Chief of Party (COP) – Ohio State Global One Health Initiative
Health Care
Ohio State Global One Health Initiative
Global One Health connects Ohio State to Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Brazil, Thailand, China, India and beyond in a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to improve health, build capacity, and provide learning opportunities for students across the globe.
Wondwossen Gebreyes, PhD, DVM, a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and executive director of Global One Health, initiated the project in 2009. The program expanded three years later to include Ohio State’s seven health sciences colleges as well as the colleges of agriculture, business, engineering and social work. Today hundreds of Ohio State students, faculty and staff are involved in the project, addressing cervical cancer, maternal and child health, food safety, rabies prevention and control and sharing the information through innovative e-learning technology. Global One Health is the university’s largest, interdisciplinary example of institutional teamwork operating on a global scale.
Over 70 percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic (e.g. they originate in animals, but can mutate and spillover into the human population, like Ebola.) Every four months a new infectious zoonotic disease emerges and fewer than 20 percent of countries are equipped and able to respond quickly. This is why an integrated One Health approach is so critical. It addresses the interaction between human, animal and environmental wellness so that globally we are better prepared to predict and prevent the next disease outbreak.
The scope of Ohio State’s Global One Health projects includes: 1) Prevention and control of (re)-emerging zoonotic infectious diseases; 2) Collaborative approaches to prevent, detect and respond to antimicrobial resistance; 3) Development and testing of rapid, point-of-care, field-deployable detection systems; 4) Evaluation of environmental risk factors that impact agricultural food systems, chronic diseases (such as cancer) and other economic and health outcomes; 5) Development of efficient digital and virtual systems for high impact translational research, training and outreach.
Already well established in eastern Africa – where the initiative gained momentum – Ohio State opened a Global One Health office in Addis Ababa in 2016 to manage activities throughout the region.
Global One Health is a prime example of Ohio State’s commitment as a global institution and demonstrates the successful contributions by faculty and students to engage in meaningful and beneficial partnerships to gain and share knowledge, and find innovative solutions to the world’s most compelling issues.
Qualifications:
Education:
- A degree in Medicine (MD) or Veterinary Medicine (DVM) or Health Sciences and a Master’s or doctorate degree in public health, epidemiology or relevant technical field.
Knowledge/skills:
- Strong communication skills, including interpersonal, presentation, written and oral English to fulfill the diverse technical, managerial, operational and financial requirements of the Activity and to coordinate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders. The COP should have a good communication skill to navigate implementation challenges on the ground and keep USAID/Ethiopia informed. H/she should be political savvy with strong management skills to be able to work under the current operating environment in Ethiopia.
Experience:
- At least over 15 years of demonstrated experience in program leadership / management experience; and a significant portion must include managing U.S. Government-funded projects or other international funded health projects in a developing country context. Proven track record of building teams and fostering collaboration in order to achieve goals, meet milestones and produce quality results. Previous COP or DCOP management experience in health security or health emergency or other public health programs in Ethiopia or developing country context.
Language:
- Fluency of English in reading, writing, speaking (Level IV) is required and additional fluency in Amharic will be preferred.
