By Tadias Staff Writer
Published: March 6, 2008
New York (Tadias) – Ethiopian American social entrepreneur Ted Alemayuhu, Founder & Chairman of U.S. Doctors for Africa, will be one of the featured keynote speakers at this year’s Annual Health Disparities Conference at Columbia University in New York on Saturday, March 8th, 2008.
The two-day conference, which opens Friday, March 7th, at Teachers College will provide an opportunity for varied professionals to gain exposure to evidence-based approaches to reducing/eliminating health disparities and moving society toward equity in health for all, in addition to state-of-the-art practices being utilized by practitioners, according to TC’s website.
The event in 2007 featured Professor Cornel West as keynote speaker.
“It is a great honor and privilege to be invited by Columbia University to be a keynote speaker”, Mr. Alemayuhu told Tadias.
“The event is being hosted by the ‘Teachers college’ at the university and every year they host a similar conference highlighting global health. This year the focus is Africa and they have chosen USDFA to be a key highlight of the conference.”
Asked for details, Mr. Alemayuhu said his keynote address will focus on USDFA’s mission.
“I plan to present the organization’s mission and vision as well as current and upcoming projects”, he said. “Particularly, our mobile clinic initiative”.
Above: Ted Alemayuhu, Founder & Chairman of U.S. Doctors for
Africa, will be one of the featured keynote speakers at this year’s
Annual Health Disparities Conference at Columbia University in
New York on Saturday, March 8th, 2008.
According to the University, the annual conference concept was created as an annual project organized by the Research Group on Disparities in Health within the Department of Health and Behavior Studies at Teachers College, while enjoying support from the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation (CEO&I), and numerous co-sponsors. The goal of the conference is to foster movement from current inequity in health to equity in health as a mission spanning the 21st century by beginning with disparity reduction, while aiming toward disparity elimination as goal to be reached, perhaps by the end of the century, according to the conference website.
“We are expecting the conference to be a dynamic setting for the discussion of global health issues, such as HIV/AIDS, as well as approaches to closing gaps in health being pioneered in places such as India and Africa, and across the United States”, said a statement posted on the conference website.
“Toward this end, our keynote speakers include: Ted M. Alemayhu, the founder and chairman of U.S. Doctors for Africa (USDFA), a non-profit organization dedicated to mobilizing volunteer doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals to fulfill the overwhelming medical manpower needs throughout the African continent.”
The conference is open to the public. More at Teachers College, Columbia University.