Alumni Speaker Luisa Ferrari: Expanding the Pathways of Global Health
During last week’s Conversations in Health: Global to Local class, we had the pleasure of listening to Luisa Ferrari (NHS’20, L’26), a Georgetown University alumna. Throughout her career journey, she emphasized that contributing to global health does not require becoming a physician. Instead, her experiences highlighted how policy, law, and governance play essential roles in shaping health outcomes at both national and global levels.
Ferrari started by talking about her academic journey, which was influenced by her two physician parents, leading her to begin at Georgetown on the pre-med track. At a young age, she was exposed to global health, spending her summers in Tanzania. After changing paths from the pre-med track into global health, she was fortunate to secure a spot at the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in the Republic of Congo.
During her time there, Ferrari emphasized the complexities of working in different global health settings, including countries with restrictive environments such as Eritrea. This experience was really eye-opening, as it showed that working on global health projects requires professionals to balance their commitment to improving health with awareness of political sensitivities and personal safety. Her experiences reinforced that global health is interconnected with law, policy, and international relations.
In addition to working at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, she was able to build a career on Capitol Hill, where her passion for policy flourished, and she was able to help translate science into action. While scientific research generates knowledge, policy determines how that knowledge is implemented, funded, and communicated to the public.
One of the most important highlights of her story was the way she balanced the opportunities and challenges of working in global health, particularly in public institutions. During her time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she had the opportunity to work during COVID-19, which taught her valuable lessons about navigating a pandemic, especially during a time of widespread misinformation and declining public trust. She emphasized how misinformation can weaken public health responses and create barriers to effective interventions. This highlighted that working in global health is not only about producing accurate research but also about navigating political, social, and communication challenges.
In addition to a successful career, Ferrari is currently finishing law school, where she aspires to work in the private sector, once more breaking barriers that global health can only exist within the public sector.
As a current master of global health student, I found Ferrari’s journey both reassuring and inspiring. Her story demonstrated that career paths in global health are not linear, and success comes from putting yourself out there and being open to unexpected opportunities. Being in a similar early-career stage, I resonated with her story and was able to expand my understanding of what it means to work in global health, and it reminded me that meaningful contributions can take many forms. Overall, the biggest takeaway was that this career pathway requires diverse skill sets, adaptability, and a commitment to serving communities in complex and evolving environments.
Rebeca Soares Demeterco (G’27) is a graduate student studying global health at Georgetown University.