Snyder Named Director of UMSON Office of Global Health

Baltimore, Md. – The University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) has named B. Elias Snyder, MS ’14, FNP-C, ACHPN, clinical instructor, as director of the Office of Global Health. A unit within the Department of Partnerships, Professional Education, and Practice, the office works to build nursing capacity, strengthen health systems, and improve global health equity by facilitating global health initiatives among the UMSON community and with international collaborators in education, research, and practice. UMSON is the only University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) school with such an office.

Some of the office’s many activities include:

• collaborating with global partners
• supporting UMSON’s global research efforts
• teaching global health courses and offering the School’s graduate interprofessional Global Health Certificate
• providing UMSON students with international field experiences
• hosting global visitors interested in learning about UMSON and U.S. nursing
• hosting international scholars interested in research or education projects alongside UMSON faculty
• supporting curriculum revision by creating opportunities to globalize learning in the UMSON curricula
• being a voice for global health and nursing at the University and abroad.

Snyder’s vision for the office is two-fold:

Globally, he plans to work to strengthen existing partnerships and form new, mutually beneficial collaborations rooted in health equity and deep relationships, by sharing the School’s resources and expertise while welcoming innovative ideas from global partners. This includes recognizing UMSON’s responsibility, as a member of the global nursing community, to support nurses around the world.

At UMSON, he aims to improve access to global health courses, offer more international opportunities, and strengthen support for global communities at home. To do this, he’ll focus on:

• securing funding so more UMSON students can have global opportunities regardless of their ability to pay
• promoting global health equity by educating UMSON nurses with a global lens
• developing equitable, collaborative models of international health infused with humility, diversity, equity, and inclusion
• driving the office to strengthen partnerships with other UMB schools and the local community. 

In addition to his role as director, Snyder will, along with other Office of Global Health faculty, teach global health courses for graduate and undergraduate students. He also plans to facilitate trips for students enrolled in the international field experience courses. 

“Mr. Snyder is extremely well positioned to lead our Office of Global Health given his commitment to social justice and health equity, experience as a family nurse practitioner; his global and domestic understanding of health systems, leadership, clinician education, program development, research, and clinical practice; and his extensive global health experience,” said Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD ’11, MS ’05, BSN ’04, CRNP-Neonatal, FNAP, FAAN, associate professor; chair, Department of Partnerships, Professional Education, and Practice; and co-director, Center for Health Equity and Outcomes Research.

Snyder has spent much of the last 12 years living in East Africa, working on capacity building, advancing clinical care, and developing health programs. After moving to Burundi to volunteer with a remote hospital, where he provided direct nursing care and education to individuals and families, he was recruited to join a nongovernmental organization in Rwanda, Gardens for Health International. There, he started and directed a health education program offered alongside agricultural trainings, which sought to address the root causes of malnutrition. Snyder led a team of health educators, psychologists, nutritionists, and clinicians, and with the support of local mothers, the team developed curricula to train clinicians, community health workers, and families experiencing malnutrition. Then, in Tanzania, he served as a clinical education coordinator at FAME Hospital, strengthening a visiting clinician program, starting a Tanzanian-led continuing education program, and creating palliative care trainings and clinical guidelines.

Since returning to the United States in 2017, Snyder has practiced in palliative care and hospice nursing in a variety of settings and returns to Tanzania annually to continue his work. He is completing a PhD program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. His doctoral work focuses on end-of-life practices and perspectives around the world through a lens of neuro-decolonization in an effort to decolonize end-of-life care. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from George Mason University in Virginia and a master's degree from UMSON. Snyder also holds certification as an Advanced Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse.

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The University of Maryland School of Nursing, founded in 1889, is one of the oldest and largest nursing schools in the nation and is ranked among the top nursing schools nationwide. Enrolling nearly 2,100 students in its baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs, the School develops leaders who shape the profession of nursing and impact the health care environment.