Letter from the Editor

Abstract

Dear Reader,

We are honored to present The Columbia University Journal of Global Health Spring 2025 Issue. Political disruptions in the United States—stop-and-start suspensions of funding for health-disparities research and international health assistance—have exposed the precariousness of independent scientific governance and global health cooperation. These disruptions ripple outward, interrupting essential care in low- and middle-income countries—from antimalarial drug distribution to treatment of postpartum hemorrhage—and spurring renewed commitments to locally sovereign, regionally financed health-care infrastructure. Even as—and perhaps
especially because—state support for equity-centered research wanes, our journal remains steadfast in publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship on health disparities.

This issue examines determinants of health across vulnerable communities: low adherence to malaria-preventive therapies among pregnant women in Uganda, lifestyle-related predictors of depression in midlife women, and the structural histories of chattel enslavement undergirding obstetric racism in the United States. Read together, the studies in our Spring 2025 issue explore alternatives to paternalistic models of care, pointing instead to community-led, history-aware interventions, chief among them Uganda’s Village Health Teams and Black midwifery.

With the same devotion to community-anchored programming, we have continued to convene expert-led educational events. Our journal hosted “City in Crisis: Housing Insecurity and Health Equity,” where Deborah Padgett, PhD, MPH, MA, introduced students across the Columbia University campus to Housing First—an evidence-based approach to improving health for
people experiencing homelessness. For our journal members, Juliana Bol, PhD, delivered “Humanitarianism: Principles and Law,” a teach-in tracing the evolution of humanitarian action and legal principles from the Geneva Conventions to current protections for climate-related displacement. We also partnered with Alice! Health Promotion on an “Alcohol Harm Reduction”
workshop for our student members, focused on safer-use planning to prevent alcohol poisoning.

Honoring our commitment to centering student voices, we broadened avenues for early-career scholars to share their perspectives on public health. We welcomed the inaugural cohort of our High School Scientific Journalism Fellowship: New York students—mentored by our editors—completed literature reviews and drafted, revised, and published blogs with our journal. Fellows produced more than eight blog posts on global health themes, from mental health supports in schools to social stigmas surrounding neurodegenerative diseases.

This Spring 2025 issue is a milestone we celebrate with our staff, whose care carried each manuscript from submission to publication. We likewise remain indebted to our faculty advisors—Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, MPH, and Juliana Bol, PhD—for their steadying guidance throughout the editorial process. We express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Bol, our outgoing advisor, and congratulate her on her appointment as an assistant professor at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. To the authors who entrusted us with rigorous manuscripts, and to the peer reviewers whose thoughtful critiques strengthened them, we extend our sincere appreciation. And to our readers: you remain essential to The Columbia University Journal of Global Health community; we hope the pages ahead prove substantive, stimulating, and socially salient.

Sincerely,

Ann Thanh Phan & Jorge Hernandez-Perez

Co-Editors-in-Chief, The Columbia University Journal of Global Health