The Power of the Individual

Our Deans’ lecture series, co-sponsored by my colleague Arthur Rubenstein at the School of Medicine, were created to inform and encourage a thoughtful discourse on the issues that challenge and inspire the nursing and medial community. After listening to Dr. William Foege’s speech on November 13th on the power of individuals, I hope those who could not attend can still read about him and his accomplishments to learn how he practiced what he talks about: the power of the individual in making the world a better place.

From citing the works of Maurice Hillman – the microbiologist Foege referred to as “the Louis Pasteur of our time” – to discussing Molly Melching – the founder and executive director of Tostan, an organization designed to empower African women, Dr. Foege highlighted the many ways in which “individuals make coalitions work.”

Hillman, for example, developed eight out of the 14 vaccinations routinely given to children across the globe, such as vaccines for mumps, measles, chickenpox, pneumonia and meningitis. Hillman, who died in Philadelphia in 2005, “left a legacy pf social DNA,” Foege said. “The product of his mind has gone into millions of people’s bodies and changed them forever.”

That, he said, is the essence of global health: “A million steps in a chain where everything goes right so that everyone at the end benefits.”

I have had the pleasure of serving on the Global Health Council with Dr. Foege for more than four years, and I learn something new and inspiring every time I see him. Beyond his own work – from spearheading the eradication of smallpox to creating a model for improving the rate of immunizations in developing countries – Dr. Foege offers a plan of action to all of us, but most especially to the future generation of health care providers.

The challenges to global health, he explains, are clear: poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, gender bias. But, he maintains, this is the golden age of global health because the tools, the resources and the communication methods utilized are all better. But perhaps most importantly, he added, individuals are making coalitions work.

As I think about the School of Nursing, I see that Dr. Foege’s challenge to the leaders of tomorrow – to think and act both locally and globally – are evidenced in all that we do. Look, for example, at the United Community Clinics, housed in the basement of the First African Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia, where nursing students experience the challenges of running a free clinic – recruiting volunteers, collaborating with different disciplines, securing funding, addressing community needs. Then note Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott, an eminent researcher who has revised her safe-sex curriculum to meet the cultural and community needs of people throughout Africa, where she works on both the governmental level and in the field to help stop the spread of HIV that threatens the continent.

The challenges are many, but we at the School of Nursing are prepared for the task. And perhaps the reason we are so prepared is because we realize that our work –as nurse scientists, clinicians, and members of the global community – is work that makes a difference in the lives of all people. We also focus on vulnerable and underserved populations, and we have answers that could make health care available for all.

I am so grateful to have had Dr. Foege address the Schools of Nursing and Medicine, and I would like to end this blog with some of his own wisdom: As we embark upon the challenges of the future, we must remember who are bosses are – and remember that they are not the ones who sign our paycheck. Our boss is every person who will be born in the future because we are preparing the world in which they will live.