Kentucky
Academy of Science Kentucky
Academy of Science 
"Human Schistosomiasis - A Journey from Immune Responses to Mass Drug Administration"
Dan Colley, PhD Dan Colley is a University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor of Microbiology and Director of the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases. He is also a past Director of the Parasitic Diseases Branch of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dan has worked extensively in collaborative studies on the immunology of human parasitic infections in Brazil, the West Indies, Egypt, and for the last 17 years in Kisumu, Kenya. Most of his research has been focused on the regulatory checks and balances of immune responses during chronic parasitic infection. In 2008, Dan received a $19-million award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to find ways to identify, control and eliminate schistosomiasis in Africa, the Middle East and the South America. The consortium, known as the Schistosomiasis Consortium for Operational Research and Evaluation, involves partners from around the world. Dan has received numerous awards and honors in his field, and in July, 2012 he was chosen as the recipient of the Distinguished Life Sciences Scientist Award sponsored by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the U.S Chamber of Commerce. The Foundation is a Federal government agency established by Congress to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind."
"Lessons Learned Through Global Health Research in St. Lucia, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya and CTEGD"
Dan Colley, PhD (See bio above)
"Integrating Undergraduates in Substantive Global Health Research Projects: Lessons from Kenya"
Associate Professor of Biology Western Kentucky University
Western Kentucky University
Nancy Rice is an Associate Professor of Biology at Western Kentucky University. At WKU, Nancy has developed the Partners in Caring: Medicine in Kenya (PiC:MiK) program, now in its fifth year. The program’s aim is to stimulate global health awareness in pre-medical undergraduate students through hands-on international medical service-learning and research experiences. Currently, Nancy and her students are examining the molecular mechanisms that lead to the high prevalence of essential hypertension (EH) in rural Kenya. Funded through a KBRIN-AREA award, her lab is testing the hypothesis that salt-sensitive EH is prevalent in Kasigau, Kenya as a result of polymorphic and/or epigenetic modifications of the renin-angiotensin gene system, the key hormonal pathway that regulates blood volume and pressure. These studies will provide key epidemiological and genetic information that will be directly translatable into prevention, treatment, and control of hypertension. Long-term, Nancy hopes to use the results to impact the development and implementation of cost-effective therapeutic interventions that should have broad application for lowering the chronic disease burden in Kenya and other developing countries.
"Perspectives on the Evolving Roles and Responsibilities of Academic Institutions in Global Health"
Associate Director CommunityHealth Initiatives,
Associate Professor of Nursing,
Vanderbilt University Institute for Global Health
Carol Etherington is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University and Associate Director of Community Health initiatives for Vanderbilt University’s Institute for Global Health. She has worked with traumatized populations in urban and rural areas around the globe. She established one of the first police based counseling programs in the nation within the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department and has worked throughout the U.S. during times of natural and man-made disasters including earthquakes, hurricanes, school shootings and New York City post 9/11. Carol first served on an international emergency medical team in the aftermath of the Pol Pot genocide. In the early 90s, she completed four missions in war-torn Bosnia and since 1996, has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Bosnia, Poland, Honduras, Tajikistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Angola and in the Darfur refugee camps of Eastern Chad. She has been honored with the International Red Cross¹ Florence Nightingale Medal (1997/98), received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Hampshire in 2004 and was named Distinguished Alumna of the Year by the Vanderbilt Alumni Association in 2007. Since 2008, Carol has worked with the Vanderbilt institute for Global Health, teaching and mentoring interdisciplinary graduate students who are pursuing projects and careers in community health, global health, disaster response and caring for victims of violence.
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