Dr. Anwar Al-Awadhi currently chairs the emergency medicine department at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital-State of Kuwait. He also chairs the examination committee of the Kuwait Board of Emergency Medicine (KBEM) at the Kuwait Institute for Medical Specialization (KIMS). He maintains his international position at the Center for Disaster Medical Sciences (CDMS) at the University of California Irvine, where he completed his fellowship in International EMS/Disaster Medical Sciences. Anwar holds a strong interest in global health, emergency medicine and international disaster mitigation, preparedness, mass casualty response, management and recovery, quality improvement, medical education and training, and health care access inequalities. Anwar was involved in the Large Scale Emergency Readiness (LaSER) Project at the NYU Center for Catastrophe, Preparedness, and Response. Through his work at the Center for Disaster Medical Sciences at UCIMC, which he has collaborated with his supervisors to establish, he seeks to standardize global disaster, emergency and humanitarian education, training, deployment and responses to disaster scenarios at the global arena. He also devotes time to establish emergency medicine and disaster/emergency medical services training, education, credentialing and certification in Kuwait. Anwar obtained his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. After working for the Ministry of Health in Kuwait, he moved to the United States to pursue clinical training in emergency medicine. Anwar completed his training at the New York University / Bellevue Residency Program in Emergency Medicine, and is presently a diplomat of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM). He then pursued subspecialty training in International Disaster Medical Sciences/EMS at the University of California Irvine where he served as a Fellow. During his time in California, he also obtained a Master of Public Health degree and a Global Health Certificate at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

When did you first become interested in global health?

Before entering medical school around 1993.

What was your global health project while you were a student at UCLA?

I collaborated on the establishment of a regional health policy reform institute / Think-and-Do tank, based on international standards: SAHA Institute (Strategy & Analysis for Health).

How did the global health certificate experience enable you to be culturally competent/aware?

It allowed for me to be proactive in health policy reform.

Are you currently working in the global health field? If so, please elaborate on your job description and duties.

Establishing a regional unified command system for disaster management based on international standards.

Looking back, what skills did you obtain while pursuing the certificate that you have applied to your career?

Thinking out of the box, holistic approach, proactive and ensuring sustainability of long term projects, while improving the health outcome measures, reducing risks, consumer satisfaction and containing cost.

In what ways did the global health certificate help shape your goals? Did it reinforce the career path you wanted to follow or did new interest arise?

As above!

What advice do you give for current UCLA graduate students interested in pursuing the global health certificate?

  Invest in sustainable projects and pursue what your love and believe in!