[apiSARSEMT] International Health Conference in New York City

[Jennifer Staple]

Dear all,

This conference will likely be of interest to many people on this list.

UNITE FOR SIGHT SYMPOSIUM
GLOBAL PARTNERS: YOUTH, CORPORATIONS, AND ACADEMIA
BRIDGING HEALTH DIVIDES

Saturday, October 2, 2004

Symposium 12-4:30 PM ET at NYU School of Medicine
Followed by Jazz For Peace Festival at 5:30 PM
New York City

Register by September 20th - Reduced Rate

All of the funds raised from the $8 registration fees will go toward Unite 
For Sight's sight-restoring cataract surgery programs in Humjibre, Ghana 
and Nyamuswa, Tanzania this Fall.

Group Rates Available

Register at http://www.uniteforsight.org/2004_symposium.shtml
Contact Jennifer.Staple at aya.yale.edu with any questions.

Unite For Sight is pleased to invite you to attend an exciting 
international conference for students, volunteers, physicians, professors, 
corporate professionals, nurses, public health professionals, and leaders 
in ophthalmology, pubic health, academia, corporations, and policy.

Speakers:
    * "Stem Cells to the Retinal Rescue," Dr. Michael J. Young, PhD, 
Director, Minda de Gunzburg Research Center for Retinal Transplantation, 
Schepens Eye Research Institute and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at 
Harvard Medical School
    * "International Political Crises: The Emergency Rooms of Public 
Health," Dr. Ronald Waldman, MD, MPH Professor of Clinical Population & 
Family Health and Deputy Director of the Center for Global Health and 
Economic Development at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
    * "Eye Diseases and Community Experiences in Tanzania," Dr. Muhsin 
Sheriff, MD, MPH, MUCHS - Harvard Research Collaboration, Dar es Salaam, 
Tanzania; MPH in Quantitative Methods Candidate at Harvard School of Public 
Health
    * "Bridging Health Divides: A Federal Perspective," Ms. Rosemary 
Janiszewski, MS, CHES, Deputy Director, Office of Communication, Health 
Education and Public Liaison; Director, National Eye Institute Health 
Education Program, NIH.
    * "Entrepreneurship in Medical Technology and the Role of Venture 
Capital," Mr. Mart Bailey, President, Callaway Private Equity Partners
    * Unite For Sight Summer 2004 Interns in Tanzania and Ghana:
-"Better Vision, A Better Life: Ghana Health and Education Initiative and 
Unite
      For Sight Restoring Eyesight in Rural Ghana," Alison Polk-Williams
-"Unite For Sight Improving Eye Health in Rural Tanzania," Sachin Jain
-"Unite For Sight's Eye Health Programs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania," Sally Ong

Biographies of Speakers

Dr. Michael J. Young, PhD
Director, Minda de Gunzburg Research Center for Retinal Transplantation, 
Schepens Eye Research Institute and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at 
Harvard Medical School

Dr. Young is one of the world’s leading researchers in stem cells in the 
eye and the use of stem cells for the reversal of blindness.  His lab 
focuses on the use of neural stem cells for retinal transplantation.  His 
research projects include “integration of transplanted neural progenitor 
cells into the retina of immature and mature dystrophic rats,” 
“bioengineering and stem cells to treat optic neuropathy,” and 
“differentiation of retinal progenitor cells into specific cell types.”

Dr. Ronald Waldman, MD, MPH Professor of Clinical Population & Family 
Health and Deputy Director of the Center for Global Health and Economic 
Development at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Ronald J. Waldman, MD, MPH, is Deputy Director of the Center for Global 
Health and Economic Development at the Mailman School of Public Health of 
Columbia University, and former Director of its Program on Forced Migration 
and Health. He is a physician specializing in child health in developing 
countries. Dr. Waldman began his career with the World Health 
Organization’s Global Smallpox Eradication Program in Bangladesh.   He 
subsequently worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 
more than twenty years where, among other assignments, he directed 
technical support activities for the Combating Childhood Communicable 
Diseases Project.  In the 1980s and 1990s he and his colleagues at the CDC 
published a series of studies on the epidemiology of refugee health and 
provided public health assistance in many international humanitarian crises.

Dr. Waldman was the coordinator of the Task Force on Cholera Control at WHO 
from 1992-1994 and the Technical Director of the USAID-funded child 
survival BASICS Project from 1995-1999.  He is the immediate past Chairman 
of the International Health Section of the American Public Health 
Association and serves in an advisory capacity to a number of international 
non-governmental organizations.  He has worked in complex emergencies in 
Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Albania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan 
and, most recently, Iraq.

Dr. Muhsin Sheriff, MD, MPH
MUCHS - Harvard Research Collaboration, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;
MPH in Quantitative Methods Candidate at Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Sheriff is Internal Medical Monitor at the MUCHS (Muhumbili University 
College of Health Sciences) - Harvard Research Collaboration in Tanzania. 
He is a medical doctor with an MPH in Management and Policy who is studying 
for a 1-year MPH degree in Quantitative Methods at Harvard School of Public 
Health. He will share inspiring stories about his work to improve community 
health in rural areas of Tanzania. 'In addition to his full time job, he 
volunteers with a group of medical and non-medical personnel in conducting 
'eye camps' in rural villages where they provide vision screenings and 
refractions, distribute eyeglasses, give health checkups and advice, and 
organize eye surgeries. Dr. Sheriff received a Volunteer Service Award in 
2001 from the International Medical Relief of Western New York, Inc for 
coordinating eye surgical camps in Tanzania.

Ms. Rosemary Janiszewski
Deputy Director, Office of Communication, Health Education and Public 
Liason; Director, National Eye Institute Health Education Program, NIH.

Ms. Janiszewski has worked in the health education field for more than 20 
years at both the state and federal level. Since 1989, she has directed NEI 
health education activities, including the National Eye Health Education 
Program, a program to prevent vision loss through public and professional 
education programs.  She implemented the Healthy Vision 2010 program, a 
vision-related component of Healthy People 2010Before joining the NEI , Ms. 
Janiszewski was the coordinator for the Cancer Information Service in 
Illinois. She also served as a program coordinator at the American Heart 
Association of Wisconsin. She received her MS in community health education 
at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She is a Certified Health 
Education Specialist (CHES).

Mr. Mart Bailey
Founder and President, Callaway Private Equities Partners

Mr. Bailey founded Callaway Private Equity Partners to serve the private 
financing needs of emerging growth health care companies. Working with 
creative and experienced entrepreneurs, Mr. Bailey cultivates the most 
compelling opportunities in the medical technology and life sciences 
industries and brings together for them ideal strategic and investment 
partners.

Unite For Sight Student International Intern Speakers

Alison Polk-Williams,
Unite For Sight's Cataract Surgery Program in Humjibre, Ghana
Alison Polk-Williams lived and worked in Ghana between August 2003 and 
August 2004, where she was the Ghana Health and Education Initiative‚s 
co-Project Coordinator and Financial Officer in Ghana. She developed GHEI's 
English enrichment program for middle school students, supervised 
construction of GHEI's Community Center, and volunteered in a nearby 
private hospital. She also coordinated the first Unite For Sight cataract 
surgery program during June 2004 in conjunction with the Ghana Health and 
Education Initiative (GHEI).

Prior to her year in Ghana, Alison graduated from University of 
Pennsylvania with a degree in Health and Societies with a concentration in 
Health in Africa. She has done development work in the Dominican Republic 
and Tanzania doing construction and working in a secondary school. She also 
studied at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania during Summer 2002.

Since her return to the United States in August, Alison has assumed the 
position as Vice President for External Affairs with the Ghana Health and 
Education Initiative. She will continue to develop and coordinate future 
GHEI/Unite for Sight Volunteer Programs in Humjibre, an important effort 
aimed at preventing eye disease and restoring eyesight. She plans to attend 
medical school in the future.

Sachin Jain,
Unite For Sight's Program in Nyamuswa and Mwanza, Tanzania
Sachin Jain is a second-year medical student at Rush Medical College in 
Chicago, IL. Some of his interests include advocacy for underserved 
populations, universal health coverage, and international public health. He 
traveled to rural Tanzania as a Unite For Sight intern in the summer of 
2004 to implement several eye care initiatives, such as establishing a 
cataract surgery program, an eye clinic, and eye health education in local 
schools. He has also been honored with an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship for 
the 2004-05 academic year. His fellowship focuses on delivering eye care 
services, and diabetes and asthma education to a homeless community in 
Chicago. Sachin is also the Unite For Sight Regional Director for the 
Midwest and national co-coordinator for the American Medical Student 
Association's Direct Action Interest Group.

"My experience in Tanzania this summer was life-changing. By screening 
people for cataracts, distributing eyeglasses, relieving the cost of 
medications, and teaching eye health in schools, I gave hope to the village 
of Nyamuswa. Where advanced, high-tech care was but a dream, I showed that 
ophthalmic care, and health care in general, can be a reality for them, 
despite the poverty and lack of access to services. I can't imagine doing 
anything more worthwhile with my summer."

Sally Ong,
Unite For Sight's Program in Tanzania
Sally is a sophomore undergraduate student at Duke University. She is from 
Johor, Malaysia and is considering a double major in Biology and Political 
Science. Sally is involved with service-learning initiatives, including 
participating in a course entitled "Humanitarian Challenges at Home and 
Abroad FOCUS program" and teaching a course entitled "Service Learning: 
Expanding Your Duke Education beyond the Classroom."

Sally is the co-Vice President of Duke's chapter of Unite For Sight. As a 
Unite For Sight Student Intern in Tanzania during Summer 2004, she 
prescribed eyeglasses, participated in cataract eye surgery camps, and 
implemented eye health education programs in schools throughout the country.

"It was a wonderful experience working in Tanzania. The need for eyeglasses 
and other eye services is real and urgent. You sense it from the questions 
people ask, the requests they make and the stories they tell. Average wage 
is Tsh 48,000 (USD 43) while a pair of eyeglasses costs Tsh 30,000 (USD 
27). People cannot afford eyeglasses. Every Tanzanian I met has been very 
receptive to our programs. From the policy makers to the villagers, 
everyone supports our work, appreciates our efforts and invites us back to 
Tanzania. Sensing a need in the community is one thing, being supported and 
respected by the people made the internship very much more fulfilling."

Register at http://www.uniteforsight.org/2004_symposium.shtml
Contact Jennifer.Staple at aya.yale.edu with any questions.

Jazz For Peace Festival Concert Benefiting Unite For Sight at 5:30 PM

On Saturday, October 2nd, a Jazz For Peace Concert featuring Rick 
DellaRatta will benefit Unite For Sight, a 501(c)3 nonprofit global 
humanitarian organization that works globally to develop sustainable 
solutions to improve eye health outcomes.  The proceeds of the concert will 
fund sight-restoring cataract surgeries coordinated by Unite For Sight in 
African countries.  The benefit will be held at Penang - 24 Columbus 
Avenue, New York, NY - at 5:30 pm. Tickets are $25 plus a one drink 
minimum. For details, please go 
to  <http://www.jazzforpeace.org>www.jazzforpeace.org.


Unite For Sight has been recognized by USA Today, Glamour Magazine, Nokia 
and International Youth Foundation’s YouthActionNet, and WK Kellogg 
Foundation. With seventy-five chapters established at universities and 
medical schools, Unite For Sight has an international network of 2,000 
students and volunteers who build healthier communities through disease 
prevention, eye health promotion, and health education.  Each chapter works 
with local community infrastructures to improve access to health programs, 
and the primary objective is to prevent blindness.

Jazz For Peace? and Rick DellaRatta has been featured on the cover of 
UPWARD, the feature article insert of  BIG NEWS, which is distributed 
widely in the streets and subways of New York City as well as Albany, 
NY.  Rick DellaRatta was invited to lead a band for an international 
audience that consisted of Israeli, Middle Eastern, European, Asian & 
American' Jazz musicians.  Rick named this band "Jazz For Peace?"

Jazz for Peace's mission is to help advance people to their highest 
potential through the understanding of Jazz as well as spreading peace 
through our "Jazz For Peace? Concerts" worldwide - joining forces (or 
performing) with multi-cultural musicians to spread peace through the art 
form of Jazz and entering regions that are politically controversial. By 
the means of live concerts, video taping, on hands/on-line teaching as well 
as supplying musical instruments to underprivileged children in under 
developed areas worldwide, Jazz for Peace will re-enforce what past history 
has proven - that the art form of Jazz has the ability to create a positive 
effect that unites people and may eventually start to transform the 
barriers and issues of different cultures and beliefs.  For more 
information please visit <http://www.jazzforpeace.org/>www.jazzforpeace.org

Recent Quotes:
"Rick DellaRatta is one of the finest Jazz pianists alive."
                --Savannah Times
"It is actually the quality of DellaRatta's voice that grows on me more &
more with repeated listenings. At first I felt that Rick's strengths as a
pianist were foremost, but with time I have come to understand that
Dellaratta's skill as a vocalist is not to be underestimated. "His voice
has quite a haunting quality to it, being slightly androgenous in tone,
sometimes ghostly.... sometimes sexy. "
                 --Jen Karpin, Green Mtn Jazz Messenger

".....sure it will be a good show."
                --New York Times Jazz Forum

Register at http://www.uniteforsight.org/2004_symposium.shtml
Contact Jennifer.Staple at aya.yale.edu with any questions.
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