Sheila Leatherman has been named the first Gillings Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. The professorship is part of Carolina Public Health Solutions, a program established through a gift from Dennis and Joan Gillings.
Leatherman, a research professor in the school’s department of health policy and administration, has professional experience that stretches across the breadth of public health and health policy. Currently she is reviewing the impact of the Labour Government reforms on health care quality in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). For her work during the past decade with the NHS, she was named an Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
“Professor Leatherman is known internationally for the quality of her work on complex public health issues,” said Peggy Leatt, Ph.D., chair of the school’s health policy and administration department. “She is one of the world’s leaders in improving the policies that guide the way we operate and administer health care – in both developed and developing countries.”
Leatherman spends much of her time as a research professor evaluating and analyzing health care systems and issues throughout the world. The Gillings Visiting Professorship will provide the means for her to focus a portion of UNC’s public health research on microcredit and its impact on global health. Microcredit is a strategy for advancing small loans – as little as $100 or less – to individuals in order to reduce poverty and foster self-sufficiency. The visiting professorship will begin on July 1, 2008.
Carolina Public Health Solutions Web site: www.sph.unc.edu/accelerate
School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, (919) 966-7744 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu