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UNC Model for Global Wellness: Tanzanian Study Demonstrates Vision Care is Foundation for Learning

June 3, 2026
A team of researchers with the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases has quantified the link between vision impairment and academic performance in a new study of primary school students in Tanzania. Led by Joy Noel Baumgartner, PhD, MSSW, professor of social work, with Emily Gower, PhD, associate...

Association of Long COVID-19 Symptoms, Physical Function, and Activities of Daily Living Among Older Women

April 22, 2025
Emily W. Gower, PhD, is an associate professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health working in ocular epidemiology. Her primary area of research interest is in improving trichiasis surgery outcomes for individuals with trachoma, which is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. She has led multiple clinical...

How Global Health Impacts Health Care in North Carolina

February 7, 2025
Global health issues may seem geographically distant, but they directly impact our local community through travel, immigration, emerging infectious diseases, and interconnected global economies. The ‘global’ in global health refers to the scope of problems, not just their location, which can be infectious diseases with pandemic potention. UNC’s global and...

A Quest to Save Sight

November 5, 2024
Globally, the World Health Organization reports at least 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment. Many of those affected live in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), but they also live in rural areas of the U.S. and North Carolina. Encouragingly, more than 90% of people with vision impairment have a...