Sir Ken Robinson uses the term the Element to describe the intersection of the things that we are good at and the things that we love to do. At the Global Health & Innovation Conference, we curate an environment where every person is nurtured to grow creatively together, with passion and purpose. “For most people, a primary component of being in their Element is connecting with other people who share their passion and a desire to make the most of themselves through it.”—Sir Ken Robinson

Keynote Conversations with Thought Leaders

• Agnes Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda; Former Minister of Health, Rwanda; Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School; Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine

• Ann Mei Chang, Author, Lean Impact; Former Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director, US Global Development Lab, USAID

• Caroline Kennedy, Honorary President, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation; Former United States Ambassador to Japan

• Vanessa Kerry, Founder and CEO, Seed Global Health; Associate Director of Partnerships and Global Initiatives, Mass General Global Health; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

• Nicholas Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times

• Jordan Levy, Chief External Relations Officer, Ubuntu Pathways

• Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University; University Professor, Columbia University; Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network; Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres

• Peter Singer, Special Advisor to the Director General, World Health Organization; Former CEO, Grand Challenges Canada

Design Thinking Speakers

• Cal Bruns, CEO and Chief Creative Incubationist, Matchboxology

• Elizabeth Johansen, Founder, Spark Health Design; Director of Product Design, Vaxess Technologies; formerly Design that Matters and IDEO

• Natacha Poggio, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, University of Houston Downtown; Founder and Director, Design Global Change

• Eliza Squibb, Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Stefani Zimmerman, Account Executive, SAS

Education Speakers

• Julie Mountcastle, Head of School and Grade 2 Teacher, Slate School

• Ana Rowena McCullough, CEO, Co-Founder, and Board Chair, QuestBridge; Co-Founder and Co-President, Global Leadership Incubator

• Wendy Ostroff, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science and Developmental Psychology, Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University

• Alison Porcelli, District-Wide Staff Developer, Katonah-Lewisboro School District in Westchester County, NY; Co-Author, Purposeful Play: A Teacher’s Guide to Igniting Deep and Joyful Learning Across the Day; Co-Author, A Quick Guide to Boosting English Language Acquisition through Choice Time

• Nomawethu Siswana, Family Engagement Coordinator, Ubuntu Pathways

Environmental Health, Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture Speakers

• Kelly Brownell, Director, World Food Policy Center, Robert L. Flowers Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University

• Rebecca Hardin, Associate Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

• Cliff Schmidt, Executive Director, Amplio

• Rich Thorsten, Chief Insights Officer, Water.org

Healthcare Delivery Models and Impact Measurement Speakers

• Kiran Agarwal-Harding, Harvard Global Orthopaedics Collaborative, Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program; Orthopaedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

• David Aylward, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine; Senior Advisor, Eugene Farley Jr. Health Policy Center, University of Colorado

• Arachu Castro, Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America and Director of the Collaborative Group for Health Equity in Latin America, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

• James Clarke, Ophthalmologist and Medical Director, Crystal Eye Clinic, Ghana; Unite For Sight Ghana Medical Director

• Scott Corlew, Lecturer, Program in Global Health and Social Change, Harvard Medical School

• Michael Ekuoba-Gyasi, Ophthalmologist and Medical Director, Saint Thomas Eye Clinic, Ghana; Unite For Sight Partner

• Lena Fiebig, Head of Tuberculosis, APOPO

• Naz Karim, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Director of Global Emergency Medicine Fellowship, Brown University

• Gene Kwan, Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Medicine; Health and Policy Advisor, Partners In Health

• Anatole Manzi, Director, Learning Collaborative, US Public Health Accompaniment Unit, Partners In Health; Lecturer, Harvard Medical School

• Regan Marsh, Senior Technical Lead, US Public Health Accompaniment Unit, Partners In Health; Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Faculty, Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

• Abraham Zerihun Megentta, Ethiopia Program Director, Last Mile Health

• Alyson Moadel-Robblee, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Director, BOLD Cancer Wellness Program, Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care

• Daniel Palazuelos, Director of Community Health Systems, Partners In Health; Assistant Professor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

• Ash Rogers, Co-CEO, Lwala Community Alliance

• Richard Skolnik, Former Director for HNP, South Asia Region at the World Bank; Former Lecturer, Yale University and The George Washington University; Author, Essentials of Global Health/Global Health 101; Instructor, Yale/Coursera - 'Essentials of Global Health'

• Jaimie Steinmetz, Research Scientist, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

• John Tarpley, Head of Department, Surgery Faculty, Medicine University of Botswana

• Sten Vermund, Dean and Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health, Yale School of Public Health; Professor of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine

• Seth Wanye, Ophthalmologist and Medical Director, Friends Eye Clinic, Ghana; Unite For Sight Partner

Health Policy & Advocacy Speakers

• Jeffrey Blander, Chief Innovation Office Coordinator, PEPFAR Program Management, Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State

• Sam Daley-Harris, Founder and Principal, Civic Courage, A Program of RESULTS Educational Fund

• Andrea Feigl-Ding, Founder and CEO, Health Finance Institute

• Woodie Kessel, Senior Scholar, Koop Institute, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College; Professor of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College; Professor of the Practice, School of Public Health, University of Maryland

• Linda Reinstein, President and CEO, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization

• Michael Schmoyer, Assistant Director for Health Security Threats, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President

• Derek Yach, President, Philip Morris International-funded Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

• Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Law and Senior Fellow, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School; Senior Advisor on Human Rights, Partners in Health

Mental and Neurological Health Speakers

• Shinichi Daimyo, Senior Clinical Lead, Mental Health and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Project HOME; Advisor, American Psychological Association, Interdisciplinary Minority Fellowship Program; Previous Senior Advisor, Mental Health, Partners In Health

• Alexandra Harrison, President and Co-Founder, Supporting Child Caregivers; Assistant Professor Part Time in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Core Faculty, University of Massachusetts Boston Infant Parent Mental Health Post Graduate Certificate Course

• Lynn Murphy Michalopoulos, Affiliate Associate Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work; Founder and President of the Board, the Moving Well Project International

• Chris Underhill, Founder, BasicNeeds; Co-Founder, citiesRISE; Co-Founder, Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs; Member, Global Future Council on Mental Health, World Economic Forum; Founder and Principal, Mentor Services

Nursing and Global Health Speakers

• Patricia Davidson, Dean, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing; Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Wollongong (May 2021)

• Jennifer Dohrn, Director, Office of Global Initiatives and WHO Collaborating Center in Advanced Practice Nursing, Columbia University School of Nursing

• Marc Julmisse, Chief Nursing Officer at Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais; Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Partners In Health

Philanthropy, Investment, and Organizational Management Speakers

• Jane Aronson, Clinical Assistant Professor Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine; Founder and Former CEO, Worldwide Orphans Foundation; Director, International Pediatric Health Services, PLLC; Director, Global Behavioral Health Network for Children and Young People

• Ned Breslin

• Edith Elliott, Co-Founder and CEO, Noora Health

• Laura Herman, Principal, Dalberg

• Ari Johnson, CEO, Muso; Associate Professor, UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences

• Morgan Lance, CEO, OneSky for all children

• Kiah Williams, Co-Founder, SIRUM

• Jana Zindell, Chief Strategy Officer, Ubuntu Pathways

Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health Speakers

• Rose Molina, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School; Obstetrician-Gynecologist, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Associate Faculty at Ariadne Labs

• Lindsey Pollaczek, Vice President of Programs, Fistula Foundation

• Katherine Semrau, Director, BetterBirth Program, Ariadne Labs; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Associate Epidemiologist, Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital

• Robin Allinson Smalley, Co-Founder and Chief Connector, mothers2mothers International

• Laura Stachel, Executive Director and Co-Founder, We Care Solar

Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation Speakers

• Bethany Hedt-Gauthier, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

• Lisa Hirschhorn, Professor, Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; Senior Director, Implementation and Improvement Science, Last Mile Health

• Leslie London, Chair of Public Health Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Steering Committee Member, People’s Health Movement South Africa and the Network on Governance, Ethics and Conflict of Interest in Public Health (GECI-PH)

• David Tovey, Chair, Scientific Committee, Center for Biomedical Research Transparency; Co Editor in Chief Elect, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology; Senior Adviser, COVID-END and COVID-NMA; Emeritus Editor in Chief, Cochrane

Social Entrepreneurship Speakers

• Dan Berelowitz, Founder and CEO, Spring Impact

• Jim Bildner, CEO, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Institute for Civil Society and the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University

• Paul Ellingstad, Managing Partner, PTI Advisors

• Cleveland Justis, Principal, Potrero Group

• Thane Kreiner, CEO, Marin Agricultural Land Trust; Board Member, Conservation X Labs; Co-Founder, Black Corporate Board Readiness Program

• Andy Posner, Founder and CEO, Capital Good Fund

• Mark Roithmayr, CEO, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation

• Daniel Student, Consultant, Potrero Group

• Krishna Udayakumar, Associate Professor of Global Health and Medicine, Duke University; Director, Duke Global Health Innovation Center; Executive Director, Innovations in Healthcare

Social Media, Communications, and Marketing Speakers

• Charlotte Cole, Executive Director, Blue Butterfly Collaborative

• Yvonne Macpherson, U.S. Director, BBC Media Action 

• Rebecca Wear Robinson, Founder and President, Make the Minute Matter, Inc.

Technology in Global Health Speakers

• Pam Bolton, SVP, Global Health, Tech Care for All

• Bobby Jefferson, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, DAI Global Health

• Ashok (A.J.) Kumar, Director of Carbon Experimentation, Indigo; Scientific Advisor, Jana Care; Co-founding Organizer, Malden Neighbors Helping Neighbors

• Steve Ollis, Senior Digital Health Advisor, Center for Digital Health, John Snow Inc.; Team Lead, MEASURE Evaluation Project, John Snow, Inc.; Co-Chair, Global Digital Health Network

• David Scheiman, Vice President of Programs, LifeNet International

• Rachel Turkel, Volunteer Experience Coach, Crisis Text Line; Board Member, Unite For Sight

• Arti Varanasi, President & CEO, Advancing Synergy, LLC

University Education Initiatives in Global Health and Social Entrepreneurship Speakers

• Elizabeth Bradley, President, Vassar College

• Brian Heuser, Associate Professor of the Practice of International Education Policy, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University; Affiliated Faculty, Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health

• Martin Klein, Director, Executive MPH, Yale School of Public Health; Executive Director, Yale Center for Climate Change and Health; Lecturer, Health Policy and Management, Yale School of Public Health

• Kaveh Khoshnood, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health; Faculty Director, InnovateHealth Yale; Program Co-Director, Global Health Ethics Program, Yale Institute for Global Health; Program Director BA-BS/MPH Program in Public Health, Yale University

• Rachel Leatham, Associate Director, Internships and Experiential Learning, Carleton College

• Marie H. Martin, Associate Director, Education and Training, Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health; Assistant Professor, Health Policy, Vanderbilt School of Medicine

• Lanch McCormick, Director of Student Engagement for Undergraduate Research & Distinguished Scholarships, University of Oregon

• Rachel Tomas Morgan, Associate Director, Center for Social Concerns, University of Notre Dame

• Santa Ono, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of British Columbia

• Harsh Sule, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine; Associate Director, Office of Global Health, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

• Margaret Tarpley, Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Botswana

Workshops

• "Discover Your Purpose in Global Health," Tricia Bolender, Strategy Consultant and Leadership Coach, Tricia Bolender Advisory LLC

• "Bridging Research and Action," Elizabeth Johansen, Founder, Spark Health Design; Director of Product Design, Vaxess Technologies; formerly Design that Matters and IDEO

• "Entrepreneurship at the Intersection: Think Like a System, Act Like a Network, Lead Like a Movement!," Cleveland Justis, Principal, Potrero Group and Daniel Student, Consultant, Potrero Group

• "The Most Sought-After Skill," Firdaus Kharas, Chairman, Chocolate Moose Media and Culture Shift

• “Narrative Justice: Screenwriting to Push the Boundaries of Global Health Storytelling,” Lisa Russell, Emmy-Winning Filmmaker and Founder, Create2030

• “Global Health 101,” Richard Skolnik, Former Director for HNP, South Asia Region at the World Bank; Former Lecturer, Yale University and The George Washington University; Author, Essentials of Global Health/Global Health 101; Instructor, Yale/Coursera - 'Essentials of Global Health'

• “Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?” Eliza Squibb, Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Innovative Initiatives Information Session Speakers

• "Stories of Light & Power Impacting Health Outcomes," Megan Birney, President and CEO, Unite to Light

• "Creating a Ugandan National Health Communication Network," Dan Gerendasy, Chief of International Programs, US National Library of Medicine

• "Social Franchising: A Tool to Scale Impact," Devin Hibbard, CEO, Street Business School

• “Join Us! Virtual Support for Unlimited High-Quality Care,” Lori Most, Founder and CEO, BackpackEMR and Binary Bridge, SBC

Student and Young Leaders in Global Health Speakers

Poster Presentations

A list of poster presentations included in the 2021 Global Health & Innovation Conference may be viewed here.

Social Impact Labs

The Social Impact Labs are a unique opportunity for selected speakers to present their new idea in the format of a 5-minute pitch. All of the presentations are ideas that are being developed, meaning that the ideas are in the brainstorming, early development, or early implementation stage. Following each presenter’s 5-minute pitch, there is a 15-minute period for discussion and coaching with two expert speakers, questions, answers, and feedback from the audience. The conference audience has the opportunity to hear about cutting-edge ideas from the pitch presenters, while also learning from the guidance, advice, and expertise of the expert panelists. Each Social Impact Lab consists of two expert panelists and four social impact pitch presenters.

Interested in presenting a social impact pitch? Review complete details and application instructions here.

GHIC 2021 Pitch Presenters:

• “Safe Births + Healthy Homes: How Solar Lights Impact Maternal and Infant Health,” Sarah Baird, Founder and Executive Director, Let There Be Light International

• “NeoRoo: An Integrated mHealth Platform to Improve Care for Premature Babies in Kenya,” Sherri Bucher, Associate Research Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Director, NeoInnovate Collaborative Consortium, Indiana University School of Medicine

• “The Development of Culturally-Tailored Educational Modules for Community Health Workers in India,” Orlando Caballero, Undergraduate Student, Santa Clara University

• “Expanding Access to Eye Care: Task-shifting of Screening in Rural India,” Alejandro Chara, Master's Student, Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, Johns Hopkins University

• “AMAZE.org: Increasing Access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education for Very Young Adolescents, “ Cynthia Chinchilla, AMAZE Global Partnerships Fellow

• “Why We Swab: A Library of Stories in Stem Cell Donation in Canada,” Warren Fingrut, Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation Fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Director, Stem Cell Club

• “Increasing Global Access to Orbital Prostheses: Rapid and Cost-Effective Fabrication via Automated Non-Contact Facial Topography Mapping and 3D Printing,” Courtney Goodman, MD Student, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

• “Pediatric Preventable Blindness Initiative: The Suriname Project,” Adriana Grossman, MD Student, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

• “The Effects of Prosthodontic Speech Aid Appliances on Nasality and Perceptions of Resonance: Use of the Nasality Severity Index, a Multiparametric Approach,” Jennifer Hanners Gutierrez, Founder and President, The Storyteller And The World: Global Medicine and Rehabilitation; Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine

• “Evaluation of Mental Health Mobile Application, UFEEL (Understanding Feelings Effectively & Enhancing Life),” Tia Halsey, Undergraduate Student, Santa Clara University

• “Petra System: Preventing Diabetic Foot Ulcers in Low-Resource Settings,“ Kayla Huemer, MS Bioengineering Student, Stanford University

• “Women's Health Education & Empowerment Program (WHEEP),” Elise Katsnelson, Co-Founder of the Women's Health Education & Empowerment Program; Undergraduate Student, University of Chicago; University of Chicago Global Health Scholar

• “MedSurplus Network: An E-Platform for Efficient Surplus Medical Supply Exchange,” Sasvi Kulasinghe, CEO and Co-Founder, MedSurplus United; Undergraduate Student, University of Maryland

• “Oh! Integrated Oral Health Care Models for Pregnant Women,” Hyewon Lee, Pediatric Dentist; Assistant Professor, Mount Sinai Hospital

• “Innovating Environmental Health: Providing Clean Air to Children Through Collaborative Engineering and Education,” Vanessa YiRan Li, Undergraduate Student, Wellesley College

• “ColiGlow: A Novel Low-Cost Kit for Quantifying E. coli from Water in Low-Resource Environments,” Jason Marion, Founder and CEO, Eastern Scientific; Associate Professor, Environmental Health Science, Eastern Kentucky University

• “Development of MARTHA, an Offline Mobile Education Platform for Out-Of-School Cameroonian Refugees,” Hannah Rubens, Undergraduate Student, Santa Clara University

Social Impact Lab Expert Panelists:

• David Aylward, Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine; Senior Advisor, Eugene Farley Jr. Health Policy Center, University of Colorado

• Pam Bolton, SVP, Global Health, Tech Care for All

• James Clarke, Ophthalmologist and Medical Director, Crystal Eye Clinic, Ghana; Unite For Sight Ghana Medical Director

• Bobby Jefferson, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, DAI Global Health

• Elizabeth Johansen, Founder, Spark Health Design; Director of Product Design, Vaxess Technologies; formerly Design that Matters and IDEO

• Charlie MacCormack, President Emeritus, Save The Children; Senior Fellow, Interaction: The American Council for Voluntary International Action

• Daniel Palazuelos, Director of Community Health Systems, Partners In Health; Assistant Professor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

• Rebecca Wear Robinson, Founder and President, Make the Minute Matter, Inc.

• Richard Skolnik, Former Director for HNP, South Asia Region at the World Bank; Former Lecturer, Yale University and The George Washington University; Author, Essentials of Global Health/Global Health 101; Instructor, Yale/Coursera - 'Essentials of Global Health'