When Global Health Wasn’t Cool

Global health Professor Kathryn Whetten reflects on the origins of the Duke Global Health Institute

Three people collaborating at a desk and a computer.

This is a summary of an interview on Duke Global Health Institute.

As the Duke Global Health Institute celebrates its 20th anniversary, Kathryn Whetten recalls when global health work at Duke wasn’t cool. Whetten, professor of public policy and global health, said that in the early 2000s, faculty interested in international research often worked in isolation, and interdisciplinary collaboration was not widely valued. Many researchers pursued global projects with little institutional support or recognition.

“A lot of us were working on the fringes. We had grants and manuscripts that we weren’t even putting on our CVs, because our departments didn’t see any value in that work,” said Whetten.

But in 2004, Duke leaders created a steering committee to explore the idea of a university-wide global health initiative. Whetten was among the faculty members asked to help shape the vision.

The group was united by the belief that complex health challenges required collaboration across disciplines, schools, and sectors. The committee laid the groundwork for what would become DGHI, one of the nation’s first interdisciplinary institutes dedicated to global health education and research. 

Over the past two decades, DGHI has helped transform Duke’s culture by making campus-wide collaboration a defining strength. Whetten credits the institute with creating new opportunities for faculty and students to collaborate on health challenges that go beyond geographic and disciplinary boundaries. “There was so much demand from students,” said Whetten.

Her own research, spanning communities in North Carolina and around the world, reflects DGHI’s long-standing belief that “local is global.” Health disparities, they argue, often stem from the same structural factors, regardless of where they occur. 

To read the interview and learn about Whetten’s work, visit Duke Global Health Institute.