Student Named Pardee Graduate Summer Fellow.
The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future has named School of Public Health doctoral student Chukwuemeka Umeh as one of the 2016 Pardee Graduate Summer Fellows.
Starting May 31, Umeh and six other graduate fellows from across Boston University will spend 10 weeks at the Pardee House developing research papers to be considered for publication as part of the Pardee Center’s publication series. The fellowship includes a financial stipend, structured interaction with Pardee Center faculty and research fellows, and a collegial atmosphere that fosters peer support and intellectual growth.
Umeh will study the challenges facing insurance coverage of essential health services in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and how programs and policies can be modified to improve healthcare access in those countries.
According to the World Health Organization, Umeh says, “Around 400 million people worldwide don’t have access to basic healthcare services, and the majority of this population is in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
He says the fellowship will allow him to completely focus on this issue for the first time. “It’s an avenue to do something I’m very passionate about,” Umeh says, work that “will be able to hopefully impact the lives of millions of people. That’s very exciting.”
Based on the Charles River Campus, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future conducts interdisciplinary, policy-relevant, and future-oriented research that can contribute to long-term improvements in the human condition.