Welcome CGI New Director

The following letter from the Provost's Office announced the appointment of the Director of the MUSC Center for Global Initiatives.

To: All Units Reporting to the Provost
From: Mark S. Sothmann, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Date: November 15, 2012
Re: Appointment of Dr. Michael Sweat as the Inaugural Director of the Center for Global Initiatives

It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Michael Sweat from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science as the inaugural Director of the Center for Global Initiatives at MUSC.

Dr. Sweat’s appointment follows an internal campus-wide search with a highly competitive pool of candidates. The Center of Global Initiatives was created in 2011 with the merging of the offices of International Support and International Programs to create one coordinated unit. The creation of the Center was based upon the recommendation of the MUSC strategic planning committee focused on globalization and upon review by an independent consulting firm, HighStreet Partners Inc., which noted a need to better coordinate the nearly 40 international agreements MUSC has with 22 countries involving more than 200 faculty members, and over 200 international students and post-doctoral researchers currently on the university’s campus. It is anticipated that under Dr. Sweat’s leadership the Center will foster more synergies across MUSC to better cultivate global educational, public health, clinical, and research opportunities while continue to build much needed policies and procedures.

Dr. Sweat received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Emory University in Medical Sociology. From 1990 through 1995 he worked in various capacities with the US Centers for Disease Control and the AIDS Control and Prevention Project (AIDSCAP) conducting epidemiological projections of AIDS epidemics and cost-effectiveness analyses of HIV interventions in developing countries. He was on the faculty of the Department of International Health, School of Hygiene and Public Health of The Johns Hopkins University from 1995 to 2007 when he moved to MUSC where he currently directs the Family Service Research Center. Dr. Sweat has been a member of numerous international working groups researching HIV prevention and intervention, and as principal investigator has received continuous funding for his research on global health from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute for Drug Abuse, the World Health Organization, and the US Agency for International Development, among other agencies.

Dr. Sweat will be leading university-wide conversations regarding strategic priorities for MUSC globally while working to coordinate existing global health resources and garnering new resources. He will provide insight on opportunities to secure external funding for research while actively developing collaborations with private and nonprofit partners for advancement of global initiatives. Dr. Sweat will lead an already highly skilled staff that provides excellent service to the MUSC international community. I invite you to visit the global initiatives website to learn more.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Sweat to his new role.