You succeeded the founder of CGHE as the director, please share your experience in the last decade.

Dillingham: Succeeding a founder, especially one as dynamic and visionary as Dr. Dick Guerrant might have felt daunting. However, those who know Dr. Guerrant also know that there is nothing that he loves more than seeing his mentees thrive while moving shared ideas and values forward. Over the past ten years, I have always felt supported and inspired by Dr. Guerrant. While leading CGHE, I have relished the opportunity to pursue our shared goal of tackling health inequities through the creation of outstanding student-focused research and training opportunities that invite collaboration across disciplines and require authentic partnership with communities.

What were some of your key achievements at CGHE?

Dillingham: In my time, the team has succeeded in tripling the number of CGHE student scholars who have received awards to engage in global health equity research and community engagement. We could never have achieved this goal without our amazing staff members, April Ballard and Amber Steen, or without the key mentorship of faculty from across Grounds and at UVA at Wise as well as community partners around the Commonwealth and the globe. In addition, transformative support from alumni and friends of CGHE has provided the means to achieve this impressive increase.

Another key achievement has been to expand opportunities for students, faculty and community members to explore issues and imagine solutions related to global health challenges around the world and right here at home, without leaving Grounds. Our Global Health on Grounds series includes an annual student research symposium, regular journal clubs and informal faculty talks, and the Global Health Case Competition (GHCC). I am particularly excited about the GHCC because this year is the 10th anniversary! This is an idea that came from students, continues to be led by students, and typically attracts more than 100 students from five or more Schools across Grounds. The Global Health on Grounds programming connects the UVA community to the health of communities around the world, and it presents invaluable leadership development training opportunities for motivated students committed to global health.

A third achievement, made possible by Dr. Nancy and Dick Guerrant, is the creation of a formal faculty recognition program to identify excellence in global health research and to support its growth. The Richard and Nancy Guerrant Global Health Equity Professor Awards have now recognized five faculty over two years and have provided support for faculty projects related to global health equity. So far, the faculty represent five schools (CLAS, SOM, SON, McIntire, Education) are exploring diverse, timely topics, and are creating new student opportunities as well!

Finally, we are delighted to have a growing group of global partnerships including the AMPATH Consortium, a best-in-class global health collaboration that is facilitating new UVA faculty and student engagement with colleagues in Eldoret, Kenya.

You also worked on an app development for HIV and another for cervical cancer with Emma Mitchell. How did you get interested in work?

Dillingham: I first got excited about mHealth – or the use of mobile phone technology, to support better health care delivery and outcomes –in the early 2000s while working with brilliant Haitian colleagues in Port-au-Prince. I watched my fellow physicians coordinate HIV care in an extremely difficult moment in Haitian history – with flip phones! That got me thinking about how I might adapt some of the ideas and strategies that I saw succeed in Haiti in rural Virginia. The two-way street of innovation and learning is one of my favorite things about global health! Having the opportunity to see solutions in diverse contexts is one of the true privileges of doing global health work.

Over the past ten years, I have had the chance to work with teams to build mobile health platforms to support the care of people with HIV around Virginia, the United States and the globe. We have also adapted our platform for those seeking treatment for opioid use disorder. Currently, we are excited to continue the trend of bidirectional innovation in partnership with colleagues in Nicaragua. These colleagues are committed to supporting women in rural areas and their access to screening and treatment for cervical cancer, a leading killer of woman there and around the world.

What were some of the challenges during this time?

Dillingham: Certainly the COVID-19 pandemic remains a challenge. We scaled back many of our activities, particularly student and faculty travel, from 2020-2022. We are now gearing back up and are looking forward to more in-person connections and experiences. That said, thanks to Marcel Durieux and Tracey Kelly, we also developed terrific strategies for longitudinal remote collaboration, particularly in partnership with the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. Developing this “menu” of options for global engagement has been a positive outcome from a really horrific period.

A second challenge is to continue to work towards improved equity with our global partners. Like us, they have students and junior faculty who desire and would benefit from global engagement.
We need to find ways to make sure that our exchanges of people are not unidirectional. Virtual engagements help with this to some extent, and we need to continue to do more to ensure that our partners have the chance to travel to UVA, for their own enrichment and for the continued globalization of our Grounds.

A third challenge that cannot go unmentioned is climate change. Certainly, there are many at UVA who are focusing important intellectual efforts on how to reverse and/or mitigate climate change. In addition, we must continue to think programmatically about how we minimize our climate impact. Air travel is a high carbon cost activity. I remain a strong believer in in-person engagement, and we need to ensure that it is as meaningful as possible. We must continue to expand our ability to have effective virtual engagement while ensuring that in-person engagements are maximizing student growth and development in concert with global partners’ priorities.

How are your next steps? What are you looking forward to?

Dillingham: Leaving UVA is terribly bittersweet for me. I am so grateful for the opportunities, the adventures, and the people with whom I have worked. I will continue my work caring for patients one by one while remaining committed to developing programs for the most underserved through research and public health implementation. This work will be primarily in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but I am not giving up global completely!

I cannot wait to see what’s next for CGHE. In the aftermaths of the pandemic, we should appreciate the importance of working to end health disparities more than ever. To achieve this goal, we must redouble our commitment to meeting the critical need of preparing our students to take leadership roles in this effort, no matter what their discipline or career. I know that students and faculty members supported through CGHE’s award programs will continue to partner with community leaders and to prioritize bidirectional innovation. I also anticipate that they will envision, pilot and scale new strategies to promote health equity. As the students move on, they will make huge impacts in diverse sectors, just as those whom I have had the privilege to oversee have done. I will be cheering them on, helping when I can, and amazed by what else will come with CGHE that I haven’t even imagined!