Global Health Corps Skoll Awardee Profile

Organization Overview

Key Info

Social Entrepreneur Barbara Pierce Bush

Year Awarded 2018

Issue Area Addressed Health

Sub Issue Area Addressed Health Delivery, Human Rights, Responsible Supply Chains, Women's and Girls' Education, Youth Job Skills

Countries Served USA, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia

Website http://ghcorps.org/

Twitter handle https://twitter.com/ghcorps

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GlobalHealthCorp s/

About the Organization

The world is up against an immense challenge: weak and broken health systems. The tools and resources to save and improve lives exist, yet millions still suffer because systems breakdowns undermine the delivery of quality, affordable, and accessible care. Global Health Corps (GHC) believes that leadership is the most effective lever for transforming complex health systems. For the past decade, GHC has worked to foster a diverse, highly skilled, and tightly-networked community of 1,000+ leaders who work together to realize health as a human right.

The entry point to the GHC high-impact community is a paid 13-month fellowship with health organizations such as Ministries of Health and NGOs such as Partners in Health and Clinton Health Access Initiative, working on the front lines of global health in Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. A unique aspect of the approach is the co-fellow model where national and international fellows are paired together to foster cross-cultural collaboration and shared learning. In addition to contributing to the work of GHC partner organizations, fellows engage in rigorous leadership training and community building. Beyond the fellowship year, particpants join the GHC alumni community and are active changemakers with GHC as they advance in their careers, collaborate with each other, and influence the field of global health. GHC’s leaders follow many paths, but are united by a common goal of achieving global health equity.

Impact

Working to increase the proportion of female, African, and non-clinical leaders in global health leadership, 68 percent of GHC leaders are women, 45 percent are African, and 54 percent of applicants to the 2020-2021 cohort had never studied or worked in public health. GHC boosts the retention of talented young leaders in global health, with 82 percent of leaders remaining in the fields of global health or human development, and 85 percent of African alumni continuing to work on the continent post-fellowship. GHC leaders influence global health through public engagement, with 70 percent undertaking one or more influencing activities (public speaking, writing, advocacy) to improve health outcomes in the last year.

Path to Scale

Over the past 10 years, GHC has trained 1,028 young leaders, and each year the GHC community grows as we welcome a new class of fellows. As they advance in their careers, this tight-knit community harnesses the power of collective leadership to collaborate across borders and boundaries, amplifying their impact and influence.

Social Entrepreneur

Barbara Pierce Bush traveled to East Africa in 2003 with her parents and was confronted with the overwhelming human toll of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In Uganda, she witnessed thousands waiting for anti-retroviral treatments that were readily available in other parts of the world. She returned home determined to focus on global health and soon after graduating college, she worked at the South African Red Cross hospital and with UNICEF in Botswana. Barbara founded Global Health Corps with her sister and four friends in 2009, driven by the belief that health is a human right and that we need a new generation of leaders to make that right a reality. Barbara is now Board Chair of GHC, having served as CEO until January 2018. Barbara is a Draper Richards Kaplan Social Entrepreneur and an Echoing Green Fellow. She has been named one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs and one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. Her book Sisters First, co-authored with her sister Jenna Bush Hager, was number one on the New York Times best seller list.

In early 2018, Barbara was succeeded by Daniela Terminel as CEO. Before joining GHC, she served on the executive team at Endeavor, where she led the organization through a period of expansion across five continents and multiple industries. She was responsible for launching offices in Europe and Africa and managing operations in 10+ markets..

Equilibrium Overview

Current Equilibrium

In the current equilibrium, public health systems have been designed by leaders who are mostly Western, male, and trained in medicine. Though women make up 84% of the global health student body and the majority of healthcare recipients, they hold only 24% of global health leadership positions. At the same time, governments and NGOs in Africa lack a local leadership pipeline. These leaders are not representative of the populations they serve or diverse in academic or professional discipline. As a result, the system is designed without the perspectives of those who it is meant to serve and the health workforce is missing needed capacities - not just clinical care, but logistics, finance, and communications.

New Equilibrium

In the new equilibrium, more holistic, bottoms-up health approaches are championed by a new breed of leaders who better represent the local and female populations they intend to serve. Better trained and supported leaders from diverse personal, professional and academic backgrounds are more inclusive, cross-culturally competent and systems-minded. These leaders are able to recognize the complex factors that comprise health systems and build more human-centered interventions. With the support of an increasingly connected network, these diverse leaders become Ministers of Health, Executive Directors of NGOs and health advocates who prioritize prevention and lead the charge for global health equity.

Innovation

Global Health Corps is seeding young and non-traditional talent to the field of global health and building a network of more systems-minded, cross-culturally competent and resilient leaders for the future. This is born from GHC's belief that solving the world’s most pressing global health challenges requires better and more connected leaders who are able to work across traditional boundaries like geography, sector, and issue area to engineer stronger global health systems. GHC recruits professionals under the age of 30 from a variety of backgrounds within and outside of public health for a highly selective, year-long leadership development and experiential learning program. Fellows work full-time in demand-driven roles at NGOs and government agencies in East Africa (Uganda, Rwanda), Southern Africa (Malawi, Zambia), and United States (Boston, Newark, NYC, DC). GHC’s ‘co-fellow’ model pairs a local and an international fellow to work at each organization to promote cross-cultural collaboration and ensure inclusion of local voices and experience. Fellows receive a two-week pre-service training held at Yale University and quarterly in-service trainings focused on systems-thinking, design thinking, authentic leadership and collective leadership. GHC has also modified this training to build skills of supervising staff at NGO and government placement organizations. Upon completing the service-learning year, fellows enter GHC alumni chapters, which offer continued networking and professional development opportunities. Alumni programming builds upon the fellowship curriculum and leadership development model to 1.) Continue developing individual leaders who are effective and empathetic systems thinkers focused on transforming health systems throughout their careers and 2.) Continue building and fostering a leadership network that spans borders, sectors, and silos, and which compounds progress toward achieving health equity. Alumni programming includes annual Leadership Summits in each of the placement regions; the support of Alumni Hubs in cities around the world, in and outside of the placement cities and countries; and a portfolio of professional and leadership development opportunities, including management training, career advisement and mentorship, and a variety of advocacy and communications training and engagement opportunities. Tapping into their leadership training and access to a network of resources and collaborators, community members are founding new organizations, designing multi-disciplinary health interventions, advocating for better policies, and bringing new stories and voices to the forefront of global health. In addition to fellow and alumni programming, GHC is working to build the movement for global health equity through two advocacy priorities: 1.) Cultivate and elevate GHC community voices on leadership and health equity. This is implemented through formal trainings and public engagement and advocacy opportunities for community members and 2.) Strengthen GHC’s thought leadership on global health. This is implemented through highlighting learnings, the impact of the model, and examples of leadership within the GHC community through various media and public engagement opportunities.

Ambition for Change

GHC’s ultimate goal is health system transformation through a tightly networked, collaborative, and diverse community of leaders with the systems and design thinking skills needed to achieve global health equity. Global health challenges are complex—solving them requires exceptional leadership.