A Major Addition

New degree equips students to serve a world in need

Since 2003, about 28 million people’s lives have been saved from HIV/AIDS. How? The short answer, says Professor Robert Aronson, is global health and development. Recently, Aronson sat down with The Bridge to unpack this history and share about launching Messiah’s new global health and development major.

In a nutshell, what is global health and development?

Global health looks at broad trends that affect populations worldwide. It’s an interdisciplinary study that brings together public health, social sciences, economics and economic development.

And how does the field impact areas like preventing deaths from HIV/AIDS?

In 2003, George W. Bush initiated the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. This one global health program through the U.S. government has provided over 20 million adults with lifesaving antiretroviral treatment and prevented nearly 8 million babies from being born with HIV.

What has your personal journey in the field looked like?

During an internship after my junior year of college, I worked in the Amazonian region of Ecuador with an indigenous group known as the Shuar. I loved the cross-cultural aspect of this experience and developed a passion for community development approaches to improve the conditions in which people live. Since then, I’ve had the tremendous privilege of working with diverse populations, from Latino migrant farmworkers to children impacted by HIV in Namibia to African American women facing disparities in breast cancer care. For me, global health and development work is so closely tied to my understanding of what Jesus taught about His kingdom, including serving the poor and the outsiders, caring about justice, and walking with others and with God in humility.

Is there a way you believe Messiah students will be uniquely prepared through the program you’ve helped develop?

I have this motto: Don’t solve problems you don’t understand for people you know nothing about. Messiah students already have a passion for joining in God’s redemptive work across the globe. The idea behind this program is to equip them to advocate for a way of addressing problems with humility and in partnership. Rather than solving problems for others, we accompany them in finding and implementing fixes to the challenges. So, in this major, students will have opportunities to visit and learn firsthand from people living in communities around the world. Further, Messiah values diversity of perspectives, life experiences, and racial and ethnic heritage. Our program embraces the perspectives of populations often oppressed, forgotten or ignored, including the voices from the Global South, the voices of women and racial or ethnic minorities, and the voices of populations that have been forced to flee their homes due to persecution, extreme poverty, natural disasters, climate change and the human disaster of war.

What is the global health and development sector like right now?

This is a particularly strategic time to be at the forefront of preparing a new generation of global health and development workers. The field has experienced incredible change, with the dismantling of many of the mechanisms for the delivery of global health programs, services and financing. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that a committed global health workforce will continue to find new ways to support and provide much-needed services to a world in need.

—Kristine Frey ’07