Contact: Liz Mogford, WWU assistant professor of sociology, (360) 650-3002 or liz.mogford@wwu.edu.
BELLINGHAM—The spring installment of Western Washington University’s Global Health and Social Justice lecture series will feature Amy Hagopian, an assistant professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health and senior workforce policy advisor with Health Alliance International. Hagopian will present a lecture titled “Poaching Health Workers From Poor Countries: Is That an Ethical Way to Solve America’s Health Workforce Shortage?”
Hagopian’s lecture will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. May 27 at St. Luke’s Community Health Education Center in Room A. The center is at 3333 Squalicum Parkway in Bellingham. She also is speaking earlier in the day as part of the Fairhaven College World Issues Forum. That lecture begins at noon in the Fairhaven Auditorium on the WWU campus.
One in four American doctors is trained in another country at the expense of the taxpayers in that country, said Hagopian, who conducts research in the area of health worker migration from low-income countries to wealthy countries. A growing portion of our nurses are trained abroad, too, she said. Her lecture will highlight ways in which U.S. policy lures health workers from abroad and what are the ethical, economic and educational implications of this policy. Hagopian also will connect the global policies with potential local solutions and look at how we can attempt to curb the problem, said Liz Mogford, an assistant professor of sociology at WWU.
This lecture is sponsored by the Slum Doctor Programme, the Critical Junctures Institute for Health Advancement and Research and Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at WWU.
Hagopian has led the University of Washington’s sister-university collaboration with Iraq’s Basra University. She also is the principal investigator on a Puget Sound Partners project to gather epidemiologic data on pediatric cancers and birth defects in Basra. She is active in the American Public Health Association and in the Seattle public schools. She serves on the board of College Access Now, which works to help first-generation students gain entry to college. Hagopian earned her Ph.D. in health services from the University of Washington in 2003.
For more information about this event or about the Global Health and Social Justice lecture series, contact Liz Mogford at (360) 650-3002 or liz.mogford@wwu.edu.
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