Pandemics and virtual connections know no borders. While an in-person summit on shared health challenges is currently impossible, on Nov. 17, 2020, three institutions united to discuss their on-going work in health equity and thoughts on COVID-19’s transnational impact in Texas and Mexico.

In 2019, the team conducted a community needs assessment that was supported by the President’s Award for Global Learning at The University of Texas at Austin. An abstract that described this assessment and its results titled “Understanding community health needs and forging an academic global health partnership in Puebla, Mexico” was published in 2020 in The Lancet. The assessment is informing many of the initial initiatives of the new AMPATH partnership.

The 2018-19 President’s Award for Global Learning was the inaugural program of the International Board of Advisors at the University of Texas at Austin. Through the President’s Office, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, and Texas Global, the program was created to educate global leaders and participate in a cross-cultural experience to increase the global engagement of UT Austin.

An interdisciplinary team of students and three faculty advisors won one of the inaugural President’s Award for Global Learning from the University of Texas for their proposal entitled “Health and Housing: A Comprehensive Needs Assessment of Low-Income Communities in Puebla, Mexico.”

In anticipation of creating a new AMPATH partnership between The University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School and partners in Puebla, three leaders from Dell Medical visited in the summer of 2018. Learn more about this introductory meeting.