Her Story
About Melanie
I originally thought I was going to be a medical doctor - that's what my Namibian parents expected, like most African or Caribbean families expect their children to become doctors, engineers, or lawyers. But when I moved to the U.S. from Namibia for college and started working in healthcare and patient care to support myself, I realized I wanted to help people in a different way - not as a medical professional, but in the space of public service and preventative care. I changed my major three times, from biochemistry to molecular biology, before finally landing on health science with a minor in biology at Chestnut Hill College, since they didn't have a public health program at the time. I felt that medicine was already flooded with enough hands, but we weren't focusing on all the other aspects of a person's well-being - mental health, advocating for Medicare changes, and access to healthcare. Now, as a Research and Global Health Manager at the GBS-CIDP Foundation International, I've been working for about a year with this international organization that focuses on rare neuromuscular conditions. My typical day involves connecting patients to clinical trials, recruiting patients for advisory boards to ensure their voices shape the research, and working on advocacy efforts like our upcoming Hill Day. On the global health side, I'm focusing on expanding our efforts in African countries, trying to assist them with advocacy, send pharma resources, and improve access to medical care for very underserved populations. I'm currently pursuing my Master's in Public Health at Westchester, and I think I'm finally finding my own identity in this work, especially with the African program, since I'm African as well.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Melanie
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think my advice would be to always have at your core, no matter what the challenge is, if your heart is about servicing people - because nonprofit is about service, being a servant full of service workers - keep that as your driving force. That's what's going to be the motivator, that's going to be that arrow that shoots straight, because you're always coming back to: who am I servicing? What is the purpose? So find your purpose in that, and don't deviate from that. You can get discouraged at times, but when you are affirmed and you are assertive with your purpose, you'll be okay. That's the best thing I can actually say.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the challenges I'm facing right now in my industry - before, I had challenges just getting ahead, just being a woman of color. There's that part of you that you want to be bold and assertive, but then that's taken a certain kind of way. That's more on a personal aspect. But with my current company, my CEO is a woman, and there's a lot of encouragement and support to help me grow as an individual and as a professional, so I'm very grateful for where I am right now. For future challenges, honestly, what I can see has to do with how I'm going to navigate this global space for our industry and for our patients. It's going to get harder as industry gets greedier and it's all about money. Even though it seems like it could be easier, we could make it easier, we're always going to go through these loopholes, whether it's political or other factors. Those are the things that we're going to end up facing, that we're kind of facing right now, because everything is just changing.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Pennsylvania
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.