Global Health Corps is a U.S. non-profit organization that aims to mobilize a global community of emerging leaders to build a movement for health equity.[1] The organization pairs talented young professionals from the United States and abroad to work in year-long fellowships with organizations serving poor communities in East Africa and the United States.[2]. Global Health Corps recruits fellows from a wide range of skill sets. Current fellowships range in focus from supply chain management for medicines, computer programming for electronic medical records, architecture for new hospitals, and monitoring and evaluation for interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.[3]
In 2009, Global Health Corps sent its first class of fellows to year-long assignments in Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania, New Jersey, and Boston. The 22 fellows were selected from 1,300 applicants.[4] After a two-week orientation at Stanford University,[5] the fellows began assignments with one of five partner nonprofits: the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, Partners In Health, the Southern African Center for Infectious Disease Surveillance, Covenant House International in Newark, New Jersey, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.[6] Fellows work in teams of two; each pair is made up of one American fellow and one international fellow to promote cross-cultural awareness and understanding.
The Global Health Corps concept arose from brainstorming at the aids2031 conference hosted by Google.org in March 2008.[2] Global Health Corps was founded in 2009 and has received support from Google.org and a number of other private organizations. The President and Co-Founder of Global Health Corps, Barbara Pierce Bush[7] was awarded an Echoing Green Fellowship and a Draper Richards Fellowship in 2009 to support the development of the Global Health Corps.
The Global Health Corps advisory board includes: