Student Alliance for Global Health sets speaker series

The Student Alliance for Global Health (SAGH) will mark its 25th anniversary this year with its first speaker series.
The four-session series begins the week of March 22 and will feature a variety of medical health professionals who are impacting global health locally and abroad.
The series will include:
March 22, 4:30-6 p.m.: Gina Wilson-Ramirez, MD, and Steve Pergam, MD
In their first year of medical school at UNMC, Drs. Wilson-Ramirez and Pergam created SAGH and organized the first SAGH medical service trip in March 1996. As SAGH celebrates 25 years of continued service in the local community and abroad, the architects of the group will share their wisdom and advice to all those who have a passion to explore and experience global health.
March 24, noon-1:30 p. m.: Nicholas Comninellis, MD
Dr. Comninellis is dean and president of the Institute for International Medicine (INMED), located in Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Comninellis practiced medicine at the inner-city Shanghai Charity Hospital for more than two years and for two years in war-besieged Angola in southern Africa. After six years of practice in Kansas City, he launched INMED in 2003. Dr. Comninellis will share insights into what global health might look like after COVID-19.
March 25, noon-1:30 p.m.: Elizabeth Rogers, MD
As a UNMC medical student, Dr. Rogers served as president of SAGH and sought out numerous global health activities and experiences during her training. In her current position at the University of Minnesota, her clinical work and research focus is on local low-income and minority patient populations, and she is a founding board member of the non-profit group Minnesota Doctors for Health Equity. Dr. Rogers will be speaking about her experiences serving patients with social vulnerabilities.
March 26, noon-1:30 p.m.: Christine Ngaruiya, MD
Since her early medical training, Dr. Ngaruiya has devoted great efforts to developing and implementing novel interventions targeting individuals from underserved populations, with a particular focus on health disparities. In addition to serving on the SAGH board and leading a SAGH border-health medical service trip as a medical student, Dr. Ngaruiya developed Bridge to Care, an organization that continues to help underserved groups receive medical care in the greater Omaha area. Now a physician at Yale University, she focuses on East Africa, Kenya in particular. Dr. Ngaruiya will share several case studies to highlight stories from her studies and medical practice in areas with limited access to care.
The series can be accessed via Zoom using meeting ID 923 2967 0254 and passcode 657129.