MEDIA Schiff

Global Health & Other International Stuff.

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Romney’s foreign policy plan is called “An American Century.” It’s certainly an evocative phrase, but its placement on his campaign website is a little unfortunate. Africa: An American Century. China & East Asia: An American Century. Are we getting ready to invade?

Romney’s foreign policy plan is called “An American Century.” It’s certainly an evocative phrase, but its placement on his campaign website is a little unfortunate. Africa: An American Century. China & East Asia: An American Century. Are we getting ready to invade?

Filed under Mitt Romney foreign policy

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Why a School of Tropical Medicine is Opening in the USA

My latest for UN Dispatch highlights the launch of the Houston-based National School of Tropical Medicine’s first diploma course:

It’s a significant development because until now, the U.S. really hasn’t had a whole school devoted to understanding these kinds of medical issues (though some institutions do offer coursework on the topic). For the most part, doctors and public health professionals had to head to Europe to develop medical expertise in this area.
But perhaps the bigger issue has to do with physician training in this country. Hotez pioneered research, which found that thousands of people in the U.S. — and not only immigrants — suffer from these conditions. Often neglected tropical diseases affect the poorest members of society. But doctors aren’t trained to detect or treat these diseases. Patients either go undiagnosed or receive incorrect treatment.

Filed under global health health care medicine Houston National School of Tropical Medicine

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Foreign Policy’s Male-Heavy Twitterati List

Foreign Policy released its annual Twitterati list yesterday. 

Many people have noticed the very low number of women on the list. By my count, there are 14. Here are the women who appeared on this year’s list:

Eman Al Nafjan (@Saudiwoman)

Liz Sly (@LizSly)

Lydia Polgreen (@lpolgreen) 

Jean Lee (@newsjean)

C. Christine Fair (@CChristineFair)

Hiroko Tabuchi (@HirokoTabuchi) 

Anne-Marie Slaughter (@SlaughterAM)

Rebecca MacKinnon (@rmack) -

Christina Larson (@larsonchristina) 

P.J. Aroon (@pjaroonFP) 

Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) 

Megan Greene (@economistmeg)

Matina Stevis (@MatinaStevis) 

Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari)

Now a group of tweeps are crowdsourcing a list with the missing women. 

UPDATE 7:29AM EST: @aliisiningo identified another women on FP’s list — @techsoc. So make that 15. 

Filed under Twitter foreign policy Twitterati women gender

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Harvard’s Nieman Foundation Dims its Global Health Light

When Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism released the names of the 24 fellows for the 2012-2013 academic year with nary a mention of its Global Health Reporting Fellowship, one was left to wonder whether the program had been cut all together.

Thankfully — for those who appreciate thorough reporting on global health issues — this is not the case.

Stefanie Friedhoff, special projects manager at the Nieman Foundation, says Harvard has no plans to end the fellowship.

But this will be the first time since the Global Health Reporting Fellowship started in 2007 that Nieman will not host a single fellow in global health.

In 2010, the global health program — which traditionally selects at least one U.S.-based journalist and one non-U.S. journalist — did not include a U.S. participant.

“This happens every once in awhile with some of the specialized fellowships. It has to do with the applicant pool in any given year, and how it all shakes out,” according to Friedhoff.

Although there is no global health fellow this coming year, Friedhoff points out that health and science journalist Jeneen Interlandi was selected to study the history of pharmaceuticals. Another fellowship winner, Jane Spencer, international editor at large for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, will examine how to improve news coverage of global women’s issues — but the focus will be on using new technologies for digital storytelling rather than field reporting.

The current class has two global health fellows: Samuel Loewenberg, a freelance journalist who specializes in global health, and Rema Nagarajan, an assistant editor at The Times of India.

It’s also worth noting that this is the first class of fellows to be selected under the oversight of Ann Marie Lipinski, a former Chicago Tribune editor, who became the foundation’s curator in April 2011.

Is this the start of a shift in priorities at Nieman under Lipinski’s leadership? Only time will tell of course, but the selection committee did interview Global Health Reporting Fellowship candidates and had adequate funding for the year.

It just decided not to award any fellowships this year.

Filed under Harvard global health journalism health

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Why the Global Health Council folded, and what’s next

My latest piece for Devex. An excerpt:

Twenty-twelve marks an important year for the Global Health Council — 40 years since it was founded.

But instead of celebrating that milestone, GHC will shut its doors in the coming months and forgo its annual conference for the first time since 1973.

The council’s announcement Friday, April 20, that it will cease operations leaves a vacuum in the global health community. Described as the professional association for groups involved with global health and the convener of the community, GHC members will be left without a neutral broker, inviting questions about what went wrong and what comes next.

The simplest explanation for why the council is shutting its doors is money. GHC’s operations were largely funded by membership dues in the 1980s and ’90s, but the organization relied more heavily on grants over the last few years, including a three-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant that made up the majority of GHC’s budget.

Filed under global health Gates Foundation Global Health Council nonprofits