Assistant professor of global health at the University of Maryland Graduate School seeks to redefine the meaning of leadership in global health through innovative educational approaches.
This is the latest in a series from the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) highlighting a student, faculty, or staff member. Read previous DAC Spotlights.
Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán, MD, MSc, is an assistant professor of global health at the University of Maryland Graduate School whose work seeks to redefine the meaning of leadership in global health through innovative educational approaches.
Faerron is the director and co-founder of the Centro Interamericano para la Salud Global (CISG) in Costa Rica and is also the Graduate School’s director of Global Health Programs. He is associate director of the Planetary Health Alliance at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Costa Rica and the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Faerron began his career as a primary care doctor in a rural area of Costa Rica, where he worked closely with migrant and indigenous populations. He follows a framework of equity in health and human rights as guiding principles and firmly believes in progress in health through community empowerment, action and research, and participatory education.
At the University of Maryland, Baltimore he has been involved in the planning of two high-profile initiatives: the Global Health Summit held in May and the Global Health Master’s Program offered by the Graduate School.
When asked what his key takeaways were from the Global Health Summit, Faerron stated, “We built this summit in order to better understand power that has been historically built on colonial attitudes and how it has influenced the way education happens. We wanted to bring a diverse set of voices, actors, and scholars to ask one question: How does power influence different educational practices?
“Global health by definition encompasses equity, diversity, and inclusion. Equity is the cornerstone of global health. We rely on the expertise of many disciplines but specifically the expertise of local health experts doing global health work. The field tries to promote inclusivity of the voices that are not traditionally heard in health practice, people such as community leaders, advocates, and citizens. If we include these voices, we can better solve global health problems,” Faerron said.
“If we continue to teach global health leaders how to think with an inclusive mind, the future of global health will be in good hands,” he said. “The Global Health Master’s Program offered by the Graduate School will present a wide offering of scholarships to students from sub-Saharan Africa attending this program that they would not typically have access to.”
Faerron earned his medical degree at the University of Costa Rica and his MSc in International Health at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Additional studies include social justice at the International Institute for Health and Development in Scotland and social innovation for health at INCAE Business School. He is a fellow of the Central American Healthcare Initiative.