Watch the Annual Meeting recording.

 

At a time when global health is rethinking old models, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance community asked a sharper question: what must we build next?

On May 28, the Alliance convened its multisector community in San Francisco and online for a members-only gathering that created space for candid, provocative conversation about the future of global health — from the role of technology and power, to the shift from market shaping to market building, to the trusted partnerships needed to navigate change.

“We’re standing at this moment of extraordinary challenge, which also couples with extraordinary possibility,” said Becky Gast, global health senior manager at Accenture, which hosted the meeting at its San Francisco Innovation Hub.

That tension between uncertainty and possibility shaped the meeting’s discussions. Together, speakers explored why global health cannot simply preserve old models in a changing world, but instead must ask harder questions about who holds power, who sets the terms, what the next generation of health markets should look like, and how cross-sector collaboration can strengthen the systems needed to move aspiration into action.

 

Fireside Chat: Building the Alternative: A Conversation on Technology, Power, and What It Means for Global Health

In a fireside conversation moderated by Krista Donaldson, Alliance board member and director of innovation to impact at Stanford Biodesign, Raffi Krikorian, chief technology officer at Mozilla and board chair at Mozilla.ai and Medic, explored how global health leaders should think about technology, power, and responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), including how AI systems are designed, whose values and incentives they carry, and what happens when accountability is pushed onto users. Krikorian also discussed Medic’s approach to using AI to strengthen community health workers rather than replace them, and challenged organizations to think more critically about trust, open-source infrastructure, and the terms they set with technology partners. Read the full story here.

Key Takeaways

• AI should strengthen care, not replace people. The promise of AI is not removing humans from the loop, but giving community health workers, clinicians, and local leaders more time and support for the relationships at the center of care.
• Friction can protect accountability and trust. AI should not become so seamless that users lose the chance to understand, question, and make informed judgments about how decisions are made.
• Ownership matters as much as innovation. Open-source approaches, local ownership, and country control can help ensure technologies reflect local priorities rather than the incentives and values of distant platforms.
• Global health has more leverage than it thinks. Nonprofits, ministries of health, and implementers can—and should—help shape the terms under which AI is deployed, using their influence to demand openness, accountability, and support for the infrastructure they depend on.
• Open-source security is an equity issue. Many global health organizations rely on open-source systems, but the people maintaining them often lack the tools and resources large companies have to keep their systems secure.

 

From Market Shaping to Market Building: What Does the Next Generation of Health Markets Look Like?

Moderated by Jessica Katz, founder and CEO of The Partnership Lab, the discussion brought together Yasmin Chandani, CEO of inSupply Health; Jayasree Iyer, CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation; Mary-Ann Etiebet, president and CEO of Vital Strategies; and Joanna Sickler, vice-president of health policy and external affairs at Roche Diagnostics to examine how market shaping is evolving into market building amid tighter funding, geopolitical shifts, growing country ownership, and more complex health markets. Building on lessons from past market shaping efforts, speakers explored what the next era will require, from stronger institutions, better data, and flexible financing to trust, delivery systems, diagnostics infrastructure, and partnerships that can support access over time. Read the full story here.

Key Takeaways

• Market shaping worked — but the world has changed. The tools that expanded access over the past two decades delivered extraordinary results, but many of the assumptions that supported them are increasingly under strain.
• Market building starts with stronger foundations. Lasting access requires investment in critical infrastructure: capable institutions, flexible financing, data systems, workforce capacity, supply chains, and governments equipped to shape markets.
• Lower prices do not guarantee greater access. Affordable products can still fail to reach people without the financing, workforce, regulation, trust, and delivery systems needed to support them.
• Markets must reflect how people actually seek care. Trust, affordability, pharmacies, clinics, diagnostics infrastructure, and local realities often determine whether access to medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, and other innovations truly reach communities.
• Country ownership requires sharing power. Governments, civil society, and local actors must have a meaningful role in shaping markets, even when that requires slower timelines and new ways of working.
• The disruption is reaching the private sector, too. The forces reshaping donor-funded global health are also changing commercial health markets, creating uncertainty — and opportunity — for all players.
• The next phase will require broader coalitions. Building sustainable health markets will depend on stronger collaboration across governments, industry, investors, implementers, and other sectors.

 

Building What Comes Next, Together

In a period of disruption, global health is being pushed to make clearer choices about what to keep, what to change, and what to build next. Across discussions on AI, accountability, market building, and systems change, speakers returned to a common theme: the future will require stronger collaboration across sectors, more honest conversations about power and tradeoffs, and a deeper focus on the people and communities these systems are meant to serve.

For the Alliance, that work begins with a trusted multisector community that can turn uncertainty into practical action. “We’re in a new era of global health, and I’m excited that we’re doing it together,” said Sara Anderson, executive director of the Alliance. As members navigate a changing global health landscape, the Annual Meeting underscored the value of coming together to make sense of complexity and identify where innovation and investment can move the needle.

Learn more about the Alliance’s work on AI and global health and financing and investments.

 

Speaker Bios

Neha Agarwal, Senior Director of Strategy, PATH; Alliance board vice chair

Neha Agarwal is a passionate advocate for global health equity and approaches her work with a strong vision for sustainability, respectful collaborations, innovation, and analytical rigor. She has over 15 years of experience in global health and the life sciences. Neha is currently the Senior Director of Strategy, Office of the President at PATH and formerly the Global Diagnostics Program Co-Director for PATH where she led a team responsible for improving and ensuring equitable access to essential diagnostic products in resource-limited settings. She held previous global health roles at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Applied Strategies. In her various roles, Neha has focused on bridging partnerships between industry, governments, and the non-profit sector. Prior to her transition to global health, Neha’s career focused on innovative product development at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Verinata Health (now Illumina), earning her several patents for lab-on-chip and drug delivery technologies. Neha is passionate about utilizing the talent, scientific rigor, and innovative energy of the Bay Area to achieve health equity around the globe. Ms. Agarwal has several publications, holds 4 patents, and received her MS in biomedical engineering from Columbia University and her BS in bioengineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Sara Anderson, Executive Director, Bay Area Global Health Alliance

Sara Anderson is the first Executive Director of the Bay Area Global Health Alliance, serving in the role since 2020. With more than 30 years of experience in global health, international development advocacy, nonprofit management, partnership development, thought leadership, and strategic communications, she has a proven track record of driving impact. Before leading the Bay Area Global Health Alliance, Anderson was at the forefront of advocacy efforts in pioneering movements, including global surgery, raising awareness about debilitating burn injuries in low-income countries, and addressing the famine in North Korea. Her work on Capitol Hill and with various campaigns and nonprofits focused on shaping U.S. government policy and building strategic partnerships to influence policy and change lives. She holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University and has furthered her education through Stanford’s Designing for Social Systems program and the Maxwell School’s Transnational NGO Leadership Institute at Syracuse University. Additionally, she has served as a coach and partner in Stanford’s d.school Design for Extreme Affordability program.

Yasmin Chandani, CEO, inSupply Health

Yasmin Chandani, CEO of inSupply Health, has spent over twenty years supporting and advising national governments, NGOs and multilateral partners in the strategy, design, implementation and measurement of strong, sustainable supply chains for health. Yasmin has served as a director of multi-country, multi-year initiatives, including the SC4CCM (Supply Chains for Community Case Management) Project and the USAID | DELIVER project. Yasmin is a supply chain thought leader who is known for her rigorous attention to quality and her persistent emphasis on capacity development and systemic institutionalization. She has a successful track record in contextualizing and adapting innovations such as mHealth, UAVs and data-driven quality improvement approaches for building people-centered, responsive supply chains.

Krista Donaldson, Director of Innovation to Impact, Stanford Biodesign; Alliance board member

As Director of Innovation to Impact at Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign, Krista Donaldson’s work focuses on ensuring that design tools and processes are broadly applicable across global markets. She is also part of the team establishing the East Africa Biodesign Program, which kicked off in early 2023. Stanford’s Biodesign program advances health outcomes and equity through innovation education, translation, and policy. As the former CEO of Equalize Health (formerly D-Rev), Donaldson led the design and scaling of disruptive medical devices to address global health inequities. To date, nearly 1M people – mostly children and young people – have been treated by one of Equalize Health’s products in 70+ countries. Peter Singer of the Effective Altruism movement called Equalize Health “one of the world’s best charities” because of its cost effectiveness and exemplary end-to-end processes. Donaldson has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, TED speaker, and a GLG Social Impact Fellow. She was also named one of Fast Company’s “50 Designers Shaping the Future.” Prior to Equalize Health, she was an Economic Officer at the U.S. Department of State where she managed part of Iraq’s reconstruction portfolio. She also worked at KickStart International (Kenya), and the design firm IDEO (USA). Donaldson holds a master’s degree in Product Design and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Mary-Ann Etiebet, President and CEO, Vital Strategies

Dr. Mary-Ann Etiebet is President and CEO of Vital Strategies, a global public health organization that partners with governments and other stakeholders to advance long-term solutions for the growing burden of non-communicable disease and injury. A recognized global health innovator and leader in health equity, Dr. Etiebet previously served as the Lead and Executive Director of Merck for Mothers, Merck’s $650M global health initiative created to help end preventable maternal deaths. Under her leadership, Merck for Mothers increased access to high-quality and respectful maternal health care for more than 50 million women in more than 70 countries. Dr. Etiebet later served as Merck’s Associate Vice President for Health Equity, developing the company’s first enterprise-wide health equity strategy, developing partnerships to improve health outcomes for underserved communities, and driving efforts to increase access to health in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Etiebet began her career as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she led the development of their PEPFAR-supported HIV/AIDS public health and clinical service delivery programs that reached over 70,000 people across Nigeria. Later, at New York City Health and Hospitals, she was responsible for implementing Medicaid and Medicare delivery systems and value-based payment reforms. Dr. Etiebet earned her M.D. and MBA from Yale University. She completed her medical training at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell and New York Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center, becoming board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Center for Global Development. She has also served on numerous global health advisory councils, including the World Bank’s Global Financing Facility Investors Group, the World Health Organization’s Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, the United Nations Population Fund High-Level Commission, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council.

Jayasree Iyer, CEO, Access to Medicine Foundation

As CEO, Jayasree K. Iyer sets the Foundation’s strategy for assessing the efforts of healthcare companies to ensure their products reach more people around the world. In her discussions with global industry leaders, she engages them on the practical, effective steps they can take to develop, scale up and supply essential health products to the people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) who account for approximately 80% of the global population. Since 2015, Jayasree has led the expansion of the Foundation from a small initiative into a dynamic, changemaking organisation that produces rigorous research and insights on urgent issues of access and affordability across five essential healthcare sectors. Jayasree’s expertise lies in engaging with CEOs and other high-level stakeholders on the biggest issues in access and health, highlighting key opportunities and challenging companies to step up access initiatives as part of their business operations. In her role as the Foundation’s CEO, Jayasree also connects the organisation’s research insights with people, companies and global health organisations that are working to improve access to medicine. She addresses complex, contentious topics such as drug pricing and intellectual property (IP) management, as well as how to align industry research priorities with the areas of greatest need to people globally, including the development of replacement antibiotics and child-friendly medicines. Before joining the Foundation, Jayasree developed and managed a large portfolio of public-private partnerships between the pharmaceutical industry and its partners, totalling a budget of over €100 million. These partnerships addressed cancer, immunology and neglected tropical diseases. Jayasree is an infectious disease scientist by training and holds various postgraduate degrees (Masters and PhD), from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Jessica Katz, Founder and CEO, The Partnership Lab

Jessica Katz is the Founder & CEO of The Partnership Lab, where she designs and delivers cross-sector partnerships that create health impact and sustainable business value. With over a decade at the intersection of global health and the private sector, she has advised companies, multilaterals, and foundations on partnership strategy, market-shaping, and private sector engagement. Previously, she was a Partner at Rabin Martin, advising leading pharmaceutical, technology and CPG companies, and later led private sector fundraising and engagement at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Jessica founded The Partnership Lab to help organizations move cross-sector partnerships from alignment and intent into practical, scalable delivery.

 

Raffi Krikorian, CTO, Mozilla; Board Chair at Mozilla.ai and Medic

Raffi Krikorian is the Chief Technology Officer at Mozilla. Krikorian has served on the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors since 2023, on Mozilla.ai’s Board since 2024, and on the Mozilla.org Board since its inception. He also serves as the Board Chairperson at Medic. Krikorian brings a record of impact across sectors to Mozilla, with roles spanning tech, politics, media and philanthropy. He joins Mozilla from having been the CTO at Emerson Collective, where he led efforts to bring technologists into sectors like education, the environment, immigration, and economic mobility — and to help people in those sectors see themselves as technologists. He also hosted the “Technically Optimistic” podcast and Substack, exploring technology’s impact on society. Prior to that, he was the first CTO of the US’s Democratic National Committee, where he used data, technology, and digital security to support the election processes of Democratic candidates up and down the ballot; Director of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center, where he led the development and rollout of the first passenger-carrying self-driving car fleet; and Vice President of Platform Engineering at Twitter, where he managed and built Twitter’s global infrastructure. 

Joanna Sickler, Vice-President, Health Policy & External Affairs, Roche Diagnostics

Joanna Sickler is Vice-President, Health Policy & External Affairs at Roche Diagnostics. Joanna’s background spans diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, and NGOs, with a focus on public health, implementation science, and health policy to optimize medical value. Previously at Roche Diagnostics, she served as senior director of medical affairs, leading global medical strategy and clinical impact studies for point-of-care molecular tests, with a strong focus on respiratory diagnostics and pandemic response. Prior to joining Roche at Zyomyx, she led market access strategy, policy, and the post-approval clinical study program to support the launch of the company’s first product, a point-of-care CD4 test for use in limited resource settings. Previously, as part of the Access Programs leadership team at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), she developed models and led advocacy for global procurement interventions to ensure the sustainability of the children’s HIV drug market. She partnered with Ministries of Health throughout Africa to support the HIV Guidelines revision process and assess the cost impact of changes. She holds Masters in Public Health and Masters in Business Administration degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.