Our People .
Senior Vice President, Global Health Julie Becker
Julie Becker is currently the senior vice president of Chemonics’ Global Health Division where she leads the division’s strategy and growth and its work in health systems strengthening, HIV, malaria and private sector engagement, among other areas. Julie has more than 30 years of global health experience in the nonprofit and private sectors, and has worked on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the US. Prior to Chemonics, she served as an executive vice president at Rabin Martin, where she led the firm’s program practice and vaccine work, primarily supporting private sector companies and the Gates Foundation. She also directed a team leading the design of a portfolio of investments for Merck for Mothers, a large-scale corporate responsibility initiative to reduce the burden of maternal mortality around the world. Earlier in her career, she led vaccine preparedness across five countries for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and a portfolio of innovative country and global programs to integrate HIV and family planning/maternal health at EngenderHealth and IPPF. Julie has a Sc.M. in public health, behavioral science from the Harvard School of Public Health.
by Julie Becker
Beyond Bed Nets: How Gender Integration Can Improve Malaria Control
For years, Marthe Ilunga relied on insecticides and nightly mosquito hunting to keep her children from coming down with malaria in her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). But success was limited: two of her three children had recurrent fevers, requiring Marthe to regularly seek care for them at the Dilala Health Center…
Part 2: How Can We Optimize the Health Workforce During COVID-19 and Beyond?
In this two-part series, we call for country leaders to consider whether they are optimizing their health workforce and offer some resources and tools to help ensure uninterrupted care and continued provision of high-quality health services. In Part 1, we provided three recommendations to support health workers in the short term. We now consider sustainable…
Part 1: How Can We Optimize the Health Workforce During COVID-19 and Beyond?
Before COVID-19, health workers were already in short supply in many countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified 57 countries that have critical health workforce shortages, and it estimates a global health worker shortage of 18 million by 2030, primarily in low- and middle-income countries. Since the pandemic began, health workers have often been pulled…
Mitigating Hesitancy Key to COVID-19 Vaccine Readiness
Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective public health interventions, saving millions of lives each year. They are our best chance of eradicating COVID-19, which has had one of this century’s most devastating impacts on humankind, with high death tolls and major disruptions to economies and everyday life. Vaccines historically take years to develop, requiring…
Tragic but Not Unique: Maternal Death in a Rural Clinic
At 1 a.m., Winnie, the midwife at a small health clinic in a rural town in Uganda, was startled awake when the security guard from the clinic pounded on her door—a woman had arrived in labor. When Winnie arrived at the facility, she was surprised to see Clara, a young woman expecting her first baby…
In Focus: 3 Questions with Julie Becker on Chemonics International’s Global Health Division
This interview with Global Health Council's InFocus newsletter for September 2021 provides an overview of Julie Becker's background, and her vision for Chemonics International Global Health Division.