VICTOR J. DZAU DISTINGUISHED LECTURE IN GLOBAL HEALTH

A Conversation with Dr. Agnes Binagwaho and Dr. Paul Farmer

Global health crises require global responses. But in the effort to control COVID-19, rising tides of nationalism have threatened collective action and deepened health inequities for many countries. In the face of these challenges to global health solidarity, the Duke Global Health Institute presents a probing discussion with two of the world’s preeminent global health experts –Dr. Agnes Binagwaho and Dr. Paul Farmer – on how the world failed to cooperate to fight the pandemic and how to chart a new vision to achieve health equity.

This interactive webinar will span two continents, with our featured speakers appearing at the University of Global Health Equity in Butaro, Rwanda. Dr. Gavin Yamey, professor of the practice of global health and public policy, will moderate the conversation from Duke, fielding questions from the online audience. Attendees will join using Zoom webinar, space permitting.

Register now to watch the lecture virtually.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Agnes Binagwaho, M.D., Ph.D., is the vice chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity in Kigali, Rwanda, an initiative of Partners in Health which focuses on changing how health care is delivered around the world by training global health professionals who strive to deliver more equitable, quality health services for all. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Binagwaho served as Rwanda’s Minister of Health from 2011-2016. She held previous positions with the Rwandan Health Service as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health and executive secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission.

Dr. Binagwaho currently serves on the Africa CDC Strategic Advisory Group of Experts and the Wellcome Global Monitor. She is a member of the Commission for African COVID-19 Response and serves on numerous boards of directors, including the Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees and the board of the Consortium of Universities in Global Health. She is a member of a number of international scientific committees, working groups and task forces in global health for organizations such as the United Nations and the Africa Europe Foundation.

Dr. Binagwaho completed her M.D. at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and her M.A. in Pediatrics at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Rwanda College of Medicine.

Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer, M.D., Ph.D., has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world's poorest people. He is co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health, an international nonprofit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer is chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he serves as the Kolokotrones University Professor. He is also a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Farmer is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Bronislaw Malinowski Award and the Margaret Mead Award from the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award from the American Medical Association, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and, with his PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also the subject of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World.”

Dr. Farmer graduated from Duke in 1982 and has served as a Duke University trustee, as well as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Duke Global Health Institute.

ABOUT THE LECTURE SERIES

The Victor J. Dzau Distinguished Lecture in Global Health is the highest-profile annual event sponsored by the Duke Global Health Institute. The lecture was established in 2017 with a gift from Victor J. Dzau, former chancellor for health affairs at Duke University and currently the president of the National Academy of Medicine, along with matching funds from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.