Prime Highlights
- Chen stated the center will partner with communities using rigorous methods and global networks to scale locally driven health solutions.
- Tucker stated that equity requires new engagement models combining evidence-based approaches with lived experience.
Key Facts
- PAHO and WHO designated the center, recognising UNC-Chapel Hill’s leadership in global health research.
- Initial focus areas include vaccine uptake, reproductive health access and digital health innovations for underserved populations.
Background
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced in the last week of April the launch of a new Collaborating Center on Social Innovation in Health. The Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization designated the center, marking a significant step in UNC’s global health mission.
Liz Chen, associate professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Joe Tucker, professor at the UNC School of Medicine, will co-direct the center. Both belong to the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.
The center will work closely with PAHO country offices, WHO programs and a wide network of academic and community partners. Its initial focus areas include strengthening vaccine uptake, improving access to sexual and reproductive health services, and supporting digital health innovations for underserved populations.
Chen stated that communities are already creating solutions to pressing health challenges, and the center’s role is to partner with them using strong methods and global networks to help those solutions reach more people. Tucker added that the center reflects a growing understanding that achieving equity demands new ways of working alongside communities, policymakers and practitioners to build solutions that are both evidence-based and rooted in real-world experience.
The center’s core priorities include community co-creation, evidence generation, capacity building and policy translation. It will support countries in designing, testing and scaling health innovations that are effective, ethical and sustainable.
Luis Gabriel Cuervo, senior adviser at PAHO, stated that the partnership with UNC will help turn community-driven ideas into scalable solutions that improve health outcomes across the Americas.
