Elizabeth “Liz” Wood currently serves as the Director of the Master of Science in Global Health program within the Eck Institute of Global Health, where she is also an Associative Professor of Practice. She is joining Notre Dame from the University of Florida where she was a Clinical Assistant Professor and served as the Director of Public Health Outreach and Engagement for the College of Public Health & Health Professions, and the Bachelor of Public Health Program Director for five years prior to that.

As a scholar, instructor, and administrator, Dr. Wood builds human and institutional capacity to foster engagement within low- and middle-income countries. Her areas of specialization include integrating community-based participatory research within service learning, innovations in teaching and learning through international collaboration, and field research methods and building capacity in low-resourced contexts.

Dr. Wood’s research has engaged populations through community-based participatory research methods to provide voices to marginalized areas of need. Her background in development informs her global health research in maternal and child health, WASH, nutrition, and gender dynamics. In the classroom, her students are able to see this applied global public health work as well as participate through experiential learning (e.g. study abroad, practicum, and virtual exchange). As an active contributor to internationalizing higher education, her field courses are grounded in systems-based methods to generate alternative solutions to complex challenges that impact individuals in diverse contexts, while also seeking the comparative potential to connect ideas and ingenuity through global collaboration. Through this model she has been able to provide funded research opportunities for students to develop interdisciplinary research skills that will be required of the next generation of change agents.