By The Minerva Team—
Last month, we joined our friends and office mates at the Washington Global Health Alliance (WGHA) for their 6th annual Pioneers of Global Health Awards Dinner and Auction. We spent the evening hearing about the latest partnerships and accomplishments of our state’s global health movers and shakers while spending time with friends old and new.
Dozens of WGHA member organizations were represented at the event, and the amount of brainpower and passion in one room was incredible. It’s easy to get caught up in your own piece of the global health puzzle, so it was inspiring to have WGHA remind us how we all contribute to building a healthier world.
Hearing from the Pioneers Awardees was a highlight of the evening. These included Dr. Benjamin Anderson from the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who won the Award for Impact for improving breast cancer early diagnosis and treatment in low-resource settings and Dr. Jillian Pintye from the UW Department of Global Health received the Rising Leader Award for her work to prevent HIV in pregnant women in Kenya. Finally, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and The Max Foundation were recognized with the Outstanding Collaboration Award for their Spot On CML partnership to improve CML diagnosis in low-resource areas.
Putting together an event of this caliber is not easy. It requires careful planning, attention to detail, and clear communication. This is one of the many reasons we enjoy being members and working with WGHA: they are dedicated professionals who care about our community and its progress. Not to mention that, like Minerva, WGHA’s team is women-run and staffed.
They are also smart communicators. WGHA knows their goals and audience well, and they create content, events, and opportunities that speak directly to those members and their needs. They communicate in a way that appeals to hard-core researchers and busy fundraisers alike—breaking down the science and explaining why it’s relevant. In the realm of often somber realities, WGHA enables genuine conversation with a refreshingly personal tone.
A great example of their communication smarts is Field Notes Live, a fun video version of WGHA’s bi-weekly newsletter that was premiered at the Pioneers Dinner. The video features member organizations and their latest global health innovations. As usual, WGHA President Dena Morris and her team presented serious and important work in an entertaining and accessible way. They really know their audience—the crowd loved it, and we all came away with a little more pride in being a part of our Washington global health community.
Is your organization involved with global health and located in Washington state? Check out what it means to become a WGHA member and say hi to us at Pioneers next year!
