Dr. Ana Lucia Seminario of the School of Dentistry faculty has been appointed to the University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative executive council for 2019-2020 by UW President Ana Mari Cauce.
Dr. Seminario is Associate Professor of Pediatric Dentistry and Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health in the UW School of Public Health. She also directs the School of Dentistry’s Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health, which conducts worldwide oral health research and fosters international research collaborations.
She is one of the seven UW faculty members and one undergraduate newly named to the 30-member executive council, whose members serve in annual rotations. President Cauce chairs the council, which includes senior leaders, faculty, students, and staff from UW colleges, schools, programs, and stakeholder units.
The UW launched the Population Health Initiative in 2016 to tackle existing and emerging challenges in human health, environmental resilience, and social and economic equity. The university leverages local, national, and global partnerships to address these challenges with research, service, and teaching. At the School of Dentistry, the DeRouen Center has aligned its mission to more closely support the initiative as the center pursues projects in Kenya, the Amazon Basin, Thailand, and Seattle.
In 2018, the UW broke ground on a new 290,000-square-foot building on the west edge of its Seattle campus to house the initiative. The $230 million Population Health Building is supported by a $210 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and $15 million in funding from the state of Washington. Its completion is expected in 2020.
The new facility will promote interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation in addressing the health and well-being of populations here and around the world. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the UW Department of Global Health, and parts of the UW School of Public Health will be housed in the building.