University establishes new Global Health professorial post

The University of Otago has established a further professorial position to advance research aimed at improving health in under-resourced countries, thanks to a generous gift by a Dunedin couple.

A function to celebrate the endowment of the McKinlay Chair in Global Health will be held at the University this evening.

The Chair’s donors are Stuart and Marylyn McKinlay. Mr McKinlay is a Dunedin businessman and former owner of the company Hirequip, which he founded and built up into a national business over many years.

Announcing the new Chair, Vice-Chancellor Professor David Skegg said the University is most grateful for the McKinlays’ gift, which supports a second professorial chair in the University’s Centre for International Health.

The Centre’s aim is to contribute to improving the health and well-being of people in developing countries through research and postgraduate training. Both the Centre and the McAuley Chair in International Health were established in 2008 following a donation by the Sisters of Mercy made through Mercy Hospital Dunedin.

Mr McKinlay says the idea of supporting the Chair in Global Health appealed strongly.

“This new post will extend the Centre’s work in helping developing countries get on top of the diseases that bring so much misery to so many people. The gift also allows us to support the University from which all four of our children graduated, so we felt it was a pretty worthwhile thing to do,” he says.

Professor Skegg says that adding another senior academic post to the Centre will enhance its capacity to carry out research relevant to the health needs of less developed countries in the Pacific and in other parts of the world.

“Under the leadership of the McAuley Professor of International Health, Philip Hill, the new Centre has already made considerable progress. This second position, to which another experienced researcher and teacher will be appointed, will allow the Centre to achieve its full potential in discovering ways to improve health in developing countries.”