Fellowships and student opportunities

The Global Child Health (GCH) Fellowship program aims to prepare candidates for careers in global health by developing leadership and scholarly skills in global health research or capacity building.

Successful applicants will play a lead role in the design, implementation, and analysis or evaluation of research or capacity building projects that cover a wide range of global health topic areas (e.g., nutrition, child growth and development, oncology, infectious diseases, climate change, microbiome, vaccine development, complex systems and network science, implementation science, health system strengthening, health workforce training, etc.). 

All fellows will be provided with global health education and mentorship opportunities throughout the two-year fellowship program. Fellows must be supervised (or co-supervised) by a Core Faculty member at the C-GCH and will be expected to meet four times per year with a supervisory committee that will oversee and evaluate their scholarly progress, in addition to attending regular meetings with their primary supervisor(s).

At the time of application, fellows must choose between a scholarly project that focuses on research (Track 1) or capacity building (Track 2); however, all fellows will have the opportunity to gain exposure to both domains of scholarly work. Fellows will be matched with a primary supervisor at the C-GCH based on alignment between the applicant’s skills and interests and the availability of a funded scholarly project being led or co-led by C-GCH Core Faculty members. 

Fellowships will be based at SickKids, with travel to study/program sites, when appropriate. 

Salary support will be provided for the duration of the two-year appointment; however, successful applicants will be expected to apply to scholarship opportunities leading up to and during their fellowship.

We are now accepting applications for the 2025/2026 fellowship cohort. Complete application packages are due by June 30, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

See the Call for Applications document for further details about eligibility and the application process. 

Call for Applications (PDF)
Application Form (PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)

Questions can be directed to the Global Child Health Fellowship Program Committee at: cgch.fellowship@sickkids.ca.

The Centre for Global Child Health (C-GCH) at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) — established in 2013 as the hub for global health activities at SickKids — has partnered with the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto to launch the inaugural SickKids Centre for Global Child Health Global Surgery Fellowship Training Program. 

This one to two-year Global Surgery Fellowship program will provide residents and fellows with the opportunity to develop leadership and scholarly skills in global surgical care, through research, capacity building, advocacy, knowledge translation, and policy development.

Salary support will be provided for the duration of the one to two-year appointment; however, successful applicants will be expected to apply to funding agencies leading up to their fellowship, and to seek out funding opportunities throughout the course of their fellowship in support of their scholarly work.

The fellowship program consists of two tracks: 

• Track 1: Individuals have completed medical school and are currently enrolled in and will have completed at least two years of a residency program in a surgical specialty by the start of the fellowship program.
• Track 2: Individuals who are fully trained surgeons and have completed 5 years of a residency program (or international equivalent) leading to successful Board/Fellowship certification or eligibility for certification in a surgical specialty by the start of the SickKids fellowship program. 

For more information about the program structure, eligibility criteria and application process, please carefully review the Call for Applications.

Complete application packages are due by June 30, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Call for Applications (PDF)
Application Form (PDF)

Questions can be directed to the Global Surgery Fellowship Program Committee at: global.surgery@sickkids.ca.

The Centre for Global Child Health (C-GCH) and the Garron Family Cancer Centre (GFCC) at The Hospital for Sick Children have partnered together to create the Global Oncology Fellowship training program.

The Global Oncology Fellowship is a new and unique training program that serves to develop the leadership and scholarly skills of participating fellows with the aim of improving the outcomes of children with cancer and their families in low- and middle-income countries.

Applicants should be looking to start a challenging two-year academic fellowship program. This interdisciplinary program will be accepting applicants from a variety of clinical, research, and other related professional backgrounds (e.g., medicine and surgery, laboratory sciences, nursing, allied health, epidemiology, etc.)

We are no longer accepting applications for this fellowship.

Questions can be directed to the Global Child Health Fellowship Program Committee at: cgch.fellowship@sickkids.ca

Dr. Michael Prodanuk

Dr. Michael Prodanuk MD, DTM&H, FRCPC, FAAP (pronouns: he/him) is a paediatric infectious diseases physician with a passion for improving clinical care and producing impactful research for childhood infections. He completed medical school at the University of Saskatchewan followed by a paediatrics residency and paediatric infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Michael holds a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) from the Gorgas Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine through the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Michael is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation within University of Toronto´s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He is also an Executive Committee Member-In-Training of the Paediatric Investigators Collaborative Network on Infections in Canada (PICNIC), a paediatric infectious diseases research network which conducts multi-centre projects across Canada and beyond.

Given his special interest in childhood tuberculosis (TB), Michael´s fellowship research projects will focus on improving TB diagnostics in the paediatric population. TB diagnosis in children can be challenging given the difficulty in obtaining adequate sputum samples in infants and toddlers, as well as the relatively low number of bacteria present in this age group. For these reasons, new diagnostic modalities, such a biomarkers, are an area of active research. Michael´s work will investigate the use of certain blood biomarkers for the diagnosis of TB in a cohort of Tanzanian patients. In addition, he is conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of blood biomarkers for the diagnosis of TB in children. He hopes this work will improve the diagnostic landscape for children with TB.

2024

• Paulo Neves
  Country of Origin: Brazil 
  Fellowship Stream: Global Child Health Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta
  
  
• Ovokeraye Oduaran
  Country of Origin: South Africa 
  Fellowship Stream: Global Child Health Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Roth

2023

• Michelle Dimitris
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Global Child Health Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta
  
  
• Hillary Ganek
  Country of Origin: USA
  Fellowship Stream: Global Child Health Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta
  
  
• Doris Gonzalez
  Country of Origin: Colombia
  Fellowship Stream: Global Child Health Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta
  
  
• Sam Brophy-Williams 
  Country of Origin: Australia
  Fellowship Stream: Global Child Health Fellowship
  Supervisor: Brian Smith

2022

• Scarlett Puebla-Barragan
  Country of Origin: Mexico
  Fellowship Stream: Microbiome and Growth Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Roth

2021

• Laura Vresk
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Robert Bandsma
  
  
• Kun Tang
  Country of Origin: China
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta

2020

• Fiona Muttalib
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta

• Eric Ohuma
  Country of Origin: Kenya
  Fellowship Stream: Child Growth and Development Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Roth

• Karen O'Callaghan
  Country of Origin: Ireland
  Fellowship Stream: Child Growth and Development Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Roth

2019

• Ashley Aimone
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Child Growth and Development Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Roth

• Tessa Clemens
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Stanley Zlotkin

• Jessica Duby
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Shaun Morris

• Farah Sheikh
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Margaret Manley 

• Debbie Thompson
  Country of Origin: Jamaica
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Stanley Zlotkin

2018

• Barbara Couper
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Stanley Zlotkin

• Natasha Lelijveld
  Country of Origin: England
  Fellowship Stream: Child Growth and Development Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Roth
  
  
• Ashley Vandermorris
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Stanley Zlotkin

2017

• Hasan Merali
  Country of Origin: Canada
  Fellowship Stream: Academic Fellowship
  Supervisor: Dr. Stanley Zlotkin