Thinking Globally Acting Locally: Dr. Neusy brings Global Health to NYU School of Medicine

With the creation of the Center for Global Health in 1998 and the co-founding of the Institute of Urban and Global Health two years later, André-Jacques Neusy, MD, brought global health to NYU School of Medicine.

Born to missionary parents Dr. Neusy, an Associate Professor of Medicine, was raised in Congo-Zaire where he spent his formative years and completed his premedical education. He obtained his medical degree and a certificate in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the Free University of Brussels School of Medicine, completed his postdoctoral medical training at New York University Medical Center and joined its faculty in 1977.

Throughout his professional life Dr. Neusy, has remained committed to urban and global health issues. Dr. Neusy volunteered his services with several community-based organizations in

underserved areas in New York City and returned numerous times to Africa to serve as a medical professional and coordinator of health programs both in development and disaster settings. He led the health team of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) during the humanitarian crisis and cholera epidemic in Goma, Zaire in the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. He returned to the region as medical coordinator during the civil war in Eastern Zaire in 1996. In 1999, he worked in Kosovo and Macedonia as consultant for IRC, the largest non-sectarian humanitarian agency in the U.S. where he is a technical advisor to its Health Unit.

Upon his return from Zaire Dr. Neusy became an Advisor to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Rwanda. President of the International Health Medical Education Consortium, he has lectured on humanitarian disaster management and on global health related issues at various institutions including the University of Paris, Princeton University, The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Boston University School of Public Health and the California Institute for Integral Studies. In recognition of his humanitarian work he received the Pfizer Award "Doctor of Distinction" in 1998.

Dr. Neusy in Goma, Zaire in 1994
"To meet the demands of the rapidly changing global health environment, medical educators must reach beyond the traditional definition of health and across national borders to integrate the wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated by practitioners in other disciplines and countries"