Nyaya Health’s Mark Arnoldy on Results-Driven Culture & Partners in Health’s Donna Barry on NCDs
by Bianca Nguyen on September 3, 2011
Colleen Bell, 2011 Chapter Founder, Whitman College
Day 4: Reflections from Day 4, September 3 | The Dialogue Continues
As you can guess, today was filled with still more amazing speakers and talks. A few comments and quotes that stuck out to me:
Mark Arnoldy, Executive Director of Nyaya Health: Building a Results Driven Chapter Culture. Along with enormous amounts of great advice on how to create a positive and productive chapter culture, Mark left us with a great quote:
- "The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day." - David Foster Wallace
When DFW writes about this idea of freedom in his book, This is Water, he discusses how no matter what you do, at some point your life may seem like a series of "banal platitudes." It's up to you to decide how to actively think about things and consider the opportunities in your day-to-day life. You have the freedom to choose how to view the world.
Maya Cohen and Alyssa Smaldino, Executive Director and Program Director of GlobeMed. Through many training sessions and small group conversations throughout the LI, Maya and Alyssa left us with their invaluable experience and ideas, both from their tenure as GlobeMed Co-President's at Columbia and George Washington, and their time at the National Office. They discussed our need as a collective group to take more data from measurable projects. A great quote:
"Stories are data with a soul."
To me, this underlines the importance of not only straight facts and numbers, which are a great way to show to others the work that our chapters are doing, but also the fact that we are working with real people here. We have a uniquely important experience and opportunity to share with others the truly personal and multifaceted nature of working with grassroots organizations towards global health equity. Sharing these experiences, this "data with a soul," with others is crucial.
Donna Barry, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Partners in Health: The Role of Students in the NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases) Movement. I was expecting a lot fromm Donna's speech considering how much we all revere Partners in Health, but I was still blown away by her insight, grace and humility. Her quotes, explaining the PIH model:
"But we've never done that before."
"Well, that's what we're gonna need to do." -PIH
"We don't have an operating room."
"Build one." -PIH
Donna also said, "We need people who fundamentally believe that the inequities in the world today are not the way it's supposed to be."
She cited an example when looking at the statistics of the amount of money spent on makeup and ice cream. "I'm not saying that no one can have ice cream and no one can wear mascara, I'm just saying ‘Where are our priorities?'"
Last, but most certainly not least: Jon Shaffer, former GlobeMed ED - Closing Keynote. At the closing dinner, some of the National Office spoke, commending Jon on his time as Executive Director of GlobeMed. Some of the other new chapters founders and I were lucky enough to get to sit by Jon at dinner and get to know him a bit. We were all in complete agreement that he has an amazing personality and demonstrates how much he cares in just a short time talking with him. In Jon's closing speech he summed up his time at GlobeMed by saying:
"This has been the most incredible experience of my entire life."
And there you have it. Here's to the journey that chapters new and old are about to embark on!
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