The UW Department of Global Health is proposing a new global health minor in response to growing interest and demand in the field. The minor is designed to help address worldwide problems of poverty and health inequality.

This is an opportunity to help prepare a global workforce which will reduce and eliminate the health disparities we see in the world today, said Judith Wasserheit, vice chair of the global health department.

The minor in global health highlights the establishment of global health as a multidisciplinary field, in which many different skills and specializations are necessary. Students from all majors and interests ­— including business, design and sociology — are encouraged to enroll in the minor.

The value of the minor may outweigh that of the major, because it would allow for students to complement their specific specialty and strengthen their global citizenship, said Stephen Gloyd, associate chair of education and curriculum in the Department of Global Health.

“When you look at determinants of health, you need people with all kinds of skills,” Wasserheit said. “For example, if you want to reduce exposure to indoor smoke, you need to think about installing different stoves. We need to be partnering with engineers who can actually think about how you can design things that can be more easily installed in third world settings.”

On Monday, students and administrators from the global health department held a forum to discuss the upcoming minor.

Approximately 40 students from wide-ranging disciplines participated in the forum to show support, voice insight and ask questions.

“It showed what the students really wanted and also allowed the administration to learn about other [undergraduate] programs,” said Anna Larsen, co-organizer of the forum. “From here it’s taking the next step and seeing how [students] want to get involved.”

If things run smoothly, the minor could be available by 2009.

The proposed draft outlines classes to fulfill a 30 credit requirement. Three introductory classes make up seven to eight credits and present topics such as geography of health, global health across disciplines and newly emerging infectious diseases.

With the remaining 22 credits, students can choose from a wide variety of elective coursework from departments ranging from biology to anthropology to economy. Other departments already offer many of the proposed classes.

Gloyd said global health covers a large academic area, requiring students to respond to situations of poverty and inequality and come up with solutions.

Along with general education requirements, additional language classes may be required to strengthen cultural ties and increase students’ viability in a global, competitive job market.

With a $30 million donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to found and fund the department, the UW’s Department of Global Health joined the circle of other leading global health institutions in Seattle, such as PATH, an international nonprofit working for global health solutions, Fred Hutchinson Research Center and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute.

The department was launched in January of 2007, and this minor marks the progress it has already made.

Plans for the global health major are still far in the future, but already there is support from the student body.

“There’s so much momentum around this,” said Ilya Golovaty, co-organizer of Monday’s forum. “Students are all for it.”