On March 30, four USC Senior Fellows in Global Health Communication Leadership from across the African continent visited the campus to speak about their progress on global health communication. <\/p>\n
The presentation was held in hybrid format both at ASC 207 and online starting at 3 p.m. The USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy hosted the event as part of their Africa \u2013 U.S. Initiative, which seeks to \u201cincubate strategies for development through convening some of the brightest minds from across the globe,\u201d according to its website<\/a>. <\/p>\n The 2025-2026 fellows are Dr. Yewande Alimi, Dr. Jepchirchir Kiplagat, Mia Malan and Hon. Dr. Ben Malunga Phiri., all of whom are working on separate projects that they hope will bridge the gap between complex health topics and the world\u2019s understanding of them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe background to it is that when it comes to global health issues, so much money has been invested, but little impact has been made,\u201d said Phiri who is a cabinet minister for local government and rural development in the Republic of Malawi. <\/p>\n He pointed towards the creation of vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic and how uptake was low in certain communities, resulting in many deaths. According to a 2025 study, only 22% of Malawians<\/a> took the vaccine by December 2023, a statistic that was attributed to the spread of misinformation and mistrust in the health system. In America, about 66%<\/a> of the population was considered fully vaccinated at that time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to come up with the tools to address those communication gaps,\u201d said Phiri, whose research is focused on making health information digestible to various Malawian communities in Africa. \u201cBelievability matters most when it comes to communication.\u201d<\/p>\n Kiplagat has a similar goal for educating people about living with HIV. <\/p>\n Kiplagat is the director of research for an impact program between the Moi University Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kenya and the consortium of North American institutions led by Indiana University. Her research as a fellow focuses on understanding the challenges those with HIV face as they age; approximately 1.4 million<\/a> people in Kenya have HIV and 5%<\/a> of that population is of age 50 or older. Her project\u2019s approach is to interview several affected individuals and give them a space to be vulnerable and honest in their own words.<\/p>\n \u201cWe rarely see the narrative of a person who\u2019s really grown through this pandemic,\u201d Kiplagat said. \u201cThis [is] because in most circumstances, it\u2019s us researchers who are voicing their issues.\u201d<\/p>\n The team then sits down with healthcare providers, policymakers, community leaders and other representatives to dissect these challenges and figure out the best way to structure communication about HIV. <\/p>\n Kiplagat\u2019s research also takes on a multimedia approach by sharing information via radio and social media. This is also the approach of Malan, yet another senior fellow and health journalist who said her goal is to match climate health reporting to the ways people consume media today.<\/p>\n \u201cThe health consequences of climate change (are) underreported,\u201d said Malan. \u201cThe objective of my project is to make that more prominent.\u201d<\/p>\n