Women Leaders in Global Health: Sharing our stories

Women in Global Health, in partnership with the American Public Health Association, organized a career-focused event for another year at the Annual American Public Health Association Conference in Atlanta, USA, titled 'Women Leaders in Global Health: Sharing our stories'.

Each year that we've held this session,our career panelists share their experiences & tips on how to navigate a career journey in global health. This year their stories captured how many pathways can bring you to global health- different interests, skills, exposure, opportunities- you don’t need a global health degree to work in global health. Moreover, our panelists shared a common value- a vision for greater health equity in the world regardless of which sector or career path they have taken.

We were thrilled to hear from Nicole Schiegg (Strategic Communication Consultant), Vanessa Kerry (Founder & CEO of Seed Global Health), Maria Thacker Goethe (Vice President of Operations at Georgia Bio), Michelle Sandoval-Rosario (Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and Joy di Benedetto (Founding Chairwoman, Managing Director, President/CEO at HUM: Human Unlimited Media, LLC),

Take home messages for the panelists:

1. Risk Taking, thinking out of the box, jumping in faster is something women need to do more. 2. Be strategic, unapologetic, chose champions, chose battles, think about how to influence, be mindful of your privileges and leverage those. 3. Empower and uplift fellow women. Women who support women is needed. Men who support women is also needed. 4. Championing for women- should be as much as about championing for the highest standard, women who are qualified and skilled. 5. Finally- the global goals are an opportunity for us to shift our message, have more citizen engagement, put girls, women at the center & chance for greater equity & shared responsibility.