More than 1,500 global leaders, researchers, policy makers, educators and students from around the world will come together in Washington, D.C. March 14-16 for the fourth annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing the world, including the role of global health in the era of budget cuts.
“We’re at a crucial time point in the role of the U.S. government supporting global health efforts and the role universities are playing in global health” said Thomas C. Quinn, director of the Center for Global Health at Johns Hopkins University. “We are hosting this meeting in D.C. in order to bring the thought leaders of global health together with government leaders in global health.”
A session on March 14 will include a panel with Eric Goosby, head of the new Office of Global Health Diplomacy; Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health; Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control;  U.S. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.); and Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense.
A special session earlier that day will address the role of the NIH in global health research.  And a special panel March 16 involving actress/activist Ashley Judd will address the Crisis in The Sahel, a swath of countries in Africa (Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gambia, Cameroon and northern Nigeria) faced with growing terrorism.