To celebrate the UW School of Public Health’s 50 years of impact, the School is recognizing 50 alumni from around the world who have a demonstrated record of distinguished service and achievement across public health disciplines and settings. These 50 Changemakers of Public Health are leaders, trailblazers, educators, innovators, influencers and health equity heroes that represent just a slice of the School’s community of more than 10,000 alumni worldwide who are addressing some of the most pressing population health issues of our time.

This year, the UW Department of Global Health (DGH) welcomes 68 new graduate students. These newest Huskies hail from Seattle and across the USA, as well as international students from 13 different countries (Cameroon, Guinea, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Peru, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe).

Born during the Second Congo War, Sabrina Ebengho grew up in Équateur​ province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before immigrating to the United States at the age of 13. Sabrina  is now pursuing her education at the University of Washington, and is among the first undergraduate Public Health-Global Health majors completing the Global Health option. In the future, she seeks to improve access to quality healthcare for all in the DRC and beyond, focusing on women, adolescents, and children’s health, and education.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Bill Gates Sr., who played a pivotal role in the creation of our UW Department of Global Health (DGH) in 2007, and continued to be a staunch and vocal advocate for the Department and our work to improve health and health equity around the world.  DGH was launched through a generous gift and endowment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that he spearheaded. 

The University of Washington MetaCenter for Pandemic Preparedness, a collaboration of scientific experts from 11 UW organizations, has announced today that the initiative will change its name and will be known as the UW Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness, effective immediately. The renaming reflects the evolution of the initiative and its vision for the future.

Jake Ellison, UW News

When a vaccine to fight COVID-19 has been approved by the FDA for distribution, it’s unlikely that at first there will be enough doses for everyone. Consequently, the United States will need an equitable and effective plan for who gets those first doses, how they get them and who’s next.

Just as important, that plan — like the vaccine itself — has to be trusted and accepted by the general public.

On October 1, the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) celebrated the launch of the local and independent Botswana Training and Education Center for Health (B-TECH) and Caribbean Training and Education Center for Health (C-TECH).

For the founder of the Vaccine Confidence Project, squashing viral rumors means building trust — and avoiding the term “anti-vaxxer.”

By Jenny Anderson, NYTimes

UW Medicine, Fred Hutch scientists will jointly test whether the monoclonal drug can prevent infection among people exposed to COVID-19.

Researchers at UW Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are jointly testing monoclonal antibodies created by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to prevent COVID-19, and are starting to recruit patients.