Contact: Meryl Bailey

Phone: 404-420-5129

Email: meryl.bailey@emory.edu

Atlanta…A critical shortage of health care workers plagues sub-Saharan Africa. Without access to health care provided by qualified professionals, people suffer daily from fully preventable maladies such as diarrhea, malnutrition, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. An expert panel will address a sold-out audience on the Carter Center's work to alleviate the problem in Ethiopia through its Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, and prospects for applying the model elsewhere. The event on Thursday, April 24, 7-8:30 p.m., is part of the Conversations at The Carter Center speaker series on current world issues.

Panelists include Dr. Joyce Murray, director of the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, and Dr. Dennis Carlson, senior consultant of the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative. The event will be moderated by Carter Center Director of Program Support for Health Programs Craig Withers.

Conversations will be webcast live and archived on the Carter Center's Web site, www.cartercenter.org . The event will be held at The Carter Center, Ivan Allen III Pavilion, 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307. For the complete Conversations at The Carter Center schedule, visit http://cartercenter.org/involved/conversations/index.html

Since 1997, The Carter Center, the Ethiopian government, several nongovernmental organizations, and seven Ethiopian universities have worked to improve the quality of pre-service training to health science professionals; this improved training translates into better health care delivery for 75 million rural Ethiopians.

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A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in more than 70 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; improving mental health care; and teaching farmers in developing nations to increase crop production. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.