GloCal Health Fellowship

The GloCal Health Fellowship provides aspiring global health researchers with outstanding interdisciplinary education and training in innovative research designed to improve health for populations around the world. A career development fellowship sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center (FIC), this program supports awarded fellows from all 10 UC campuses as well as 22 affiliated international sites across 18 countries. UCGHI manages and supports the GloCal Health Fellowship.

Congratulations to the 2024-2025 cohort of GloCal Health Fellows!

We look forward to sharing their bios and funded projects with you on our new website in November.

Cheyenne Belmont, PhD (UCSF)
Project: Waterborne Resistance Genes and Their Connection to Urinary Tract Infections in Women: Insights for Global Health (India)

Gregory Brown, PhD, MD (UCSF)
Project: Cost-Effective Normalization of Neuronal Dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease (Peru)

Mariah Coley, PhD (UC San Diego)
Project: Soil-Gut Microbiome Associations (SGMA): contributions of household soils to antimicrobial resistance and enteric pathogen infection among children under the age of five years (Kenya)

Kara Faktor, MD, MSc (UCSF)
Project: Impact of an outreach program on reduction of pediatric surgical disease in a refugee population in Uganda

Juan Jauregui, MSW, MPH (UCLA)
Project: Exploring Stigma, Mental Health, and HIV Treatment Engagement Among SGM Young People Living with HIV in Peru

Jeanine Justiniano, MD (UC Davis)
Project: Implementation of a Prehabilitation Program to Improve Liver Surgery in Tanzania

Nashivai Kivuyo, MD, MMed (Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences)
Project: Implementing a multilevel intervention to enhance treatment decision-making and treatment adherence among breast cancer patients (Tanzania)

Arjun M.C., MD, MBBS (St. John's Research Institute)
Project: Feasibility and acceptability of using an Artificial Intelligence chatbot for screening of high school students for anxiety and depression.

Regina Miambo, PhD, DVM (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane)
Project: A One Health approach to access transmission dynamics of Leptospira spp in Matola Municipality, Maputo Province, Mozambique

Daniel Msilanga, MD (Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences)
Project: Assessing the Diagnostic Performance of Point-of-Care (POC) Creatinine Tests for Detecting Renal Dysfunction in People Living with HIV (PLHIV) Attending Care and Treatment Centers (CTCs) in Tanzania

Richard Muhindo, PhD, MPH (Makerere University)
Project: Integrating Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir for HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis into HIV services for sex workers in Uganda

Sumanth Reddy, MD (UCSF)
Project: Tuberculous Meningitis in Lima, Peru: Advancing Diagnostics and Uncovering the Impact of HIV Coinfection on Host Immune Response

Kelly Rutt, PhD (UCLA)
Project: Exploring the Experiences of Coaches in the Coach Mpilo Peer-to-Peer Counseling Program in South Africa

Andrew Semulimi, MBChB (Makerere University)
Project: Preclinical Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Diseases Risk Prediction Models in older People with HIV (PACE-HIV study) in Uganda

Peter Wambi, MD, MPH (Uganda Tuberculosis Implementation Research Consortium)
Project: The role of lung sounds artificial intelligence algorithms to detect severity of pulmonary tuberculosis among children in Uganda

Aracely Zambrano-Romero, PhD (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador)
Project: Irrigation channels as conduits of contamination: A study of Neonicotinoids and microbiological water quality in Pedro Moncayo, Ecuador

Program Overview

The GloCal Health Fellowship supports a 12-month, mentored research fellowship for investigators interested in studying diseases and conditions in developing countries. The fellowship is designed for: US doctoral students (PhD, DrPH, etc.), professional students (MD, DDS, DVM, PharmD, etc.) and postdoctoral fellows, as well as foreign postdoctoral fellows from affiliated international sites in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Ideal candidates will propose research in areas such as, but not limited to:

  • HIV
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Noncommunicable Diseases
  • Global Surgery
  • Cancer
  • Mental Health and Addiction
  • Sexual and Reproductive Health
  • Planetary Health

A wide variety of training sites are available through the GloCal Health Fellowship. All sites have been conducting federally supported research and training for at least three years, have published extensively in major journals, and are committed to training the next generation of global health leaders from within their own country as well as from UC campuses.

Top-tier global health faculty from the UC campuses and international sites mentor fellows in the GloCal Health Fellowship program, thus engaging in rich and enduring experiences that foster scientific and career development in global health research.

Fellows accepted into this program must spend at least 11 consecutive months during their 12-month fellowship at their international research sites. All fellows participate in the UCSF online Responsible Conduct of Research course at the beginning of their fellowship. Pre-doctoral fellows also take the online course in Designing Clinical Research. All fellows must participate in a week-long orientation at the NIH in Washington, D.C. at the beginning of their fellowship.

Application process

Leadership Group

The GloCal Leadership Group provides oversight to the program. All significant decisions are made jointly by the full Leadership Group with advice from the Steering Committee. 

About the GloCal Consortium

The GloCal Health Fellowship Consortium is comprised of four UC campuses:

  • UCSF
  • UCLA
  • UC San Diego
  • UC Davis

They partner with 22 affiliated international sites across 18 countries and Institutes and Centers at the NIH. UC's strength in a range of disciplines such as veterinary medicine, pharmacy, nursing, health sciences, agriculture, environmental sciences and economics gives the GloCal Health Fellowship a vast research portfolio, which we use to train the next generation of global health leaders.

Affiliated Programs

The GloCal Health Fellowship is one of seven consortia that form part of the Launching Future Leaders in Global Health Research Training Program (LAUNCH) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center (FIC). View other affiliated programs.