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FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

Global Health Office

About Us

The Global Health Office (GHO) supports the Faculty of Health Sciences commitment to local, national, and international communities and partnerships.  We promote strategic alliances within the University and with external partners – the broader global health community.

McMaster in the summer

Mission & Objectives

Mission & Vision

McMaster University has been recognized for our deep commitment to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals are designed to address the most serious challenges of our time—and they are fundamental to the work we are doing in the Global Health Office.

Mission

Our mission is to foster a partnership between Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) researchers, educators and clinicians, funding agencies, and global development initiatives to commit university research and education to the service for people’s health worldwide for the mutual benefit of science, health, clinical practice, and human development.

Vision

To advance global health within the Faculty of Health Sciences and the University and to facilitate transdisciplinarity in research and education.

GHO Objectives

  • Increase capacity building in higher education
  • Create long-term mobility opportunities in research and internships for faculty and students
  • Engage in international activities targeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
  • Strengthen existing institutional partnerships and form new ones
  • Support indigenous research and education initiatives
  • Host international delegations and scholars
  • Offer global health education events with a focus on emerging issues
  • Assist with international grants and contract submissions
  • Create next-generation digital and experiential learning environments that align with McMaster’s commitment to internationalization and global citizenship
  • Enhance exposure to international perspectives in all learning environments and promote reciprocal exchanges
  • Support global health research and education
  • Encourage innovation in educational programming that reinforces internationalization

Contributions to the global community

The Global Health Office plays a strategic role in driving and supporting international opportunities in health science education. The following are highlighted examples of our activities:

  • Monitor assessment approaches for Canadian student international experiences
  • Annual speaker series inviting global health experts to speak on campus
  • Contributing to UN SDG’s by developing a leading practices toolkit
  • Hosting more than 500 international delegates from dignitaries and state officials to faculty and student
  • Capacity building initiatives with the High North Fund, Global Affairs Canada and country specific health departments
  • Educational partnerships with global institutions to support higher education programming
  • Engagement with country delegates: Embassies, High Commissions, Ambassadors and Trade Offices
  • Encouraging WHO Collaboration Centres by collaborating with PAHO/WHO and participating in initiatives
  • Annual International Interdisciplinary Summer Institute to advance participants’ knowledge in health science education and facilitate experiential learning
  • International Activity Compendium: an online inventory of the university’s research and scholarly activities with global involvement and impact

Annual Reports

History of the Office

Over a decade ago we conducted a survey of the international offices within faculties of health sciences at various institutions worldwide and noted they were adopting a global health vision and nomenclature. With that in mind, the Global Health Office was inaugurated. We continue to follow the growth of global health in the major universities around the world.

Staff

Information Box Group

Dr. Andrea Baumann

Associate Vice-President of Global Health, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre in Primary Care and Health Human Resources and Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

David Oldenburger, RN, MSc.

MacGLOBAS Coordinator

Danielle Denwood, CPM, MSc.

Global Health and Communications Coordinator