Global Health Institute

As a first-generation college student, thinking about my next professional steps after Georgetown has been daunting. It feels like there are so many opportunities available, yet every opportunity seems out of reach or incompatible. Ms. Natasha Bilimoria, deputy assistant administrator at the Bureau of Global Health at U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), spoke with the Conversations in Global Health students about her current position and shared insight into her career path. Ms. Bilimoria reflected on the knowledge she has acquired throughout her decades-long career in private and public sector institutions such as the Social Security Administration, the White House, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, and Glaser Foundation.

On Tuesday, April 13, Lisa Carty, the director of humanitarian financing and resource mobilization at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) joined the Conversations of Global Health class for an enlightening discussion. She began by sharing the tale of her career, starting at her unemployment following her graduation from Georgetown, something that I, and I’m sure many of my peers, fear about in the future. However, Ms. Carty found a volunteer posting in Southeast Asia, jumped at the opportunity, and found it to be an eye-opening experience. As she told us, that experience defined the rest of her career. Having grown up in New York City and suburban New Jersey, teaching English in a different country opened her eyes to a world of possibilities.