The core of Brown's mission is to educate the next generation of leaders to tackle increasingly complex issues of health, economics, population and environment in a global society. The mission includes partnerships with institutions in lower and middle-income countries that are having a direct and positive impact on people in these regions. In order to fully tap the potential of this effort, the Center for Global Health Equity was established in 2025 to expand Brown's partnerships; to bring together faculty members, students, and international collaborators; and to spur innovation and coordination.
Division of Biology and Medicine
Center for Global Health Equity
Center for Global Health Equity
Global health is a defining issue of our time, and universities have a tremendous responsibility to help reduce the burden of disease in communities around the world and help build an infrastructure for progress and understanding through research, education and service.
Center for Global Health Equity
Global health is a defining issue of our time, and universities have a tremendous responsibility to help reduce the burden of disease in communities around the world and help build an infrastructure for progress and understanding through research, education and service.
The Center for Global Health Equity both supports and spearheads many multidisciplinary research projects, aiming to reduce health inequalities among underserved populations locally and worldwide. Here we highlight research projects that are being carried out by our core CGHE team. For research affiliated with collaborators and partners, please see the Partners page.
Recent News
Imagine a world where over 1 million children across 85 countries died from a single nutrient deficiency — deaths that could be prevented with a semi-annual vitamin supplement. Millions of lives saved can be attributed to the landmark US Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported trial of vitamin A supplementation in Indonesia (1978-1979), followed by replication trials, meta-analyses, World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommending regular high-dose vitamin A supplements and multilateral collaboration to provide vulnerable children with this nutrient (1,2).
Imagine a world without WHO child growth standards – standards that were developed from longitudinal data from children in the US, Brazil, Ghana, Oman, India and Norway, and now used in over 100 countries, including the US, to monitor child growth and identify malnutrition. Or a world where famine silently claims hundreds of thousands without warning, global data systems go blank, and nearly half of funding for emergency food aid vanishes.
This is a world without USAID and US membership in the WHO. Read More.
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Imagine a world without WHO child growth standards – standards that were developed from longitudinal data from children in the US, Brazil, Ghana, Oman, India and Norway, and now used in over 100 countries, including the US, to monitor child growth and identify malnutrition. Or a world where famine silently claims hundreds of thousands without warning, global data systems go blank, and nearly half of funding for emergency food aid vanishes.
This is a world without USAID and US membership in the WHO. Read More.
Rhode Island Medical Journal
Rhode Island Medical Journal on CGHE
Adam C. Levine, MD, to lead Brown Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE). Adam C. Levine, MD, to lead Brown Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE) PROVIDENCE — In a letter to the Brown BioMed community, MUKESH K. JAIN, MD, Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences, announced that the Academic Priorities Committee of Brown University has approved the Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE) within the Division of Biology and Medicine. The CGHE is the successor to the Global Health Initiative (GHI), which was founded in 2009. Associate Dean of Global Health Equity ADAM C. LEVINE, MD, MPH, FACEP, professor of emergency medicine and international and public affairs, will serve as CGHE’s founding director.
The center’s focus will expand to include clinical residents and fellows, undergraduate students, and students participating in the Brown Gateways program, Leadership Institute, Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, and other pathways programs and to BioMed faculty engaged in health equity research both locally and globally.
With the broader goal of directly engaging and benefiting communities both locally in Rhode Island and around the world, the CGHE aspires to conduct cutting-edge research that bridges gaps in global health knowledge and practice with a particular focus on technological innovation, implementation science, refugee health, and global health ethics.
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The center’s focus will expand to include clinical residents and fellows, undergraduate students, and students participating in the Brown Gateways program, Leadership Institute, Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, and other pathways programs and to BioMed faculty engaged in health equity research both locally and globally.
With the broader goal of directly engaging and benefiting communities both locally in Rhode Island and around the world, the CGHE aspires to conduct cutting-edge research that bridges gaps in global health knowledge and practice with a particular focus on technological innovation, implementation science, refugee health, and global health ethics.