Center for Global Health Innovation

Education and workforce development - cghi carries out initiatives in education and workforce development to accelerate the alignment of Georgia's current and future workforce with the needs of its life sciences industry. The workforce development programming focuses on connecting education and career pathway development with Georgia's work ready program and places it in an industry-focused context led by an industry network. Activities include career awareness programs, curricula development and implementation, teacher trainings, a mentoring program, and solutions design and execution. With support from the state of Georgia, cghi launched the first teacher training program in the country specific to stem education, serving 30 counties in rural Georgia. 233 teachers were trained, impacting nearly 38,000 students (75% in title 1 schools). Cghi also operates an equipment depot to support stem education by providing free stem supplies and equipment to classrooms throughout the state, with over $280,000 of supplies and equipment donated in 2021 for distribution to teachers and schools. Cghi is leading an initiative funded by nsf to operate and scale a biotechnician assistant credentialing exam (bace) program. Global Health programming is focused on education and community awareness of the women in Global Health partners and their activities, supporting and advising the women in Global Health chapter, and the becoming better ancestors project, which focuses on lessons learned from past successes in disease eradication and how society can better respond to future Health crises. This initiative will result in an educational video series to be globally distributed in 2022.

Life science and digital Health - cghi works to advance the growth of Georgia's life sciences industry and foster strategic partnerships that can create a healthier world and strengthen economic development in the region. Initiatives and programs include public policy information forums, executive roundtables, educational panels on industry trends and innovations, capital forums, and entrepreneurial trainings. The annual conference is the largest life sciences conference in the southeast and showcases the most advanced life science research and product developments not only in biomedicine and medical devices, but also in agriculture and bioenergy. Meetings and events are open to company executives, university administrators and scientists, government leaders, investors, and public policy experts. This summit, along with many other meetings, panel discussions, seminars, and other events throughout the year, provides a network for the exchange of ideas, information, and opportunities. Topics of these gatherings include Global Health, scientific research, medical devices, and upcoming legislation related to the life sciences industry. On average, cghi hosts approximately 60 programs and events. In december 2021, cghi announced the launch of a new Global Health district in midtown atlanta that is poised to become the world's leading hub for Innovation at the intersection of Global Health, Health technology, and life sciences, solidifying the region as the world's Global Health capital.

Health equity and crisis coordination - since its formation in early 2020, cghi's office of Health equity and crisis coordination (ohecc) has led private-public partnerships and developed public Health technology assets during our nation's largest public Health crisis in over a century. Programs include back2school, the workshop action coalition, and the covid vaccine and information equity demand (covied) program. These programs have served over 5,000 students in the atlanta area, over 50 houses of worship of various faiths throughout the country, and have served to increase access to the latest and most effective vaccine information for groups with increased rates of vaccinen hesitancy across the country. Ohecc has also deployed a free online database (pave) across all fifty states to aid in optimizing vaccine allocation. Ohecc is currently leading a hrsa-funded initiative to train and deploy over 120 community Health workers across seven states to increase trust and combat vaccine hesitancy in high-risk communities.