About Us

Dr. Barth Green is executive dean for Global Health and Community Service and co-founder of the Global Institute. He served 22 years as chairman of the Department of the Neurological Surgery at the Miller School and is a professor of Neurological Surgery, Neurology, Orthopedics, Radiology and Rehabilitation Medicine.

Dr. Green is a world-renowned specialist in the surgical management of complex spine and spinal cord injuries and disorders. A diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgeons and a fellow of American College of Surgeons, he served 37 years in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps, attaining the rank of Lt. Colonel. Read more about Dr. Green

In 1985 Dr. Green co-founded The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, an internationally acclaimed spinal cord injury and paralysis research center. In 1990 he co-founded Shake-A-Leg Miami, an adaptive watersports center that combines education with recreation and serves thousands of children and adults with physical, developmental and economic challenges.

Dr. Green is Chairman of the Board of Project Medishare for Haiti, which he co-founded in 1994 to help improve the health of Haiti’s citizens through an integrated, community-oriented approach to sustainable development. He serves on the board of multiple organizations, including the Buoniconti Fund, the Maven Project, the Center for Haitian Studies and Haiti Air Ambulance.

Dr. Green has received numerous honors for his community service and humanitarian work, including:

• Humanitarian Award (American Association of Neurological Surgeons)
• Lawton’s Heart Humanitarian Award (Florida Association of Nonprofit Organizations)
• Dorothy Shula Award for Outstanding Volunteerism (United Way of Miami Dade County)
• Chairman’s Recognition Humanitarian Award (Florida Board of Medicine)
• President’s Medal (University of Miami)
• Healthcare Heroes Award (Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce)
• James W. McLamore Outstanding Service Award (University of Miami Faculty Senate)

Dr. Green authored and coauthored hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, abstracts and book chapters and has received numerous federal and foundation grants and endowed chairs. He has lectured locally, nationally, and globally and continues all of these activities in 2023.

In 2021, Dr. Green retired from his surgical practice but sees patients in his neurosurgery clinic and oversees patients during rounds at UHealth Tower and Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Elizabeth Greig is an assistant professor of medicine and co-director of the Global Institute. Working in Haiti in 2006, she began focusing on disaster management and building surgical capacity in developing world settings. As a fourth-year medical student, Dr Greig’s research and field work in Port au Prince laid the groundwork for a University of Miami/Jackson Health deployment of 5,000 volunteers who operated a 240-bed field hospital that treated 20,000 patients and performed 3,000 surgeries. She has been critical in raising $15 million in long-term financial support for the project. Read more about Dr. Greig

Dr. Greig has continued to work in Haiti, transitioning that field hospital into a trauma center with residency training programs in neurosurgery and pediatric critical care. She has led hospital responses to Hurricane Sandy in New York and Hurricane Matthew in North Carolina and most recently led the deployment of UM physicians, reconstruction projects and community health development following Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. She runs the Interdisciplinary Professional Education curriculum in Disaster Management and Climate Change and teaches in the Departments of Medicine and Public Health and the International Administration program.

Vincent is co-director of the UM Global Institute and oversees international medical disaster response since 2019, including response efforts in Caribbean. He is the Emergency Management Director for the University of Miami Health System and the Miller School’s Division of Emergency Management. He supervises a team of emergency management professionals to mitigate risk and ensures the resiliency of the only academic health system in South Florida. Vincent’s enterprise-wide responsibilities include three hospitals and mix of more than 40 outpatient clinics, ambulatory surgical centers and academic, research, and administrative facilities across four counties on the east and west coasts of Florida. Read more about Vincent Torres

Vincent serves an instructor for the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in the Medical Education Tactical Medicine Program, where he provides instruction to first responders on active shooter and mass casualty Incidents.
In addition to his work at UM, Vincent is an active-duty Deputy Sheriff (Reserve) with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, where he patrols Central Broward County and Lauderdale Lakes and manages deployments of the Regional Domestic Security Taskforce’s Mobile Joint Information Center.

Since 2004, Vincent has responded to and managed aspects of major emergency incidents, disasters, large-scale special events and countless exercises in South Florida and the Caribbean.

Wingdie (Didi) Bertrand Farmer, MA, DEA, DESS, is the managing director for the Global Institute’s public-private initiative with the Bahamian Ministry of Health launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in 2019. She maintains projects and initiatives in the Abaco, developing and facilitating collaborative activities and innovations that foster bilateral partnerships between the University and the Bahamas. Read more about Didi Bertrand Farmer

Didi has worked in Haiti, Rwanda, Malawi, Lesotho, France and the Bahamas. For the past 15 years, she has worked as program developer and implementer, community organizer, activist for women and girls' rights and researcher. From 2005 to 2015, she served as director of community health and for the Biosocial Research and Social Development Programs for Inshuti Mu Buzima, supporting the Rwandan Ministry of Health.

Dr. Anjali Saxena is an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Miller School and associate director of strategic initiatives and programs for the Global Institute. She practices as a primary care physician and an adult and pediatric hospitalist, with a specific focus on caring for adults with chronic childhood conditions. Read more about Dr. Saxena

Dr. Saxena is passionate about global health, social justice and health equity, which led her to work in diverse settings including the U.S. prison system, the Bronx, rural Arkansas, India, Mali and Uganda. She has completed specialized training in humanitarian disaster relief and deployed to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian.

Locally, she is the pediatric medical director for the Human Rights Clinic of Miami, which provides medical evaluations for asylum seekers. As director of the Global Health Residency Track in internal medicine, med-peds and pediatrics, she educates future physician leaders in global health ethics, equity and sustainability.

Dr. Gonzalez is a board-certified physician in internal medicine and pediatrics. She was born and raised in Miami, Florida to Cuban American parents and is fluent in English and Spanish. Her medical training focused on the transitional care of pediatric patients with chronic illness to the adult model of care. Read more about Dr. Gonzalez

Dr. Gonzalez joined the University of Miami/Holy Cross as a primary care doctor in 2018 and she focused on ambulatory curriculum development and community outreach. She serves as an associate program director for the Internal Medicine residency program and has special interests in underserved populations, care of the LGBTQI+ community, evidence-based medicine and global health.

Dr. Van Kirk is assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Miller School and senior advisor for community engagement and education at the Global Institute. She joined the Med-Peds faculty as associate program director of the residency program in 2017 and is the director of the Urban Health Track and Medical Educator pathway for the internal medicine and med-peds residency program. Read more about Dr. Van Kirk

A former teacher in Baltimore with Teach for America, Dr. Van Kirk has a passion for curriculum development and community education in urban settings as a means towards fighting inequities. She co-created the Urban Health Rotation to provide training in addiction medicine, primary care for the unhoused and child/adolescent psychiatry.

Dr. Espinel is an assistant professor of psychiatry and provides psychiatric care to geriatric cancer patients at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. She has extensive experience in disaster behavioral health and global mental health and has provided psychiatric support and education after natural disasters and humanitarian crises at the local, national and international level. Read more about Dr. Espinel

Following the September 11 attacks, Dr. Espinel was invited to co-direct the Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center) at the Miller School. DEEP Center develops multilevel, statewide disaster mental health training for public health and hospital-based health care professionals throughout Florida. While in residency at the Miller School, Dr. Espinel participated in an evidence-based global mental health intervention with internally displaced women in Bogota, Colombia, who were officially designated as “victims of the armed conflict.” She co-leads the Disaster Psychiatry Task Force within the Miller School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Nezami is professor of professional practice in public health sciences and director of the Online M.P.H. Program at the Miller School. At USC, she developed and launched the Master of Science in Global Medicine program and is co-designing a new program at the University of Miami to enhance global exposure and experiences for residents. Read more about Dr. Nezami

Dr. Nezami was a member of the faculty senate at the University of Southern California and focused her efforts on enhancing diverse faculty recruitment, promotion, and retention. Her tenure at USC is marked by contributions to campus climate, enhancing diversity in educational programs and interprofessional health education. Dr. Nezami oversaw twenty graduate degree programs and more than a dozen certificate programs in both residential and online modality.

Dr. Nezami serves as North American Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium of Public Health and as a member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. She has built partnerships for study and research with collaborators in many parts of the world and is dedicated to innovation in educational programs that will help build upon the general population's knowledge of public health and global health issues. Dr. Nezami has served as a faculty member at the Harvard Macy Institute's Program for Educators in Health Professions for over a decade and remains dedicated to innovation in teaching and learning.

Dr. Shultz is a population health scientist and associate professor, educator track, in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Miller School. His diverse background and experience, supported by his degree in criminal justice from Florida International University, guides his comprehensive approach to emergency management. Read more about Dr. Schultz

Dr. Shultz is director of P3H: Protect & Promote Population Health in Complex Crises, which channels multi-disciplinary expertise to confront compounding threats to population health. With a strong focus on medically vulnerable patients, the program optimizes health by safeguarding populations from complex and cascading crises and extreme events.

Dr. Shultz is director of the Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center). DEEP Center develops multilevel, statewide disaster mental health training for public health and hospital-based health care professionals throughout Florida. He is a member of the Miller School’s Disaster Psychiatry Task Force and a certified trainer for NCPTSD’s Stress First Aid for Healthcare Professionals. In these roles, Dr. Shultz has been active in disaster public health/mental response to climate driven disasters and international humanitarian crises.

Elyzabeth Estrada is the assistant director for disaster management at the Global Institute. More than a decade of experience in emergency management has equipped Lyz with a comprehensive understanding of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Leading projects across the country, she has advised diverse organizations on crucial planning activities like hazard mitigation plans, threat and hazard identification risk assessments, and emergency operation plans. Her expertise ensures organizations are equipped to handle  emergencies.

Her experience extends beyond planning. Her frontline experience during the COVID-19 pandemic at UHealth honed her skills in coordinating critical responses with hospital administrations regarding critical issues like PPE shortages, vaccine planning, and personnel safety. Elyzabeth's leadership extends beyond preparedness. She has extensive experience in disaster response, demonstrated through leading tabletop exercises, serving as branch director in an emergency operations center, and supporting communities during major disasters. Her dedication to vulnerable populations is evident in her work coordinating vital services during response efforts. Her passion for building resilient communities is demonstrated by her diverse background in county, tribal, collegiate, health care, consulting, and community advocacy.