The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Center for Global Health is pleased to announce the 2025-26 recipients of its Faculty Mentor Travel Grants.
Following a fall application and review cycle, the center is pleased to award MUSC faculty members, Zesarae Bodie OTD, MPH, OTR/L, Puja Sukhwani Elias, M.D., and Robert L Grubb, M.D., with the funding to lead and mentor trainees on their individual global health project work abroad.
Annually, the Center for Global Health offers University faculty members the opportunity to receive up to $2,000 towards leading students and trainees to low- and middle-income countries for education, research, or service-learning programs.
This year’s faculty mentor travel grant awardees will pursue the following project work:
Zesarae Bodie OTD, MPH, OTR/L
Assistant Professor, College of Health Professions, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences
Project description: “In May 2026, I will lead a one-week immersive service-learning trip to Belize City, Belize, through Therapy Volunteers International (TVI). This experience will include up to16 first-year students from both the hybrid and residential Occupational Therapy Doctoral (OTD) programs, the first time these two cohorts will travel together internationally. The experience is embedded within a clinical education course (Fieldwork Level 1A), marking students’ first opportunity in the program to apply classroom knowledge in a real-world, global health context.”
Puja Sukhwani Elias, M.D., MPH
Professor, College of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Project description: “Access to gastrointestinal services in underserved communities is sparse at best. To address this, the Central America Outreach & Endoscopy (CARE) was established in 2019 to provide otherwise inaccessible gastroenterological (GI) endoscopic care to the remote mountainous highlands of Atitlan, Guatemala. With the goal of providing hope, compassion and state-of-the-art GI care, a group of 10 GI team members travel on week-long medical brigades to provide care to 60-100 patients over a one-week period. Since 2022, our division has taken an active role in participating as part of a team of providers travelling to Guatemala along with providers from University of Virginia and North Carolina University to provide ongoing and continuous care to this remote village in Guatemala.
The partnership was a true success from the very start. And since that time, the GI division at MUSC has become part of the tri-partnership. Between the three universities – UNC, UVA and MUSC, each group sends a brigade every 3-4 months allows us to not only provide acute services but also have longevity and provide continuity of care to those in need of chronic GI services. Our team will include two physicians, one GI fellow and one resident along with nursing staff, in the hopes of generating sustained interest in global health that trainees can then incorporate into their practice. The grant will help ensure we are able to provide exceptional supervision and oversight to trainees with the goal of exemplifying that subspecialty care should and can be provided to all communities.”
Robert L. Grubb, M.D.
Professor, College of Medicine, Department of Urology
Project description: “Hospitalito Atitlan, Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala is a hospital serving the underserved Maya population of the Solola Department. The Hospitalito relies on volunteer surgical teams to provide specialty surgical care. The hospital has 16 inpatient beds and three operating rooms. I have previously led a healthcare team (attending and resident urologists, anesthesiologists, nurses, and endoscopic equipment reps) to provide urologic care for patients at Hospital Sacre Coeur in Milot, Haiti. Common urological procedures provided by urology volunteers on these trips include circumcision, hydrocelectomy, transurethral procedures such as resection of prostate for bladder outlet obstruction, as well as oncologic procedures such as nephrectomy, orchiectomy and penectomy. As there is no urologist on staff at Hospital Atitlan, urologic care and surgeries are limited when urology teams visit the hospital.”
The three recipients were chosen by a review committee following an application cycle that occurred last fall. The funds awarded must be used within 12 months from the date of the award, with the goals of each meant to assist recipients in providing mentorship to students or trainees in furthering global health research or training projects in the low- or middle-income countries.
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