Our CEO Heather Anderson and Sr. Director of Communications & Development Brittany Cesarini are coming off an energizing week at the 2025 Skoll World Forum, returning with renewed urgency—and hope. This year’s convening offered a powerful duality: a clear-eyed acknowledgment of the global turbulence we’re all navigating and an equally potent spotlight on the social entrepreneurs leaning into the challenge with vision, creativity, and resolve. At Global Health Corps (GHC), we saw this week as both a call to action and a celebration of the changemakers already rising to meet it.
Throughout the Forum, critical conversations emerged about what it will take to meet this moment in the health sector. Among them: the need to move decisively away from siloed, disease-specific approaches toward integrated health systems that reflect the complexity of people’s lives. The imperative to forge partnerships—sometimes unlikely ones—that connect the dots between health, climate, and gender. And the responsibility to equip proximate leaders with the skills, tools, and networks they need to stay in the work, elevate their voices, and lead systemic change.
These themes are not new to us. They are central to our mission. For over 15 years, GHC has invested in building a diverse, connected community of health equity leaders across East and Southern Africa and the United States. This community—now 1300+ strong—is transforming health systems from the inside out. And last week, it was nothing short of magical to see some of them on the global stage in Oxford.
We were proud to witness a milestone moment as Healthy Learners—an organization founded by GHC alum Lonnie Hacket and led by a team of GHC alumni—received the Skoll Award for Social Innovation. From keynote spotlights to standing-room-only panels, GHC alums shared the concrete ways they’re driving impact: launching school-based health programs, advocating for adolescent reproductive rights, and embedding mental health into primary care.
But perhaps the most powerful takeaway from the week was less about individual achievements and more about collective momentum. Across sessions and side conversations, what became abundantly clear is that the future of health leadership must be collaborative, inclusive, and deeply rooted in local realities. It must center the leadership of those who are closest to the challenges—and the solutions.
As we look ahead, we’re energized to keep growing this movement. To continue investing in leaders who are building bridges across sectors, countries, and communities. To champion bold ideas and the people behind them. And to show up—over and over again—for the hard, hopeful work of building health equity.
The Skoll World Forum reminded us that we’re not alone in this effort. Together, with our partners and our community, we’re navigating this era of complexity not with fear, but with fierce determination and an unwavering belief in what’s possible.