Watch the Global Health Night 2022 Main program, including the keynote lecture, below.
Global Health Night is an annual event held by McGill Global Health Programs (GHP) that brings together and celebrates the achievements of McGill's thriving global health community.
In 2022, we were thrilled to welcome Dr. Teguest Guerma, CEO and founder of LeDeG Midwifery College in Ethiopia, as our keynote speaker.
The event was held in person at New Residence Hall with the option to view it online from anywhere.
Before the keynote lecture, the Student Poster Fair provided attendees with the opportunity to learn about the work of McGill students and groups involved in global health, including GHP's student award winners.
Agenda
November 9, 2022 - New Residence Hall Ballroom
- 4:00 - 6:00 PM Student Poster Fair (in-person only)
- 6:00 - 7:30 PM Main program, including a keynote lecture from Dr. Teguest Guerma, Founder and CEO of LeDeG Midwifery College in Ethiopia. The main program was live-streamed on Youtube.
| Time | Item | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 4 p.m. | Student Poster Fair | |
| 6 p.m. | Welcoming Remarks | Christopher Manfredi, Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic), McGill University |
| Opening Remarks | David H. Eidelman, Vice-Principal (Health Affairs), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University | |
| Global Health Programs Update | Charles Larson, Director, McGill Global Health Programs | |
| Keynote Address: “Improving reproductive health through education: community health and global health” | Teguest Guerma, CEO and Founder, LeDeG Midwifery College (Ethiopia) | |
| Q&A with Keynote Speaker |
|
|
| Closing Remarks | Timothy Evans, Inaugural Director and Associate Dean, McGill School of Population and Global Health and Associate Vice-Principal (Global Policy and Innovation) | |
| 7:30 p.m. | End of Program | |
Student Poster Fair
Part of Global Health Night is our annual student poster fair, where students and residents can showcase their work. It is a great way to meet students and faculty working in the global health field and share your project.
Keynote Lecture
We were pleased to welcome as our keynote speaker Dr. Teguest Guerma, CEO and founder of LeDeG Midwifery College in Ethiopia. Dr. Guerma's presentation was titled: Improving reproductive health through education: community health and global health.
Dr. Guerma linked community health and global health by discussing the LeDeG Midwifery College, a charitable organization she established in Ethiopia. The college trains rural and disadvantaged girls who will go back to serve their respective communities at the end of their studies. She will also present the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Center: a social enterprise linked to the LeDeG Midwifery College for financial sustainability.
Prior to the keynote lecture, McGill GHP Interim Director Dr. Charles Larson provided a brief update on current and future GHP activities.
About our Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Teguest Guerma is the Founder and CEO of LeDeG Midwifery College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Before founding the Midwifery College, Dr. Guerma was the first African woman Director General of Amref Health Africa, an NGO serving communities in over 35 countries, from 2010 to 2015. Before joining Amref, she worked for the World Health Organization (WHO) for 21 years. Most notably, she was Associate Director and later Acting Director of the WHO’s Global HIV and AIDS Department in Geneva, where she co-led the WHO 3x5 Initiative that made antiretroviral treatment available to HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries. She was also the WHO Africa representative to the UN Headquarters in New York, a WHO representative in Nepal and Botswana, and the WHO HIV/AIDS Regional Advisor for Africa, where she developed the first HIV/AIDS Regional Strategy for the continent.
After a career spanning over 30 years in public health, Dr. Guerma returned to Ethiopia in 2015, after 42 years away, to pursue her dream of supporting women in her home country. With her personal retirement funds and extensive experience, she established the LeDeG Midwifery College to train disadvantaged rural young women to become midwives who return to their communities to serve and help reduce maternal and infant mortality.
Dr. Guerma was Commissioner of the UN Commission on Life-saving Commodities for Women and Children and received the highest medal of merit from the government of France: Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur. She is a member and past president of the Rotary Club, a member of the McGill Global Health Programs International Advisory Council, and a board member of the St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Ethiopia.
Dr. Guerma holds a medical degree with a specialization in infectious diseases and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Great Britain. She is the author of an autobiography entitled “Let Her Die” and is the mother of two and grandmother of three.
