SwitchPoint Advisory Council member Roya Mahboob presents at SwitchPoint 2017. Photo by IntraHealth International.

IntraHealth International announces its inaugural SwitchPoint Advisory Council, which brings together leading experts from a mix of backgrounds and sectors to guide SwitchPoint—IntraHealth’s signature annual event and ongoing collaborative platform. Council members, listed below, will serve two-year terms and meet six times per year to advise on SwitchPoint themes and discuss partnership opportunities for social good.

IntraHealth, a global health organization active in 36 countries, launched SwitchPoint in 2012 to highlight and inspire multisector creativity, partnership and action across a wide range of social and health issues.

“SwitchPoint has evolved into a movement where organizations and individuals across sectors come together on an ongoing basis to connect and create initiatives that drive meaningful progress for humanitarian innovation and global health,” explains senior advisor for strategic partnerships at IntraHealth Heather LaGarde. “In fact, one of the first collaborations hatched at SwitchPoint and supported in part by PBS culminated in young people in Ethiopia learning about mixing beats and writing their own songs while advocating for better reproductive health care.”

“We are seeing an increasing number of creative partnerships and collaborative work in our field," says Pape Gaye, IntraHealth’s president and CEO. “Our SwitchPoint council members will help us optimize opportunities and build a community committed to solving some of the world’s most complex challenges.”

The 12 members of the SwitchPoint Advisory Council are:

• Paurvi Bhatt, senior director for global access at Medtronic Philanthropy
• Phaedra Boinodiris, Blockchain design strategist, IBM
• Michael Bzdak, executive director, global community impact team, Johnson & Johnson
• Jessica Colaço, TED Fellow and co-founder of Brave Venture Labs
• Tim Gabel, executive vice president of social, statistical and environmental sciences, RTI International
• Rebecca Kohler, senior vice president of corporate strategy and development, IntraHealth International
• Marissa Leffler, innovation team leader, Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Roya Mahboob, president and chief executive officer, Digital Citizen Fund
• Doug McLean, vice president of partnerships, DAI
• Eric Porterfield, consumer communications manager for social good, Facebook
• Karim Sy, founder and chief catalyst of Senegal’s Jokkolabs
• Asha Varghese, director of global health, GE Foundation

A photo gallery of council members from prior SwitchPoint events is available here.

Council members will infuse SwitchPoint with the latest trends in technology and global health and development; advise on how to meet the needs of the growing SwitchPoint community; strengthen the SwitchPoint community’s network of individuals across diverse disciplines and cultures; and seek partnerships and funding that translate ideas into action.

“The unique talents of our SwitchPoint Advisory Council members represent the future of successful global health and development efforts and the spirit of SwitchPoint,” says Rebecca Kohler, senior vice president at IntraHealth International. “How can we best bring together ideas and inspiration from technologists, social entrepreneurs, donors, development practitioners, and many more in a way that that advances global health and development progress? We intend to find out.”

The seventh annual SwitchPoint event is taking place April 26-27 in Saxapahaw, North Carolina. Registration information is available at www.switchpointideas.com.