Two researchers from UMB have been awarded a $950,000, three-year grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to create the Global Learning for Health Equity Network.
The network will examine ways to learn from other countries to address health care inequities — a process called “global learning.” The United States continues to lag behind high-resource countries on significant health indicators, including infant mortality, chronic disease, and overall mortality, largely due to health and health care inequities. Interventions designed to eliminate health equity in other countries may also work in local communities in the United States. The grant award comes at a time when the COVID-19 epidemic has illuminated grave racial and social inequities in the U.S., especially in under-resourced communities.
UMB was selected to serve as the organizational home to the Global Learning for Health Equity Network based on the University’s long-standing commitment to health equity, community-engaged research, global health, and global learning. Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD ’11, MS ’05, BSN ’04, CRNP-Neonatal, FNAP, FAAN, (left) associate professor and chair of the Department of Partnerships, Professional Education, and Practice at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and Virginia Rowthorn, JD, LLM, associate professor, University of Maryland Graduate School, and assistant vice president for global engagement, UMB, are co-principal investigators on the grant.