Hear from Americares President and CEO Christine Squires as she makes a case for health equity as a top global concern. Squires has over 20 years of experience championing humanitarian causes in senior leadership positions within the nonprofit sector.
Keynote Speaker J. Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH, FAAFP, Chief Health Equity Officer and VP, Humana
Americares believes health equity is achieved when every person has a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest life possible, no matter who they are, where they live or their socioeconomic status. At the Summit, Americares partners and supporters will gather to hear experts from leading organizations share what’s working now and investigate what’s needed for a more equitable future. Dr. J. Nwando Olayiwola and our Health Equity Panel will explore the absence of equity as a prime driver of health disparities.
Gaps in mental health are costly for individuals and for society. Our Mental Health Panel, to be moderated by CNN Anchor and National Correspondent Erica Hill, will discuss innovations—including those in extremely challenging environments—that can serve as models for what mental health care can look like everywhere
Medicine security means that every clinic, health worker and patient around the world would have reliable, equitable access to the medicines and supplies they need to achieve good health. Our Medicine Security Panel will discuss how equity must be built into medicine accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability.
The health of people around the world is threatened by climate change and its effects. Our Climate Equity and Resilience Panel will discuss how climate change puts pressure on communities already at risk of poor health because of poverty, neglect and discrimination—and how smart actions now can protect people for decades.
With a special appearance by National Climate Advisor With a special appearance by National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy.
Samuel Akuffo is the Country Operations lead for Zipline’s operations in Ghana, leading the Health and Fulfillment Operations teams across all the Zipline distribution centres in Ghana. In this role he provides the direction and guidance in Operational excellence, stakeholder management, customer experience and people management, for the Operations teams as they implement Ziplne’s global strategy of using aerial logistics to increase access to vital medical products across Ghana, especially in areas that are very hard to reach.
Prior to Zipline, he worked with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as a Medical Representative and Deputy QPPV, where he drove access to key respiratory medications and anti-infectives within multiple territories in Ghana.
And therefore,cumulatively, he has spent 7 years in his career driving initiatives that have led to improved access. He is a pharmacist by Profession and earned his Bachelor of Pharmacy from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and further developed his interest in process improvement and operational excellence with an MBA in Total Quality Management from the University of Professional Studies in Accra.
He lives in Accra, Ghana with his Wife and a daughter. He loves to play basketball and is an avid follower of the NBA.
Medicine Security Panel 11/03 at 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM
Ms. Benjamin is Senior Director, Social Impact and President of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation. Ms. Benjamin joined Eli Lilly and Company in 2013. In her current role, she manages the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts, disaster relief efforts, global health initiatives, Environmental, Social and Governance strategy, and community civic engagement. In 2020, she led the company’s global philanthropic efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as its philanthropic efforts to address racial inequity in the United States. Prior to this role, she served in various roles within the legal function, including Senior Director, Litigation and Legal Compliance; Assistant General Counsel, Assistant Corporate Secretary; and anti-corruption counsel and legal counsel on the company’s privileged internal investigation process.
Prior to joining Lilly, Ms. Benjamin served as Senior Investigative Counsel for the Democratic Staff of U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, working on investigations into national matters including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Wal-Mart Mexico bribery allegations, the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak and supporting passage of the Affordable Care Act. Before joining the Committee, she worked as an attorney in the D.C. office of King and Spalding, as a member of its Special Matters team, handling white collar matters and government investigations.
Ms. Benjamin has a law degree from Harvard Law School and an undergraduate degree in Journalism and Political Science from Indiana University.
Ms. Benjamin was the recipient of the 2021 Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Young Alumni Award. She serves on the Board of Visit Indy, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, the 2024 NBA All Star Game Committee, and the Kennedy King Memorial Initiative.
She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, three children, and a rambunctious flat-coated retriever.
Health Equity Keynote and Panel11/03 at 2:15 PM – 2:50 PM
Aaron Bernstein is the Interim Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE), a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bernstein focuses on the health impacts of the climate crisis on children’s health and advancing solutions to address its causes to improve the health and wellbeing of children around the world.
Dr. Bernstein regularly testifies before Congress on the child health impacts of climate change, drawing from his personal experience as a pediatrician having to treat children with breathing difficulties, vector-borne diseases, and trauma from natural disasters. He is a trusted voice for major news outlets, providing interviews and expertise to reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, CNN, and The Guardian, and writing articles for the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, and the Boston Globe, among others.
With Nobel Laureate Dr. Eric Chivian, Dr. Bernstein co-authored and co-edited the Oxford University Press book, Sustaining Life, which received the distinction of best biology book of 2008 from the Library Journal, and which has been published in several foreign language editions.
Dr. Bernstein leads Climate MD, a Harvard Chan C-CHANGE program to encourage physicians to transform climate change from an issue dominated by politics and concerns about the future or faraway places, to one that matters to every person’s health here and now. He is the course director for Human Health and Global Environmental Change and created the HarvardX course “The Health Effects of Climate Change” which explores how climate change influences health through its effects on air quality, nutrition, infectious diseases, and human migration as well as solutions to the climate crisis. Through this course, thousands of students from over 100 countries have learned how climate change directly impacts their lives, and what they can do to become part of the solution.
In 2015, he was awarded a Lokey-Businesswire visiting professorship at Stanford University and has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University. Dr. Bernstein has been a member of the Harvard President’s Climate Change Task Force and co-Chairs the University Food Standards Committee.
He serves on the External Advisory Board of the Dalio Center for Health Justice at New York Presbyterian Hospital, is Chair of the Board of Directors at the U.S. Green Building Council, and is on the Board of Advisors at Parents Magazine as an environmental health specialist. Previously, Dr. Bernstein served on the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Environmental Health Executive Committee as well as the Board of Scientific Counselors to the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, he received graduate degrees in medicine (MD) and public health (MPH), from the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively. He is a recipient of Stanford University’s Firestone Medal for Research and a Harvard University Zuckerman Fellowship.
An avid bicyclist, Dr. Bernstein pedals to and from work year-round.
Climate Equity and Resilience Panel 11/03 at 5:00 PM – 5:45 PM
