CoDevelopment, animal sentinels
Dr. Lindenmayer is Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Environmental and
Population Health, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She serves as liaison for veterinary
students in the combined MPH Program. Her course on Public Health is a core course in the DVM
curriculum, and she is developing selective courses on Outbreak Investigation, Surveillance, and Human
Nutrition and Animal Health for the combined MPH Program.
Her research interests include identifying and overcoming barriers to veterinarian participation in public
health systems, the development and use of animal sentinels for human disease, and the integration of
human and animal surveillance. Dr. Lindenmayer’s education and experience in both veterinary
medicine and the public health system have informed her view that although a glass fence effectively
separates the practices of public health and population medicine, the fence is surmountable. This topic is
the subject of her Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Fellowship.
Dr. Lindenmayer recently returned from Kenya where she is working with Dr. Maranda and veterinary
colleagues at the University of Nairobi School of Veterinary Medicine to implement Dr. Griffiths’
Curriculum Co-development Project in the areas of surveillance, public health, and comparative
veterinary medical systems. She spent three years working in Niger, monitoring health and production
indicators among herds of sheep owned by semi nomadic herders, and delivering health care to expatriate
dogs and cats.
Alexandra Mangili, MD, MPH
Keywords: HIV, Genetic Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease, Metabolic Abnormalities and
Nutrition in HIV, Travel Medicine
Dr. Mangili is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geographic
Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She has assisted in the initiation of a multinational international study
assessing nutrition in HIV-infected drug users and traveled to South India to set up initial phase of
protocol. She has also worked with indigenous population in Bolivia and learned about the various
manifestations of Chagas disease. Her current interests are in CV risk assessment and cardio-and
nutrigenomic analysis of HIV-infected patients in resource-limited countries. She is funded by a K23
award from NIAID to pursue these interests.
Louise Maranda, MSc, PhD, DVM
Keywords: international veterinary medicine; reservoirs; maintenance and transmission of pathogens;
India; Nepal; Latin America; Nicaragua; Mexico; Kenya.
Dr. Louise Maranda is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Population Health at
the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She teaches an “Epidemiology and Biostatistics” course
for 2nd year veterinary students and serves as the coordinator of the International Veterinary Medicine
certificate program. In that capacity, Dr. Maranda serves as advisor for students performing research
abroad (a requirement for the program) and holds a discussion forum on issues in international veterinary
medicine every 2 weeks. Dr. Maranda has worked in Latin America, India and Nepal. Her research
interests include the maintenance and transmission of pathogens between humans, livestock and wildlife
and she is currently working on a project involving MDRTB in monkeys. Another current project is with
a national park in Nicaragua, investigating the impact of livestock introduction on wildlife health and
management of buffer zones. Dr. Maranda also is working with Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths and her colleagues at
the Vet school with scientists at the University of Nairobi to develop case studies in veterinary medicine
and share the TUSK system and course materials. She is interested in developing a project with the
Kabete School of Veterinary Medicine in Nairobi, on domestic reservoirs for schistosomiasis.
Dr. Maranda is also involved in the development of a new Masters program in Conservation Medicine at
the Veterinary School. As the focus of conservation medicine is often in developing countries, this might
be an interesting dual degree opportunity with the Global Health MPH concentration.
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/vet/facpages/maranda_l.html
John Morgan, DDM
Keywords: preventative dental care; health promotion; disabilities; sustainable communities; Zambia;
Haiti; Honduras; Dominican Republic; Mongolia; Nepal
John Morgan currently serves as director of the Tufts Dental Facility Serving Persons with Special Needs
(TDF). He has an extensive career in dental service projects abroad, in collaboration with Feed the
Children (Haiti, 1990), Honduras (Medical, Eye and Dental International Care Association, 1991-2) and
the University of Maryland (Dominican Republic, 1993). He has also worked in Mongolia and Nepal,
where, in collaboration with the Himalayan Dental Relief Project, Dr. Morgan provided dental care in
orphanages and a Buddhist monastery.
Dr. Morgan is currently working on a comprehensive public health project in Zambia. While the main
focus of the project, named “Options for Children in Zambia,” is on dental care, it has been expanded to
include health promotion and prevention programs and micro-finance loans in order to build community
productivity and sustainability. Dr. Morgan and his colleagues also have instituted a sample survey of the
population including measures of incidence of active and chronic diseases, allowing dentists to create tiers
of priority for treatment, assess resources, etc. The project also includes training of health care workers in
dental prevention, in order to increase the sustainability and long-lasting effects of the project.
Dr. Morgan has worked with UMass Medical Students in Zambia, and believes their collaboration would
be a good model for working with MPH students (ALE opportunity).
Also, he has worked with public health officials in Zambia, who he believes would be willing to help
coordinate public health students working on the project.
D. Mkaya Mwamburi, MD, PhD
Keywords: Kenya, translational research, HIV infection and treatment, cost effectiveness
Dr. Mwamburi is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Public Health in Tufts University, School of
Medicine. He studied Medicine at the University of Nairobi and received a Doctorate in Clinical Research
in Tufts University. He practiced Medicine and Surgery in Kenya and South Africa before focusing on
clinical and epidemiological research. His current focus is in operational and translation research in
developing countries. He is involved in and developing research projects in the US, Kenya, South Africa
and India. Current research topics include HIV care delivery and treatment in Kenya; Cost-effective and
sustainable HIV treatment and monitoring strategies; HIV outcomes research including impact of
education programs on HIV outcomes; Impact of Depression and behavior on HIV care compliance;
Integrating HIV and TB care; Discrete event modeling (microsimulations) for long-term outcomes
evaluations and economic analyses, and: Mathematical modeling in healthcare research. His work is
currently funded by the Doris Duke Foundation and by the Tufts- Brown Center for AIDS Research. Dr.
Mwamburi is also actively involved in mentoring MD/MPH dual degree students who are interested in
obtaining international clinical research experience.
Elena Naumova, MS, PhD
Keywords: biostatistics, computational epidemiology, bioinformatics, conservation medicine
Dr. Elena Naumova’s area of expertise is in methodology development for statistical mathematical
modeling of transient processes with application in epidemiology and public health. Currently, she is
interested in modeling infectious diseases and developing analytical tools for analysis of seasonality in
time-series data. She is the Director of the Tufts Initiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious
Diseases (InForMID) established to conduct research and provide a venue for training in the fields of
computational epidemiology, conservation medicine, biostatistics, and bioinformatics with the emphasis
on public health applications. Over the last 15 years, Dr. Naumova has participated in a number of
international projects collaborating with mathematicians, epidemiologists, immunologists, and public
health professionals in Kenya, Ecuador, Japan, Canada, UK, and Russia. She continues working with the
leading Russian and Canadian researchers in the field of data modeling and statistical data analysis. She
has a strong record of successful funding by federal agencies nationally and internationally.
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/med/gpph/Faculty/Naumova.htm
http://www.tufts.edu/med/informid
Jeanne Penvenne, PhD
Keywords: African History, Mozambique and Southern Africa, Comparative Women's History,
Urbanization and Labor Migration
Jeanne Penvenne is Associate Professor of History in the School of Arts and Sciences, and former head of
the Africa Forum. Her area of specialty is urban and labor history in Mozambique. Dr. Penvenne uses
archival resources, literature, language and oral history to better understand the life of ordinary
Mozambicans in the colonial period. Recent projects have included a book on colonial racism using the
oral history of colonial workers and a new book “Seeking Gendered Perspectives” on women’s
experiences in Mozambique, of which health plays a significant component in making labor choices.
Dr. Penvenne teaches two courses that would be especially relevant for public health students interested in
African history. “Race, Class, and Power in Southern Africa” (History 150) is a course on social and
labor history in the region, including a unit on HIV/AIDS and local social strategies to protect health.
“From Liberation to Humanitarian Assistance” (History 152), focusing on Angola and Mozambique
considers race-differentiated health policies during the colonial era, as well as spirit possession and
innovative approaches to healing in the wake of the civil wars in both countries.
Beatrice Rogers, Phd Social Welfare Policy (Economics, Health Policy)
Professor of Economics and Food Policy.
Keywords: Food policy and economics: intrahousehold resource allocation, consumer food price policy,
food consumption effects of economic policies, uses of food aid, survey research methods; development
of interdisciplinary graduate educational curricula; Latin America.
Dr. Rogers has extensive international experience, with approximately 2/3 of her work focused on areas
outside the U.S., including Latin America, francophone Africa and Asia. Current projects include
“hunger mapping” in Panama and Ecuador, using small area estimation. The goal of the project is to use
DHS and census data in order to develop a predictive algorithm for malnutrition; the estimates will later
be used for advocacy of nutrition and health policy, and program design (funded by the World Food
Program). Dr. Rogers is also pursuing a proposal with INCAP to extend the hunger mapping project to
Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Dr. Rogers’ other major projects involve an assessment of the school feeding program in Honduras, and
the development of a 2 week long intensive course for mid-career professionals on nutrition monitoring
and evaluation and food policy in Guatemala (also with INCAP).
Website: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/faculty/rogers_beatrice.html
Beth Rosenberg, MPH ScD
Keywords: occupational and environmental health; public health improvements as social change;
political science and economy; China; Eastern Europe
Dr. Rosenberg is Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health in the Department of Public Health
and Family Medicine, and concentration leader of the MPH Environmental Health program. Her course
on Occupational and Environmental Health, a core requirement for the concentration, uses other countries
as a point of comparison to the United States throughout the course.
Her main research interests are the comparative study of occupational and environmental health policy
and practice, chemical regulation policy, sustainable production and the obstacles to companies
transitioning to clean production, and most recently, issues around the clean up of nuclear hazardous
waste sites, which highlights what happens in the absence of sustainable production. With a background
in anthropology and political economy, Dr. Rosenberg brings a unique perspective to the study of health,
organizational culture and the work environment.
Dr. Rosenberg has recently worked on a research project in China, studying the health and safety systems
of footwear factories. Other regions of interest include Eastern Europe (Hungary) where she has worked
to promote occupational health via labor unions, development of NGOs and democracy building in the
region. She is currently looking at the health and safety systems in former nuclear weapons
manufacturing sites, where the problem is not so much a technical one but a social one –how does one
design a safety system in a workplace culture of secrecy and distrust? This project is in the US but may
expand to Europe and the former Soviet Union. She is also developing an MS/MPH dual degree with the
Tufts University School of Engineering.
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/med/gpph/Faculty/Rosenberg.htm
Dr. Ronald Ruffing MD MPH
Keywords: pediatric, emergency medicine, humanitarian relief, global health, disaster management
Ronald Ruffing MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics and Public
Health at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is currently the Director of Emergency Medical
Services for Children at Tufts-New England Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children. He
also is the director of the joint degree MD/MA in Law and Diplomacy program (Fletcher School).
Dr. Ruffing earned his bachelor degree from the University of Notre Dame and his Master of Public
Health in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. A 1983 graduate of Wayne State University
School of Medicine and he completed residency training in Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota
Hospitals and in Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver General Hospital. Dr.
Ruffing is board certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties in both Pediatrics and
Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Ruffing developed interests in global health, complex humanitarian emergencies, disaster
management, and emergency public health after working with the humanitarian relief NGO International
Medical Corp in Bosnia in 1994. Since that time, he has participated in a number of volunteer short-term
international health assignments. The activities have included participation in 1-2 week international
health promotion/training programs in Israel, Viet Nam, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya. In 1996 he
served as a visiting professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the Lao Medical School, Vientiane
Laos teaching the first pediatric advanced life support (PALS) program in Laos. In October/ November of
2004 he traveled to the North Darfur region of Sudan working with the International Rescue Committee
(IRC) as a primary health trainer and consultant at the IRC Primary Health Center in the Abu Shouk
IDPC in North Darfur.
Dr Ruffing is the course coordinator for Introduction to Global Health Course
Robert Russell, MD
Keywords: Retinoids, carotenoids, aging, gastrointestinal absorptive function
Dr. Robert Russell is Professor of Medicine at Tufts Medical School, the Friedman School of Nutrition
Science and Policy, and the Director and Senior Scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition
Research Center on Aging. Dr. Russell has worked on nutrition assessment projects internationally in
Iran, Vietnam and Iraq. He has also conducted projects on Vitamin A and Vitamin A value in plant-based
diets in the Philippines, China and Korea. Although research at the HNRC, funded principally by the
USDA, is directed towards domestic nutrition concerns, the Center does use international sites to conduct
research applicable to the U.S., as well as to study the role of nutrition in infectious diseases.
More information on the HNRCA may be found at: http://www.hnrc.tufts.edu
Website for Dr. Robert Russell: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/faculty/russell_robert.html
George Saperstein, DVM
Keywords: international veterinary medicine; zoonotic disease; Middle East, Indonesia.
Dr. George Saperstein is Professor and Assistant Dean for Research in Environmental and Population
Health and International Veterinary Medicine. From 1998 to 2002, Dr. Saperstein was studying crossborder livestock control in the Middle East. He is the administrator for the international research group at
the Vet school and helps to facilitate others research abroad. For example, there are currently 6 faculty
and staff members working in Indonesia on an avian influenza project where they are training Indonesians
in community based rapid diagnosis and response in poultry
Many veterinary students are interested in international health, participate in the student-run international
club, Veterinarians for Global Solutions (VGS), and pursue international research projects in developing
countries at some point throughout the four year program. Some come with international experience.
Each year, about 6-15 students are mentored on international research projects. There is a certificate
program in International Veterinary Medicine which requires students to write a peer-reviewed journal
quality article as an output of their original research project abroad. It is a signature program of the
school, and a major draw over other vet schools for students. Dr. Saperstein believes that dual degree
(DVM/MPH) students would be very interested in taking Global Health courses.
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/vet/facpages/saperstein_g.html
Jeremy Sarkin, BA LLB (Natal) LLM (Harvard) LLD (UWC - South Africa)
Keywords: international human rights law and transitional justice; Africa and Asia.
Dr. Jeremy Sarkin is Visiting Professor of International Human Rights. He is admitted to practice as
attorney in the USA and South Africa. He is teaching a course on international human rights law and
leading a seminar on current issues in human rights during the fall of 2006.
His doctor of laws degree, which was completed in 1995, was on the constitutional, international and
comparative aspects of abortion. Many of his recommendations are contained in the new South African
abortion law, which was enacted by the South African Parliament at the end of 1996.
Some of his present areas of research, which fall broadly within the constitutional and human rights
fields, are on the role and functioning of national human rights institutions, transitional justice, developing
a human rights culture and the role of the courts.
He has worked on constitutional and transitional issues in various countries, including Rwanda, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Angola, Namibia and Burma and has assisted
various truth commissions in their work.
He served as an acting judge in 2002 and 2003 in the Cape High Court where a number of his cases dealt
with rape and violence against women.
Website: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/sarkin/profile.asp
See also http://www.uwc.ac.za/law/people/jeremysarkin.htm
Charles B. Shoemaker, PhD
Keywords: Parasitology, worm parasites, molecular and cellular helminthology, Trematodes, Cestodes,
Helminthes, Schistosomes, host-parasite interaction, RNAi, toxins, gene manipulation, immunization,
vaccine development, phage display, transgenics
Dr. Shoemaker is Professor of Biomedical Sciences in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Tufts
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. He received his BS from the University of New Hampshire in
1975 and his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1979. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at MIT, Dr.
Shoemaker spent seven years as a senior scientist in the biotechnology industry, then seven years on the
faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health and, most recently, eight years as the Science Leader for
Animal Health at AgResearch in New Zealand. He has research interests in molecular helminthology and
microbial toxins, and his lab currently focuses on the study of worm parasite surface antigens as vaccine
targets and the development of antidotes to clostridial toxins. Dr. Shoemaker co-leads the Molecular
Helminthology Lab at Tufts with Dr. Patrick Skelly.
Prof. Shoemaker worked for many years in New Zealand, and has research contacts in Kenya, Egypt,
Brazil, and Mexico. His personal web page is http://www.tufts.edu/vet/facpages/shoemaker_c.html, and
his laboratory URL is http://www.tufts.edu/vet/helminthology. Students interested in contacting Dr.
Shoemaker may reach him:
Marc Sommers, MA, PhD
Keywords: peace education; conflict negotiation; youth and conflict; education in emergencies;
Marc Sommers is an Associate Research Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts
University and a Research Fellow at Boston University’s African Studies Center. Across 20 war-affected
countries over the past 17 years, Dr. Sommers has researched and written extensively on education in
emergencies and children and youth at risk, in addition to peace education, conflict negotiation, child
soldier, urbanization, human rights, coordination, and security issues in war and post-war contexts. He has
worked for numerous donor, UN and non-governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of
Defense, UNESCO, UNHCR, CARE, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the
Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and has received research support from the
Ford, Guggenheim, Mellon and Rotary foundations.
Dr. Sommers is currently carrying out research on youth and conflict in Central Africa for the World
Bank and the influence of terror war tactics, child soldiering and popular culture in Sierra Leone. Recent
publications include Islands of Education: Schooling, Civil War and the Southern Sudanese (1983-2004)
(2005), “Fearing Africa’s Young Men: Male Youth, Conflict, Urbanization and the Case of Rwanda” (in
The Other Half of Gender: Men’s Issues in Development, 2006), and Youth and Conflict: A Brief Review
of Available
Carlos Sonnenschein, MD
Keywords: carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, estrogen, androgen, target cells
Carlos Sonnenschein is a Professor of Anatomy and Cellular Biology at the Sackler School of Graduate
Biomedical Sciences. He teaches Histology to first –year medical students. Dr. Sonnenschein and his lab
are concerned with three lines of investigation: the mechanisms of action of sex hormones (estrogens and
androgens) on the control of proliferation of their target cells; b) the process of carcinogenesis with
special emphasis in Breast cancer; and c) environmental (endocrine) disruptors.
Dr. Sonnenschein has established educational links with the University of Tehran in Iran, and hopes to
foster a future collaboration with Tufts in education and research projects and is scheduled to give a
course in 2007 on Carcinogenesis and the Environment at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de
Janeiro, Brasil.
He is interested in working within the Global Health framework to collaborate with members of this
Group.
Sonnenschein Lab Website: http://www.tufts.edu/sackler/cmdb/sonnenschein-lab.htm
Dr. Ana Soto
Keywords: philosophy of biology, endocrine disruptors, breast cancer, prostate cancer; France; European
Union.
Dr. Ana Soto is Professor of Anatomy and Cellular Biology at the Sackler School of Biomedical
Sciences, Tufts. Dr. Soto’s research interests range from the philosophy of Biology to endocrine
disrupters (and their effects on development), breast cancer, prostate cancer, and changes in puberty onset.
She teaches and collaborates with universities in France, including Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite
de Nice, and the Universite de Toulouse. She has worked with the European Union commission in
Brussells, and lectured throughout Europe. Dr. Soto is very interested in the intersection of globalization
and ethics, and believes that there should be more emphasis on ethics throughout the science curriculum
at Tufts.
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/sackler/cmdb/soto-lab.htm
Miguel Stadecker, MD, PhD
Keywords: schistosomiasis; immunopathology
Dr. Stadecker is Professor of Pathology at the Tufts School of Medicine. His laboratory
studies the host immune response and immunopathology associated with schistosomiasis, a serious
parasitic disease currently afflicting more than 200 million people residing in tropical regions of the
world. Contracted by exposure to bodies of fresh water contaminated with parasitic helminthes, which
emanate from specific vector snails, schistosomiasis is the second more important parasitic disease in the
world after malaria.
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/sackler/immunology/stadecker/index.html
Alice M. Tang, PhD.
Keywords: epidemiology, injection drug use, HIV infection, Argentina, Vietnam, India, nutrition,
metabolism, micronutrients
Dr. Alice Tang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at
Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Tang received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology, with an emphasis in
Infectious Diseases, in 1996 from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Tang’s
research interests are related to the nutritional/metabolic aspects and co-morbidities of drug use and
HIV/AIDS in varying contexts, including differing stages of the HIV epidemic and differing sociodemographic and behavioral aspects of drug use (primary drug used, mode of drug use, etc.) among drug
users in various geographic settings. Recently, Dr. Tang has initiated research studies in three
international settings: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Chennai, India. These three
countries were selected for their variation in geography, types and patterns of drug use, genetics (e.g.
predisposition for cardiovascular risk factors, body composition), environment (e.g. diet, co-morbidities,
access to health care and antiretroviral medications) and HIV clade/subtype. The overall goal of these
studies is to foster collaborative research on nutritional and metabolic disorders in drug using populations
around the world. The research studies in each country will share the same set of specific aims and, to the
extent possible, use the same standardized protocol. The results of these studies will help to identify
generalized malnutrition or specific micronutrient deficiencies in the local populations that may be
amenable to nutritional interventions, including vitamin supplementation and/or dietary counseling to
improve the quality of food intake. Dr. Tang has worked closely with investigators in each of these
countries to develop the questionnaires and protocols, train the study staff, and negotiate the logistics of
conducting these trials.
Sam R. Telford III, ScD
Keywords: ecology and epidemiology; vector-borne infections; tropical medicine and parasitology
Dr. Telford is Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. He teaches an elective course in biodefense as well as one on
the epidemiology of zoonoses for the Cummings School PhD program. Previously, he taught laboratory
courses in diagnostic parasitology and tropical medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health.
His main research interests focus on understanding the mode of perpetuation and epidemiology of ticktransmitted infections, particularly those endemic to New England (Lyme disease, babesiosis, HGE,
Powassan virus, and tularemia). Current NIH funding seeks to determine the proximal determinants of
risk for acquiring tularemia on Martha’s Vineyard.
Dr. Telford currently serves as an advisor to community-based task forces (Nantucket, Martha’s
Vineyard) as well as the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife with the objective of reducing the
risk of tick-transmitted infection. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical
Microbiology for the last 8 years, and on the scientific program committee of the American Society of
Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting for the last 6 years.
Joel P. Trachtman, JD
Keywords: international law; international trade law; international investment law; international
migration law.
Joel P. Trachtman is Professor of International Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at
Tufts University. The author of over 50 scholarly publications, Prof. Trachtman is a member of the
Boards of the American Journal of International law, the European Journal of International Law, the
Journal of International Economic Law and the Singapore Yearbook of International Law. He has
consulted for the United Nations, the OECD, APEC, the World Bank, the Organization of American
States, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is a member of the bar of the State of
New York. From 1998 to 2001, he was Academic Dean of the Fletcher School, and during 2000 and
2001, he served as Dean ad interim. In 2002, he was Manley O. Hudson Visiting Professor of Law, and
in 2004 he was Nomura Visiting Professor of International Financial Systems, at Harvard Law School.
Prior to joining the faculty of The Fletcher School in 1989, he spent nine years in the private practice of
international commercial law in New York and Hong Kong. His practice included a wide variety of
international and domestic financing, acquisition and commercial transactions. He graduated in 1980
from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor in chief of the Harvard International Law Journal.
His undergraduate education was at the London School of Economics and Columbia College.
Joel Trachtman’s research interests are in the international law of globalization, including international
trade, finance, investment, and migration, as well as the interaction of national and international
regulatory regimes.
Website: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/trachtman/profile.asp
Katherine Tucker, Ph.D. International Nutrition
Keywords: nutritional epidemiology; dietary assessment; Panama, Kenya, Malawi, Philippines,
Guatemala
Dr. Katherine Tucker is Professor at the Friedman School and Director of the Nutritional Epidemiology
Program. Dr. Tucker’s research interests include diet and health, dietary methodology including dietary
assessment, and the nutritional status of high-risk populations, most notably, the elderly. The focus of Dr.
Tucker’s international research experience is the study of poor nutritional outcomes for children in
developing countries. Dr. Tucker is currently researching the low-income Puerto Rican community of
Boston, which represents the Latino community with the poorest health outcomes in the U.S. She is
currently the Senior Scientist and Director of the Dietary Assessment and Epidemiology Research
Program at the Jean Mayer USDA HNRCA at Tufts University.
Website: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/faculty/tucker_katherine.html
Peter Walker, PhD
Keywords: complex humanitarian emergencies; humanitarian accountability; climate change and
disasters; organizational change; Africa; South Asia; Afghanistan.
Dr. Peter Walker has extensive international experience in humanitarian emergencies, including serving
as Director of Disaster Policy for 12 years for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies and the Head of the Federation’s regional programs for Southeast Asia. He is the founder and
manager of the World Disasters Report and played a key role in initiating and developing both the Code
of Conduct for disaster workers and the Sphere humanitarian standards. He became Director of the
Feinstein International Famine Center in September 2002. Dr. Walker is currently involved in projects all
over the world including Addis Abba, Ethiopia (where the Center has recently established a permanent
office), East Africa, West Africa, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The Center coordinates the 1 year Masters in Humanitarian Assistance with Nutrition and Fletcher, and
about half of the researchers at the Center have faculty appointments. The Center also runs a certificate
program in Humanitarian Assistance with Harvard and MIT which stresses practical, application-based
content, like managing NGOs and how to develop budgets.
Feinstein International Famine Center Website: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/research/famine/
Peter Walker Website: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/faculty/walker_peter.html
Christine A. Wanke, MD
Keywords: diarrheal disease, growth faltering, nutritional status, HIV, opportunistic infections, ART roll
out, complications of HIV and therapy, clinical trials, clinical research
Dr. Wanke is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Public Health in the Medical School; she is
the Director of the Division of Nutrition and Infection; and the Director of the HIV Clinical Research
Program at Tufts-NEMC. She is the PI of the AIDS Clinical Training Grant (T-32) in the Division of
Infectious Disease. Fellows on the training grant may elect to do international research; four fellows in
the last 3 years have elected to work in this international track and 2 of them have worked for the MPH
degree through this mechanism. Dr. Wanke is on the executive committee of the Fogarty International
AIDS Training Program held in conjunction with Brown University; in which clinical researchers from
Asia may train in clinical research in HIV at either Tufts or Brown. To date, 10 trainees have developed
their clinical research interests at Tufts through this program and three of them have obtained MPH
through this program. The Fogarty AITRP has lead to the development of ongoing collaborations with
research institutes, clinics and medical schools throughout India, Thailand and Cambodia. These
programs have also been supported through the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) for which Dr. Wanke
is the Director of the Translational Science Core and the Center for Drug Abuse and AIDS Research
(CDAAR) for which Dr. Wanke is the Director of the Nutrition and Metabolism Core. She also sits on the
national selection committee for the Fogarty-Ellison fellowship, a program which provides a year of
international research for medical students between third and fourth years of medical school. She has
mentored 4 Fogarty-Ellison Fellows in South India.
Dr. Wanke has been active in international research for the last 25 years and has worked on issues in
persistent diarrheal disease, growth faltering, malnutrition, HIV, HIV associated diarrhea, TB in HIV,
nutritional and metabolic status in HIV infected individuals in Brazil, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand,
Pakistan, India and Vietnam. Currently, she has funding from NCAAM for a project in Pakistan as well
Fogarty and NIDA funded projects in India and Vietnam.
Honorine Ward, MBBS
Keywords: diarrheal disease, cryptosporida, basic and translational studies, diarrhea in HIV infection,
India, Bangladesh, immune response
Dr. Ward is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Public Health and Family
Medicine at Tufts. She heads an NIH-funded research program studying the pathogenesis and
immunology and molecular epidemiology of cryptosporidiosis in the Division of Geographic Medicine
and Infectious Diseases at Tufts-New England Medical Center. She is actively involved in NIH-funded
clinical and translational research on the molecular epidemiology of and immune response to
cryptosporidiosis in India and Bangladesh. In collaboration with investigators in Christian Medical
College, Vellore, India and International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
she is involved in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of cryptosporidiosis in well-defined populations
of children and adults with and without HIV infection. In these areas, cryptosporidiosis is a major cause
of parasitic diarrhea. She is investigating systemic and mucosal Cryptosporidium-specific humoral and
cell-mediated immune responses in these individuals, performing multi-locus genotypic analysis of
Cryptosporidium isolates from them and correlating genetic information with clinical, epidemiological,
geospatial and immunological parameters. The long term goal of these studies is the logical development
of interventions that are appropriate to the communities in which cryptosporidiosis is common. Dr. Ward
is also involved in NIH-funded training of Indian scientists and clinicians on site in Vellore India and in
her laboratory at Tufts-New England Medical Center.
Patrick Webb, PhD Economic Geography
Keywords: agricultural policy; economic geography; famine and hunger; Southeast Asia; Africa;
transition economies; economic history.
Dr. Webb is Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition. He
is an expert in nutrition in the context of humanitarian emergencies, HIV and nutrition, and micro-nutrient
deficiency. He is the former Chief of Nutrition for the UN World Food Programme (to August 2005),
scientific advisory board member on nutrition for UNICEF and former chair of WHO expert advisory
panel on household food and nutrition. Dr. Webb has published on issues relating to household water
security in developing countries. For a full listing of Dr. Webb’s former and current positions, please
visit the website listed below.
Current projects include a collaboration with Steven Block at the Fletcher school on a study of nutrition
and smoking as related to income in Indonesia. Also in Indonesia, a research team at the Friedman
School is investigating the nutritional impacts of bird flu as related to loss of protein, cost to families, etc.
Patrick Webb would like to see stronger ties developed between food, nutrition and health.
Dr. Webb teaches two courses at the Friedman school: “Nutrition, Food Security and Development” and
“Risks and Disasters: Predicting and Managing Catastrophes”
Website: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/webb/profile.asp
Margo N. Woods, D.Sc.
Keywords: The role of diet on estrogen metabolism and its relationship to risk of breast cancer; the use of
dietary assessment methodology in the study of food intake; the impact of nutrition intervention on
disease parameters; the role of nutrition and micronutrients in the progression of HIV.
Dr. Margo Woods is Associate Professor in the Nutrition/Infection Unit at the School of Medicine, and an
Assistant Professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The Nutrition/Infection Unit
devotes many of its research activities to the study of the impact of nutrition and micro-nutrients on the
progression of HIV. (Website: http://www.tufts.edu/med/nutrition-infection/index.html) She teaches a
required course for the 1st year medical students on nutrition, mostly focusing on chronic conditions. Dr.
Woods is interested in setting up a partnership with colleagues in Vellore, India (where there is no
training on chronic disease and nutrition) using the CCD model and TUSK. Dr. Woods is also interested
in participating in a steering committee for the Global Health Framework.
Website for Margo Woods: http://www.tufts.edu/med/nutrition-infection/profiles/profile-woods.html