2021 Year In Review

Thanks to many of you—our members—and the robust slate of programming we have often jointly convened, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance had an impressive year. This report outlines our work over the last 12 months. As you review, we encourage you to look for opportunities to work together with us to highlight your organization’s global health programs and identify issues of relevance for our growing and diverse community.

Background

The Bay Area Global Health Alliance operates under the belief that more is possible if we work together. Our region is a global center of innovation, entrepreneurship and expertise, with many sectors and organizations focused on health.  

In 2021, the Alliance made terrific strides in helping to build connections and harness the Bay Area’s unique tech and innovation ethos to advance global health equity. We are excited to be bringing together a broad array of organizations active in global health.

The Bay Area Global Health Alliance’s 61 members (and growing) are world-class academic institutions, innovative technology, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and experienced nonprofits caring for the world’s most vulnerable populations. A dedication to working together for innovation and equity is what unites us and is our strength. As a reminder, our strategic priorities developed this year are to:

1) build connections and community among diverse sectors and organizations focused on global health; 

2) engage the tech sector and its ethos to advance global health innovation and impact; and 

3) establish our foundation and gain credibility as the global health hub with access to tech and biotech. 

The Alliance has been able to build bridges and networks and we are beginning to see a transformation in how these diverse sectors work together in our region.  

2021 Highlights

As we end the year, we have 61 members and a strong portfolio of programs, webinars, podcasts and communications designed to support our members and the region’s global health community ethos of innovation and advancing global health impact.

Membership and Partnership Development

We are working hard to get the word out about the Alliance and, as we do, we are fielding increased requests for membership as our network grows in strength and diversity. In 2021, we:

  • Increased membership from 28 to 61 member organizations, advancing representation from Bay Area-based corporate and nonprofit sectors. 

  • Created mechanisms, systems and structures to help our members share capacity and resources (curated communications, professional networking and online directory, shared training, post-pandemic ideas of co-located work spaces, coordinated international study sites, etc.) through our regular monthly newsletter, working group pilots, our website and online conversations and webinars for our members (23 in 2021).

  • Developed strategic partnerships with the WHO Tech Task Force, Trinity Challenge, Global Digital Health Forum, Alliance for Advancing Health Online, Devex, Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and others. We will continue to build partnerships to engage the tech sector and increase collaboration opportunities for our members, as well as amplify your voices and identify new channels to communicate about the Alliance and our member activities and expertise.

    • As of December 1, accepted the role of Secretariat for WHO’s Tech Task Force, a WHO-led collaboration of 30-40 tech companies working to tackle misinformation, raise quality content and develop new digital channels. We are thrilled that our collaboration with the Task Force over the two years has led to an even greater opportunity to work with WHO to help engage the tech sector to help advance global health innovation and equity.

    • Together with the Sabin Vaccine Institute, organized a panel for the closing plenary at the Global Digital Health Forum. The Rockefeller Foundation will join the panel to talk about their new $10M Mercury Project on mis- and disinformation in public health. It is a pleasure to have the closing plenary for the second year in a row!

Administration and Governance 

  • In January 2021, the Alliance transitioned from UC Berkeley to the fiscal sponsor Global Impact to help support our operational and financial needs. Paperwork was filed to accelerate the move to a 501c3 and is now in process. 

  • The Alliance’s Board of Directors now includes 17 members with a wide range of expertise in global health and holding leadership positions with influence across the Bay Area and in global health.

    • Our board officers are Mary Pittman (Public Health Institute), chair; Hema Budaraju (Google), vice chair; Colin Boyle (formerly UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences, now Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley), secretary; and Jonathan Kfoury (L.E.K. Consulting) treasurer.

Programming

We’ve had an impressive set of programs this year designed to connect our diverse global health community and share cutting-edge, trans-disciplinary research. Much of our programming was based on input and feedback from our 1:1 discussions with you and reflected topics of importance to our community. We have been able to leverage the Bay Area’s rich resources and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem, including through virtual programming and events, one-on-one matchmaking and strategic partnerships. So far this year, the Alliance has: 

  • Ignited Bay Area global health innovation to propel global health impact, research, training, service delivery and policy through strategic partnerships with the WHO Tech Task Force, Devex’s Prescription for Progress, the Trinity Challenge, Global Digital Health Forum and UC Berkeley Haas Healthcare Association Annual Conference; also held other targeted virtual briefings (given the requirements of the pandemic). 

  • Supported the Bay Area Global Health Innovation Challenge held on May 1, 2021 (historically hosted through UC Berkeley and Stanford University) with UCSF, UC Davis and the HealthRoots Foundation as partners. Planning and support for the virtual global event were initiated in 2020 and attracted 55 student teams from around the world, with 16 finalists, who were mentored by Alliance Board members in the lead-up to the finale. Teams presented ideas concerning infectious disease, mental health, NCDs, maternal/child/adolescent health and health policy & systems management. A $10K prize was awarded to the winning team.

  • Cross-pollinated ideas and knowledge across a diverse range of organizations (NGOs, biotech, tech, pharma/industry, academia and the private sector) to accelerate innovation and advance global health equity, including:

    • Facilitated a set of online conversations with academics and NGO stakeholders for a large tech company to pressure-test ideas to help advance access to COVID-19 services in Africa.

    • Hosted a closed-door tech convening with major area tech companies and Santa Clara County public health leadership on how tech companies could help with vaccine rollout. With Facebook’s KX Jin, Google’s Hema Budaraju and the Alliance as hosts, speakers included Dr. Sara Cody (SCC, local perspective), Professor Jonna Mazet (global perspective) and Andy Pattison (WHO Tech Task Force).

    • Launched the first webinar in a series on human-centered design in global health with members IDEO, JSI, Medicines360 and the HCD Exchange, and convened several other webinars on global health innovation with other Alliance members.

    • Hosted five policy briefings with key advocacy partners, including Global Health Council, Friends of the Global Fight, CDC Foundation and Georgia Global Health Alliance in the last year. Urged Bay Area Members of Congress in July 2020 to provide at least $20 billion in emergency funding for international affairs and global health programs in the COVID-19 Emergency Supplemental. Established relationships with policy stakeholders and raised awareness of the Alliance among Bay Area policymakers.

    • Held two emergency briefings on the COVID-19 crisis in India with Stanford, PATH, San Francisco Community Health Center and others; curated member news on the India crisis on our website.

    • Provided additional networking through strategic, bespoke 1:1 matchmaking for potential collaborations between diverse members. 

    • Hosted two training sessions with Alliance member, Upswell, focused on optimizing Facebook’s platform and tools for health communications.  Our most recent workshop on Content Strategy provided guiding principles for creating content to increase audience engagement with a message.  

Communications

In addition to programming, we increased our communications capabilities:

  • In October 2020, the Alliance became the editorial lead for the former SF Bay Area Global Health Newsletter, the newsletter previously produced by a partnership between UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Stanford. The Alliance now produces and publishes the Connections monthly newsletter to a distribution list of 10K; it includes news of our academic, nonprofit and corporate members and provides a wide perspective on Bay Area global health. 

  • Through the sponsorship of monthly A Shot in the Arm Podcasts, we had a unique opportunity to grow our reach, continue to broadcast timely conversations on global health with pre-eminent thought leaders and amplify the work and expertise of our members.

  • The Alliance partnered with Devex to focus on global health innovation news and draw attention to technology’s impact on global health. In April, Devex interviewed Executive Director Sara Anderson on how COVID-19 has been a catalyst for Bay Area collaboration. In December, the Alliance sponsored a Q&A with Andy Pattison, Lead, Digital Channels for WHO, on the new Alliance for Advancing Health Online (AAHO), a collaboration with a consortium funded in part by Alliance members, Merck and Facebook/Meta. See April article here; December article here. 

  • Our website is regularly updated with member news and events. In 2021, we saw a 555% increase in unique visitors and engagement. We also saw significant increases in social media engagement.

We have been incredibly grateful for the participation of our members and the involvement of your leadership teams; you have helped us advance the concept of a global health alliance for the region into a practical reality. We are grateful to be working together to help harness the region’s collective expertise to accelerate and scale impact in global health. 

Looking forward

Looking ahead to 2022, we will continue to host a range of programming that encourages your participation and conversation as the Alliance curates and promotes the significant impact of the Bay Area’s global health community around the world. Some of our goals for the coming year include the following:

  • Continue to build key strategic partnerships to grow program operations, build collaboration opportunities for our members and further the strong organizational foundation we initiated in 2020. 

  • Provide program opportunities (webinars and online activities as needed) to share learnings among members, convene and collaborate on global health challenges and attract new members and partners. 

  • Continue to strengthen the Alliance’s communications channels to amplify, promote and connect our members and events. 

  • Engage the region’s unrivaled tech and digital health (broadly defined) expertise and facilitate partnerships for increased innovation and equity in global health. Help harness technology and engineering talent to accelerate improved health outcomes and increased access to care, especially in low-resourced settings. 

  • Participate (online or in-person as appropriate) and develop networking opportunities for leading conferences, like Devex’s Prescription for Progress, YTH (Youth Tech Health) Conference, CUGH Conference, Global Digital Health Forum, etc. 

We look forward to continuing to catalyze our region, forge partnerships and amplify the impact of our collective response to advancing health innovation and equity.

For further information, please go to our website or contact Sara Anderson, Executive Director, at sara@bayareaglobalhealth.org. Thank you for being part of the Bay Area Global Health Alliance.

Membership (as of December 2021)

Academic

  1. Stanford University Center for Innovation in Global Health

  2. UC Berkeley School of Public Health

  3. UC Davis, One Health Institute

  4. UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences

  5. UC Berkeley Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases (CEND)

  6. University of the Pacific

For-profit

  1. AbbVie

  2. Chevron

  3. Facebook

  4. Gilead Sciences

  5. Global Impact Advisors

  6. Google

  7. Hunuvat Global

  8. L.E.K. Consulting

  9. Mastercard

  10. Merck for Mothers

  11. OmniVis

  12. Pfizer Inc. (new catalytic)

  13. Resonance

  14. Soul Machines

  15. Upswell

  16. Vir Biotechnology

  17. Zenysis

  18. Zipline

NGOs/Nonprofit 

  1. Americares

  2. Antara International

  3. Circles International

  4. Ending Pandemics

  5. Equalize Health (formerly D-Rev)

  6. ETR (YTH) 

  7. Friends of the Global Fight

  8. Global Aids Interfaith Alliance (GAIA)

  9. Global Fund for Women

  10. Global Health Corps

  11. Hesperian Health Guides

  12. Hopelab

  13. IDEO.org

  14. Ipas

  15. J F Kapnek Trust

  16. JSI Research & Training Institute

  17. Medicines360

  18. MedShare

  19. PATH

  20. Pathfinder International 

  21. Population Services International, PSI

  22. Public Health Institute

  23. PRC

  24. ReSurge International

  25. Sabin Vaccine Institute

  26. San Francisco Community Health Center

  27. Seed Global Health 

  28. Tiba Foundation

  29. UNICEF USA

  30. Watsi

Public Sector

  1. UK Science & Innovation Network

Sister Alliances

  1. Consortium of Universities for Global Health 

  2. Georgia Global Health Alliance

  3. Global Health Council

  4. Triangle Global Health Consortium

  5. UC Global Health Institute (UCGHI)

  6. Washington Global Health Alliance

2021 Events 

  1. Annual Member Meeting (Multiple members)

  2. Devex P4P (Multiple members)

  3. Advancing Global Health Initiatives with Technology (UCB Haas, IDEO, PATH, Google+)

  4. Devex P4P Maternity Matters (Merck for Mothers, WHO, Gates+)

  5. HCD ASRH Webinar (IDEO, JSI and Medicines360)

  6. Tech Convening (with Google, Facebook++, closed-door discussion)

  7. Global Health Innovation Financing (Equalize Health for Bay Area Global Health Innovation Challenge)

  8. Bay Area Global Health Innovation Challenge (Multiple members)

  9. Two Countries, One Border: COVID and the Future of Pandemic Prevention in Mexico and the United States (UCSF, WHO Independent Panel reports)

  10. India Emergency Briefing (Stanford, PATH+)

  11. Mental Health (Chevron, Americares, Facebook)

  12. Zipline Virtual Tour (Zipline)

  13. India Emergency Briefing #2 (San Francisco Community Health Center, LBGTQ groups)

  14. Policy Briefing, June 8 (Friends of the Global Fight, Georgia Global Health Alliance)

  15. Private Sector Approaches to Tackling Global Health Challenges: A Fireside Chat (Medicines360, PSI)

  16. Leveraging Technology to Scale Outcomes in Global Health (with Resonance’s Inclusive Innovation Exchange, Mastercard, Zenysis)

  17. Building COVID-19 Confidence Through Social Media Campaigns ( PSI, Facebook, UNICEF, and CARE)

  18. YTH Global Live: The Power of Social Media to Strengthen Vaccine Confidence and Shape Health Behaviors (Facebook, Alliance for Advancing Health Online, Girl Effect)

  19. Policy Briefing with Global Health Council's President and CEO Elisha Dunn-Georgiou (Global Health Council, Georgia Global Health Alliance, Washington Global Health Alliance, Triangle Global Health Alliance)

  20. WHO Chatbots Conference (PATH, Stanford, UNICEF and BAGHA)

  21. Content Strategy for Social Media Workshop (Upswell)

  22. Insights Dialogue Launch Event (Sabin Vaccine Institute, Alliance for Advancing Health Online)

  23. Global Digital Health Forum Closing Plenary [Dec 8] (Alliance for Advancing Health Online, WHO Digital, The Rockefeller Foundation, WHO Nigeria, Sabin Vaccine Institute)

 

Key Communications Links

Bay Area Global Health Alliance