Cynthia Haq is a Professor of Family Medicine and Population Health Sciences, Chair of the IHAC, and Director of International Health for the UW Medical School. She has focused her career on improving primary health care, especially for medically underserved populations. She has trained village health workers in Uganda, established family medicine training in Pakistan, served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, and worked to improve medical education in the US, Afghanistan, Brazil, China and Iran.

"Despite improvements in longevity and health status for most of the world's population during the 20th century, enormous problems and striking inequities in health status persist both within the US and abroad. The health of the people of Wisconsin is strongly affected by global trends such as immigration, travel, trade and shifting disease patterns. Health professionals can realize tremendous benefits by engaging in global health efforts; we can learn important lessons from abroad to improve health care in Wisconsin, contribute to addressing unmet health needs, and gain tremendous satisfaction from collaborating with our international colleagues to improve health and alleviate human suffering. A dedicated group of UW faculty, staff, residents and students are working to develop new programs to help address global health problems. The programs on the following pages provide examples of our contributions to global health. We look forward to your response and to further developments in the years ahead."