N - Global Health Institute - University of Arizona

Featured Speakers
Jeff Meer
Public Health Institute
Maria Isabel Ortega PhD
Directora, Coordinadora de
Nutricion, CIAD
Francisco Garcia, MD, MPH
Associate Prof. Health Promotion
Sciences Division,
Mel & Enid Zuckerman
College of Public Health
James Hopkins, LL.M./ITP
Associate Clinical Professor
UA James E. Rogers College of Law
Neil MacKinnon, PhD
Director, Arizona Center
for Rural Health
Jeff Meer
Jeff Meer directs the Public Health Institute’s Washington-based advocacy on global health and provides strategic direction for
the organization’s participation in global health procurements by the United States Government and private donors. Prior to
coming to PHI, Mr. Meer had directed Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s international advocacy program. He had
previously been Director for External Relations for CHF International, a major USAID implementing agency. For five years he was
Executive Director of the US Association for UNHCR, and served as founding Program Officer for Peace and Security at the UN
Foundation. He had been a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State, serving in the People’s Republic of China and
Germany. Mr. Meer began his career as a magazine journalist, and is the author of Sports and Drugs (Chelsea House, 1986).
Maria Isabel Ortega Velez, PhD
Maria Isabel Ortega Velez is Director of Coordinadora de Nutricion at the Centre de Investigacion en Alimentacion y Desarrollo
(CIAD) in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Dr. Ortega’s research intends to study community nutrition from a holistic view. Her
recent experiences involve the socio-cultural, economic and demographic variables associated with dietary risk factors in migrant
women (Mexico-U.S.A). In collaboration with researchers from CIAD’s Regional Development Division, she has explored the
effect of changes in productive sectors of rural environments as well as the rural-urban migration on the nutritional condition of
the population. Dr. Ortega also participates in various studies of nutritional diagnosis in the community at national and regional
levels. Her recent work involves food security and the development of models of nutrition intervention, mainly oriented to dietary
modification among agricultural migrant workers and their families in northern Mexico. The mission of CIAD is to carry out
scientific and technological research in food and development, to the formation of postgraduate human resources and to the
diffusion of knowledge in our areas of expertise, therefore contributing to the economic and social welfare of the country.
Francisco Garcia, MD, MPH
Francisco Garcia is the Director of the University of Arizona National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. His research expertise is in
the area of pre-malignant cervical disease and human papillomavirus infection, and the evaluation of new technologies and therapeutics
for cervical cancer precursors. Dr. Garcia also has a long established interest in the health of women on the US-Mexico Border. Dr. Garcia
is active in the training and mentoring of residents, medical students, graduate students and international medical personnel interested in
women’s health. Dr. Garcia has served as a consultant and collaborator to a variety of domestic initiatives, including Arizona’s Well
Woman Health Check Program, the American Cancer Society, Western and South-Eastern Arizona Area Health Education Centers and the
tribal NBCEDDP programs on Hopi and Navajo Nations. In the international arena he has worked with the Secretariat of Health of the State
of Sonora, Population Council, the Pan-American Health Organization, the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas (Peruvian
National Cancer Institute), IMSS-Solidaridad, Programa de Salud Reproductiva (the Mexican Social Security Institute-Reproductive
Health Program), JHPIEGO, International Planned Parenthood Federation and PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology for Health).
James Hopkins, LL.M./ITP
James Hopkins is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of
Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Professor Hopkins is Algonquin/Metis from Quebec. He is a former law clerk to the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice and is a member of the Ontario Bar. Prior to joining the College of Law, he was an Assistant
Professor with the Faculty of Law, at the University of Alberta. He graduated from Harvard Law School’s joint Masters of Laws
and International Tax Program (LLM/ITP) in June 2000. Professor Hopkins’ area of interest is the intersection between trade,
tax and aboriginal law. He is a recipient of the Harvard University International Tax Program’s Award for Excellence in Research
and Writing for his graduate thesis titled, “ Democratization by Taxation: Democratic Experimentalism in Aboriginal Canada.”
Neil MacKinnon, PhD
Neil MacKinnon is the Walter H. Pearce Endowed Chair and Director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health and Professor in the Division for
Community, Environment and Policy Division, MEZCOPH. Prior to joining the UA he was professor and associate director of research at
Dalhousie University College of Pharmacy in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada where he also served as an active member of his local community
health board and for the last decade served on the drug formulary committee of a large private payer in Canada. He has worked closely with
several healthcare groups, including Canada’s healthcare watchdog, the Health Council of Canada. In 2010-11 he served as President of the
3000-member Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists. A prolific researcher with over 200 publications, MacKinnon’s research on
improving the quality and safety of the medication-use system has been internationally recognized. Neil edited two textbooks and he is the
co-author of the Canadian bestselling book Take as Directed: Your Prescription for Safe Health Care in Canada (Sept. 2010).