A letter from Christine Bedenis, our new Communications & Development Manager
Dear GlobeMed community,
As I step into this new role at GlobeMed HQ, I’d like to offer my warmest greetings to this incredible community. I’m thrilled to join the team as the Communications and Development Manager, a position that will not only work with you all to share your stories far and wide, but also leverage them to secure funding to continue to nurture future leaders in global health. I look forward to hearing more from each of you about how you have been brave, dug deep, seen possibility, grown together, followed through, built sustainably and stayed authentic.
While I did not have the chance to be a part of GlobeMed as an undergraduate, I have engaged with the greater GlobeMed network in other ways and have invested much of my professional life into various aspects of global health equity. When I started my Global Health Corps fellowship year at Art & Global Health Center Africa in Zomba, Malawi, I was fortunate enough to overlap with three dedicated GlobeMed Grassroots Onsite Work (GROW) interns. I’ve also connected with a number of GlobeMed alumni through the Global Health Corps network. Being a part of the movement for global health equity with all of you is an honor.
I have a particular passion for storytelling and creating a platform for the voices of people who have traditionally been excluded from the greater narratives to shine. My values are deeply rooted in equity, justice and human rights and have been developed and refined through listening to the rich experiences of diverse people and a deep interrogation of systemic oppressions. These values are the guide that I use to approach my work in sharing about the movement.
My professional experience spans cities and continents. Prior to my time as a Global Health Corps fellow in Malawi, I worked at a grassroots anti-child trafficking organization in Ghana, where I spent my time unraveling the complexities, including economic and health factors, that lead to such separations and how they can be repaired. My international grassroots experience began as a Peace Corps volunteer in northeastern Thailand, where I partnered with an English teacher to develop and implement student-centered lesson plans. I also spent much of my time there learning about and experiencing cultural aspects that rarely make it to the beach resorts the country is famous for. Within the United States, I was an early literacy tutor as an AmeriCorps member in the Pacifc Northwest. Working at a Head Start preschool, which integrates health and wellness support into the programming, made clear to me the ways that health is intertwined with so many other aspects of our lives.
The way that I understand and experience the world has been heavily influenced by these experiences. The most meaningful parts of all these experiences have been the relationships that I’ve been able to foster and grow through the years. From the shared struggles of planning and running an event to long talks about identity and how it impacts experiences, from meals that stretch late into the evening to long travel days to where the programs happen — it’s all made my understanding of our world richer and led me to recognize the variety of skills that are needed to make our world more just.
Some of those skills include the ability to dream big, asking hard questions and finding a shared purpose, all things that I’ve come to understand as key parts of being a part of GlobeMed. I’m very excited to do all of those things, and more, with all of you.
In solidarity,
Christine
