studentsDoctoral Students
Introduction of Doctoral Students
Yuka Maekawa

Country | Tokyo, Japan |
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Degree | Hospital nurse and public health nurse |
Hobbies |
Sports (snowboarding, distance running, tennis, horseback riding, etc.), travel, music and sanshin (beginner) |
Countries visited |
Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea, United States, Australia and France |
Other areas of interest | Prevention of nosocomial infections, school health, health policy, and health and medical services for refugees and migrants |
Personal History
After graduating from the Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing, I worked for three years as a surgical nurse at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine. Beginning in 2011, I worked for two years as a representative of the Japan Association for Mae Tao Clinic, supporting health and medical services at the Free Mae Tao Clinic for Myanmar refugees and migrants in Thailand. After that, I traveled through ethnic minority communities in Myanmar where I continued to collect data about the current state of health care for six months before returning to Japan. Through my activities in the field, I wished to acquire more specialized knowledge about global health, so I entered the Department of Global Health in the University of the Ryukyus Graduate School in April 2014. Currently, as I continue my NPO activities, I am pursuing research on health policy for refugees and migrants.
Message
Although I felt sad to be pursuing my studies away from the field overseas, the Department of Global Health provides a sense of being close to the action while you are here in the department. I enjoy each day as I continue to build up my knowledge about global health gained from actual practices.