Global Health Grand Rounds
Sponsored by University Hospitals Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health in collaboration with University Hospitals Health Services Research Center and Case Western Reserve University Andrew B. Kaufman World Medicine Pathway.
The Global Health Grand Rounds is a free virtual event open to the academic community on the second Tuesday of each month from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. U.S. EST. The session consists of extramural-funded researchers, leaders and renowned experts invited to share their scholarly insights on cutting-edge research and perspectives on global health.
2026 Speakers
Igho Ofotokun, MD, MSc, FIDSA
Dr. Ofotokun is Chair of the Department of Medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University and serves as Physician-in-Chief for the University Hospitals Health System. His research focuses on the impact of age-related comorbidities on healthy aging in persons with HIV and leads global collaborations to understand the underlying pathobiology. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and recipient of the 2024 NFID Maxwell Finland Scientific Achievement Award and the 2025 American Academy of Microbiology Honorary Diversity Lecturer Award.
Beena Kamath-Rayne, MD, MPH, FAAP
Dr. Kamath-Rayne is the Senior Vice President of Global Health and Clinical Skills at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and a practicing neonatologist at Northwestern University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She oversees the AAP’s global health portfolio, clinical skills training programs and the NICU Verification Program. Her work centers on the development, implementation and evaluation of programs to improve pediatric outcomes worldwide, including Helping Babies Breathe and the WHO Essential Newborn Care course, among others. She has served on the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Neonatal Content Expert Group since 2016. She was inducted into the American Pediatric Society in 2025. Her work has been supported by the Gates Foundation, NIH, and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation.
Matthew Bonds, PhD
Dr. Bonds is Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Co-Founder & Scientific Director of PIVOT, which partners with Madagascar’s government to strengthen health systems serving over 200,000 people. Holding dual PhDs in economics and disease ecology, his research explores the ecology of poverty and health system transformation. His work has been supported by the NIH, James S. McDonnell Foundation, and Mulago Foundation.
Rajesh Vedanthan, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA
Dr. Vedanthan is Associate Professor in the Departments of Population Health and Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Director of the Section for Global Health at the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity. His research focuses on optimizing evidence-based care for cardiovascular disease and building clinical and research capacity in low-resource settings. A Marshall Scholar, his work has been supported by the NIH, American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases.
Elizabeth Brickley, PhD
Dr. Brickley is Director of the Center for Global Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, inaugural holder of the Stephen Berman, MD Endowed Chair in Global Health and Professor in Infectious Disease Epidemiology & International Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her research addresses infectious and environmental exposures during pregnancy and early childhood across more than 30 countries, informing interventions for polio, Zika, and leprosy. She has served on WHO advisory committees on vaccine safety and global polio monitoring.
Gregory Valentine, MD, MEd, FAAP
Dr. Valentine is Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington. His research examines maternal infection and inflammation, particularly periodontal disease, and its impact on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, while developing affordable innovations for resource-limited settings. He serves as a WHO consultant on antenatal corticosteroids and Every Newborn Action Plan, with work supported by the NIH and Thrasher Foundation.
Melissa Bauserman, MD, MPH, DTM&H
Dr. Bauserman is Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and U.S. Principal Investigator for the UNC-Kinshasa School of Public Health partnership within the NICHD Global Network for Women and Children’s Health Research. Her research focuses on malaria in early pregnancy, fetal growth, and stunting, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was elected to the American Pediatric Society in 2025. Her with work has been supported by the NIH and Gates Foundation.
Christine Ngaruiya, MD, MSc, DTM&H
Dr. Ngaruiya is Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University and directs the Stanford Emergency Medicine International Global and Population Health Section. Her research addresses noncommunicable diseases, barriers to care, and implementation science, with a focus on Africa. Her work has been supported by the NIH, Gates Foundation, USAID, World Bank, and American Psychiatric Association.
Sudha Jayaraman, MD, MSc, FACS
Dr. Jayaraman is Professor in the Department of Surgery and Director of the Center for Global Surgery at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on trauma systems and injury epidemiology in Uganda and Rwanda. She serves as a Board Examiner for the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa and was awarded the Cliff C. Snyder MD Far Eastern Presidential Endowed Chair (2023) and the J. Englebert Dunphy Visiting Professorship at UCSF (2025). Her work has been supported by the NIH, NIHR, and Rotary Foundation.
Prabhat Jha, MD, DPhil
Dr. Jha is Professor and Head of the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on large-scale epidemiological studies of major causes of death in low-resource settings and randomized intervention trials. His work informed the global tobacco control treaty signed by over 180 countries and quantified malaria mortality, leading to vaccine trials. A Rhodes Scholar, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (2012) and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.
Anne CC Lee, MD, MPH
Dr. Lee is Levinger Family Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Founding Director of the Global Alliance for Infant and Maternal Health Research at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School. Her research focuses on perinatal epidemiology and interventions to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality globally. She invented the Bili-ruler, a non-invasive tool for screening newborn jaundice in low-resource settings. She was elected to the American Pediatric Society in 2022. Her work has been supported by the NIH and Gates Foundation.
Hema Magge, MD, MS
Dr. Magge is Senior Officer for Innovation to Scale on the Africa Health team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she leads efforts to integrate high-quality clinical service delivery for women and infants. From 2020 to 2024, she directed strategic investments in global newborn health before transitioning to her current role focused on scaling innovations in Africa. Previously, she served as Executive Director for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Ethiopia. Her work emphasizes health system improvement, implementation research, and equity-driven program design.