The University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI) is pleased to announce four travel grants awarded to UW faculty and staff members. With partial support from the Division of International Studies, these grants are awarded to GHI affiliates to support international travel related to educational or research activities, including development of global health courses, initiation of field experiences and field research which pertain to the mission of the GHI. Preference was given to proposals that address important global health issues, have an interdisciplinary focus, have potential for ongoing relationships with the host site and offer tangible educational or research benefits. The review panel selected the following outstanding submissions that characterize initiatives that the Institute seeks to support.
Congratulations to the UW Global Health award recipients! We look forward to presentations of their projects at future GHI seminars.

Thomas Friedrich, PhD
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Pathobiological Sciences
UW School of Veterinary Medicine
UGANDA
Project: “I plan to travel to Kibale National Park in Uganda in February 2012 to help build an international, multidisciplinary collaboration to understand “pre-emergent” zoonotic diseases. I will work to bring together an international, multidisciplinary team of investigators to understand the mechanisms by which zoonotic viruses emerge in human populations, and assess the risks posed by primate viruses to local populations in Uganda.”

Nancy E. Mathews, PhD
Professor, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Director, Morgridge Center for Public Service
CHINA
Project: “This travel is in support of a collaborative, interdisciplinary program to develop environmental education curriculum, at the 4th and 5th grade levels, in Weining, Guizhou Province, China. The collaboration builds on a 15 year partnership between the Cao Hai Nature Reserve and the International Crane Foundation, and more recently with the Nelson Institute and the Morgridge
Center for Public Service. The longer term goals include: building a field biology program for Chinese students, a biodiversity monitoring research collaboration and service learning program.”

Tally Moses, MSW, PhD
Associate Professor
UW School of Social Work
UGANDA
Project: “This award helps fund a trip to Uganda to prepare for a study on depression, mental illness stigma, and coping among Ugandan adolescents (to be initiated in the Fall of 2012). The aims of the study are to develop an understanding of youths’ expression of symptoms, illness and treatment perceptions, stigma experiences, coping strategies, help-seeking, social support and community responses. This work will then be used to explore ways to adapt evidence-based interventions for depression (in the West) for the needs of Ugandan youth and in the context of modest resources.”

Audrey Tluczek, PhD, RN
Associate Professor
UW School of Nursing
MALAWI
Project: “I would like to explore potential research opportunities for me to expand my own program of research by assessing the needs of children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi. I will also evaluate the feasibility of a global health learning experience for undergraduate and/or graduate students in nursing and other health sciences. Potential learning activities would involve increasing student skills in the application of transcultural theories of communication and clinical practice to the assessment of children and families affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”