Professional Education Exchanges

The Columbia University Global Health Research Center of Central Asia organizes and facilitates short- and long-term educational exchange at Columbia University School of Social Work and other partner Universities and organizations.

Current Exchanges

  1. In January 2009, on invitation by GHRCCA, Dr. Anna Skosireva, Visiting Researcher, visited the New York office at Columbia University to conduct research and discuss her work with GHRCCA Director, Dr. Nabila El-Bassel. During her visit, Dr. Skosireva was able to connect with other Columbia University faculty/researchers and learn more in-depth information about their projects.
  2. Three Open Society Institute fellows are interning with the Center in 2008-2009: Elmira Imambakieva, Sholpan Primbetova, and Katerina Lukicheva. Elmira and Sholpan are graduate students from Columbia University School of Social Work. Katerina is a graduate student from Washington University School of Social Work in St. Louis. All three interns are from Central Asia, thus creating a mutual process of knowledge exchange.
  3. This summer, GHRCCA staff in Central Asia will host three Columbia University interns. Wilber Yen, First-Year School of Social Work Graduate student will be working in Kyrgyzstan this summer on Project Shield. Annie McMillan, Mailman School of Public Health Masters student, will spend six months in Kazakhstan working on the Silk Road Study with migrant workers. And Grace Zhou, a Junior Linguistics major concentrating in Anthropology and Slavic Studies will utilize her Russian for work with GHRCCA in Kyrgyzstan.
     

Past Exchanges

  1. The Kazakhstan Ministry of Health is supporting 20 health professionals to attend five weeks of courses at Columbia University related to Health Policy and Management. Courses taught by faculty from the Columbia University's School of Social Work and the Mailman School of Public Health include bioethics, biostatistics, health services, and epidemiology.
  2. The Astana, Kazakhstan, City Health Department is supporting four health professionals for a one-week site visit focusing in integrated systems of care.