Join us for the next monthly OGHE Global Health Forum on Monday, November 17 from 12-1 pm in Roper Hall (Room 4302) OR online on zoom (https://zoom.us/j/3111814366?omn=97728086196). RSVP by 12 noon on Thursday, November 13 for a boxed lunch – if joining the in person event.
Sylvia Becker-Dreps, MD, MPH
Professor in Family Medicine and Epidemiology and Director of the Office of Global Health Education
Unraveling the Low Performance of Rotavirus Vaccines in Children Globally
Bio: Dr. Becker-Dreps is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology at the Gillings School and she directs the Office of Global Health Education. She received her medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and an MPH from UNC. She also completed the NRSA-Primary Care Research Fellowship at UNC.
For over 25 years, she has worked as a family physician in the community health center and health department settings. She previously served as the medical director of the North Carolina Farmworker Health Program. Before returning to an academic setting, she performed clinical work in various settings in Honduras, Mexico, and Ecuador, including serving as a volunteer for the Mennonite Central Committee in rural Mexico.
Her research has focused on child health in Central America. Her primary focus is on childhood diarrhea and its prevention through vaccines. Her group also contributed to the scientific response to the Zika and SAR-CoV-2 pandemics in Central America and the US. With Nicaraguan colleagues, she has worked to increase research capacity in Central America, including starting a Biomedical Sciences PhD program at the University of Nicaragua, León, with funding from the Fogarty International Center.