The Global School Forum 2022-2023

The first malaria vaccine has been approved! What’s next?

Ann M Moormann earned her PhD in Epidemiologic Sciences and MPH in Hospital & Molecular Epidemiology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She then trained at the Center for Global Health and Diseases at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She has been a Visiting Scientist at the Center for Global Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute in Kisumu since 1999. She is currently a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester.



Dr. Moormann has mentored aspiring scientists from around the world and values diversity, equity, and inclusion within her research team. She is an elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS) and a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (FASTMH). She is the Chair of the Young Investigator Award Committee for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Dr, Moormann is a recognized expert on immunity to Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria and Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) in the pathogenesis of endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL), two infections associated with higher incidence of this childhood cancer. Her laboratory focuses on understanding how immune cell composition and functions during early childhood shape the development of protective immunity against malaria. 

Malaria was responsible for 247 million illnesses and 619,000 deaths last year and continues to be a global health priority. In 2021, the World Health Organization approved the first malaria vaccine (RTS,S) for use in young children residing in high malaria transmission areas, even though this vaccine has less than 50% efficacy. There are additional challenges before malaria vaccines will make an impact in the fight against malaria, such as limitations in production and ethical distribution within resource-constrained areas where malaria is most prevalent and the healthcare infrastructure is the most fragile. Nevertheless, there is hope. The next-generation of malaria vaccines are under development and research studies are underway to continue to evaluate intrinsic and extrinsic factors which impede malaria vaccine efficacy. How a child’s immune response differs from that of adults will be reviewed as well as what we think we can do to further improve malaria vaccination strategies.  

Open Education, Global Learning, and Social Justice

Dr. Glenda Cox is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT: http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/) at the University of Cape Town and her portfolio includes postgraduate teaching, Curriculum change projects, Open Education, and Staff development. She holds the UNESCO chair in Open Education and Social Justice (2021-2024). She is passionate about the role of Open Education in the changing world of Higher Education. Dr. Glenda Cox is currently the Principal Investigator in the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative. Her current research includesanalyzingg the role of open textbooks for social justice.

Growing inequity continues to manifest within and between higher education institutions of the Global North and Global South, highlighting the plight of the disadvantaged versus the advantaged in the system (Holscher & Bozalek, 2020). In addition to the challenge of high university fees impeding access, there are challenges related to the cost and appropriateness of textbooks in higher education (Cox et al., 2019) – all of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the widening inequality that has manifested as a result (Hargreaves, 2021).

Internationally, research has highlighted the importance of providing access to textbooks and online educational resources in order to maximise returns on remote learning necessitated by the pandemic, particularly in the context of unequal access to learning materials and curricula (Mishra et al., 2020; Reimers & Schleicher 2020).

The work shared in this presentation emerges from research conducted within the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project, an open textbook research, implementation and advocacy initiative which investigates the current ecosystem of open textbook publishing and provides implementation support in open textbook publishing activity at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The project operates with an underlying social justice agenda.

SAVING HUMANITY: RADICAL CONFIDENCE FOR A POSITIVE FUTURE, A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TALK WITH ROB WATSON

Environmental performance platforms like LEED (green buildings) and SWEEP (solid waste) play an important role in slowing humanity’s race toward catastrophe, but, unfortunately, these types of approaches are structurally incapable of providing long-term solutions to humanity's environmental problems. We need to begin now to think about a radical revisioning around the valuation of transactions and a full "ethonomic” accounting of the impacts of transactions in order to bring about a sustainable future.

Rob Watson, LEED Fellow, is an international leader in market transformation in solid waste, green buildings, and sustainable tourism. He is best known as the “Founding Father of LEED,” which he launched in 1993. Under Rob’s direction, LEED became the largest and fastest-growing international standard by which green buildings are measured. Author Thomas Friedman called Rob "one of the best environmental minds in America." In 2019, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine recognized Mr. Watson as one of the "25 Most Influential Alumni" in the College's 250-year history.