Area of Focus: Global Health

A woman pushes a wooden raft with a goat and child on it

Our Commitment to Global Health

As a global university and as a reflection of Georgetown’s commitment to social justice, our focus on global health centers on achieving health equity for the most vulnerable populations of the world and ensuring global health security. Faculty and students from the School of HealthSchool of Nursing and the School of Medicine carry out our work as part of the university-wide Global Health Institute, which serves as a platform for facilitating collaboration and supporting research, teaching and service in global health and for developing concrete solutions to the health challenges facing families and communities throughout the world.

There are a broad array of global health research, education and service programs across the university. Our D.C. location facilitates opportunities to forge additional partnerships and alliances.

Research Activities

Center for Global Health Practice and Impact (CGHPI)
CGHPI seeks to advance the use of evidence through a human-centered approach and support countries’ efforts to improve the health of their populations, safeguard their communities against health-related threats, and ultimately achieve health equity. CGHPI’s programs focus on increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of public health interventions that seek to alleviate major causes of illness for millions of people around the world, with a particular emphasis on marginalized groups. The center supports countries in engagement from the community to international levels to optimize the use of evidence to inform public health programming, and to narrow the gap between research, policy and practice.

Center for Global Health Science and Security (CGHSS)
Established in 2016, CGHSS develops evidence for action, providing decision-makers with the tools they need for sustainable capacity building to prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. CGHSS incorporates expertise in epidemiology, microbiology, virology, animal and human health systems, demography, economics, finance, statistics and law.

Center on Medical Product Access, Safety and Stewardship (COMPASS)
Housed at the medical center, COMPASS works across disciplines to develop innovative solutions for U.S. and global access to safe, sufficient and effective medical products that address the world’s pressing public-health challenges.

Edmund D. Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics
Housed at the medical center and established over two decades ago, the Center for Clinical Bioethics fills a unique need for bioethics that is directly oriented toward clinical medicine and strongly rooted in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition.

Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD)
The center was established over four decades ago to improve the quality of life for all children and youth, especially those with, or at risk for, special needs and their families.

Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH)
Based at the medical center, this institute works to expand family planning choices, advance gender equality, and include communities in reproductive health interventions through partnerships with international and local organizations.

Educational Opportunities in Global Health

Four women stand together with Iguazu Falls in the background

School of Health graduate students on the Masters of Health Systems Administration (MHSA) program’s annual MHSA global experience visit Iguaçu Falls in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

BS in Global Health
This degree, offered by the Department of Global Health within the School of Health, trains students in the fields of public health, political economy of health, health science, and health systems management.

MS in Global Health
This multidisciplinary, university-wide program is based on an interdisciplinary and development-oriented approach to global health with a strong focus on quantitative, qualitative and applied social sector research in developing countries.

MS in Health Systems Administration
This program, housed in the School of Health, offers a global Experiential Seminar focused on comparative health systems.

MS in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases
This master’s program, offered by the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Medical Center, trains students in biodefense against natural and man-made threats and disease agents.

MS in Global Infectious Disease
An interdisciplinary degree program, the MS in global infectious diseases prepares students to address the spread and treatment of infectious diseases through laboratory and population science. The GID program is the only master’s level program in the United States to offer an opportunity to train in infectious disease modeling.

Current Global Health Research News