A Conversation with Ambassador Jimmy Kolker: Global Health Diplomacy
By Shreya Arora (H'24)
On February 7, 2023, Georgetown University’s Conversations in Health: Global to Local course welcomed Ambassador Jimmy Kolker to engage in a meaningful discussion on his career path and the field of global health diplomacy. Ambassador Kolker had a distinguished 30-year diplomatic career in the U.S. State Department, serving as the ambassador to Burkina Faso from 1999 to 2002 and to Uganda from 2002 to 2005. He then led the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) between 2002 and 2005 and the HIV/AIDS program at UNICEF between 2007 and 2011. In 2017, Ambassador Kolker retired from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) after serving as the assistant secretary for global affairs, where he represented the United States at the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Ambassador Kolker’s experience working at multilateral institutions and the federal government through various health emergencies—including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Ebola virus epidemic, and the H1N1 swine flu pandemic—brought a nuanced and unique perspective to the conversation.
When describing his career path, Ambassador Kolker encouraged students to be open to “jobs that do not exist yet.” In college, he was able to take a wide variety of liberal arts courses, and after graduating, he traveled to Sub-Saharan Africa, which sparked his interest in international affairs. However, Ambassador Kolker unexpectedly entered the global health arena in 2003 when President Bush announced the launch of PEPFAR and he became the leader of the largest AIDS program in the world, as Uganda was meant to be PEPFAR’s “showpiece.” As a global health major who has studied advanced HIV disease in South Africa and volunteered in Uganda, I was especially interested to learn of Ambassador Kolker’s advice on mobilizing an energetic and strong coalition to implement PEPFAR’s activities. Speaking from his experience with PEPFAR, Ambassador Kolker stressed the value of his analytical and diplomatic skills when building a coalition, as well as leveraging his country-specific knowledge to ensure tangible results during the initial stages of PEPFAR. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of collaborating with local stakeholders and being flexible when implementing an important and wide-reaching health initiative such as PEPFAR.
Given Ambassador Kolker’s experience at HHS and their increasing global presence, I asked him for his opinion on creating a foreign health service to meet the demands of pressing health issues and emergencies. I was interested to learn that Ambassador Kolker disagreed with creating a foreign “health” service, as the effect of various health specialists in collaboration with foreign service officers is inherently more powerful than creating a set of general foreign health officers. In addition, diplomats can benefit from the work and insights of scientists and vice versa. Thus, in his opinion creating a foreign health service may disrupt this relationship and potentially cause more harm than good.
Finally, we concluded our discussion on the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the role of global health diplomacy in preventing and dealing with transnational health emergencies. Ambassador Kolker expressed skepticism of the United States’ preparedness for the next health emergency as we seem to be heading into an era of “complacency.” During a complex and multifaceted pandemic such as COVID-19, global health practitioners, biomedical scientists, and diplomats can create a force for strong political will and evidence-based policies that advance population health. However, U.S. officials should not enter a new country and expect to gain immediate trust and acceptance from the community; U.S. diplomats and other relevant stakeholders must be prepared to listen and work hand-in-hand with community members to solve critical health issues with an interdisciplinary focus. As the world becomes ever more interconnected, the field of global health diplomacy will become increasingly central to the movement to achieve health equity and advance the health and well-being of populations world-wide.
Shreya Arora (H'24) is an undergraduate student at Georgetown University studying global health on a pre-medical track. She is a student in the Conversations in Health: Global to Local course.