What do you do when you’re outraged by a forgotten crisis? After reading about the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the Central African Republic- a country with one of the highest mortality rates in the world yet little global attention- Department of Global Health alumnae Alina Metje (‘23) and Amaya Gatling (‘25) wrote an article for the Department’s Global Health Justice website calling for renewed visibility and accountability by the international community. The website has become a vehicle to help keep the global health community aware of lesser discussed global health injustices. Started by students, it is now the wider Department of Global Health community - students, staff, faculty, and alumni, who elevate urgent issues, challenge inequities, and expand conversations on global health justice.
The Global Health Justice website provides a platform to share ideas, stories, and actions that advance equity and justice in global health. Contributors discuss the fundamental drivers of health, often absent from conventional discourse and demonstrate how structures of domination, exploitation, and oppression perpetuate poverty, disenfranchisement and inequality, resulting in poor health outcomes globally and locally. The Global Health Justice team authors original insights and amplifies stories on health and justice that are often underreported or ignored in mainstream discussions. Meet some of our alumni who have stayed at the forefront of the global health justice conversation.
Asad Naveed, MD
Department of Global Health MPH ‘21
Manager, Research Program, Sault Area Hospital, Northern Ontario, Canada
The idea for the Global Health Justice website began while Asad was a student in Dr. Steve Gloyd’s GH 511 course, Problems in Global Health. “Despite being from the Global South, I realized there was a real void in how global health and equity were understood worldwide. Dr. Gloyd’s class completely changed how I thought about health systems and justice, made me realize how power and privilege dictate whose health is prioritized, and I felt that his lessons needed to reach a wider audience.” However, his online presence was minimal. “That gap became the spark for this project,” Asad explains.
What started as an effort between student and professor to create a platform to encourage global health professionals to acknowledge and address the inequities and unethical practices in global health, quickly grew into a collaborative space supported by volunteers, students, and alumni from around the world. “Our shared goal is to make global health education open, accessible, and inspiring,” says Asad.
Tessa Fujisaki
Department of Global Health MPH ’25
Research Coordinator at the Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health
Her work examines how outdoor time impacts preschool children’s stress and gut microbiome, informing policy that promotes equitable access to quality outdoor spaces, particularly for children from low socioeconomic backgrounds in Washington state. While working on her MPH, Tessa developed a deep commitment to community collaboration and highlighting how social justice issues and public health are deeply intertwined, values that now guide her work and her writing of op-eds for the Global Health Justice website. “Advocating for equitable healthcare and public health research - both locally and globally - is more critical than ever,” she says.
Assem Suleimenova, MD
Department of Global Health MPH ‘23
Works at the intersection of global health programming and regional equity across Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Based in Kazakhstan, Assem supports multisectoral collaboration to strengthen public health systems across areas such as infectious disease surveillance, workforce capacity-building, health systems preparedness, quality improvement, and others. Her work underscores that justice in health is not abstract; it is lived daily in decisions around governance, access, and representation. “My ongoing involvement with the Global Health Justice website, where I help identify and post relevant articles on public health justice and governance, keeps me connected to a global health community committed to transformative change,” she shares. “It pushes me to ask harder questions about power and privilege, and whose knowledge counts in public health.”
Amaya Gatling
Department of Global Health MPH ’25
Project Manager at the Institute of Translational Health Sciences
As part of a National Institutes of Health-funded hub supporting translational health research across the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho region, Amaya supports public health pilot grants helps implement the Diversity in Clinical Trials Initiative, a University of Washington effort to ensure historically underrepresented communities are equitably included in clinical trials. “Global health and local public health are not as different as some may believe,” she notes. “Staying involved in Global Health Justice through writing evidence-informed op-eds primarily in the War and Militarism and Structural Violence sections keeps me engaged with key drivers in health globally and affirms that the same structures of injustice shaping health worldwide also drive disparities in the U.S.”
Get involved
The Global Health Justice website now features an Alumni Contributions section inviting contributions from across the DGH community. If you encounter an issue overlooked in mainstream conversations or something that moves or outrages you, the Global Health Justice website offers a platform to share it. You can submit an original piece (up to 500 words) or highlight an external newspaper or research article (in any language!) that deserves broader attention. Our team provides editing support. We publish op-eds, articles, poems, videos, and interviews, all centered on advancing health equity and justice. We also welcome new team members interested in writing, editing, or contributing ideas to expand the platform’s reach and impact.
Connect with our team, and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook- we’d love to hear from you!