Global Health Impact Report 2024-2025

DEPARTMENT OF POPULATION HEALTH

IMPACT REPORT JULY 2024 – JUNE 2025

Sharing Our Story: the 20232024 Inaugural Report for the Division of Global Health

Letter from the Global Health Division Chief

Dear colleagues, partners, learners, and friends,

This year’s Global Health Impact Report reflects the power of partnership to advance health equity across borders. Through the Division of Global Health at Dell Medical School, our faculty, learners, and collaborators are working alongside communities in Central Texas, Kenya, and Mexico to strengthen health systems and expand access to care.

As a member of the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) Consortium, our work is grounded in long-standing relationships with partners including Moi University and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kenya, and Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Fundación Comunitaria de Puebla, and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico.

Together, we integrate care, education, and research to address some of the most pressing health challenges facing underserved communities. Over the past year, these collaborations translated into tangible impact. In Puebla, our AMPATH/MAPAS México team trained community health workers and medical trainees to deliver multidisciplinary health outreaches for hundreds of patients and households, while increasing cancer, diabetes, and hypertension screening and linkage to care. In Kenya, Dell Medical School faculty and nurses worked alongside colleagues at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, expanding access to complex cardiac surgery and strengthening specialty care in fields such as neurology, pediatrics, and palliative medicine. And across both sites, students and trainees engaged in bidirectional exchanges that are shaping the next generation of globally minded health leaders.

None of this work happens alone. It is made possible through the commitment of our partners and the generosity of supporters who believe in a future where geography and circumstance no longer determine health.

Together, we are building a model of global partnership that not only improves care today but also strengthens the systems and leaders who will sustain healthier communities for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Tim Mercer, M.D., MPH, FACP

Associate Professor

Chief of the Division of Global Health

Departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine

Dell Medical School | The University of Texas at Austin

What is AMPATH?

Dell Medical School is part of the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) Consortium led by Indiana University, a global network of 17 universities, and four partner sites in Kenya, Ghana, Mexico and Nepal with a shared vision to ensure health for all. AMPATH improves the health of people in under-resourced communities by working in partnership with academic health centers, Ministries of Health and community partners to strengthen public sector health systems and promote health and well-being for all. Guided by the principle of leading with care, AMPATH:

• Delivers and sustains effective health care services,

• Reduces health disparities and addresses social determinants of health,

• Develops and strengthens human capacity through training and education,

• Advances research that improves health

• Strengthens partner institutions.

In 2018, Dell Medical School joined the AMPATH Consortium as both a participating member of AMPATH Kenya and the lead institutional partner to adapt AMPATH in Mexico — translated in Spanish as Modelo Académico para Proveer Acceso a la Salud (MAPAS). With a focus on training, providing care and strengthening health systems in the state of Puebla, AMPATH/ MAPAS México currently directly reaches a combined population of nearly 3,000 in rural communities through an academic partnership model.

Together, community-based organizations, government health systems, and public health experts lead training and research collaborations from a public university partner with wide reach across the region.The entire state of Puebla, home to over 6 million people, is an ideal partner site in its parallels to health priorities in Central Texas, including:

• Preventing and addressing diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, maternal health and mental health;

• Overcoming lack of access to medicine and affordable primary care;

• Training and mentoring the primary health care workforce.

AMPATH Kenya-Based Partners AMPATH/MAPAS México-Based Partners

• Moi University : This public university in Eldoret, Kenya began a partnership with Indiana University in 1989, eventually co-establishing AMPATH in 2001.

2025 AMPATH Partner Summit: Journey to Health

Equity: In April 2025, UT Austin and BUAP hosted representatives from Consortium members and partner sites in Nepal, Ghana, Kenya and Mexico, as well as corporate partners, at the AMPATH Partner Summit in Puebla. From sharing collaboration opportunities to experiencing local community health initiatives, partners compared solutions to common challenges and worked together toward building a shared vision of global partnership to ensure health for all.

• Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH): Founded in 1917, MTRH is Kenya’s second national hospital, a multispecialty international hospital that serves over 25 million people in Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a key player in the Kenyan government’s Vision 2030 Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.

• Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP): Puebla’s largest state institution was founded in 1578. BUAP’s Facultad de Medicina (school of medicine) serves as the partnership’s co-lead, consisting of undergraduate programs in medicine, nutrition, physical therapy, and allied health fields, training over 7,000 students and over 1,500 post-graduate trainees in medical specialties or master’s degrees. The AMPATH partnership includes collaborations with the BUAP schools of nursing, psychology, and the department of informatics and computational science.

• Fundación Comunitaria de Puebla (FCP) and Fondo Mónica Gendreau (FMG): These local organizations leverage longstanding relationships and trust with rural communities and are key facilitators for collaborative health outreach and engagement.

• Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (INSP): Mexico’s national institute of public health is committed to service by offering research results to relevant public health challenges, preventing and controlling diseases and training health professionals to promote healthy living.

DIVISION OF GLOBAL HEALTH AT A GLANCE

The Division of Global Health in the Department of Population Health at Dell Medical School focuses on leveraging education, research, and service to improve health outcomes in under-resourced communities worldwide. Its initiatives intersect the missions of Dell Med and Texas Global at The University of Texas at Austin to cultivate globally minded leaders, improve overall health outcomes in Texas and global partner communities, and build cross-disciplinary collaboration to address social and structural determinants of health. As a key member of the AMPATH Consortium, the Division’s partnerships span Central Texas, USA; Eldoret, Kenya; and Puebla, Mexico.

27 Active Faculty

18 Mexico UT Working Group Collaborators

9 Kenya clinical faculty, trainee supervisors and research team leads

7 Dell Medical School Departments

Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Internal Medicine Medical Education Neurology Pediatrics Population Health Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

10 UT Colleges, Schools, and Units

College of Education

College of Natural Sciences / Department of Nutritional Sciences

Dell Medical School

Latino Research Institute

School of Nursing

School of Social Work

Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS)

Texas Global College of Engineering

Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)

Mexico: Mexico: $3.4M+ in awarded and active grants: Astellas Pharma, Inc.

Dell Medical School Health Transformation Research Institute, CHEER

Eli Lilly & Company

Office of the Vice President for Research Scholarship and Creative Endeavors (OVPR), Bold Incubator Grant

Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, Title VI

Texas Global, Global Virtual Exchange Initiative

Texas Global, Internationalization Event Fund

Kenya: $259K+ in awarded and active grants:

Michael and Susan Dell Foundation OVPR, Bold Incubator Grant

Texas Global, Faculty Research Seed Grant Thoracic Surgery Foundation

18 UT Working Group Collaborators

2 UT PhD Candidates

1 UT Staff

CLINICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES IN MEXICO WERE COMPLETED BY: cumulatively: 21

9 Dell Med Residents & Fellows

3 Dell Med Students 17 BUAP Working Group Collaborators

CLINICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES IN KENYA WERE COMPLETED BY:

9 UT Faculty

23 Other Clinical Team

7 Residents & Fellows

2 Dell Med Students

2 Moi School of Medicine Students cumulatively: 10 cumulatively: 5

CARE

CARE KENYA

collaborations with MTRH colleagues toward improving care in internal medicine, palliative care, adult and pediatric neurology, pediatric emergency medicine, cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery.

Internal Medicine

In her fourth year of engagement with AMPATH Kenya, Dr. Clarissa Johnston continues her collaborative palliative care work, from rounding at MTRH and Webuye Hospitals, to supervising residents and students in patient care and education, to supporting the buildout of Moi’s new palliative care fellowship program.

Pediatrics

Continued collaboration with MTRH counterparts on quality improvement led to implementing clinical pathways in the pediatric emergency department, and enhanced training for registrars and medical staff in point-of-care ultrasound and critical care.

Pediatric neurology fellow Dr. Catherine Kronfol participated in Dr. Dave Clarke’s epilepsy outreach grant in Kenya, rounding at Moi and in clinics, and delivering lectures on topics including epilepsy, stroke, movement disorders and neurological exam skills.

Neurology

Six providers from Dell Med’s adult and pediatric neurology care teams traveled to Kenya, most of them repeat visitors, to collaborate with their Moi colleagues in providing neurological care to patients at MTRH. The team included Dr. Ethan Meltzer, now one of the leaders in the new AMPATH neurology working group, who reported caring for 54 patients in eight workdays of consults and outpatient visits.

“Amazing experience! Highly recommend to any other residents or students who are interested. We hope to invite the Kenyan registrars to some of our didactics moving forward.”

– Dr. Catherine Kronfol

Cardiology/Cardiothoracic Surgery

As part of an ongoing heart surgery collaboration between Dell Med, Indiana University, Duke University, and MTRH, Dr. Rob Neely co-led a team of over 25 Austin based nurses and clinical specialists to Eldoret in three trips between the summers of 2024 to 2025 to perform complex procedures and build counterpart capacity in cardiac surgery.

AMPATH Partners Expand Complex Valvular Heart Surgery Capacity at MTRH

CARE MEXICO

From conducting home visits and leading health outreach events, to training community health workers and building pipelines for early cancer detection, the team’s work in Mexico moved far beyond clinical settings and into underserved communities.

Our Care Team

• Led by AMPATH/MAPAS México’s Partnership Director and Clinical Lead, Dr. Rebecca Cook, the AMPATH/MAPAS México care team consists of UT clinical faculty, BUAP faculty, pasantes and promotores comunitarias de salud.

• A pasante is a Mexican medical student in their final social service year who has completed classroom and clinical training, while a promotor/a is a lay member of the community trained as a community health worker.

Jornadas - Multidisciplinary Community Health Outreaches

The care team collaborated with local communities and health clinics, BUAP, and FCP/FGM to provide multidisciplinary health outreaches in four communities. They reached patients with crossfunctional teams, including internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, ultrasound, nursing, pharmacy, nutrition, physical therapy, psychology, and dental.

Impact of Jornadas Integrales - Community Health Outreach Events

July 2024–June 2025

Program Aims to Address Non-Communicable Diseases in Underserved Communities Through Training, Screening and Access to Care

# Jornada Health Outreach Events

5

# People Received Multidisciplinary Clinical Care

681

# People Reached with Health Education

1001

53 # People Referred to for Further Care

# People Trained to Provide Care

681

(Pasantes, Promotoras, Primary Care Providers, Community Members)

CARE MEXICO

Promotoras / Community Health Workers Training

The promotoras / community health worker model is an essential feature of community engagement. From June 2024 to May 2025, the care team provided promotoras with five capacity-building workshops to address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and cancer prevention and early detection, including knowledge assessments, role-playing, communication skills and confidence building.

Medicine Donation Drive

BUAP AMPATH/MAPAS México colleagues launched a donation drive to support medication needs for health outreach and care activities. Limited access to essential medicines remains a major challenge in the communities served. Through these biannual drives, over 1,000 units of unexpired medications have been collected and distributed to the AMPATH/MAPAS México care program and local community clinics.

Cancer Early Detection and Referral Initiative

The AMPATH/MAPAS México care team trained 20 pasantes and primary care providers and 26 promotoras in cancer education, screening, and referral. The promotoras in turn conducted 135 household visits, reaching 420 individuals with health education about cancer, conducted cancer screening, and made referrals as necessary. They then administered pre- and post-tests to evaluate community members’ understanding of breast, cervical, and prostate cancer to increase engagement in preventive healthcare visits.

From baseline the project has demonstrated the following:

33% increase in cancer and health promotion knowledge.

105% increase in cervical cancer screening.

244% increase in clinical breast exams and breast cancer education.

150% increase in preventive health care seeking behavior in adult men.

Clinical Team Home Visits

EDUCATION

EDUCATION KENYA

Learners from Dell Med and Moi University strengthened clinical and intercultural skills through counterpart relationships and faculty-led clinical exchange electives in Eldoret and Austin, emerging as future leaders in global health.

Dell Med’s Bilateral Student Exchange Elective with AMPATH Kenya

In August-September 2024, two visiting Moi medical students participated in clinical rotations in pediatric neurology, cardiac surgery, adult cardiology, palliative care, child psychiatry, addiction medicine, and street medicine. Dell Med faculty involved in ongoing work in Kenya hosted them on their respective clinical teams and facilitated their weekly global health classes.

“I particularly loved getting to show Moi students around Austin and then getting to see them again in Eldoret! And I continue to grow in my cultural humility: I was expecting differences in culture when engaging with patients during the rotation at MTRH, but I was surprised by some of the cultural differences in medical education and medical care provision.”

— Dell Med student, Lauren O’Neal

dissection.

“I got to observe two pediatric heart surgeries, the second being a heart transplant. The sight of a newly transplanted heart start beating slowly from a complete stop to normal pace is a memory that will linger for a long time...this opportunity, if anything has strengthened my resolve, and I am now hoping that I will go into internal medicine, and then cardiology. I have also been able to meet various doctors who I hope to continue to receive mentorship from, even in the future.”

— Moi School of Medicine student, George Bryan Omondi Oluoch

“The most memorable experience during my stay in Austin has been the opportunity to participate in patient care from admission to discharge of an epileptic patient with SturgeWeber syndrome in pediatric neurology. This allowed me to appreciate the multidisciplinary approach in medicine, [and] also gave me a chance to witness a fascinating neurosurgical procedure — a temporal lobectomy — as part of the treatment. This has sparked a new interest in pediatric neurology, a field I previously knew so little about. It has inspired me to pursue further training in this area, with the hope of applying these insights to management of neurological conditions in children in Kenya.”

— Moi School of Medicine student, Silas Nyambega

EDUCATION KENYA

In spring 2025, two fourth-year students, four residents, and three fellows traveled to Kenya to participate in the month-long clinical elective Global Health at AMPATH Kenya and to continue building counterpart relationships and training programs alongside Moi University.

There’s a lot of value in the AMPATH initiative. A lot of people in Western Kenya have benefited directly from the care that this program has afforded them. This program has also allowed a good number of students — me included — to improve their knowledge during student exchange programs.”

— Moi School of Medicine student, George Bryan Omondi Oluoch

“It honestly feels like this trip is a superconcentrated version of intern year: new environment, steep learning curve, and high expectations. It’s been intense, but also a period of real personal growth. I feel like I’m getting a taste of what surviving as an intern will feel like. One of the highlights this week was having dinner with some of the Moi students... Mobisa and Glory taught us how to make chapati and beef stew. It was such a fun and warm evening, and one of those moments where you really feel the beauty of cross-cultural connection.”

— Dell Med student, Jensen Gary

Faculty Engagement at AMPATH Kenya

In Spring 2025, 9 Dell Med faculty traveled to Kenya to provide supervision and deliver training for Dell Med, Moi and other AMPATH students and registrars, from hands-on Point-of-Care Ultrasound sessions, Grand Rounds lectures, Fireside Chats, and other presentations. They drew their clinical care work into ongoing educational partnerships at MTRH including the new palliative care fellowship curriculum, and QI training for pediatric residents.

Global Health Student Ambassadors Elective

To support the visiting Moi students in fall 2024, three Dell Med students participated in the second annual Ambassadors enrichment elective, providing professional and personal peer support during their time in Austin. Together, the five students shared a weekly global health equity class to swap lessons learned on health systems from their respective countries, facilitated by Dell Med faculty involved in longitudinal projects at AMPATH Kenya.

One of this year’s Ambassadors, Roba Abousaway, presented at the 2025 Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference in Atlanta, Georgia on this innovative peer-to-peer global health education model, which won the best student poster award. Another student, Lauren O’Neal, became the first Dell Med Ambassador to successfully bring the AMPATH exchange full circle by completing the elective in Kenya the following spring.

The Ambassador model is now being adapted and piloted by fellow AMPATH Consortium partner Kaiser Permanente’s Tyson School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California.

“The cherry on top was that we won the poster competition! I had so many people show an interest in the student ambassador program with a hope to implement something similar at their universities.”

— Dell Med student, Roba Abousaway

EDUCATION MEXICO

From Puebla to Austin, multidisciplinary experts and learners from Dell Med and BUAP exchanged knowledge and intercultural acumen for the benefit of patients and communities across borders.

Global Virtual Exchange

The migrant-health focused course, co-taught by UT and BUAP faculty, concluded a fourth successful elective cycle with 40 participating BUAP and Dell Med students, who presented their final collaborative class projects in May 2025.

Monthly Seminars

The Division of Global Health hosted six webinars with BUAP and UT faculty, who shared their expertise in mental health, diabetes, neuropsychology, lung cancer, psychology, and lupus with 433 attendees in the U.S. and Mexico. Event recordings here

Spanish Language and Cultural Immersion Programs

Pediatrics

Six residents participated in a three-week Spanish language and cultural immersion elective in Puebla. Returned residents present their experiences and lessons learned toward enhancing care for Spanishspeaking patients in the U.S. during Grand Rounds at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

Psychiatry

Three residents completed the language and cultural immersion elective in fall 2024. They also completed observerships at the psychiatry hospital in Puebla and supported BUAP faculty by team-teaching medical students in an Intro to Psychiatry class. Upon their return, they presented their lessons learned to the Dell Med psychiatry department.

The Psychiatry Working Group secured funding support to continue this collaborative exchange between BUAP’s medical school and Dell Med’s department of Psychiatry.

STORY

On Psychiatry & Spanish: Trainees in Puebla Add a New Dimension to Language Immersion Elective

Medical Students

Two third-year Dell Med students attended language immersion courses in Puebla and Guatemala to advance their language proficiency. Upon their return, they worked with faculty to submit a formal course proposal at Dell Med, with plans towards future participation in formal AMPATH/MAPAS México programs.

Emergency Medicine

Faculty from the University of Virginia (UVA) and Dr. Tim Ruttan from Dell Med’s Pediatric Emergency Medicine department visited Puebla to collaborate on teaching efforts with BUAP’s paramedic training program in January-February 2025 and a UVA EM resident participated in a clinical short-term exchange at one of the main public referral hospitals in Puebla.

Dr. Juan de Jesus Hernandez, a BUAP emergency medicine faculty member, presented at UVA’s Emergency Medicine Spanish Grand Rounds in December 2024.

School of Nursing Collaboration

In June 2025, the UT School of Nursing hosted a graduate nursing student from BUAP. He worked on his master’s thesis, a joint article with nursing faculty Dr. Julie Zuniga focused on sexual health and STI prevention, a literature review, a concept analysis, and instrumentation development. In between writing, he attended classes and met with Austin-based faculty.

EDUCATION CENTRAL TEXAS

In April 2025, the Dell Med students’ Global Health Interest Group hosted the fifth annual Global to Local conference focused on “Health Impacts of War,” with the support of the Division of Global Health and Dell Med Student Affairs. Over forty in-person and virtual attendees joined discussions and poster presentations on health challenges and solutions from past and active conflict zones worldwide. Invited guest speakers included Dell Med faculty Dr. Aman Odeh and Dr. Greg Muller, the City of Austin’s Ricardo Garay, Texas Health and Human Services’ Tausi Suedi, and Yale School of Public Health faculty Dr. Kaveh Khoshnood.

RESEARCH

RESEARCH KENYA

Research activity with AMPATH Kenya spanned nursing wound care, novel approaches using AI for early detection of rheumatic heart disease, and the establishment of the first-ever neuroimmunology disease registry in western Kenya.

Nursing Collaboration in Wound Care

Dr. Julie Zuniga of UT School of Nursing presented Kenya wound care research at the International Congress of Nursing in Helsinki, Finland in June 2025 and secured funding for six Kenyan nurses to attend.

Cardiology and AI

Dr. Shanti Nulu was awarded two 2024 grants: one from the Office of the Vice President for Research and another from Texas Global to develop an image-based AI model for early identification of rheumatic heart disease with the use of existing echocardiogram data.

Neurology

In 2025, Dr. Ethan Meltzer from Dell Med and Dr. Jamil Said from Kenya applied for funding to establish a registry and biorepository of neuroimmunologic disorders at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, aiming to begin in spring 2026. Neuroimmunologic diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, and other conditions are a major cause of neurologic disability in young adults, yet their burden is unmeasured in sub-Saharan Africa. The planned registry will be a first-in-kind clinical and research model in East Africa for persons with neuroimmunologic disorders. The team aims to build capacity for laboratory testing and local expertise, with the long-term goal to improve treatment of complex conditions.

“ I know that with global health the norm is unexpected challenges... however, I definitely left feeling that it was a valuable use of time and resources.”

– Dr. Ethan Meltzer

(RIGHT)

RESEARCH MEXICO

Through activities from targeted working groups, a grant writing workshop, and seed-funded pilot projects, researchers continued to fortify and share out interdisciplinary learning from Mexican communities via team collaborations and conference presentations.

Working Groups

Diabetes Task Force

In November 2024, Diabetes Task Force Members representing UT, BUAP, INSP and FCP/FMG collaboratively conducted a wider community needs assessment via surveys and focus groups of patients and family members impacted by diabetes, conducting 33 interviews. Findings were then presented at the International Conference in Public Health Research in March 2025 and are being used to inform a subsequent AMPATH/MAPAS México diabetes care intervention. Dr. Julie Zuniga of UT’s School of Nursing also presented findings at the International Congress of Nursing in Finland.

Health Professions Education

The Health Professions Education Working Group implemented a workshop for 30 pasantes on socio-emotional competencies to enhance the quality of patient-centered care. The training increased students’ confidence in their ability to recognize community needs and adapt professional practices to meet local sociocultural contexts, engage in responsible community work and maintain boundaries and personal well-being, and stay motivated and seek help when needed. Results from the project were shared at the Society for General Internal Medicine Conference in May 2025.

Mental Health Education

Dell Med hosted two BUAP psychiatry faculty members and two BUAP psychiatry residents in Austin to deepen their research and education collaborations in the areas of 1) screening and management of depression in individuals living with diabetes and associated NCDs and 2) telementoring strategies such as the implementation of Project ECHO to strengthen mental health care in primary care settings.

Oncology

The Oncology Working Group conducted 55 surveys across one private clinic and two public hospitals (ISSSTEP and IMSS) since January 2025, aiming to survey 300+ patients in Mexico on breast cancer awareness to design an intervention. In November 2024, Dr. Rebecca Cook presented “Building a community-based model for cervical and breast cancer prevention in Rural México” to the Women’s Health Grand Rounds at Dell Med. Results and lessons learned from the AMPATH/MAPAS México “Community-based model of cancer prevention and early detection” were shared at the CUGH Conference in February 2025 and the International Conference in Public Health in Mexico in March 2025.

Nutrition

The team from UT, FCP/FMG, and BUAP concluded their project to address childhood nutrition through an innovative school garden and nutrition intervention. The project included setup of classroom hydroponics and rainwater collection units and building a middle school garden with local teachers, students, and parents. Then the team led monthly school nutrition lessons and met weekly with the school parent/teacher association on gardening activities and maintenance. Community members led all garden maintenance and managed the garden harvests. The teams shared their work in the U.S. at UT’s Department of Nutritional Sciences centennial lecture event, as well as in Mexico where BUAP clinical nutrition undergraduates presented their project teaching experiences in a research summit held at BUAP. The middle school students also entered the garden project in a state-wide school sustainability competition and won second place. The second phase of the project will evaluate the clinical impact of their initial intervention among middle school adolescents and families.

STORY

Planting the Seed: International

Collaborators Kick Off School Gardening & Hydroponics Program in Puebla, Mexico

Health Informatics

Faculty from UT’s TACC (Texas Advanced Computing Center) and BUAP’s DCyTIC (General Directorate of Computing and Information and Communications Technologies) came together to develop the data and health informatics infrastructure needed to support research, monitoring and evaluation, and the clinical care program of AMPATH/MAPAS México.

Mental Health Bienestar

UT faculty contributed to new innovative content in the community psychology and social interventions courses at the BUAP school of psychology. They also facilitated group workshops as follow-up to the Photovoice project in emotional well-being and positive communication strategies for students, parents, teachers and promotoras at the local middle and high school in the catchment communities.

RESEARCH MEXICO

Eco-Stove Implementation

In the summer and fall of 2024, the AMPATH/MAPAS México clinical team with FCP/FCMG conducted home visits in Colonia Agrarista and San Francisco Xochiteopan, made referrals to the health center, and conducted data collection and preliminary analysis on health and air quality impacts of eco-stoves. Results from this project were shared in Spanish at the International Conference in Public Health in Mexico in March 2025 and the Society of General Internal Medicine conference in May 2025.

“ The conference was an incredible networking opportunity as a trainee in that I could showcase my work to a wider stage. I loved connecting with faculty from other institutions who were genuinely excited to hear about our projects at Dell Med.”— Dell Med student, Lauren Contreras

Photovoice

As a qualitative and participatory research method, Photovoice facilitates community conversation and collective input through workshops teaching basic photography. Subjects use and present their photos to answer research questions, participate in focus groups, and inspire change from within marginalized communities. It has featured especially in the team’s mental health-focused research projects in Mexico.

Learning and Dissemination

Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Conference in Georgia, USA – February 2025

Three BUAP pasantes joined three Dell Med students and other AMPATH Global team representatives to present abstracts on care and education initiatives in Mexico – receiving an honorable mention – and two posters: one on the impact of the promotora project on knowledge and early detection of cancer and another on the health impacts of eco-stoves.

CONGISP in Cuernavaca, Mexico –March 2025

At the Congreso de Investigación en Salud Pública, the 900-attendee INSP (National Institute for Public Health) Conference, a collaborative team from Dell Med and BUAP presented four research projects from Puebla: ecostove implementation, cancer prevention and detection in rural communities, and two abstracts on diabetes knowledge and health behaviors.

“ Attending CUGH was transformative for me. I met amazing people and saw work I didn’t even know was possible to do. I have changed my career goals based on this experience and am endlessly grateful for the funding that allowed me to attend.”

Dell Med student, Alia Pederson

Society of General Internal Medicine

(SGIM) in Florida, USA – May 2025

Dr. Rebecca Cook and Dr. Brandon Altillo presented posters on eco-stove intervention in rural Puebla, and educational interventions for BUAP pasantes to improve socioemotional skills and community engagement competency.

BUAP Grant Writing Workshop in Puebla, Mexico – June 2025

Dell Med and BUAP School of Medicine led a workshop for 40 faculty focused on strategies for writing successful grants.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Division of Global Health thanks the following collaborators and supporters for their generous engagement with this year’s wide-reaching efforts in care, education and research:

The University of Texas at Austin, including Dell Medical School, School of Nursing, School of Social Work, College of Education, College of Natural Sciences, College of Engineering, the College of Liberal Arts including the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies, the Office of the Vice President for Research, Texas Global, and Texas Advanced Computing Center.

AMPATH Global, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla Facultad de Medicina and Facultad de Enfermeria, Fondo Mónica Gendreau, Fundación Comunitaria de Puebla, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Kaiser Permanente, University of Virginia, Duke University, Indiana University, Moi University, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, and the Secretaria de Salud.

Astellas Access to Health Initiative, Eli Lilly and Company, the Thoracic Surgery Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and private donors.