Sarah McCool Named Director of Global Health Initiatives at GSU SPH

New position builds upon school’s extensive record of international collaboration

ATLANTA – Sarah McCool, a global health and development expert with a proven record of international teaching, scholarly and community collaboration, has been named Director of Global Health Initiatives at the Georgia State University School of Public Health.

In this newly created position, McCool will lead efforts to expand the school’s global network of research collaborators and cultivate partnerships focused on global health equity and workforce development.

“Dr. McCool’s appointment as the School of Public Health’s Director of Global Health Initiatives advances a key component of our Vision 2027 Strategic Plan and builds on our school’s history of international engagement,” said Dean Rodney Lyn. “I am confident that Sarah’s outstanding leadership will enable our school to further expand its global reach for the benefit of our students and partners around the world.”

McCool, a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences, has been involved with multiple projects spanning health and development sectors that include maternal health, health systems strengthening, child protection and tuberculosis. She supported a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded child protection project in Haiti and was Executive Director of a Haiti-based non-governmental organization that provides primary care to the rural population. She also worked in the areas of tuberculosis surveillance and prevention in Asia. She was a USAID Research and Development Fellow in Indonesia, where she worked with Lembaga Kesehatan Nahdlatul Ulama's Community Empowerment of People Against Tuberculosis program. She also consulted for a Fortune 500 company on methods for reducing tuberculosis incidence among garment factory workers in south Asia.

McCool joined the School of Public Health in 2017 and co-directs the SPH’s United Kingdom Epidemiology Field School study abroad program. She has also co-directed study abroad programs to Haiti and the Dominican Republic and previously served as the school’s Director of Undergraduate Programs.

An Extensive Record of International Collaboration
McCool noted that although her role is new, the SPH has an extensive record of collaboration with international partners in the areas of teaching, research and training and that she looks forward to strengthening the school’s global reach.

SPH students gain first-hand knowledge of global public health issues through study abroad programs in countries such as Brazil, Ghana and the United Kingdom. In addition, 100 international graduate students have chosen to study at the Georgia State SPH through the Fulbright Foreign Student Program. Through the program, students from 39 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America have applied the lessons they learned at Georgia State to improving health and well-being in their home countries.

SPH faculty have led several projects funded by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health to shift the social norms around tobacco use in Asia and to test and implement culturally responsive interventions to help smokers around the world successfully quit. Researchers from six countries on three continents have gained expertise in tobacco control through the SPH’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Global Tobacco Research, which is supported by the CDC Foundation.

With funding from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, faculty members also leverage their expertise in HIV prevention, non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer, maternal and infant health, and water quality to improve global health. In addition, the National SafeCare Training and Research Center, which is housed in the SPH and has received funding from several international agencies, has disseminated its evidence-based SafeCare© behavioral parenting program to eight countries on four continents.

“Our School of Public Health has an extensive track record of global work and collaboration,” McCool said. “I am passionate about global health work and look forward to strengthening and supporting current and future partnerships for faculty and student success while also advancing our important health equity work.”

Writer: Sam Fahmy, [email protected]

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