2018 CUGH Global Health Leadership Awards

Michael H. Merson, M.D., is the Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health and Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Affairs at Duke University. He joined the Duke faculty in November 2006 as the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute and served in thatrole through 2017. In addition, Dr. Merson was Vice Chancellor for Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Affairs from 2010 until 2016.

In 1978, he joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Medical Officer in the Diarrheal Diseases Control Program. He served as Director of that Program from January 1980 until May 1990. In August1987, he was also appointed Director of the WHO Acute Respiratory Infections Control Program. In May1990, he was appointed as Director of the WHO Global Program on AIDS. This Program was operational worldwide and responsible for mobilizing and coordinating the global response to the AIDS pandemic.

In 1995, he joined Yale University School of Medicine as its first Dean of Public Health and as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. In 2001, he was named as the Anna M. R. Lauder Professor of Public Health in the Yale University School of Medicine. From 1999-2006, he also served as Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University, which undertakes research on HIV prevention in vulnerable and underserved populations in this country and abroad.

Dr. Merson has authored more than 180 articles, primarily in the area of disease prevention. He is the senior editor of Global Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies, which is a leading global health textbook in the United States. He recently co-authored the book The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response, which examines the 36-year history of the global response to the pandemic. He has served in advisory capacities for UNAIDS, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, World Bank, World Economic Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has two honorary degrees, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Harriet Nuwagaba-Biribonwoha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH). She is a medical doctor and Rhodes Scholar with a PhD in Epidemiology, working as Research Director at ICAP in Swaziland. She is the Principal Investigator fora CDC/PEPFAR award to strengthen national epidemiological and research capacity in Swaziland, including estimation of national HIV incidence among adults and children; and investigator of record for the HIV Prevention Network (HPTN) protocol 084, investigating the role of injectable cabotegravir in HIV prevention. She is the co-investigator with overall local responsibility to provide technical leadership and oversight for multiple research projects in Swaziland, including clinical trials, observational studies, implementation science.

Dr. Nuwagaba-Biribonwoha established the Health Research Training Program (HRTP), a health research mentorship initiative for local healthcare workers in government departments, which has benefited a total of 30 fellows. She regularly hosts MSPH students on international placements. Previously, Dr. Nuwagaba-Biribonwoha coordinated ICAP research and program evaluations in 8 countries in East and Southern Africa. Before ICAP, she coordinated clinical trials for the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit (MRC-CTU) in the United Kingdom and practiced as a medical doctor in Uganda.

Faith Nawagi was born in Uganda. Currently she serves as the African Representative for the Global Educational exchanges in the Medicines and the Health Professions (GEMx) project, a service of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medial Graduates(EDFMG) in Philadelphia. This project aims at building partnerships across the globe to enhancement exposures to various health systems for medical and students in other health professions through short elective attachments. Prior to that, she served as a study coordinator at Makerere University-Johns Hopkins research collaboration, for an NIH R01 grant that focused on the Effect of Depo-Provera and Tenofivir on Bone Mineral Density among young HIV positive women. With a profound interest in research and partnerships, she has won and implemented 06 mini grants and has built partnerships across the globe with a focus on research, academia and global health. She is currently enrolled in a Masters in International Public Health at Euclid University, Global Health Institute. Prior to that, she underwent clinical Epidemiology training at the University of California San Francisco in 2016 and also acquired a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing at Makerere University’s College of Health Sciences in 2014.