The past year has been an extremely successful and exciting time for the Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH) at the University of California San Diego.  It is our pleasure to share with you our GEH Inaugural Report.  Since our founding 18 months ago, GEH has worked tirelessly to advance the health and rights of women and girls around the globe through our research and support of evidence-based approaches to improve health, safety and equity.

Through the generous initial support of the UCSD School of Medicine and other donors, we have expanded our research in South Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa, and have had the opportunity to affect policies on critical issues such as child marriage, sexual violence and sex trafficking at the global level.  Our participation in key consultations with the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF and the United Nations General Assembly has also advanced our position and influence.  In 2014 we hosted the first Symposium on Gender Equity and Global Reproductive Health, which brought together national and international leaders in the field, including representatives from USAID, NIH, the World Bank, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and from universities across the United States. We also continued our tradition of joining with key partners in our community to host the annual celebration at UCSD of the International Day of Girl Child, inviting youth and community leaders from the San Diego region to celebrate the amazing girls who are leading the way to a more equitable future.

Looking forward, GEH will continue to provide training to undergraduate, graduate and medical students, as well as global public health professionals to conduct research that is informed by and highly relevant to the most pressing issues and debates facing policymakers. These efforts will ensure that GEH and our trainees continue to maximize our impact.

With your support, the Center on Gender Equity and Health is improving the status, opportunities, health and safety of women and girls to reduce gender and health inequities on a global scale. Thank you so much for joining us in our ongoing efforts to turn these goals into realities for women and girls everywhere. Please enjoy and share the report, and visit our website: https://geh.ucsd.edu, and our Twitter feed, @GEH_UCSD, for access to regular updates on our current and future work!