The University of Michigan will award its Thomas Francis Jr. Medal in Global Public Health to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, during an in-person ceremony March 13.
Tedros, the first African and first nonphysician director-general of WHO, led the global public health organization through the COVID-19 pandemic.
He will engage with the campus community at various events throughout the day, including a student poster session to showcase global health work and a panel discussion with public health experts from other universities.
The ceremony and reception will be from 3:30-5 p.m. at Robertson Auditorium in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. The public event’s RSVP limit has been reached, and viewers are urged to watch the ceremony via a YouTube livestream. He will deliver a keynote speech, followed by a panel discussion with guests and faculty highlighting collective action for a healthier world.
“We are so grateful to Dr. Tedros for his compassion and commitment to preventing disease, improving health and equity and lifting those in need,” President Santa J. Ono said. “We share that dedication to serving society through excellence in research and education.”
Named after renowned U-M virologist and infectious disease expert Thomas Francis Jr., the medal comes with a $50,000 award and is one of the university’s highest honors. It recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of global health.
Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, as the world still faces considerable public health challenges including monkeypox and the recent resurgence of polio, the acknowledgement of robust global public health efforts is as important as ever, said School of Public Health Dean DuBois Bowman, who chaired the selection committee.
Born in Eritrea, Tedros was first elected WHO director-general in 2017 and reelected for a second term in May 2022. Before joining WHO, he served as minister of foreign affairs in Ethiopia and, previously, as minister of health. In these roles, he developed a health-care workforce strategy considered transformational for the country and was involved in global health initiatives related to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
Previous medal recipients include Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 2016, Alfred Sommer in 2010, and William Foege in 2005.
Kari Dumbeck
To those of us who actually study World events this is disheartening. I say that becuase the damage that has been done by the false promoting of the fake shots ( now proven) and as seen here: https://www.brighteon.com/0dca6959-ebc7-440b-839b-a78376bdf451
shows that more folks have been hurt by these drugs than have been helped. Also, the latest WHO meeting on January 27th of this year as discribed here: https://www.brighteon.com/daa2980a-ca40-43d4-a070-dabd92f86b06 and can be found in many other places on the web, show that they are moving towards a one World controlled society, where in as the USA will loose it’s Constitutional and Bill of Rights over our own bodies. Is this really what people want? God help us all.