About the Center

Mission

In keeping with the principles of primary care set forth in the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, we believe community participation and empowerment leading to greater self-reliance are critical to the sustained improvement of global health conditions. At the Center for International Community Health Studies (CICHS), our approach assumes a basic respect for the rights of individuals, communities, and nations to determine their future based on traditional values, locally generated solutions, and selection of appropriate technology and methods. We also believe that an increasing global interdependence makes partnerships between developed and developing nations, institutions, and individuals effective for mutual learning and progress. We hold that development requires an intersectoral and interdisciplinary approach to address health needs. We see research as playing a critical role in knowledge generation, education, training and the design of innovative programs. In our view, it is the mission of all universities and their component programs to play an active role in international, national and community health and development.

Historical Background

The Center for International Community Health Studies (CICHS) was established in the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, School of Medicine of the University of Connecticut Health Center in 1980 with a grant from the Department of Education. The objective of CICHS was to develop a nationally recognized academic center for the study of international community health problems and issues and to become a major educational resource for the preparation of U.S. health care professionals (i.e. MD, DMD, MA, MPH, and PhD) to pursue careers in the field of international health.

The development of CICHS grew out of a long term and on-going commitment of members of the Division of Community Health to research and program development in underserved communities in Connecticut. These commitments resulted in a body of research and programmatic results in African American and Hispanic inner city neighborhoods in Hartford, CT and the translation of those results into educational programs focused on primary care and applied research. The Department of Education grant made it possible to extend this research and educational program to the developing world.

In 1986 CICHS assumed responsibility for the International Health, Population, and Social Service Training (IHPSS) Program of the University of Connecticut. This program, established in 1972, had trained 420 people in the management and training process from over 60 countries. The integration of the health training activities of IHPSS into the academic research and graduate education program of CICHS, resulted in a comprehensive international health program with strong training, research, education capabilities.

Current structure

From 1986 to the present, CICHS has consisted of three components: 1) training of health professionals (e.g. physicians, nurses, public health officials, family planners) from developing countries (over 1000 participants from 88 countries); 2) education of medical, dental, and public health students in international health through courses and electives and practicum, clerkships and research in developing countries (almost 200 students have conducted research and clerkships in 47 developing countries); and 3) research on international health, with special focus in the last decade on sexual risk, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health in countries which include Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and India.

Personnel

Stephen L. Schensul Ph.D. (Anthropology, University of Minnesota) is Director of CICHS and Associate Professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Dr. Schensul also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. He has focused his career on community-based, applied health research, conducted in Northern Minnesota, Southwestern Uganda, Westside Mexican American community in Chicago, multi-ethnic communities in Miami, in the African American and Puerto Rican communities in Hartford, CT, in the shantytown communities of Lima, Peru and Nairobi, Kenya, and in urban communities in Mauritius, Sri Lanka and India. He is Principal Investigator of the India projects and has focused much of his research over the last decade on sexual risk and HIV/AIDS as principal Investigator on projects in Mauritius and Sri Lanka. In addition to his research, he shares responsibility with Prof. Judy Lewis for International Health Education at the University of Connecticut Health Center, has been the lead instructor for over 1000 health professionals from the developing world and has conducted training workshops in HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and research methodology in many countries. » More on Dr. Schensul…

Judy Lewis, M.Phil. (Sociology, Yale University) is director of the Community Based Education Program and Associate Professor in the Departments of Community Medicine and Pediatrics. Trained as a medical sociologist, she developed one of the first school based health clinic programs in the U.S., and has devoted her professional work to improving maternal and child health and community based health professions education. She has developed partnerships with many community programs both in the Greater Hartford area and internationally, at the Universities of Peradenyia (Sri Lanka), Antwerp (Belgium), Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica as well as NGOs such as the Haitian Health Foundation, IHCAI (International Health Central American Institute, Costa Rica), and BOCED (Buguruka Orphan and Community Economic Development Tanzania). She has served as President of the International Health Medical Education Consortium (IHMEC) and as a board member of IHCAI and BOCED. She has held leadership roles in the Group on Educational Affairs of the Association of American Medical Colleges, was President of the Connecticut Public Health Association and the Adolescent Health Council, and is Co-Chair of the International Health Committee of the Maternal and Child Health Section of the American Public Health Association. » More on Professor Lewis…

Bonnie K. Nastasi, Ph.D. (School Psychology, Kent State University) is Associate Director of Interventions at the Institute for Community Research, Hartford, CT, and former Director and Associate Professor of School Psychology at University at Albany, NY. She has conducted applied research on mental health and health risk among school-age and adult populations in the U.S. and internationally, including Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and India. Her research and intervention activities include mental health promotion, health risk prevention, use of qualitative research methods in psychology, and promoting school psychology internationally. Dr. Nastasi is Co-PI on the NIMH-funded project, Male Sexual Health Concerns and Prevention of HIV/STDs in India.

Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada, Ph.D. (Medical Anthropology, Universite de Montreal) is coordinator of the project "Male Sexual Health Concerns and Prevention of HIV/STDs in India." Born in Morocco, Dr. Mekki-Berrada obtained his Ph.D. degree in Medical Anthropology in Canada. His dissertation is the result of a five-year study on the relationship between culture, symbolic thinking, health and medical knowledge in a Moroccan urban context. After his Ph.D. program, he was an ethnopsychiatrist at the Hopital du Sacre-Coeur de Montreal and Research Associate at the Equipe de Recherche et d'Action en Sante Mentale et Culture (EASRSME); and Research Coordinator at the Table de Concertation au Sercvice des Personnes Refugiees et Immigrantes. The main focus of these last three clinical and research activities was on the mental health of migrants and refugees coming from Algeria, Morocco, and former Zaire, and who settled in Montreal. Before joining CICHS, he was a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health where he studied the impact of culture and traditional medical knowledge on young children's health in Southern Morocco.

Carmen Manuela (Nela) Pinto, M.S. (Biobehavioral Sciences, University of Connecticut) is a Research Assistant in the India research and intervention projects. She has been with the University of Connecticut Health Center for nearly 10 years, working on several research projects during the last decade, with a special emphasis on urban mental health. Her work in the India projects focuses on qualitative data management, coding and analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with men and women in the study communities in northeastern Mumbai, India.

Joseph Burleson, Ph.D. (Psychology, University of Texas at Austin) is Assistant Professor of Community Medicine and a statistician in the department's Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. A member of the UConn Health Center faculty for the past 20 years, he has held appointments in both the School of Dental Medicine and the School of Medicine. Dr. Burleson's research interests include alcohol and other substance abuse prevention and treatment, and research design and analysis of observational, experimental and clinical trails studies. Dr. Burleson has published in the fields of basic psychology and behavioral science and has actively served as a research design and statistics consultant for twenty-five years. He is the Statistician for the India research projects. » More on Dr. Burleson…

Contacting CICHS Personnel

To contact an individual member of the CICHS staff, look up their contact information in the CICHS directory. Our mailing address is listed at the bottom of this page.

Need Directions to our Offices?

The CICHS offices are located within the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care in Suite 260 at The Exchange, 270 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, Connecticut. Consult the department's driving directions for further information on navigating to our site. The directions include information on parking and maneuvering through the building to our suite of offices.

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