UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases

The UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases is a pan-university Institute that was created to unify and bolster global health research, teaching, and service across UNC-Chapel Hill. Peggy Bentley serves as the Associate Director of the Institute.

IGHID Mission Statement

UNC Initiative in the Galapagos Islands

For several years, Steve Walsh, professor of geography at UNC-Chapel Hill, has conducted research in the Galapagos Islands (see "Defending the Galapagos," Endeavors, winter 2007.). During 2007, UNC and University of San Francisco Quito (USFQ), a private university in Ecuador, began discussing a potential research collaboration. This led to a memorandum of agreement between the two institutions. In February of 2008 (link with more details and additional photos), a delegation from UNC-Chapel Hill (including Associate Dean for Global Health, Peggy Bentley) visited with the president and chancellor of USFQ , and with USFQ faculty members, to discuss our collaboration. After a day of meetings on the campus near Quito, the delegation traveled to the Galapagos Islands, where we met with leaders of the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park.

 

UNC Galapagos Website

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Kenan Institute Asia 

The annual Trustees Meeting of the Kenan Institute Asia, or KIAsia, was held February 15, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand. As part of the UNC contingent who participated in the meeting, Dr. Margaret "Peggy" Bentley, Associate Dean for Global Health and Professor of Nutrition in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, participated in related activities, including a visit with students in the Young Entrepreneurs Club at Watphado Nai Songthum School in Thonburi. The project is part of KIAsia activities and is funded by General Electric.

Other members of the UNC contingent participating in the KIAsia Trustees Meeting included Robert Blouin, Dean, School of Pharmacy; Neil Caudle, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Director, Office of Information and Communications; Mark Crowell, Associate Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and Technology; Bernadette Gray-Little, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost; Jose-Marie Griffiths, Dean and Professor of the School of Information and Library Science; Dan Reed, Chancellor's Eminent Professor and Vice Chancellor for Information and Technology Services; Julee Waldrop, Clinical Associate Professor, School of Nursing; and Tony Waldrop, Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development.

KIAsia was established in 1996 with an endowment provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Royal Thai Government and the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust. KIAsia is affiliated with the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, based in UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

A key objective in forming KIAsia was to create a private nonprofit foundation that would continue the mutually beneficial relationship between Thailand and the United States on development issues after the end of the bi-lateral USAID program in Thailand.