World Health Day 2026: Global Health at a Crossroads
The University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice’s Susan and Richard Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs invite participants to examine a critical inflection point in global public health. In recognition of World Health Day, this conversation explores how shifts in U.S. global health engagement are reshaping international cooperation, financing, and crisis response.
For decades, the United States has played a central role in setting global health standards, funding research, and coordinating responses to public health threats. As U.S. involvement evolves through reductions in foreign aid, withdrawal from international institutions, and scaled-back programming, new actors are emerging while gaps in support persist. This program will explore which countries and institutions are stepping forward, which populations remain underserved, and what these changes mean for global readiness in the face of future crises.
A reception will follow the program
Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, MD, FACP, Walter L. Palmer Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics; Associate Dean, Global Health, University of Chicago, is an expert in cancer risk assessment and individualized treatment for the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, having developed novel management strategies based on an understanding of the altered genes in individual patients. She stresses comprehensive risk-reducing strategies and prevention in high-risk populations, as well as earlier detection through advanced imaging technologies.
Dr. Olopade is internationally renowned for her expertise in breast cancer, and her research has advanced early detection, treatment, and prevention of breast cancer in women at high risk for the disease. A distinguished scholar and mentor, Olopade has received numerous honors and awards, including honorary degrees from six universities and a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship (“Genius grant”) for “translating findings on the molecular genetics of breast cancer in African and African-American women into innovative clinical practices in the United States and abroad.”
Dr. Olopade has received numerous honors and awards, including honorary degrees from North Central, Dominican, Bowdoin, and Princeton universities. She is also a recipient of the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist and Exceptional Mentor Award, an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship, a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship, and Officer of the Order of the Niger Award. Dr. Olopade is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. She currently serves on the board of directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine, the National Cancer Advisory Board, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Cancer IQ, and the Lyric Opera.
Dean Karlan is the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern Universit and the founder and former president of Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting solutions to global poverty problems. Previously, he served as the chief economist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2022 to 2025.
Margaret Kruk, MD, is a Distinguished Endowed Professor, Health Systems & Medicine, and University-Wide QuEST Center Director, WashU Medicine, where she studies how health systems can improve health and generate trust. Working with colleagues around the world, she develops measures of health system quality and uses implementation science and econometric methods to examine their effects on population confidence and design large-scale health system reforms.
Zaher Sahloul, MD, President, MedGlobal, a nonprofit organization that delivers crucial healthcare to populations affected by crisis and poverty worldwide. A physician dedicated to providing medical and humanitarian aid to those in need, Dr. Sahloul has led medical missions to Syria, Ukraine, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Gaza, Yemen, and Bangladesh.
Doors open at 5:15 pm
If you have any questions about access or to request a reasonable accommodation that will facilitate your full participation in this event such as ASL interpreting, captioned videos, Braille or electronic text, food options for individuals with dietary restrictions, etc. please contact the event organizer.