Global Health Student Fellows Advocate for Tuberculosis Funding on Capitol Hill

For Alhassan Barrie (G'26), whose clinical experience treating patients in Africa informs his research interest in drug-resistant disease, the issue also hits close to home.

"Knowing that my home state of North Carolina alone has an estimated 200,000 latent tuberculosis cases made the issue feel both global and local," said Barrie, a master's degree student in global health.

When he met with staff in the offices of Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) and Representative Alma Adams (D-NC), he was struck by the chance to raise awareness of the burden in their state.

"Explaining the data and seeing their reaction shift toward concern and interest in action was powerful," he said. "It showed how much impact clear, evidence-based advocacy can have."

Training the Next Generation

For Rosie Poling (G'27), a policy officer at Partners in Health and one of the event's organizers, the advocacy day reflects a growing pipeline of new voices.

New tools make it possible to end the disease, she said, but the gap between what programs need and available funding remains wide, particularly after tuberculosis services were disrupted in several countries following last spring's program closures.

"The federal budget is a reflection of our values, and public funding only exists when people put in the effort to actively engage their policymakers. You can't get what you don't ask for," Poling said.

She first came to Capitol Hill as an 18-year-old student advocate, an experience that shaped her career in global health policy. Now working full time on the Partners in Health advocacy team, she sees the same sense of possibility in the students she helped convene.

"I hope they continue to advocate for the priorities that matter to them," she said.