The Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health is now accepting applications for the Global Health Leadership Accelerator, taking place at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD, from September 16 to 27, 2019.

The Leadership Accelerator is the second generation of the acclaimed Gates Institute Summer Institute in Reproductive Health and Development, which trained close to 600 mid-career professionals from 71 countries in two- to three-week courses between 1999 and 2014. Attendees hailed from academia, research centers, donors, governments, and NGOs, and were selected for their promise as leaders in global health. Graduates of the Summer Institutes have become government ministers, policy leaders, CEOs of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), parliamentarians, leading researchers and advocates, and even a head of state.

The new Leadership Accelerator will engage mid-career policy-makers, program managers, advocates and academicians who exhibit exceptional promise and potential for leadership and achievement in global health.

Overview

The two-week Global Health Leadership Accelerator will impart innovative approaches to leadership, program management, policy analysis, strategic planning, communications, advocacy and organizational change. Through dynamic discussions and hands-on exercises, participants will learn new skills, apply them to real-world examples and reflect on what they’ve learned.

The discussion-based course will be led by the following:

• Henry Mosley, MD, MPH – Professor Emeritus, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, JHSPH
• Ben Lozare, PhD – Director, Training and Capacity Building, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs
• Robert Blum, MD, MPH, PhD – Director, Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, and Professor, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, JHSPH
• Jose Rimon II, MA, PgDip – Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Institute, and Senior Scientist, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, JHSPH
• Arzum Ciloglu, MPH, DrPH – Technical Lead, Family Planning, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs
• Linda Dillon Jones, PhD – Senior Faculty Development Associate, Johns Hopkins Medicine

(Drs. Mosley and Lozare and Mr. Rimon are the architects and instructors of the much-lauded Strategic Leadership for Health System Transformation course at Hopkins.)

In addition to participating in group instruction, students will collaborate in small groups and create and deliver presentations.

Complementing the instruction will be a series of Powerful Conversations, featuring eminent figures in public health who have effected transformational change.

Who is the Leadership Accelerator for?

• Mid-career professionals
• Development professionals from civil societies
• Government and project leaders
• Global public health program officers and managers
• Staff of multilateral, bilateral and private philanthropic organizations
• Leaders of youth organizations

At the end of the two weeks, participants will have grown from accomplished individuals into effective team leaders who can address complex challenges and maximize opportunities.

Participants will return to their organizations and home countries with new leadership, advocacy and communication skills that will enable them to make positive, transformative change and contribute at a higher level to advancing global health.

Specifically, students will be able to:

• Recognize the importance of self-reflection to clarify one’s values and purpose in life, and understand how one’s mindset (world mental models) shapes the reality that one observes
• Describe the underlying relationships and deeper patterns that shape it, and identify leverage points for change
• Engage stakeholders at every level in coalitions to generate a shared vision of a better future
• Build committed action-learning teams based on shared goals and values, mutual respect, and a willingness to take risks and learn from mistakes
• Negotiate conflict, accepting differences, but taking actions from which all sides can learn and benefit
• Create organizations with a climate of trust, transparency, mutual cooperation and a desire to learn continuously
• Realize that leaders are critical at all levels
• Communicate effectively by holding conversations focused on outcomes, balancing advocacy with inquiry, and clarifying assumptions, beliefs and feelings within oneself and others

Application Details

Application deadline: June 10, 2019

Access the application form here.

A PDF of the application can be downloaded here as a preview.

Tuition for the Leadership Accelerator is $5,000. Upon acceptance to the Leadership Accelerator, a nonrefundable deposit of $500 will be due on July 2. The total cost to attend, including tuition, accommodations (rooms have been reserved at a hotel within two blocks of the School of Public Health) and incidentals, is estimated at about $9,500.