Event underwritten by

About the Event:

Since World War II, there has been no circumstance where global health has struggled as much as during the current COVID-19 era. Economies in developing countries are not expected to return to 2019 levels until 2024, and the need for medical care has expanded devastating already stretched healthcare systems. People in impoverished communities are staying sick longer and dying needlessly.

On World Health Day, April 7^th, an expert panel will discuss global health, the problems and the opportunities. Nationally recognized healthcare leaders and local global health practitioners will describe the desperation in so many places. They will discuss: the role of the United States, why it matters to us, the part that vaccinations play, how to manage the next global pandemic, programs focused on children in need, and the ethics and integrity needed to support global health.

The World Affairs Council of Houston and the nonprofit Medical Bridges are honored to co-host a joint session on the state of global health today and how you and Houstonians can help relieve the suffering with:

Dr. Deborah Birx, Former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator

Dr. Brett Giroir, 16^th U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health

Michael Mizwa, CEO Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative BIPAI

Dr. Patricia Brock, Founder Medical Bridges

Moderator: Walter Ulrich, President & CEO Medical Bridges This event is co-hosted with Medical Bridges:About Medical Bridges: Medical Bridges procures and distributes surplus medical equipment and supplies to where they are most needed at home and in the developing world. Since COVID hit the U.S., Medical Bridges has prepared, staged, and shipped nearly 300 tons of desperately needed medical supplies and equipment valued at $16 million to developing countries in Americas, Africa, and Asia. Medical Bridges has also provided $700,000 in masks, gloves, and other materials to nearly 100 hospitals and rural clinics throughout Texas. Medical Bridges is a small, lean nonprofit that has served 90 countries in the last 25 years and is rated #6 out of 20,000 Houston area nonprofits by Charity Navigator.

About the Speakers:

Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, M.D. has spent her first career serving the United States, as an Army Colonel and later, running some of the most high-profile and influential programs at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of State.  Most recently, Dr. Birx served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, where she made recommendations to the Vice President using complex data integration to drive decision-making, as well as worked closely with state officials across the country to provide state-specific advice and guidance. In 2014, Dr. Birx became an Ambassador-at-Large, when she assumed the role of the Coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy. Dr. Birx is a world renowned medical expert and leader whose long career has focused on clinical and basic immunology, infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, vaccine research, and global health. As the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, she oversaw the spending of the $6 billion annual budget of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in history, as well as all U.S. Government engagement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 

She is dedicated to program improvement and change management to increase the health impact of every dollar spent; she has spent a lifetime mentoring young women in the Federal Government and translating science into effective implementation.

In 1985, Dr. Birx began her career with the Department of Defense (DoD) as a military trained clinician in immunology, focusing on HIV/AIDS vaccine research. Through her professionalism and leadership in the field, she progressed to serve as the Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 1996-2005. Dr. Birx lead one of the most influential HIV vaccine trials in history (known as RV 144 or the Thai trial), which provided the first supporting evidence of any vaccine’s potential effectiveness in preventing HIV infection. During this time, she also rose to the rank of Colonel, bringing together the Navy, Army, and Air Force in a new model of cooperation – increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. Military’s HIV/AIDS efforts through inter- and intra-agency collaboration. Then known as Colonel Birx, she was awarded two prestigious U.S. Meritorious Service Medals and the Legion of Merit Award for her groundbreaking research, leadership and management skills during her tenure at the DoD.

From 2005-2014, Dr. Birx served successfully as the Director of CDC’s Division of Global HIV/AIDS (DGHA) in the CDC Center for Global Health, where she utilized her leadership qualities, superior technical skills, and infectious passion to achieve tremendous public health impact. As DGHA Director, she led the implementation of CDC’s PEPFAR programs around the world and managed an annual budget of more than $1.5 billion. Dr. Birx was responsible for all of the agency’s global HIV/AIDS activities, including providing oversight to more than 1900 staff, and more than 50 country and regional offices in Africa, Asia, Caribbean, and Latin America. Recognized for her distinguished and dedicated commitment to building local capacity and strengthening quality laboratory health services and systems in Africa, in 2011, Dr. Birx received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the African Society for Laboratory Medicine.  In 2014, CDC honored her leadership in advancing the agency’s HIV/AIDS response with the highly prestigious William C. Watson, Jr. Medal of Excellence. 

Dr. Birx is known for driving implementation improvements to increase impact and has spent a career increasing overall effectiveness of programs through change management.  Dr. Birx has published over 230 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, authored nearly a dozen chapters in scientific publications, as well as developed and patented vaccines. She received her medical degree from the Hershey School of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, and beginning in 1980 she trained in internal medicine and basic and clinical immunology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Birx is board certified in internal medicine, allergy and immunology, and diagnostic and clinical laboratory immunology. 

Brett P. Giroir, M.D. Dr. Brett Giroir is a physician-scientist and innovator whose career has been dedicated to improving public health and medical science. Formerly, he served as the 16th Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Acting FDA Commissioner, and Admiral in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He also served as the US Representative to the Executive Board of the World Health Organization within the Department of State. Notably, Dr. Giroir was on the front lines of the COVID-19 response as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the national lead for testing and diagnostics (“Testing Czar”).

Previously, Dr. Giroir has served in numerous leadership positions in the federal government and in academia. He was the first physician to serve as an office director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and led the Blue-Ribbon Panel for the Veterans Choice Act Reform of the VA Health System. His academic career included service as Professor and Executive Vice President and CEO of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, Vice Chancellor for the Texas A&M University System, and before that, tenured professor and holder of two endowed chairs at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Health in Dallas. 

Dr. Giroir currently serves as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors for Altesa Biosciences, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on developing new treatments for respiratory viruses and global viral threats.  He is also a co-founder and independent director for Revelar Therapeutics, and an independent director for OncoNano Medicine.   His non-profit activities include Board service on the Global Virus Network and Remote Area Medical (RAM), and he remains active in global humanitarian initiatives in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Giroir has received numerous awards including the American Society of Nephrology Presidential Medal; the American Society of Hematology Outstanding Public Service Award; the Sickle Cell Community Consortium Healthcare Champion Award; the Society of Federal Healthcare Professionals, Tip of the Spear Federal Healthcare Leadership Award; American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Pharmacy Champion Award; Remote Area Medical, Distinguished Service Award; the Society of Critical Care Medicine, Founders’ Special Recognition Award; the Executive Office of the President Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Director’s Distinguished Service Award; and the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Pinnacle Award.

His uniformed service decorations include the US Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal with Gold Star Attachment, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Surgeon General’s Medallion, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Pinnacle Medal, the Global Health Campaign Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, among other awards.

Dr. Giroir resides in College Station, Texas, with his wife of 36 years, Jill Shorey Giroir, and has two daughters and two granddaughters.

Patricia Brock, MD, Dr. Brock is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Medical Bridges a nonprofit organization which collects and distributes medical supplies and equipment to the developing world. This organization is in its 25th year of sending supplies to 90 countries assisting dozens of local organizations, TMC associated institutions and others to carry out their mission of bringing hope and healing to low resource countries. Dr. Brock is currently an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Brock graduated from The University of Louisville School Of Medicine in 1983 and began her surgical training at Parkland Hospital in Dallas at The University of Texas program and completed her residency at the UT Health Sciences Center in San Antonio. After a 10-year career as a general surgeon and four children later, Dr. Brock turned her energies to raising her growing family. It was during this hiatus that the idea for Medical Bridges was born. Dr. Brock returned to the practice of medicine as a Clinical Instructor with Baylor College of Medicine in 2003 working in the Emergency Room at Ben Taub Hospital. She moved to MD Anderson in 2009.

Along with a group of like-minded physicians she founded the Wainerdi Global Health RoundTable in July 2012 which has now become a part of the Houston Global Health Collaborative. Other designations include: Official designation at MD Anderson Cancer Center; Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Deputy Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and EC Transformation project-Co Sponsor, The University of Texas MD Anderson, Houston, TX

Michael B. Mizwa is director of global health, Texas Children’s Hospital and CEO, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI). Mr. Mizwa has over 33 years of experience in non-profit HIV/AIDS prevention and social services, as well as extensive expertise in public-private partnership development. Since joining Texas Children’s/BIPAI in 2004, he has been instrumental in the creation, implementation and leadership of the Texas Children’s Global Health Network, comprised of affiliated implementing partner organizations in Romania, Colombia, Argentina, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania. This Network continues to be one of the largest providers of pediatric HIV care and treatment in the world. Over the past decade, the Network’s scope of services has expanded beyond HIV/AIDS to include tuberculosis, malnutrition, hematology and oncology, cardiology, emergency medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, maternal health and neglected tropical diseases.
Dr. Patricia Brock, Founder Medical Bridges