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Agreement with Mexican university to advance healthcare
Arizona State University and the University of Guanajuato, México, are expanding global exchanges through an historic agreement that will advance culturally responsive healthcare in two countries.
The institutional agreement not only covers health promotion but calls for the development of academic exchanges, joint research and conference activities across all university disciplines.
ASU President Michael Crow and Arturo Lara López, the Rector General of the University of Guanajuato, signed the agreement last week.
“In addition to enhancing cross-cultural understanding, our agreement with the University of Guanajuato supports our mission of global engagement through potential collaboration in health promotion, human services, engineering, biosciences, liberal arts, law and all of the other outstanding academic, research and service programs our respective universities have to offer,” Crow said.
Anthony Rock, vice president for Global Engagement at ASU, Bernadette Melnyk, College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation dean at ASU and Blanca Ester Sánchez Guerrero, director of the Faculty of Nursing and Obstetrics, University of Guanajuato campus in León, México, added their signatures as witnesses to the accord.
Steps toward the institutional agreement began more than a year ago. Carol Baldwin, ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation associate professor, Southwest Borderlands Scholar and Office of International Health, Scientific and Educational Affairs director, met with Dr. Sergio Arias-Negrete, director of International Academic Relations and Dr. Sergio Márquez-Gamiño, professor at the Institute for Human Research León campus in 2007 at the University of Guanajuato. These meetings resulted in ongoing research collaborations, evidence-based practice and other trans-disciplinary educational activities. Collaborative studies have already been presented at conferences in the United States and Asia, as well as Mexico.
Melnyk said the positive repercussions of the agreement will be felt in Arizona and Mexico for promoting health and wellness from a broader cultural perspective.
“I am very excited that we now have a formal collaboration with the University of Guanajuato. The research, scholarship and evidence-based practice initiatives that we have and will continue to build together will enhance the science and quality of care for the people in México and Arizona,” Melnyk said.
Flavio Marsiglia, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center of Excellence director in the College of Public Programs at ASU, called the called the collaborative agreement research and social embeddedness at its finest.
“Guanajuato has more than a 100-year-old history of migration to the U.S. and communities on both sides of the Mexico-US border are very closely connected. This new partnership will allow for more effective health services on both sides of the international border. Congratulations to the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation for taking the lead on this important partnership,” Marsiglia said.
The North American Center for Transborder Studies of the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences also welcomed the news.
“This agreement between ASU and the University of Guanajuato demonstrates that ASU’s reach really extends throughout Mexico, in this case to the important central Mexican state of Guanajuato. The fact that the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation is taking the lead in this agreement further demonstrates the concern that ASU as an institution has for the well-being of citizens of North America, including those of Mexico,” said Erik Lee, North American Center for Transborder Studies associate director.
For more information about the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, visit http://nursing.asu/edu.
Contact:
Carol Baldwin
Associate Professor
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
(602) 496-0791
Carol.Baldwin@asu.edu
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