With the start of the new academic year, the Duke Global Health Institute welcomes a growing number of faculty, recruited from within and beyond Duke, who will continue to fuel DGHI’s priorities to train the next generation of leaders and make important research discoveries in global health. This fall, we welcome new faculty, affiliates, adjunct faculty and new roles for familiar faces.
New Faculty
Eve Puffer, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Global Health
Puffer is a global mental health researcher and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating integrated community-based interventions to promote child mental health, improve family functioning, and prevent HIV risk behavior. She has conducted much of this work in rural Kenya. Before joining Duke, Puffer was a research advisor at the International Rescue Committee conducting evaluations of humanitarian programs in refugee settings. Puffer was DGHI’s first postdoctoral fellow in 2008. She is an investigator on multiple studies of child mental health and parenting interventions in Thailand, Ethiopia and Liberia. Puffer will be teaching a global mental health course in spring 2013.
Melissa Watt, Assistant Research Professor of Global Health
Watt is a public health researcher with training in mixed methods research. Her research focuses primarily on understanding HIV risk behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa, most recently in South Africa, with attention to gendered context, substance use and mental health. She is also involved in research on obstetric fistula and mental health in Tanzania and on aging and mental health in Sri Lanka. As an Assistant Research Professor at the Duke Global Health Institute, she is an investigator on multiple NIH-funded studies, and serves as the coordinator of the Duke Center for AIDS Research Social and Behavioral Sciences Core, led by Kathleen Sikkema. Watt will be teaching a course in the spring and mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students in DGHI education programs.
New Roles Within DGHI
Sara Benjamin Neelon has been named Director of the DGHI Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. She oversees the existing program for postdoctoral students, in which fellows work under the mentorship of Duke faculty on global health research.
Gary Bennett will lead undergraduate educational programs as Director of Undergraduate Studies at DGHI. He will be responsible for developing and enhancing global health education opportunities for undergraduate students.
Kathleen Sikkema has been named Director of Doctoral Studies. She will oversee the existing global health doctoral scholars program and and dissertation fieldwork grants, as well as developing additional global health opportunities for doctoral students from across the University.
Shenglan Tang has been appointed Associate Director for Duke Kunshan University and China Initiatives at DGHI. He will direct the Global Health Research Center at DKU and co-direct the Duke-Fudan Global Health Partnership. He will also serve as the DGHI liaison for all China-related global health activities.
New Affiliate Faculty
Nelson Chao, Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Pathology
Chao is a leading expert in oncology, hematology and bone-marrow transplantation. Chao’s affiliate appointment is important as DGHI works to expand its research portfolio in the area of global cancer. He and colleagues have 50 different clinical trials under way, most of which focus on stem cells, novel therapies for several malignancies and ways to improve long-term health outcomes.
New Adjunct Faculty
Jorge Benavides-Rawson, DGHI Adjunct Assistant Professor
Based in Costa Rica, Benavides-Rawson is a faculty mentor for the Costa Rica summer fieldwork program under the DGHI Student Research Training program. He also serves as the faculty coordinator for the Duke/Organization for Tropical Studies Global Health Semester Abroad program. He received his medical training at Universidad de Costa Rica and his current research focuses on the socioeconomic, geographical and cultural background of gastric cancer patients in the Coto Brus region of Costa Rica.
Eric Green, DGHI Adjunct Assistant Professor
Green is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at DGHI and the New York University Master of Public Health Program, who teaches courses on health informatics. This fall, Green will teach a course on health and technology in low-resource settings in the Global Health Focus Cluster, and in spring 2013, he will teach a maternal health class for graduate students. He will also continue his research, including a study that is developing and testing a mobile screening application for pregnant women and new mothers in Kenya. Green holds a doctorate in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina.
Moshi Ntabaye, DGHI Adjunct Professor
Ntabaye serves as Executive Director of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), one of DGHI’s longest-standing collaborations in global health education, research and service. KCMC and DGHI were awarded a $10 million grant from the Medical Education Partnership Initiative in 2010 to enhance medical education in Tanzania. Ntabaye’s current research focuses on human resources for health and quality of health care.
David Toole, DGHI Adjunct Associate Professor
Toole formally joins DGHI as an adjunct faculty member and will continue efforts to build and strengthen the Institute’s research collaborations globally. His primary appointment is at the Duke Divinity School, where he serves as associate dean for academic administration and strategic initiatives and as senior director of research and new initiatives in Leadership Education. He is the principal investigator for the Clergy Health Initiative and two other projects funded by The Duke Endowment that concern the role of clergy and the church in community development in North Carolina. He is involved in a joint effort between Duke Divinity School, DGHI and the Fuqua School of Business to develop leadership and management training for leaders and managers in the health system and in communities in Uganda. Toole will be teaching a course on non-governmental organizations in Africa in spring 2013.
