Lori DiPrete Brown serves as the Assistant Director of the UW-Madison Center for Global Health.  She is committed to a broad definition of human rights that takes into account determinants of suffering/well-being such as access to food, water, health care, education, a peaceful existence, an opportunity to live in a sustainable and harmonious relationship to the natural environment, and political and civil rights.  Her interest in health and human rights began as an undergraduate at Yale University where she majored in philosophy and psychology and began her studies in public health.  After Peace Corps service in Honduras (1983-1985), she pursued interdisciplinary graduate work at Harvard.  Her studies combined degrees in Public Health, with a focus on access to quality primary care in developing countries, and Theological Studies, with a focus on comparative religion and faith-based movements for liberation and social change. While at Harvard she, with other student leaders, founded the Nicaragua Health Study Collaborative at Harvard, CIES, and UNAN.  The group carried out health and human rights research which documented the health effects of low-intensity warfare on civilians in two rural communities in Nicaragua.  Since the early 90's she has worked with health programs in developing countries to improve access and quality of health services.  In addition to working extensively in Latin America (Chile, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Guatemala) she has been a collaborator in other regions including work in Pakistan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Cameroon and Senegal. She joined the UW Center for Global Health in 2002, where she is involved in teaching and curriculum development related to global health. Her field work with UW students includes interdisciplinary partnerships with rural communities in Mexico and Ecuador.  She has been also been involved in developing PEPFARs strategy for providing quality care to AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. This effort, which integrates applied research and management strategies with rights-based approaches, took her to Ethiopia and Tanzania, and the regional effort is now active in 14 African countries.  Currently she is convening an interdisciplinary research initiative at UW related to fostering resilience in vulnerable children.

Email: dipretebrown@wisc.edu