‘Torch bearers of hope’: Brown marks launch of Center for Global Health Equity with student research showcase

Brown students, medical residents, and postdoctoral fellows from across the University showcased research into global health challenges and health equity, and also helped mark the official launch of the Center for Global Health Equity, at Tuesday’s Global Health Research Day.

The evening event featured a poster session highlighting student and trainee research on topics like vaccination rates, health care access, and drug-resistant disease. Mukesh Jain, MD, dean of medicine and biological sciences, praised their work as “the very best of what academic medicine and global health research can be,” and a testament to the goals of the new center.

“This new center is a culmination of years of dedication, vision, and collaboration, and really reflects our belief that global health is not a side effort—it’s central to our mission in academic, medicine, and biomedical research,” Jain said.

Among this year’s award winners was Kenneth Daici '25, who won Best Undergraduate Abstract. For his study on the perceptions of experiences of emergency medical care among Spanish-speaking Latin American immigrants in Providence, he interviewed 15 immigrants about their beliefs about what to do when sick or injured. He found many were hesitant to seek care out of their home, and face barriers in everything from cost to language. 

One of the findings Daici found interesting was the source of the participants’ health care information. “Many people heavily rely on social networks. This makes sense because as immigrants coming to the US, they may not know anything,” he said. “The ones that do know anything are friends, family, and people that speak the same language.”

Because of this heavy reliance, Daici posited that health officials and clinicians could more efficiently reach these prospective patients through the same channels.

“There is a growing need for employing existing social networks to better educate this population,” Daici said.

Nick Gibson '24 MD'28 won Best Graduate/Medical Student Abstract. He found that PrEP use among male sex workers in Mexico may, paradoxically, increase certain risky sexual behaviors like condomless sex. 

Gibson examined a study of 110 male sex workers who were HIV negative, who were given questionnaires about their sexual behavior every three months along with a supply of PReP. He advocated for larger implementation studies and acknowledged the study’s limitations.

“This is self-reported data and there can be a recall bias that comes with that,” he said.

Abebe Fola, PhD, a researcher in the Bailey Lab, received the Post-Doc Abstract award for his study of the rising prevalence of resistance mutations in a malaria parasite in Ethiopia. The emergence of drug-resistant and undetectable malaria is a major challenge, as the disease is endemic in 75 percent of the country, with 65 percent of the population at risk. His findings indicated a “rapid spread of mutation and gene deletion across the country,” and he called for close examination of emerging drug- and diagnostic-resistant strains.

Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Global and Public Health at McGill University, delivered the keynote presentation, which oscillated between harsh realities and cautious optimism in the face of growing inequities in global health. He argued that the field itself is inequitable and built on charity, rather than justice, and the influence of the Global North is disintegrating abruptly.

Part of the solution lies in a shift in power and leadership to the Global South, he said. Pai promoted “allyship” in the form of offering equitable policies that grant greater Global South representation and self-reliance. The Global North shouldn’t assert themselves solely as leaders, but as mentors for future leaders in the Global South, he said.

“We cannot be leaders on a problem that is not impacting us,” Pai said. “Global South institutions need to have their own destiny in their hands.”

Pai called for decentering global health conferences from unaffected regions, and noted the challenges presented by the rise of far-right ideologies and the erosion of democracy among Global North nations. But he pointed to the students in the room as a major source of hope.

“You young people are the torch-bearers of hope,” Pai said. “I believe most young people innately have a stronger moral compass.”