Alumni Profile: Maju Brunette
Dr Maria Julia (Maju) Brunette (MSc Global Healthcare Leadership, 2023) is an Associate Professor at Ohio State University and a champion for health equity for historically marginalised communities in the Global South. Before joining Green Templeton, she studied industrial and systems engineering at the University of Lima, Peru (BSc), the University of Puerto Rico (MSc), and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (PhD).
At Ohio State University, her work sits at the intersection of health systems, equity and community-based research, co-designing public health interventions with underserved communities across the Americas – a region comprised of 35 countries. In Peru she collaborates with both, tuberculosis (TB) experts and affected communities, centering their lived experiences in both her research and public engagement.
During her time at Green Templeton, Maju co-founded the Oxford Global Health Society with fellow alum Francis Ayomoh (DPhil Primary Care, 2021) and student Daniela Krouzkova (Clinical Medicine, 2022). Through the society, she organised a range of initiatives – from college discussions and a 12-part ‘Decolonising Global Health’ blog series with the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences to a student-led trip to Geneva bringing together 25 students for international dialogue.
She reflects on her time at college which shaped both her career and her thinking: ‘Because it’s Oxford, and because of the focus on health, it was very seamless to connect across disciplines. That really solidified for me the urgent need to break silos.’
Maju’s primary work centres on TB – a disease she describes not only as a medical issue, but as a lens through which to understand the deep links between poverty, power, and infectious disease. Her book, A World Without Tuberculosis, takes an unconventional form: a graphic, story-driven narrative rooted in real communities and lived experiences, reflecting her commitment to storytelling as a tool for change.
She sees her role as contributing to shape how students and young professionals engage with global health: ‘The current generation gives me hope. They are socially driven; they want to make a difference. My responsibility is to communicate these issues in a way that they won’t necessarily see in their formal training.’
Maju argues for a systems-based approach that recognises health as more than just a clinical outcome: ‘Health has three dimensions: physical, mental and social. We address the physical. Sometimes the mental. But the social – we often ignore.’
Part of a global network of TB researchers and advocates, she remains optimistic that change is possible and lives inspired by the words of author and activist John Green: ‘We are in the middle of the story – I do believe we will live to see a world without tuberculosis.’
