[1][2] The Department of Global Health was launched in January 2007 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the state of Washington, and the University of Washington, with a mandate to harness the extraordinary expertise, energy, and creativity of faculty across all 17 UW schools and colleges to create one of the most comprehensive academic global health programs in the world.
The Center for Integrated Health of Women, Children, and Adolescents, for example, includes at least 22 collaborations (13 on campus and partnerships in Kenya, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Peru).
But worldwide, the department works with nearly 250 collaborating organizations, including universities and hospitals, NGOs, government agencies, and ministries of health.
Jim Yong Kim, formerly of Partners in Health and the WHO HIV/AIDS program, was originally a candidate for director of the department, but was not selected.
[6] Those within the process argued that planning was open and that the department would be multidisciplinary and would live up to its stated vision of taking a broad approach to global health.
However, in July of that year it was announced that Merson had been appointed direct of Duke University's Global Health Institute.