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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health has awarded a Gillings Visiting Clinical Associate Professorship to Rohit Ramaswamy, Ph.D., to develop a pilot distance-based learning program for public health professionals around the world.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health has awarded a Gillings Visiting Clinical Associate Professorship to Rohit Ramaswamy, Ph.D., to develop a pilot distance-based learning program for public health professionals around the world.

Ramaswamy, an adjunct professor in the school’s public health leadership program, is president of Service Design Solutions, a consulting firm in Des Moines, Iowa, that partners with nonprofit and other organizations to improve service quality, manage data and institute organizational change.

His two-year award will be used to devise a curriculum and pilot-test an online training program in global health issues for managerial-level public health professionals.

Global health issues have become more complex and technical solutions have become increasingly interconnected with social and cultural issues, Ramaswamy said. As a result, successful skills-building programs must take into account local needs and customs.

“Public health solutions are not ‘one size fits all,’ he said. “How we approach a problem may be similar around the world – we analyze, consider the complex interweaving of economic, social and biological factors – but thinking through what makes a solution work is a local decision.”

“The local organizations will help us understand the skills needed by their public health workers,” he said, “and then we will match their needs with the skills of our faculty. One of the most valuable aspects will be the interchange of information in the program, in that everyone will benefit from the rich experiences and wisdom of our practitioner-students and our faculty.”

The Gillings Visiting Professorship is awarded through Carolina Public Health Solutions, established within the school to manage programs funded by a $50 million gift from Dennis and Joan Gillings.

For more information about Ramaswamy’s appointment, Carolina Public Health Solutions and the Gillings Visiting Professorship, go to www.sph.unc.edu/accelerate.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, (919) 966-7467, ramona_dubose@unc.edu
News Services contact: Patric Lane, (919) 962-8596, patric_lane@unc.edu

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