Virginia (Ginny) Gidi is currently a 3rd year student in the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH). She received her BA in Spanish and Latin American/Caribbean Studies and her MPH in Health Management from the University of Michigan. After graduation, Ginny spent 6 years working in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Global Health Affairs, serving as the Senior International Health Officer for Latin America. In 2005 she accepted a job with the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) as the Regional Team Leader for Latin America and the Caribbean to coordinate President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) activities in the region. It was her work on PEPFAR that prompted Ginny to return to her interests in health systems development. Through her doctoral research, she hopes to explore how health systems can be better oriented to adapt to the growing burden of chronic disease. Specifically, she is examining the national health system responses to HIV/AIDS and diabetes mellitus in Mexico and Brazil and examining the policy lessons learned that could be applied to other developing or developed countries.
