Dr. Elisabeth Maring is the Associate Director of the Global Health Initiative. She directs the Global Public Health Scholars program, advises Public Health Beyond Borders (PHBB) and leads study abroad, traveling to India, Sierra Leone, Peru and Ethiopia. Maring is a qualitative researcher studying community violence, substance abuse, healthy homes and global families. Maring has a background with Extension and as a direct service provider to low-income, high-risk adolescents and their families.

Madhu Kushwaha is a Professor in the Faculty of Education, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Maryland, USA in 2019-20. She has a Master’s degree in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Education. Her specialization includes Sociology of Education, and Gender Issues in Education. She has designed courses on Gender Issues in Education for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Education at Banaras Hindu University, India. Her research focuses on equity issues in education and documentation of gender discrimination in teachers’ classroom practices in Indian and American social contexts to improve teacher education practices. She has published a self-instructional module on menstrual education in Hindi for Indian adolescent girls. She has been awarded a Global Classroom Initiative of UMD, USA to co-teach a course in the cycle of three spring semesters from 2022 to 2024 along with Prof. Maring, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, USA. The course, Teaching Menstrual Health: Dispelling Myths and Misconceptions is multidisciplinary in its orientation and caters to the intersectional needs/areas of pedagogy, public health, and gender equity. It facilitates to achievement of the United Nations Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals of quality education and gender equality.

Dr. Kushwaha has publications in leading national and international journals of education and gender studies and has authored two books on Gender Issues in Education. She has completed four research projects including one international project. She is currently working on a research project on public health education under the Institute of Eminence scheme of BHU. She is actively involved with several nongovernmental organizations working in the field of education and gender equality.