Influential Woman · Academia

Sherri Bucher

Department Chair, Community and Global Health, Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health

Indianapolis, IN

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Neuroscience training Degree Global health research training Member American Academy of Pediatrics

Her Story

About Sherri

I work in global health with a specialty in health system strengthening and implementation science for maternal and newborn health, especially in underserved regions and communities around the world. I was originally trained as a neuroscientist and worked in that field for about a year before taking time off to raise two of my older children - I have four children total. When I transitioned back into the professional workforce, I retrained as a global health researcher and expert, and that's what I've been doing for the past 21 years since 2005. I was drawn to this field because while I love research, bench research doesn't have the really immediate impacts - it's very rewarding to see the immediate impact of your work in helping make people healthier and happier. In academia, I wear three different hats: I serve as chair of my department of community and global health at the Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University, where I help build and strengthen research capacity, educational capacity, and practice implementation capacity. As a faculty member, I have lots of international partnerships, working primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Kenya and East Africa, as well as in India - regions that underlie 98% of maternal and newborn mortality in the world. I'm also an educator, teaching classes and mentoring students across the pipeline including undergraduates, master's students, PhD students, medical students, and nursing students in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work. My third hat is as an advocate and technical advisor, working with individuals and organizations around the world to help them understand how to implement life-saving, evidence-based interventions in their particular context or setting so that it will be successful.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Sherri

01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

It's a marathon, not a sprint, and I think persistence and determination are the most important factors in a career like this. Just like Mr. Rogers used to say, you have to find the helpers - you have to find your allies, you have to find your champions, you have to find your partners, and you have to align with them around the same North Star mission. This work does not happen by punctuated engagement - it requires long-term, consistent engagement. There's no silver bullet, so you may not immediately stumble onto one single thing that moves the needle. You have to be able to have persistence and determination and alignment around that mission, and then you also have to be able to navigate very complex situations and understand that some things are in your control, and some things are not. You can't force things. I tell my medical and nursing students when we go to Africa together that I know you have passion, I know you have the best of intentions, I know that you want to go change the world, but that ain't gonna happen on this two-week trip. Your job is not to change the world - your job is to look and listen and absorb. That can be very, very hard for extremely passionate people who are motivated and destroyed by high levels of preventable death. To be successful in this field, you have to remain motivated by the unacceptability of preventable death, but you cannot let it swallow you. It's steady as she goes in this line of work.

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