Global Health Connections
Dr. Blair Gifford was member of the Denver Rotary Club for 20 years and chaired the World Community Service committee for much of this time.
He and his wife (Khanh) recently joined the new Castle Pines Rotary club. Khanh is from Vietnam and a smaller club is easier for her to get involved in.
In 20 years in Rotary, Blair has had international service projects in Myanmar, Ghana, Kenya, Haiti, Malawi and Cuba. Also, he is a member of the Paul Harris Society.
Blair is the Founder (2003) and Board Chair of Global Health Connections not for profit in Denver. Global Health Connections is an NGO in Kenya and has a large-scale Community Health and Empowerment Clubs project which combines WASH, community health and economic development with empowerment.
Blair is a Professor of Global Health and Sustainable Management in the Business School at the University of Colorado Denver. At the University, he was the Founder (2003) and first Director of the Center for Global Health (UC Anschutz Medical campus), and is the current Director of the Managing for Sustainability program (UC Denver campus). The Sustainability program is ranked in the top 20 of over 2000 like programs in the U.S.
Blair has received many awards over the years, including being named a New Century Fellow by the U.S. State Department (Fulbright) in 2008.
Blair has a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Chicago. He has had Visiting Professor appointments at Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Yale University, and Northwestern University.
Blair enjoys family time, Rotary’s Service Above Self mission, and competing in various sports.
Blair will take us through the Community Health and Empowerment Club (CHEC) process and how it is helping villages in Kenya. He will tell us how the project has grown from 4 people in 2019 to 15 people and 10 CHEC's in 2022.
Blair will be joining us from Denver via Zoom, and we will see how his PowerPoint presentation will work. This will be an interesting and informative program and one to invite a guest or prospective member to join us in person at Memorial Hall or via Zoom. Mary Ann Norwood will introduce our presenter and act as Rotary host.