Global Health Case Competition: Q and A with Coach Tami Alpaugh

The Global Health Case Competition is an opportunity for students. But University of Minnesota faculty and staff help make it happen.

Case competition coaches act as sounding boards for teams, providing feedback on case solutions and offering insights to students as they put their finishing touches on case presentations.

Coaches are University of Minnesota faculty or staff members who can sign up to coach or be nominated by student teams. The Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility has worked with case competition coaches from numerous different schools, colleges and disciplines.

This variety of interdisciplinary coaches has been extremely beneficial to the competition, allowing students to work with faculty from across the university. CGHSR is grateful to faculty and staff who have dedicated their time to the competition by working as a coach. 

The Global Health Competition presents a mock global health challenge (or “case”) that students have to solve during competition week. Finalists compete during a virtual competition in February, and the UMN winning team moves on to compete in an international competition hosted by Emory University.

College of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Tami Alpaugh, PhD, was a coach during last year’s competition. We asked her about the experience and why the competition is beneficial for students.

What did you enjoy most about the experience? 

I loved getting to know the students and learning about the case with them. They had such creative solutions and ideas to tackle the issues presented, and I enjoyed taking the mentor role to support their work in developing their case during the competition.

Why do you think the case competition is beneficial to students?

It provides an opportunity for students to work on real issues that affect different communities, allowing them to use their education, experiences, and background to collaboratively develop proposed solutions to the case presented. 

One aspect that’s emphasized in the competition is interdisciplinary collaboration. How did you see that play out during your time as a coach?  

My team was very respectful of one another and worked to ensure that all voices were heard, both during the case competition and as they developed their action plan. Seeing them work together, communicate effectively, challenge one another, and seek feedback from each other was a privilege to witness and be a part of!