Cynthia Haq is Professor of Family Medicine and Population Health Sciences, and Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) Center for Global Health. She received her M.D. at Indiana University, completed her residency at the UW, and joined the faculty of Dartmouth Medical School before returning to Wisconsin. Early in her career she served as medical director for a rural health center in Kasangati, Uganda, with the Minnesota International Health Volunteers where she learned the importance of primary health care and public health. She served as a Fulbright Scholar at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, where she worked with Dr. John Bryant and colleagues to establish the first family medicine post-graduate training program in Pakistan. She joined the faculty of Makerere University in Uganda to assist development of family medicine in East Africa in 2005.

At the UW, Dr. Haq served as the Department of Family Medicine«««s Director of Medical Student Education for the from 1995 through 2003. She helped establish the community based Primary Care Clerkship involving a network of more than three hundred community based physicians. She has led federally sponsored training grants to develop web-based curricula, courses to teach communication skills, evidence based medicine, community and population health. She practiced full-scope family medicine in rural Belleville, and Madison, Wisconsin for 19 years. She is now leading development of the Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health (TRIUMPH) program to recruit and prepare medical students for urban health careers and to improve to health care for disadvantaged populations in central Milwaukee.

Dr. Haq served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and World Organization of Family Doctors, to co-author the book, Improving Health Systems: the Contribution of Family Medicine, published in 2002. This book is being used to help nations and medical schools to strengthen their medical education and health systems based on a strong foundation of primary health care. Dr. Haq led development of an International Health Fellowship Program to support US medical students to study abroad, and has served as a consultant to medical schools and governments throughout the world.

Dr. Haq has authored numerous papers. Her awards include the University of Wisconsin Medical School Dean«««s Teaching Award, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine National Excellence in Education Award, the Gabriel Smilkstein International Leadership Award, the American Academy of Family Physicians Presidential Award, and the Family Doctor of the World Award from the World Organization of Family Doctors.

Dr. Haq coordinates global health curricula, research and outreach programs for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and collaborates with universities in low-income countries. She teaches family medicine, primary health care, urban, public and global health to students, faculty, and health professionals.

For more information see: http://badgersabroad.wisc.edu/blog/index.php/archives/41