The Global Health Summit planning team extends our deep gratitude to everyone who attended and participated in the UMB Global Health Summit: Decolonizing Global Health Education May 25-27. We were gratified by the active chat, fearless questions, and stark personal experiences shared during the summit. But the conversation doesn't end here. We believe this is a new page for global health education at UMB.

Our role now is to continue to be allies for all the courageous people who elevated their voices during this summit to advance our thinking around this topic. These ideas need to be translated into action, going beyond metaphor and discourse. We have all taken a commitment towards this and we hope to have concrete results in months/years to come.

"Decolonizing global health education will require much more than simply existing as what we currently define as 'good people.' It requires hard reflection and critique – personally, institutionally, and structurally – of what currently is.

 

Decolonization is not a final destination. Rather, it is the continual acknowledgment of the indispensable work that must be done for health equity and health care accessibility to become the permanent realities of this world."

 

Lindsey Mathis, Class of 2022

UM School of Medicine Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences