Annie Wang began her profession in commerce, incomes her diploma at Queen’s College, Kingston in Canada after which labored as a administration guide at Oliver Wyman. Whereas she valued the strategic problem-solving, she was drawn to world well being, the place she might apply methods pondering to deal with complicated challenges. A pivotal second was residing in Sierra Leone throughout the Ebola epidemic, the place she helped set up the Clinton Well being Entry Initiative workplace in Freetown. Her journey has spanned roles at IQVIA, the World Financial institution, and Roche Genentech. Every of those roles has proven Annie what is feasible once we enhance healthcare in underserved areas and low-income communities.
Learn on for our interview with Annie!
A Typical Day of Work for Annie:
A typical day in world well being means juggling time zones, numerous companions and collaborating with colleagues all over the world. We work with mission-aligned, domestically led companions who’re deeply embedded within the communities they serve. My mornings normally begin with Zoom conferences, connecting with companions and colleagues in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Whereas Alternative has been a pioneer of microfinance for practically 50 years, tackling well being is a brand new frontier for our world community. I lead our world well being technique, making certain that our well being finance, group well being training, and well being entrepreneurs applications are each impactful and sustainable.
Constructing relationships with governments, non-profits, and the non-public sector can also be important to make sure our well being initiatives are built-in into native methods. I’m targeted on figuring out improvements that may enhance healthcare entry for ladies and women, explicit these in rural and exhausting to succeed in communities. World well being work is complicated, but it surely’s extremely rewarding to see strategic plans develop into real-world options.
The Largest Problem I’ve Encountered:
It’s simple to method world well being challenges with large eyes pondering there’s a silver bullet, or that the options are easy, however we simply want more cash. In actuality, structural inequality compounds well being challenges, and the illnesses and well being points which can be prevalent symbolize and replicate social challenges.
Why is it that folks residing in poverty usually tend to get sick? Why are girls much less prone to search remedy and extra prone to die from preventable causes?
It takes a concerted effort to not simply have a look at the illness or well being problem in entrance of you, however to look deeper on the root causes. Constructing wellbeing and resilience by bettering major healthcare methods and addressing systemic inequality is rather more complicated than a number of the easy fixes typically touted in well being. We have to take an built-in and systems-based method if we need to actually clear up our largest well being challenges.
If I Might Go Again in Time:
Early in my profession, I used to be wanting to see quick outcomes and targeted on implementing sensible options to the illnesses in entrance of me. Nonetheless, over time I’ve seen that how impactful a illness is, has nothing to do with how lethal it’s, it’s how we cope with it as a society. As Paul Farmer mentioned: “If entry to healthcare is taken into account a human proper, who is taken into account human sufficient to have that proper?”
I’d inform myself that it’s higher to take a broad method to how we deal with unwell well being and illness and ask a number of the more durable questions on boundaries to well being entry for essentially the most marginalised. I’d additionally inform myself that it is very important have individuals represented within the room, if you find yourself creating well being options for them, to make sure you’re listening to their wants and understanding their well being challenges and what they stem from.
How I Unwind After Work:
After work, I have a tendency to hunt out quiet and centring actions to unwind and recharge. I apply vinyasa yoga and meditation every day, which assist me to decelerate and refocus. Infrequently, I do silent meditation retreats, permitting me to fully disconnect. I like to prepare dinner and host associates at dwelling.
I additionally love studying each fiction and non-fiction, because it offers me an opportunity to replicate and decelerate. My husband and I additionally foster kittens—tiny creatures that carry us plenty of pleasure and maintain us busy and typically make for fascinating zoom calls after I’m working from dwelling.
