Afnan Siddig, M.D., a student in DGHI's Master of Science in Global Health program, discusses her research with attendees at the 14th Annual Global Health Research Showcase. (All photos by Chris Hildreth/Rooster Media).
Published October 28, 2025, last updated on October 31, 2025 under Education News
Evelyn Nuñez might not have expected that her global health education would involve so much thinking about teeth. But after spending eight weeks assessing pediatric oral health on Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras, she has a new appreciation for the central role dental care can play in overall health.
“This project was really impactful for me because oral healthcare is one of the biggest global burdens of disease,” said Nuñez, a junior at Duke majoring in neuroscience and global health.
Nuñez was one of four Duke undergraduate students who traveled to Roatan this past summer. The students worked with Clínica Esperanza, a nonprofit medical clinic that provides free or low-cost care to the island’s mostly low-income residents, to evaluate the effectiveness of a new mobile clinic that sets up in communities across the island to offer free dental services to children. According to the students’ research, more than half of the children served by the mobile clinic had never visited a dentist, illustrating the need for more accessible oral health care on the island, which is home to around 80,000 people.
DGHI director Chris Beyrer, M.D.,...
The study was one of 47 student research projects presented at the Duke Global Health Institute’s 14th annual Global Health Research Showcase, which was held Oct. 27 in the Mary Trent Semans Center’s Great Hall. The free-flowing event shone a spotlight on research performed by undergraduate and graduate students in global health, with topics spanning a broad range of public health issues – from enhancement of surgical systems in low-income countries to environmental factors influencing the spread of malaria to the risks of heavy-metals exposure among auto mechanics.
The students’ posters showed off research completed with community partners in 21 countries, including places such as Kenya, Peru, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, which have longstanding ties with DGHI, as well as projects in new locations, including Iraq, Japan and South Sudan. Several students presented work focused on health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations in the U.S., including communities in North Carolina.
“This event is always a wonderful opportunity to hear from our students about the work they are doing and the important connections and experiences they are gaining through our education program,” said DGHI director Chris Beyrer, M.D., at the event. “It’s also a remarkable testament to the breadth and reach of our institute, giving us reasons to feel inspired about the many ways this community is working to take on health challenges and advance health equity all over the world.”
The projects on display represented the work of more than 70 Duke students, including 35 second-year students in DGHI’s Master of Science in Global Health program, who were presenting preliminary results from summer research projects that will become the backbone of their thesis research. More than two dozen undergraduate students presented research projects that fulfill the experiential learning requirement of the Duke global health major, which can include participation in team-based programs such as Bass Connections or DGHI’s Student Research Training program.
From left: Duke undergraduate students...
Bailey Wallace, a global health master’s student, shared her project using machine learning to predict hotspots of air pollution in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, an urban center that often has among the worst winter-time air pollution in the world. She noted that chronic exposure to air pollution puts residents in the Mongolian capital at higher risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as heightened vulnerability to seasonal illnesses.
“I wanted to do this work because hopefully it will help guide air pollution policy and resource allocation for local public officials,” Wallace said.
But while such real-world impacts are always the aim of academic research, Showcase is also an occasion to celebrate the transformative experiences students often have by participating in field-based projects. Many students cited the life-changing perspective of just spending time in the communities they studied, working alongside community members to understand their priorities and values.
“I felt like we were really involved in the community in a lot of ways, which was awesome,” said Luke Flyer, a senior psychology major who was part of the team evaluating oral health on Roatan.
Quinn Gerard, an undergraduate student majoring in biology and evolutionary anthropology, raved about the opportunity to join a research team in Madagascar, where she worked on a project seeking to understand how pathogens move between livestock and subsistence farmers who tend to them.
This was an incredible experience,” she said. “I got to work with an absolutely amazing team in Madagascar. I learned so much and I can’t wait to see how the rest of this project pans out."
All of the Showcase posters, along with additional information about the students’ projects, mentors and community partners, are available via the Showcase project index.
Showcase Research Poster Awards
Showcase posters were evaluated by a panel of judges, all graduates of DGHI’s Master of Science in Global Health program. Posters were scored on research aims and methods, the clarity of the project’s presentation and conclusions, and visual appeal and creativity. This year’s winners are:
Graduate Student Posters
First place:
Lexi Nussbaum
Frontline Voices: Maternal and Child Emergency Care in Northern Tanzania
In this project, Lexi sought to examine barriers to effective emergency care for maternal, child and neonatal patients in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. Lexi led focus group discussions with healthcare workers to document both structural limitations, such as staffing shortages and resource constraints, as well as the emotional and psychological stress providers face in responding to emergencies. While there have been system-level studies of gaps in emergency care in low- and middle-income countries, Lexi’s research provides a more personal, case-specific narrative that can help inform strategies to improve both patient outcomes and provider resilience.
Second place:
Afnan Siddig
Afnan’s project was part of a larger initiative to establish a registry of patients with pediatric traumatic brain injury in Nigeria, which will be a first-of-its-kind tool to help track and improve health outcomes for children with traumatic brain injuries. Afnan performed a retrospective review of pediatric TBI cases to assess gaps in care and conducted interviews with healthcare providers, caregivers and policymakers to explore how to integrate mental health indicators into the registry. By prioritizing mental health alongside surgical outcomes, Afnan’s research seeks to shine light on the often under-recognized mental health effects of brain injuries among children in low-resource settings.
Undergraduate Student Posters
First place:
Isabella Banan, Natalie Jones and Anushka Peer
These students spent eight weeks visiting auto mechanic shops in and around the capital city of Ghana, conducting qualitative interviews and holding educational workshops on measures auto workers can take to protect themselves and their families from exposure to toxic materials. In addition to distributing protective equipment and documenting health symptoms among auto mechanics, the team identified gaps in knowledge about the health risks of exposure to toxic materials and the steps mechanics can take to prevent them, which will help inform future outreach campaigns, as well as efforts to advocate for policies to provide more protection for these vulnerable workers.
Second place:
Wigdan Hissein
Development of a Gastroschisis Simulation Model to Enable Surgical Task Sharing in Uganda
Wigdan’s research was part of a team project to develop a simulation model for nurses and midwives to learn how to manage cases of gastroschisis, a congenital birth defect in which infants are born with bowels protruding outside their bodies. While the defect can be corrected with surgery, cases are often not detected prior to birth in low-income countries, leading to preventable deaths. In this project, Wigdan and fellow students developed, piloted and evaluated a low-cost training model that was used to train healthcare providers in Uganda and Rwanda on interventions to protect infants’ organs until surgery can be performed.
