Women's Global Health and Human Rights

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Padmini (Mini) Murthy is a physician and an activist who did her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has practiced medicine in various countries. She has a Masters in Public Health and a Masters in Management from New York University. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist. Murthy has presented at numerous national and international conferences, and has been the recipient of several awards including The Dean's Award for Excellence at NYU School of Education. She was named Robert F. Wagner Public service scholar at NYU, is a member of the “Phi Theta Lambda Honor Society,” and was awarded “Best Physician Award” at work place by the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia. Murthy has served as a consultant to the United Nations and serves on the executive board of several national and international health non-governmental organizations.Currently she is Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management and Global Health Program Director at New York Medical College School of Public Health. Murthy is the NGO Representative of Medical Women International Association to the United Nations. As program Director of International Health Awareness Network (an international NGO) she has been actively working with other board members to improve the lives of women and children in developing countries. She serves as American Public Health Association Committee Member on Women's Rights and Section Counseor in the International Health Section.Her research interests include women's health with an emphasis on violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Murthy has been a champion women's rights issue with a focus on gender inequalities in health care delivery and policies.

Clyde Lanford (Lanny) Smith is a writer and a physician, having majored in English literature and trained in primary care internal medicine, tropical medicine, and preventive medicine. He earned a masters in public health from Harvard School of Public Health and a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. From 1992 to 1998 he lived in El Salvador as Country Director of Médecins du Monde (Physicians of the World) France. Smith is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He has been the recipient of Davidson College’s John Kuykendall Community Service Award for leadership in service to humankind and of the Mid-Career Award in International Health of the American Public Health Association. He serves on the board of the Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC) and on the global Steering Committee of the People’s Health Movement (PHM). Founder of Doctors for Global Health (DGH, www.dghonline. org) and its first president from 1995–2000, he continues to serve on its board with the President’s Council and as Liberation Medicine Counsel. He is cofounder of the Journal of Social Medicine (www.socialmedicine. info) and serves on its editorial board. He is on the editorial board of the journal Revista De Educação Popular of the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brasil. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Family & Social Medicine in the Residency Programs in Primary Care and Social Internal Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) and serves as Global Health Advisor at AECOM. Within Montefiore, he is Director of the Opportunities Pro-Immigrant Elderly and Newcomer and International Travel (OPEN IT) Program, Assistant Director of the Bronx Human Rights Clinic for Survivors of Torture, and cares for patients regularly as a primary care physician in the South Bronx Comprehensive Health Care Center. His research interests include social medicine, liberation medicine, community-oriented primary care, tropical medicine, and health education. Smith has lived in the Bronx since 2000 and works locally and globally to promote liberation medicine, “the conscious, conscientious use of health to promote social justice and human dignity.” His upcoming book Una Sola Vida: Lecciones hasta la Salud y la Justicia Social (One Life Only: Lessons Toward Health and Social Justice) will be available in July 2009 from Ediciones Corpus Lirio, Rosario, Argentina.