PRESS RELEASE
March 18, 2005
American University of Armenia Corporation
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Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 987-9452
Fax: (510) 208-3576
Contact: Gohar Momjian
E-mail: [email protected]
AUA and Ministry of Health Provide International HIV/AIDS Training Workshops
In February 2005, Dr. Mihran Nazaretyan, Director of the School of Health
Care Management and Administration (SHCMA), in cooperation with Dr. Bernardo
Ramirez, professor, University of Central Florida, was invited by the
American International Health Alliance (AIHA) to conduct a training course
workshop on HIV/AIDS Clinic Administration and Management in Kiev, Ukraine.
The Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia
jointly organized the training program with the WHO Liaison Office in
Ukraine. This opportunity closely followed a successful course delivered in
Ashghabat, Turkmenistan, in January.
The Ministry of Health established the SHCMA in 1999, naming Dr. Mihran
Nazaretyan, himself a former Minister of Health, as its Director. The
fledgling program benefited from an AIHA partnership alliance with the
University of Alabama Birmingham and Creighton Universities before evolving
into a jointly sponsored status between the Ministry of Health and the
College of Health Sciences of the American University of Armenia in 2001.
SHCMA is certified by the Ministry of Health of Armenia as a post-graduate
education program and represents a unique partnership between AUA and the
government.
As Dr. Nazaretyan notes, `It often seems that the SCHMA is more widely
recognized outside Armenia than within,’ having delivered courses in Tbilisi
and Batumi, Georgia, Alma Aty in Kazakhstan, Tver in Russia, Sarajevo and
Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ashghabat, Turkmenistan. AUA
President and Dean of the College of Health Sciences, Dr. Haroutune Armenian
noted, `The SCHMA is a very good example of the synergy that AUA creates in
many of its programs. This is an effort that has resulted in hundreds of
health care professionals in Armenia being exposed to the basics of modern
health care management. The program has extended itself to the various
regions of Armenia as well as to regional countries. This is consistent with
a broader mission that AUA has set for itself for the next decade. ‘
AUA’s College of Health Sciences benefits from an affiliation agreement with
the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and is a
member of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European
Region. The Center for Health Services Research and Development (CHSR) is
an applied research and development center within the College of Health
Sciences. The Center’s principal objective is to provide supervised field
training opportunities for students enrolled in the AUA Public Health
Program. Students have played integral roles in many of the Center’s
projects, including a recent evaluative survey on family planning and
contraceptive practices, quality of care assessments of a major medical
facility, and national surveys on infant mortality, breastfeeding practices,
and the treatment of acute respiratory infections, as well as a major USAID
funded project benefiting Nagorno Karabagh.
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The American University of Armenia is registered as a non-profit educational
organization in both Armenia and the United States and is affiliated with
the Regents of the University of California. Receiving major support from
the AGBU, AUA offers instruction leading to the Masters Degree in eight
graduate programs. For more information about AUA, visit