Theresa Sommers, MPH

I come to the program at UNE with experience in both public health programming and research, and have worked at various institutions, both in the US and globally.  Much of this work has focused broadly on the intersection of globalization and infectious diseases, transnational public health issues, and health promotion. In 2003, I worked on the economic impact of the SARS outbreak at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and, more recently, as a Health Scientist in the Travelers’ Health Branch of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where I worked on both risk assessment and health promotion projects. I have also spent considerable time in the field, including working on tobacco control policy in Thailand (with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation) and research on governance, migration, and health in Southern Africa (with the African Centre for Migration and Society) in South Africa. Presently, I am finishing my PhD in global governance and human security, with a focus on global health, and my dissertation looks at how migration affects health and well-being for youth migrants living in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, I teach the Global Health Issues course for the online BA in Global Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and am a fellow at the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development also at the University of Massachusetts Boston, as well as an associated researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.