Urusha Maharjan and Laura Herget, the Youth Coordinators for Women in Global Health (WGH) Norway led a one-hour webinar for students and young professionals on Oct 12, 2022, entitled, Women Leadership within Global Health Research with Prof. Andrea S. Winkler.
During the engaging virtual event, Prof. Andrea S. Winkler, a trained neurologist, Co-Director of the Centre for Global Health at the Technical University of Munich, and Co-chair of The Lancet One Health Commission hosted by the Centre for Global Health at the University of Oslo, discussed women leadership and advice for young people in the global health research sphere. Along with the discussion, questions from the attendees were posed to Andrea on leadership and career guidance. Further details of the event can be found here.
While sharing her personal journey and using insights from her experience with global health leadership, she discussed the importance of mentorship, interdisciplinary, and good leadership in today's era. She shared some of her ideas of good leadership: being context specific, remain authentic, have principles, be clear in communication, authentic communication, combination of being capable of working horizontally, want the team to be extended family, and establish vertical structures. In addition, Andrea also discussed the challenges she has faced as a woman throughout her career, and some of the obstacles women around the globe go through in their career journey.
When asked about advice and guidance to offer students and young professionals starting their career in global health, she shared the following:
- Be patient, do not hurry and expect rapid result
- Focus on your degree and finish what you start
- Experiment with different roles and explore outside academia e.g., INGOs.
- Maintain balance in both personal and professional life
- Build networks
- Choose a discipline
- Explore your interest before going for the PhD
- Learn to deliver, maneuver supervisors, navigate systems and learn more about the topic while pursuing the PhD degree
- Commit to global research
Previous Inspiration Series
- On March 30, 2022, WGH Norway hosted its first webinar part of the Inspiration Series with guest speaker, Kari Krogstad. Read a short recap of the event and/or watch the available recording here.
- On May 4, 2022, WGH Norway welcomed Bente Mikkelsen for its second webinar part of the Inspiration Series. Read the short recap of the event and/or watch the available recording here.