Stempel College partners with school of medicine in Colombia to help improve health and wellbeing of people in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work is partnering with the School of Medicine at Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes) in Colombia—the first collaboration of its kind established in the Latin American region.

Leveraging Uniandes facilities in Bogota and Cartagena, the partnership will create collaborative spaces that will bring together faculty and researchers from both institutions to develop and implement innovative academic, research and human resource initiatives. The goal is to help improve the health and wellbeing of people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The Colombian Caribbean coast, for example, is one of the most underserved populations. This can be seen in the region’s high poverty and mortality indicators,” said Dr. Carlos Espinal, director of the Global Health Consortium at Stempel College and one of the lead researchers for the new partnership. “Through this new alliance, we hope to uncover new insights to some of the most challenging public health problems impacting the region’s most vulnerable.”

The partnership also opens the door for expanding educational opportunities for students, allowing them to participate in exchange programs, academic courses and scientific events. Key areas the institutions will focus on include cybersecurity and health, COVID-19, antimicrobial resistance, environmental health, disaster management and more.

“In our institutional strategic plan 2021-2025, that we recently launched, we explicitly mention that Uniandes collaborates with partners to achieve significant and measurable impact. This means of course contributing to knowledge creation, but also to broader societal aspects including sustainability, the democratic debates of our time, and in general, the construction of hopeful and inclusive narratives for the country and the region. This alliance with FIU contributes precisely to this plan. Through international collaboration, we can strengthen our capabilities to jointly generate positive impact to the Latin American and the Caribbean region,” said Silvia Restrepo, vice president of Research and Creation at Uniandes.

Uniandes is one of the top universities in Colombia, offering its students a range of opportunities for academic, cultural and scientific exchange. The university was founded in 1948 and was conceived as an independent institution offering education to help close the knowledge gap of Colombia with the scientific advances of the world. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Uniandes as the No.1 university in Colombia.

“This opportunity helps further FIU’s global vision of being an international institution that enhances collaboration and education programs for its faculty and students,” said Tomás R. Guilarte, dean of Stempel College. “This partnership is going to serve as a platform for us to help make that a reality. We look forward to seeing the great outcomes this will bring in the years to come. We are already establishing research opportunities related to environmental pollution and health outcomes.”

“For more than a decade, we have seen time and again that when we partner with Colombian institutions, we accomplish a great deal,” says Pablo Ortiz, vice president and vice provost for Regional & World Locations. “We will build upon this record of success and more strategically form alliances in Colombia in the future.”

FIU’s global strategy 2020-2025 builds on cutting-edge research, world-class programs, innovation, and 21^st teaching that have made the university a leading public research institution.

In September, FIU continued its rapid ascent in the 2022 U.S. News and World Report rankings with a 17-spot improvement to No. 78. FIU also ranked among the top five public universities for social mobility and ranked No.17 most innovative among public U.S. institutions.