January 8, Kunshan – Dr. Maria Rendon, the development counselor of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) visited Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and gave a talk on the agency’s global health strategy and priorities. Dr. Maria Rendon has been the Development Counselor in Beijing since August 2012.
In meeting with the professors and researchers at DKU’s Global Health Research Center (GHRC), Professor Shenglan Tang, GHRC Director, introduced the Center’s three focus research areas, ongoing projects and future strategies. Professor Keith Dear, director of DKU’s Global Health Masters’ program, made an introduction to the graduate program’s ongoing development. Impressed by the research and education efforts in global health at DKU, Dr. Rendon expressed strong interests in establishing cooperation between USAID and DKU on global health research and educational projects in future.
After the meetings, Dr. Rendon made a presentation to DKU students, faculty, researchers and staff on USAID’s global health strategies and priorities on malaria and other infectious disease control, improving the maternal and child health, reproductive health, nutrition status in developing countries. Her presentation also introduced the three current major areas of USAID health cooperation with China: HIV/AIDs, preventable disease intervention (e.g. malaria) and health system strengthening. At the end of her presentation, Dr. Rendon shared with the DKU audience USAID’s criteria for program identification and resource allocation and suggested future focus areas including non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in developing countries.
