Introduction
WomenLift Health is a global leadership development organisation working to increase the power and influence of women in health. It supports women leaders embedded within ministries, hospitals, universities, research institutions, nonprofit organisations and other bodies that shape health systems.
The organisation combines leadership development, mentoring, professional networks, institutional partnerships and evidence generation. Its central belief is that health systems become stronger, more inclusive and more responsive when women have meaningful authority in decision-making.
WomenLift Health works across Africa, South Asia and North America. Its programmes support women at individual, institutional and societal levels, helping participants influence health policies, organisational practices, research priorities and service delivery.
History and Background
WomenLift Health grew out of the Women Leaders in Global Health conferences, which began in 2017. The first conference was hosted by Stanford University, followed by events at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2018 and the University of Global Health Equity in 2019.
In 2019, WomenLift Health was formally established with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The programme was initially incubated by the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University.
Its early strategy focused on developing scalable leadership platforms and establishing regional implementation hubs. Initial geographic priorities included India, East Africa and the United States.
WomenLift Health later transitioned from Stanford University to the New Venture Fund platform. Since then, it has expanded its regional presence, developed additional Leadership Journeys and built a global network of women working across health disciplines.
Mission and Purpose
WomenLift Health’s mission is to expand the power and influence of talented women in global health and catalyse systemic change toward gender equality in leadership.
Its vision is a world in which diverse and accomplished leaders collectively transform global health outcomes. The organisation seeks to address a persistent imbalance: women account for more than 70 percent of the global health workforce but hold fewer than 25 percent of senior leadership positions.
WomenLift Health argues that this gap is not caused by a shortage of capable women. Instead, women often encounter institutional, cultural and structural barriers that limit access to leadership opportunities, professional networks and influential decision-making spaces.
The organisation therefore invests in both individual leadership and collective action. Participants build confidence, strategic communication skills and professional influence while joining networks capable of changing institutional policies and practices.
Its values emphasise collaborative leadership, trust, accountability, compassion, learning, diversity, bold thinking and evidence-based action that is locally grounded and globally shared.
Governance and Structure
WomenLift Health is a sponsored project of the New Venture Fund. This arrangement provides an institutional platform for financial management, compliance, operations and programme administration.
The organisation was founded by Dr Michele Barry, who played a central role in developing the Women Leaders in Global Health movement and its transition into WomenLift Health.
Amie Batson serves as president of WomenLift Health. She leads its global strategy and organisational growth alongside a senior management team, regional directors, programme specialists and experts in monitoring, evaluation and learning.
Regional hubs adapt programmes to the conditions facing women leaders in their respective health systems. WomenLift Health has operated through hubs and programmes covering East Africa, India, Nigeria, North America and Southern Africa.
The organisation works with external technical partners. The Center for Creative Leadership has supported Leadership Journey curriculum design, while Bixal has contributed to monitoring, evaluation and learning.
WomenLift Health also engages mentors, coaches, advisers and institutional leaders. This network helps participants apply leadership learning to real challenges within their workplaces and communities.
Funding and Grants
WomenLift Health is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and operates as a project of the New Venture Fund. Its funding supports leadership programmes, regional hubs, research, evaluation, conferences and global networking.
WomenLift Health is not primarily an open-call grantmaking foundation. It generally invests in women leaders through fully funded leadership development rather than providing unrestricted research grants or organisational grants.
Its signature Leadership Journey is a fully funded, year-long programme. Selected participants receive leadership training, mentorship, coaching, peer support and access to an international professional network.
Because programme participation is funded, selected women can access high-quality leadership development without paying tuition fees. Application requirements, eligible countries and timelines vary by regional cohort.
Institutional partnerships also contribute to programme delivery. Health organisations may collaborate with WomenLift Health to train staff, strengthen gender-inclusive leadership practices or generate evidence about barriers to women’s advancement.
Prospective applicants should review the organisation’s regional pages for current Leadership Journey calls. Funding availability in one region does not automatically apply to applicants in another country.
Major Programs and Initiatives
The Leadership Journey is WomenLift Health’s flagship programme. It supports mid-career women working in health and helps them develop authentic, inclusive and strategic leadership approaches.
The 12-month experience combines virtual learning, in-person activities, coaching, mentoring and peer engagement. Participants examine their leadership identities, identify barriers to advancement and develop strategies for increasing their influence.
Each participant develops an individual leadership project connected to a real challenge within her organisation or health system. These projects allow Fellows to apply their learning to policy, research, workplace culture, healthcare delivery or community needs.
After completing the programme, participants become Global Fellows and join a continuing professional network. This community provides opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange and collective action across institutions and countries.
WomenLift Health also delivers institutional training and shorter leadership workshops. These activities allow health organisations to strengthen leadership capacity among larger groups of employees and examine their internal policies and practices.
The organisation produces research, evaluation reports and stakeholder analyses concerning women’s leadership in health. This evidence supports advocacy and helps institutions understand the changes needed to build more inclusive workplaces.
Global and regional conferences provide spaces for leaders to discuss gender equality, healthcare, policy and organisational transformation. The 2024 WomenLift Health Global Conference in Dar es Salaam attracted more than 1,100 participants from 41 countries.
Impact and Examples of Work Funded
Since 2019, WomenLift Health has equipped more than 4,400 women across 20 countries through its Leadership Journey, institutional training and workshops.
By June 2025, its year-long Leadership Journey had reached 891 women, including 651 Global Fellows and 240 women enrolled in active cohorts. More than 2,500 additional participants had joined other leadership development programmes.
WomenLift Fellows work across more than 400 influential institutions, including government ministries, hospitals, universities, research bodies, international organisations and social enterprises.
Evaluation findings indicate improvements in participants’ confidence, professional networks, leadership identity, visibility and ability to influence decisions. These individual outcomes can create wider changes when Fellows introduce new policies, redirect organisational resources or improve health programmes.
Examples include leadership supporting respectful maternity care in India and expanded cervical cancer screening in South Sudan. Fellows have also worked on workplace safety, menstrual health, research performance and gender-inclusive institutional policies.
In India, WomenLift Health convened public-health institutions to generate locally relevant evidence about transformative leadership and gender inclusion. The initiative encouraged organisations to consider women’s leadership as a core institutional strategy rather than an isolated diversity activity.
WomenLift Health aims to expand its leadership programmes to reach 10,000 women by 2030. It also plans to strengthen the Global Fellows network, deepen institutional partnerships and build stronger evidence about the relationship between women’s leadership and health outcomes.
Conclusion
WomenLift Health addresses one of global health’s most persistent inequalities: the underrepresentation of women in senior leadership despite their dominant presence in the health workforce.
Its model goes beyond conventional professional training. By combining leadership development, mentoring, coaching, institutional partnerships and sustained global networks, the organisation helps women influence the systems in which they already work.
WomenLift Health does not primarily provide open research grants or general nonprofit funding. Its main investment is a fully funded leadership-development pathway for selected women in health, supported by evidence generation and institutional engagement.
As its network expands, WomenLift Health has the potential to influence healthcare policies, organisational cultures and resource decisions across multiple countries. Its long-term impact will depend on converting stronger individual leadership into lasting institutional and health-system change.
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