After 14 years with Global Health Corps, including the last seven as CEO, I have decided to step down from my role this September. I have always believed that leadership excellence includes knowing when to pass the baton, and GHC has always been bigger than any one leader. It is the collective energy, brilliance, and care of this entire community that makes it what it is.
Being part of GHC has been one of the great privileges of my life. I joined this organization in 2012 as part of a scrappy team of eight, most of us working out of donated office space, with an unwavering belief in what this community could become. What we have built together since then — a global network of 1,400 health equity leaders driving transformative change — has exceeded anything I could have imagined.
Over these years, hundreds of bright, committed young people have entered this community and grown into leaders across the global health ecosystem. Today, they are serving as senior officials in Ministries of Health, shaping philanthropy, and leading non-profit and grassroots organizations—shifting both the “who” and the “how” of leadership. And importantly, they are doing it together. The GHC mantra, “Once a fellow, always a fellow,” lives in this network every day.
I chose this moment to transition from my role because GHC is in a strong position. Our Leadership Accelerators in the U.S. and Africa are meeting an urgent need, supporting early-career public health professionals to develop their leadership capacity and find their people. We continue to support our alumni as they reshape the health sector through bold, collective action. GHC has a talented, experienced team, a committed and engaged Board of Directors, and a stable, diversified funding base. Our mission and vision remain unchanged: to equip the next generation of leaders with the support, skills and networks they need to create a healthier world.
I will remain fully engaged as CEO through September, focused on supporting a strong transition and ensuring that GHC’s next leader inherits an organization ready to go further. The Board of Directors, led by Chair Julie Bernstein, will lead a rigorous global search for our next CEO, and we will share updates as that process unfolds.
To fellows, alumni, partners, and supporters: thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for the trust you have placed in this organization and in me. It has always been and will always be about people: people, working together to make innovations and ideas come to life for a more equitable future. I am so proud of what we have built together and I am deeply excited for GHC’s next chapter.
As for my next chapter? I look forward to a pause: an intentional time to connect with my family and reflect on how I can bring my skills and talents to bear on our world’s many challenges in 2027 and beyond.
With gratitude,
Heather Anderson
CEO, Global Health Corps