One of the major influences on many research and educational professionals has been the opportunity to participate in Fulbright programs, first founded in 1946 to support mutual understanding and support for friendly relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. That mutual support goal was echoed during the Ottawa Charter conference in October 2026, sponsored by the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics.
Benjamin Meier, the current (2026-27) Fulbright Fellow at the Centre is from the Departments of Public Policy, Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to providing major support for the Conference including a key narrative document summarizing the history that began with the original Charter, Dr. Meier helped to kick off the two days by leading a fireside chat with keynote speaker Evelyne de Leeuw.
Georgetown University Professor Sam Halabi, drew on his work as director of Georgetown’s Center for Transformational Health Law, to offer progress notes on the first pillar of the Charter’s goal of building health public policies with his “Urgent Call for Global Health Security Preparedness.” Sam was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Ottawa in 2017-18.
Sam was one of my contacts when I was thinking about my own application for a Fulbright Fellowship in Canada, that culminated in a visiting Fulbright Scholar role, also based at uOttawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. During my visiting year, I was inspired by observations of cutting edge research in Canada at Bruyère Health and uOttawa, as well as witnessing a variety of AI-advantaged Canadian product designs for personal care for patients dealing with cancer, or Parkinson’s Disease, or early stages of dementia.
It was a pleasure to have the time to work with and around faculty such as Sam, Ben and many others with cross-border connections. From left to right in the Conference photo that accompanies this post are happy images of Ben, Sam and me. My Fulbright experiences continue to inspire me to think globally about broad goals for health, welfare and safety, especially in my own research supporting older adults. My deep thanks to the organizers of the October 2026 conference and similar opportunities.
Are your thinking about international research opportunities? If so, regardless of your home country, I encourage you to explore the wealth of information offered at this Fulbright program website: https://fulbrightprogram.org/about/ My own home base, Penn State University, has long been a strong supporter of international research visitors to and from the United States.
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