她在美国国际开发署全球健康创新与影响中心担任数字健康高级顾问, Waugaman is bridging the gap between technology and development to better serve health systems and health workers across the globe.
“我在这个职位上学到的很多东西是,你必须了解人们的现状,”她说。. “You have to talk to them about how they are trying to overcome the entrenched global health challenges where they work. 你必须倾听他们的痛点,理解他们想要实现的目标.”
Waugaman will receive the Distinguished 校友 Award Oct. 19 during the 团聚 Celebration Brunch. 该奖项旨在表彰圣. 安德鲁的 alumnus/a who has demonstrated unique or significant accomplishments through professional achievement or social impact.
沃格曼只在圣. 安德鲁的 for two years, but they were eventful ones. The summer after her junior year, Waugaman went on a school-led trip to Honduras, where she stayed with a host family, 练习西班牙语, 和志愿. 这是她第一次来到发展中国家,这段经历激励她去看更多的世界.
“It was absolutely mind-opening,” Waugaman said. “That experience helped give me the confidence and inspired me to take on an experience in college where I studied at an historically non-white university in newly post-apartheid South Africa.”
Waugaman was part of the first group of students to participate in a direct exchange program between Bard College and the University of the Western Cape, 开普敦附近. 纳尔逊·曼德拉当选后不久,她在南非待了一个学期. Waugaman was struck by the “incredible spirit of student activism” and inspired by the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 一项类似法庭的恢复性司法倡议,旨在让种族隔离的受害者发表意见.
“I came back to the States and I felt like something was wrong. 几个月后,我才意识到这次经历改变了我。. “I am not the same person who I was before this experience.”
After graduating from Bard College in 1998, 沃格曼以发展和外联助理的身份加入人权观察. She briefly worked on strategic communications for technology start-ups before returning to human rights work in 2001, 当时她成为国际刑事法院联盟的媒体联络员. 在这个角色中, 她参与了一项运动,通过通信加速建立国际刑事法院, 倡导和能力建设战略促使各国批准创立该法院的条约.
“足够多的政府说,‘好吧,让菠菜网最稳定正规平台这样做,’”沃格曼说. “It was a really exciting time to be there, 当催化时刻发生,指针移动,事情就改变了.”
Waugaman went back to school to earn her Master’s in International Affairs (International Law) with the goal of transitioning to programmatic work. 在担任了两年联合国基金会的通讯主任之后 & Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, the partnership’s senior director position opened up; she applied and got the job.
与沃达丰的合作是她第一次接触技术和发展, setting her up for her role with USAID, 她在哪里制定政策,以指导该机构在卫生部门数字技术方面的投资, 例如在突发卫生事件期间加强信息交流的短信项目.
“The increasing reach of digital technology has been really transformational because a lot of global health programming is built on health data, 如果没有数字技术,就很难及时获得高质量的健康数据,”她说。.
“即使在困难和难以到达的环境中,变化正在到来. How can we think about adapting programs we have now, where there is digital connectivity, 如果你所在的领域还没有数字化,你也可以做好准备? That’s part of our forthcoming guidance, making sure we’re partnering with country 政府 to understand and help support their health sector digitization plan.”
与政府合作, 并努力确保捐助者的投资与国家确定的优先事项和计划保持一致, is a value that Waugaman and others were able to put into writing by creating a set of investment principles to guide how funders, 比如美国国际开发署和德国的GiZ, invest in digital systems in the health sector. To date more than 30 funders have endorsed those principles. She cites this work as one of her proudest accomplishments.
“The creation of those principles, 这是一个瞬间, when the donors came together and said, “菠菜网最稳定正规平台听到了。, 政府. 菠菜网最稳定正规平台希望以正确的方式做事,这就是菠菜网最稳定正规平台要做的不同之处,”沃格曼说. “Anytime you’re trying to create systemic change, it’s hard. 你要求人们失去一些东西,所以你必须向他们展示好处是什么.”
For Waugaman, it’s the people she works with, in Washington, D.C.以及世界各地激励她做出改变的人们.
“我的工作中最令人满意的方面是与我一起工作的人的能力, 看到愿意采用新方法来应对真正困难的挑战, 承诺和毅力的结合,还有灵活性和韧性.”