Health Diplomacy Training Institute
Thank you for your interest in the Center for Global Health Science & Security, Health Diplomacy Training Institute. Our inaugural programs were held in June 2023 and we are grateful to all of trainers and attendees for helping to make our first year a resounding success!
Preliminary information for our 2024 institute is available below. Please check back regularly, as we plan to update this page with more information in the coming months. We look forward to seeing you in May 2024!
Are you interested in exploring the relationship between global health issues, international affairs, and national security or gaining new technical programming skills from leading global health experts? If so, join us for the Health Diplomacy Training Institute from May 20-June 7, 2024. During this intensive three week training initiative, students and professionals from diverse industries may choose to enroll in one or many programs offered jointly through Georgetown University and the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security.
Programs Offered
SEST 556: Global Health Security & Diplomacy (3 Credits)
May 28-June 6, 2024, Mornings
Instructor: Rebecca Katz, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Global Health Security and Diplomacy will explore the interconnection between foreign affairs, national security and global health issues such as pandemic preparedness and response. This seminar will examine the role of diplomacy and policymaking processes in addressing global health issues including the development of national foreign policies for global health; the establishment of treaties and international agreements; negotiations with public, private and philanthropic players; and governance of international organizations and public-private partnerships. In this course, the student will seek to understand the role that diplomatic and political processes play in shaping global health programs, policies and operations through readings, discussion, simulations and lectures.
Data Science Basics in R (1 credit)
June 3-7, 2024, Afternoons
Instructor: Stephanie Eaneff, M.S.P.
This course will build literacy and basic proficiency in statistical programming, with a focus on the skills needed to conduct data analyses in professional healthcare and public health workspaces. We will cover the basics of data management, data cleaning, data visualization, and basic statistical calculations in R, and version control in github. Participants will leave with a small portfolio of relevant data visualizations and analyses completed using a real‐world public health dataset.
Bioeconomy
May 21-23, 2024, Mornings
Instructor: Ryan Morhard, J.D.
In September 2022, Jake Sullivan—President Biden’s national security adviser—stated that the U.S. government expects biotechnology to play an “outsized importance over the coming decade” in the context of geopolitical competition, because of the ability to “read, write, and edit genetic code, which has rendered biology programmable.” Driven by governments and businesses looking to meet emissions reductions targets, maintain resilient supply chains, ensure food security, and further reduce reliance on fossil fuels, experts anticipate that, by the end of the decade, biotechnology could be used extensively in manufacturing industries that account for more than a third of global output—a shade under $30 trillion in terms of value. To compete during the computer revolution, countries developed new national security and economic strategies to address the geopolitics of information—all indications are that world leaders will need to similarly adapt to the biotechnology revolution. This 3.0 credit course introduces students to key trends and technologies, considers some of the major applications and geopolitical implications, and provides practical experience and insights for international affairs and the emerging bioeconomy.
Business in Pandemics Workshop
May 21-22, 2024
Instructors: Timothy Manning and Rebecca Katz
Throughout the global COVID response, the fragility of the global supply chain and worldwide manufacturing capacity were major constraints on the ability of public health communities to respond and control disease spread. While most acute during COVID, these challenges have been replayed repeatedly; shortages created difficulties in the 2009 H1N1 response, the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the 2015 Zika outbreak, and then again in the 2021 M Pox outbreak and baby formula shortages.
This multi-day seminar is designed to bring together industry, non-public health government decision makers, and public health practitioners to explore the seams and joint capabilities to build more effective plans and response approaches for future health emergencies. Through a series of case studies, lectures and group discussions, the seminar will cover both the major theoretical public health approaches to an emerging outbreak, what tools are needed and how they would be deployed; how to model out the required volume, distribution, logistics, and timelines for deployment, how the private sector might respond to the needs and challenges, and what non-health government support might be needed. We will then explore the manufacturing and private sector management elements of making those tools and getting them into the hands of responders. Finally, we will discuss the major policy levers and their limitations as well as and innovative approaches to support, such as the Defense Production Act, industrial mobilization, and public-private partnerships.
Data for Policy, Policy for Data
Dates TBA
Instructor: Ellie Graeden, Ph.D.
Data is both a critical tool for policy makers and governed by that same policy. This new graduate level course will focus on how policy can be documented and captured as data, transformed for use in quantitative analysis for modeling for health, and how that same policy-as-data process can be used to define the policy environment for global health. On the flip side, data privacy policy, health data policy, anti-trust policy, and the latest regulations on data use in artificial intelligence are changing how we can collect and use data. Addressing both data as policy and policy for data, students will learn to design a data structure for policy, use that policy data in a mini-capstone research effort, and then write a paper describing how those data would be influenced or affected by current data policies globally.
Students are expected to have prior experience in either Python or R, and be able to independently build and combine datasets, perform analysis, and produce simple figures presenting the results.
Applications and Financing
For more information on the courses listed above, pricing, and to express your interest in attending the Institute, please fill out this interest form.
Courses offered for credit will be available to current Georgetown students through the registrar beginning in Spring 2024. These courses will also be offered for non-credit seeking participants. Workshops are open to all interested participants.