Introduction to Students for Global Health
What does Students for Global Health do?
SGH is a student group at the University of Oregon devoted to learning about and taking action against poverty-linked healthcare issues across the world. We meet regularly to learn about these problems and raise money or develop action against them.
How does FACE AIDS fundraising work?
SGH is one part of a larger organization called FACE AIDS. FACE AIDS is a national student movement to fight AIDS in Africa, and has over 150 college and high school chapters across the US. Since 2005, they’ve raised over $1.1 million for HIV treatment. SGH functions as a chapter of FACE AIDS. When SGH raises funds, they are sent to FACE AIDS. FACE AIDS then DOUBLES our money through private donations before it is sent to Partners in Health, who provides the rural poor of Rwanda with much-needed medical care, food, and housing.
Why we support Partners in Health
Partners in Health is a world-class organization that has been consistently recognized for its outstanding commitment to care for the sick and poor of the world. They have a unique approach to healthcare: “Everything it takes.” They use a community-centered and holistic health model, recognizing that the main cause of illness is social, political, and economic inequality. In many of the nations they serve, they found that without proper interventions in housing, food, and water quality, interventions in healthcare alone produced sort-lived results, if any. Learn more at pih.org.
What diseases do we focus on?
Joining is simple–all you need to do is come to meetings, learn, and participate in some of our exciting events. Learn more.
Who We Are
Board of Directors
The SGH board changes yearly, based on elections held in the middle of each spring term. All members with regular attendance at general meetings are eligible to vote. The UO operates on a quarter system.
Michelle Leis
Co-Director, Co-Founder | Bio
Caitlin Conrad
Co-Director | Bio
Caitlin is a Junior at the University of Oregon in the School of Journalism. She also works on campus at the Substance Abuse Prevention Program as the Assistant Seminar Coordinator. Her other interests include dance, music and friends. As Co-Director Caitlin is excited to make a name for SGH on campus she believes by working together we can make a change.
McKenzie Becker
Director of Administration | Bio
Angela Kohama
Director of Public Relations | Bio
Hey everyone! I’m Angela and I’m our Director of Logistics and Outreach this fall term, 2009. Kelly Moon will be replacing me for the rest of the year because I’m leaving in January to go to Maharashtra, India for a Development Internship! I’ll be gone until June, and be working in “rural” communities with HIV/AIDs victims, as well as seeing how orphanages, schools, and health care rotations work within the nonprofit sector. I’m a Junior and an International Studies Major, Religious Studies Minor with an interest in India and Africa, as well as Eastern Religions. I also love music festivals and concerts as well as skiing, hiking/backpacking, and swimming. I play piano and toy around with my organ too. My position involves organizing tabling and publicizing/reaching out to U of O students and the Eugene community. I hope you join SFGH-it sounds cliche, but we have a lot of fun!
Advisory Board
Janis C. Weeks
Professor of Biology | Bio
Professor, Department of Biology
B.S., 1975, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ph.D., 1980, University of California, San Diego
Research Interests
Effects of steroid hormones on neural circuits and behavior; synaptic plasticity; programmed cell death; segmental identity
The major focus of our research is to understand how hormones influence the structure and function of individual neurons, from the molecular to the behavioral level. We investigate this issue in the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta (the “white rat of insect endocrinology”), which transforms from caterpillar to pupa to moth in about 6 weeks. More recently, we have expanded our work to include the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster , which offers molecular genetic tools. Insect metamorphosis is controlled by steroid hormones, which alter gene expression in target cells. In response to hormonal cues, individual neurons may exhibit dendritic or axonal growth, dendritic or axonal regression and/or programmed cell death (PCD). These effects underlie the reorganization of neural circuits that produce different behaviors in the different life stages. For example, we’ve determined that steroid-induced changes in neuronal architecture underlie the electrophysiological weakening of synaptic connections during metamorphosis and the accompanying loss of an outmoded larval behavior.
Steroid hormones similarly influence the developing vertebrate nervous system, and steroid hormone receptors are evolutionarily conserved in insects and vertebrates. Our goal is to understand fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms by which steroids alter neuronal phenotype. We address these issues at the level of individually identified neurons and at synaptic connections between identified pre- and postsynaptic neurons with known behavioral functions. Our work on neurodegeneration is relevant to understanding how steroid hormones influence disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease. We use a variety of experimental methods including cell culture of identified Manduca and Drosophila neurons, electrophysiology in vivo and in vitro (e.g., intracellular recordings and voltage clamp), confocal microscopy (e.g., to study structural changes in mitochondria during PCD) and molecular methods (including subtraction-coupled Manduca cDNA microarrays that we printed at UO).
The Weeks lab is committed to diversity and encourages enquiries from women and members of underrepresented groups.
Alex Goodell
Student | Bio
Coming soon.
Partners
FACE AIDS is a national student organization made of over 150 college and high-school campus chapters of which Students for Global Health is an official chapter. These chapters raise money through the sale of Rwandan-made awareness pins. So far, FACE AIDS has raised over 1.2 million for Partners in Health.
Partners in Health (PIH), co-founded by Dr. Paul Farmer and Dr. Jim Kim, is an international global health and social justice organization. PIH works tirelessly to treat those in the developing world. They provide holistic, community-based treatment through a philosophy which they call “pragmatic solidarity.” They work in collaberation with the Rwandan government and the Clinton Foundation to treat HIV, malaria, and TB in rural Rwanda. PIH also works in Peru, Haiti, Russia, and other poor nations. They are based in Boston.
We have a large institutional support from the Robert D. Clark Honors College and its faculty.
Students for Global Health is a University of Oregon student group, and we receive funds from the University of Oregon. We are currently only able to accept applications from current UO students.
The African Studies Program at the University of Oregon is newly created, and now offers a minor. They have strongly supported SGH and have sponsored the 2009 HIV/AIDS in Africa Conference.
Matt Jones
Director of Finance | Bio
Kelly Moon
Director of Logistics & Outreach | Bio
Advisory Board
Janis Weeks Ph.D.
Faculty Advisor | Bio
Alex Goodell
Co-Founder | Bio
Founders
SGH was founded in the fall of 2007 by four Honors College Students at the UO. Inspired by Pulitzer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder’s book “Mountains Beyond Mountains” and moved by four related issues of social injustice (HIV/AIDS, malaria, genocide, women’s reproductive health/rights), the four set out to create a student group that would raise awareness and take action against global issues affecting the poor and marginalized, especially issues regarding basic health and wellness.
Michelle Leis
Co-Director, Co-Founder | Bio
Alex Goodell
Co-Founder | Bio
Katherine Philipson
Co-Founder | Bio
Caleb Owen
Co-Founder | Bio
