Thomas Coates, founding director for the UCLA Center for World Health, has been named the new director of the University of California Global Health Institute.
Founded in 2009, the UC Global Health Institute was previously directed by Dr. Haile Debas of UC San Francisco. The institute works to train the next generation of global health leaders and accelerate the discovery and implementation of transformative global health solutions. Coates preciously worked alongside Debas as co-director and helped launch the systemwide institute and guide its growth. As director, Coates will be responsible for providing executive strategic, operational and resource management leadership for the institute.
Coates is the Michael and Sue Steinberg endowed professor of global AIDS research within the UCLA Division of Infectious Diseases. His areas of emphasis and expertise are global health, HIV prevention, and its relationship to treatment and international health policy. He has directed community-randomized clinical trials in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Thailand to determine the impact of strategies for destigmatizing HIV community-wide, as well as led a prevention clinical trial in South America as part of a five-country effort. In 2002 he was cited in Science as the fourth highest funded scientist in the clinical, social and behavioral sciences.
The UC Global Health Institute also named Dr. Timothy Brewer, professor of medicine and vice provost of interdisciplinary and cross-campus affairs at UCLA, as one of the six new board members. For the complete list of the new leadership team members, visit this UC website.
