Faculty duo highlights global health equity with documentary series
Associate Professors Josh Meltzer , left, and Jenn Poggi, right, with Dr. Shamsiya Murat, center, a Mongolian pediatric ophthalmologist and one of the winners of the Golisano Health Leadership Awards, at an awards ceremony Oct. 2 in Rochester celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Golisano Foundation.
RIT School of Photographic Arts and Sciences faculty Josh Meltzer and Jenn Poggi continued their ongoing work with Special Olympics by highlighting global health leaders who champion health equity for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Meltzer and Poggi, both associate professors of photojournalism, spent the summer and fall producing seven short documentary video stories celebrating the work of the 2025 Golisano Foundation Global Health Leadership award winners from six continents.
The Global Golisano Health Leadership Award recognizes health advocates — leaders and organizations — who make significant contributions to improving the health and well-being of people with IDD. The award also promotes awareness of the progress and extraordinary efforts toward fulfilling the goals, values, and mission of Special Olympics International’s health work. This is the highest Special Olympics honor for health partners.
Meltzer and Poggi filmed two of the stories, in Wisconsin and Northern Ireland, and contracted with five other filmmakers who produced stories in Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Paraguay. The award winners include a dentist, audiologist, ophthalmologist, pediatrician, optometrist, university faculty, and a government health minister.
Meltzer and Poggi edited all seven stories and shared them at an Oct. 2 gala celebration, attended by nearly all the awardees from around the world as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Golisano Foundation.
Meltzer and Poggi have also collaborated with Special Olympics New York for five years. That partnership annually allows more than 70 RIT students to apply their documentation skills in a real-world, deadline-driven setting by covering the state's Winter Games for an RIT website.
The workshop class will again run in February 2026, enrolling students from multiple colleges at RIT while bringing back alumni to mentor students as they share stories from the Special Olympics New York Winter Games in the Rochester area.
Experience all the Golisano Foundation Global Health Leadership below:
U.S. (Wisconsin)
Northern Ireland
