International health expert's lecture to advise more focus on fighting AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria

March 29, 2004

CHAPEL HILL — Dr. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, will be the keynote speaker for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health’s Fred T. Foard Jr. Memorial Lecture, scheduled for April 8. Feachem’s lecture, titled “Fighting the Great Pandemics: Leadership, Technology, Money and Research,” will focus on interventions and resources to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide. The event, which takes place at UNC’s William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education, begins with a 5:30 p.m. reception, followed by Feachem’s lecture at 6:30 p.m.The event is free but registration is requested, or by contacting Dixie Bloom at dbloom@email.unc.edu or (919) 843-6191.

A British national, Feachem has worked in international health and development for 30 years and published extensively on public health and health policy. He is the first executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization established in 2001 to increase resources to fight these three diseases.

AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined kill more than 6 million people annually worldwide, recent statistics indicate.

“The School of Public Health is proud to be hosting Dr. Feachem for the Foard Memorial Lecture this year,” said Dr. Margaret B. Dardess, interim dean of UNC’s School of Public Health. “Dr. Feacham’s visit is the highlight of a year during which global health has emerged as a priority of the school and the university.”

Under Feachem’s leadership, the Global Fund has become one of the world’s most important modern-day public health initiatives, added Dr. Peggy Bentley, the school’s associate dean for global health.

“Dr. Feachem provides a unique perspective for raising the awareness and involvement of our alumni, students, faculty and staff for these challenging global health issues,” said Bentley, also a professor in the school’s department of nutrition.

Prior to joining the Global Fund, Feachem served as founding director of the Institute for Global Health, and professor of international health at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco. Additionally, he has served as director for health, nutrition and population at the World Bank and as dean of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a visiting professor at London University.

The Fred T. Foard Jr. Memorial Lecture was established in 1969 by Dr. Fred Foard’s widow, Elsie D. Foard, to honor her husband’s work as a public health practitioner. His career spanned more than a half-century, much of it with the U.S. Public Health Service.

Highlights of Foard’s tenure include the development and strengthening of organized public health services in Alaska, Hawaii, and the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions. His efforts led to major improvements in health services for American Indians and the transfer of the Indian Health Program from the U.S. Department of Interior to the U.S. Public Health Service. After retiring from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1952, Foard served until 1964 as director of the division of epidemiology for the N.C. Board of Health.

More information on the School of Public Health’s global efforts may be obtained at the Office of Global Health Web site at www.sph.unc.edu/ogh.

For further information on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, click on http://www.theglobalfund.org.

School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 966-7467 or lisa_katz@unc.edu News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu