Chinese public health delegation visits UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

Chinese public health officials met with students and members of the School’s faculty and staff.

During the daylong event, the visitors heard presentations from all eight academic units in the school – the departments of health policy and management, biostatistics, nutrition, maternal and child health, environmental sciences and engineering, epidemiology, and health behavior, and the Public Health Leadership Program. Faculty members listened to the guests describe ideas for design and administrative structure of master’s and doctoral degree programs, training modules, admission requirements, career development and opportunities for graduates, and requirements for research and theses, among other topics.

Peggy Bentley, PhD, Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition and associate dean for global health at the public health school, led a team of speakers.

“We were honored by this visit from such a prominent delegation of public health leaders from several Chinese schools of public health and medicine,” Bentley said. “Group members were particularly interested in learning about our educational programs and how we integrate teaching, service and research. Some of our students, including several from China, joined faculty and staff members in hosting the visit.”

Julia Zhu Ye, MD, MPH, doctoral candidate in health policy and management, escorted the visitors during the day, including on a tour of the research lab of nutrition professor Melinda Beck, PhD. The Chinese health professionals particularly were interested in Beck’s finding that obese recipients of flu vaccines had reduced immune response.

Delegates, faculty members and 10 doctoral candidates had opportunities to talk with one another over lunch. That evening, they shared a traditional Southern dinner of catfish and fried green tomatoes at Chapel Hill’s Rizzo Conference Center.

Among the UNC participants were Bo Qin, Yuanyuan Qin and Wenze Zhong, the school’s three Sanofi Global Nutrition Scholars. The Sanofi Scholars program represents a unique and visionary partnership between academia and industry. The three gifted students from China are pursuing doctoral degrees in nutrition at UNC and will intern at Sanofi.

The group’s U.S. tour allowed the visitors to compare public and private schools and gave delegates a chance to observe some of the innovations that set UNC apart.

“We’re very interdisciplinary,” Bentley said. “We’re deeply engaged with the community through our training and research. Our view is that public health is global health, and global health is local public health.”

At various points during the day, delegates described challenges, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses in public health education in China. The visit opened the door to further alliances between UNC and universities in China.

“We look forward to discussing future collaborations among our schools of public health,” Bentley said, “and hope to lead a group from UNC to China to further this goal.”

The visitors included Roman Dong Xu, director of the China Medical Board in Beijing; Liming Li, board chair and executive vice president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College; Yuhong Jiang, program officer and liaison officer of China Medical Bard programs at the Office for International Cooperation; Hong Yan, president of the College of Medicine at Xi’an Jiaotong University; Xueliang Wang and Shaonong Dang, professors at Xi’an Jiaotong University; Qingyue Meng, professor, and Yonghua Hu, dean of the School of Public Health, at Peking University Health Science Center; Qingwu Jian, dean of Fudan University’s School of Public Health; Zhankuan Zhu, executive dean of Zhejiang University School of Public Health; and Zhijiel Zheng, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a graduate of UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.

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