Press Releases

YSN's Ann Williams Honored by the Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University in the People's Republic of China

New Haven, CT — January 3, 2006

Ann Williams, Helen Porter Jayne & Martha Prosser Jayne Professor of Nursing was proffered a five year appointment as a guest Professor at the Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University in the People's Republic of China (PRC). This occurred in a ceremony on 19 October 2005 in Changsha, PRC, honouring Dr. William's work in HIV/AIDS, and in training Chinese health care providers in the areas of HIV, HCV, and blood-borne pathogens. The ceremony was presided by He Guopoing, Dean of the School of Nursing, Central South University (featured on right in photo with Professor Williams). It was attended by faculty from Xiangya School of Medicine, as well as a delegation from Yale University YSN and the Yale-China Association, including Nancy Chapman, Executive Director of the Yale-China Association, Hongping Tian, Program Officer for Health Programs at the Yale-China Association, and YSN faculty members Heather Reynolds, Sandra Talley, Kristopher Fennie, and Nora Goicoechea. This position was offered as a thank you for the work and dedication Dr. Williams has given to Xiangya, and the people of Hunan Province to help quell the AIDS epidemic, and to provide compassionate and respectful care of people with HIV/AIDS.

For the past quarter century, Dr. Williams' work has had a significant impact on the health and care of vulnerable people suffering from HIV/AIDS in countries around the world. Her work in China is conducted in close collaboration with the Yale-China Association where she has served as a long-time trustee. Dr. Williams has been an active player and organizer for Yale-China Association's yearly health conferences in China and its publication, the Yale-China Health Journal.

The Yale-China Association, created in 1901, is a private, non-profit organization based on the Yale campus that is dedicated to promoting an understanding between Chinese and American people through the medium of education. Yale-China helped to introduce Western medicine to China in the early 20th century by establishing a teaching hospital in Changsha that bore its name, Hsiang-Ya (Hunan-Yale) Hospital. The Hsiang-Ya Medical College and Nursing School were founded a few years later. Now known as the Xiangya School of Medicine, these institutions are part of Central South University in Changsha and continue close collaboration with Yale-China.

Nursing has had a long history in the Yale-China Association. YSN's Drusilla Poole was a nurse who worked at Xiangya Medical College and was one of the last [Yale] people to leave China prior to the revolution. In 1995, Dr. Williams started working with the Yale-China Association and together developed collaborative programs that focus on nurse training between Yale University and Xiangya School of Medicine, and Central South University School of Nursing. Indeed, her work has stimulated a great amount of independent work by nurses and other health care professionals affiliated with Xiangya. Dr. Williams has been involved with Yale-China in the following nursing projects (i) Yale-China Chia Fellowship Program, which trains women public health professionals from Hunan Province, China in nursing research; and (ii) Train-the-trainer programs, which have trained Chinese nurses to become trainers themselves on topics related to HIV, HCV, blood-borne pathogens, as well as occupational exposure to these pathogens. Through such work, Dr. Williams and the Yale-China Association team have helped nurses in Hunan province to change nursing practices surrounding handling of infectious materials and medical waste. In addition, Dr. Williams has also been working with CIRA and China CDC on a collaborative program which trains Chinese nurses to conduct HIV/AIDS research.

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