CGHE Bids Bittersweet Farewell to Dr. Kasia Kordas Co-Director

This spring, the Community for Global Health Equity (CGHE) bittersweetly bids farewell to Dr. Katarzyna (Kasia) Kordas as co-director.

Dr. Kordas’s involvement first started in 2018, as co-lead of the Early Life Exposome Big Ideas Team. Selected by the OVPRED and Deans Wactawski-Wende (SPHHP) and Shibley (SAP) to co-direct CGHE after Dr. Ram’s departure, she moved forward and elevated CGHE’s work during the pandemic, ensuring research and programming continued. Dr. Kordas has played an integral role in CGHE, helping to envision a new future through transformative and impactful changes. Her thoughtfulness, generosity, dedication, and academic rigor have impacted many.

Throughout her time with CGHE, Dr. Kordas has been involved in myriad research and educational activities. She has led the Mycelium Based Soil Remediation in Buffalo, NY (MySoRe) project, funded by US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in addition to the NIH-funded study on complex chemical exposures, oxidative stress and cognition in Uruguayan schoolchildren. Pilot work for the study in Uruguay was funded by CGHE and RENEW. Dr. Kordas was a founding editor for the peer-reviewed Global Health Research in Translation policy brief series, an opportunity for University at Buffalo faculty and students to translate their research to policy briefs for sharing with a broader audience. She also supported and often facilitated many CGHE-sponsored events, including the speaker series, the Co-Production of Knowledge and Building Blocks of Equity, as well as the Global Innovation Challenge.

Educational opportunities at the CGHE have expanded under Dr. Kordas’ leadership. Providing opportunities for students to learn more about careers in global health, Dr. Kordas co-hosted a webinar on careers with the United Nations. Many students and junior faculty have been influenced by Dr. Kordas’ leadership. Dr. Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah says that “Dr. Kordas is one of the thoughtful and visionary leaders I have had the pleasure of working with. She leads from a place of passion and commitment to rigor and excellence in research and mentorship. Dr. Kordas’s co-leadership of CGHE has laid the foundation for CGHE’s transformative and impactful work around probing and dismantling the structural and systemic drivers of health inequities in the US and international contexts.” Additionally, Dr. Kordas has been instrumental in getting the new MS in International Development and Global Health (MSIDGH) degree program off the ground.

During her time with CGHE, Dr. Kordas has kept her own research going. She leads the Salud Ambiental Montevideo (SAM) project in Uruguay, and won a Fulbright Scholarship to support the construction of a program in environmental health at the Masaryk University in Brno, the Czech Republic, in Fall of 2023. We are excited for Dr. Kordas to spend more time focused on her research as she steps back from this administrative role, but thrilled that she will remain involved with CGHE through core research areas and the MSIDGH program. The CGHE would not be where it is today without Dr. Kordas’ dedication.