2026 Fall Global Health Showcase
Towsley Center for Continuing Medical Education
U-H Hospital Campus
About This Event
Hosted by the Global REACH office, the Fall Global Health Showcase brings together the UMMS community to celebrate international collaboration, education, and research.
In addition to presentations and discussions with UMMS students, faculty, and house officers engaged in global health, this year's expanded format will include a poster session featuring international projects and partnerships, a global health photography competition, and a keynote address from UMMS alumni Bina Valsangkar, MD, MPH, founder of the Quito Project, a summer health and education program for under-resourced students in Ecuador.
Plan to join us to engage with fellow members of Michigan Medicine's global health community.
Poster Session
This year's event will feature a poster session highlighting some of the international partnerships, projects, and collaborations.
Call for Abstracts: Share Your Global Health Work
UMMS students, faculty, trainees, staff and visiting scholars are invited to submit abstracts for the Fall Global Health Showcase poster session. Posters may highlight global health research, education, clinical experiences, capacity-strengthening initiatives or international collaborations. Proposals can showcase projects that are complete or ongoing works in progress.
Extended abstract submission deadline: August 31, 2026
Global REACH will provide a poster template and design guidelines for all accepted abstracts and facilitate printing prior the event. CLICK HERE to submit an abstract.
Photo Competition
Students and trainees who have participated in international education, research or service experiences are invited to submit photographs that capture meaningful moments, settings or perspectives from their experiences abroad. Accepted entries will be on display during the event and winning entry will recognized as part of the showcase.
Photo submission deadline: Sept. 18, 2026.
Submit a photo here. Global REACH will print accepted photographs for display at the event.
Keynote Speaker
Global REACH is delighted to welcome Dr. Bina Valsangkar, a U-M Medical School alumni, back to the Michigan Medicine campus for the 2026 Global Health Showcase.
A board-certified pediatrician, Dr. Valsangkar has worked on newborn and child health and advocacy projects in more than 20 countries, spanning Africa, Asia and Latin America. She has served as a technical advisor for the Saving Newborn Lives Program at the Gates-funded Save the Children initiative, where she works with Ministries of Health in Malawi, Uganda, and Ethiopia to reduce neonatal mortality through health programming, policy, and. She also previously served as the Principal Maternal Newborn Advisor at Jhpeigo, a Johns Hopkins global health affiliate. As a medical student at UMMS, she founded The Quito Project, a summer health program for under-resourced children living in and around Quito, Ecuador. Dr. Valsangkar currently lives in Washington, D.C.
Panel Discussion: Humanism in Global Health
Three global health leaders from three disciplines will reflect on the human side of international medicine—from building equitable partnerships and working across cultures to navigating resource constraints, ethical challenges and the responsibilities that come with caring for patients and communities around the world. Global REACH Director Shane Quinonez will moderate.
Christopher Bichakjian, MD|
Chair & Professor of Dermatology
A strong proponent of expanding his field’s footprint in global health, Dr. Bichakjian is involved in numerous dermatologic capacity-building and training programs in sub-Saharan Africa, including in Burundi, where there are currently just six practicing dermatologists in a country of nearly 15 million. Under his leadership, the UMMS Dermatology Department has implemented a robust international exchange program for residents and fellows, creating new opportunities for house officers to engage in global health.
Dhanalakshmi Thiyagarajan, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Affiliated faculty, U-M Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Thiyagarajan merges expertise in obstetrics and gynecology, global women’s health, and biomedical engineering to design and evaluate medical devices in low-resource settings. In addition to leading an NIH Fogarty project to train Ghanaian physicians in the latest techniques to reorient a breech baby before birth, Dr. Thiyagarajan has also developed a device intended for limited-resource contexts that can accurately quantify uterine blood loss for diagnosing postpartum hemorrhage and heavy menstrual bleeding.
Bina Valsangkar, MD
Our evening’s keynote presenter will also join our panel discussion. Dr. Valsangkar has worked on newborn and child health and advocacy projects in more than 20 countries, spanning Africa, Asia and Latin America and is currently serving as a technical advisor for the Saving Newborn Lives Program at the Gates-funded Save the Children initiative. As a medical student at UMMS, she founded The Quito Project, a summer health program for under-resourced children living in Ecuador, which continues to thrive today.
