IGHI is home to a team of staff who are skilled and passionate about their roles. Our talented people are the reason we’re able to tackle some of the most pressing global health challenges through cutting-edge innovation.
We’re giving you the chance to get to know our staff a little better and learn about what motivates them in their roles, who inspires them and what they like to get up to outside of IGHI.
Meet Alexandra Shaw, policy fellow for the Global Patient Safety Collaborative at our Centre for Health Policy. Find out more about Alex, her passion for global health, and her role in collaborating with international colleagues on patient safety.
What does your role involve?
Primarily, my role focuses on managing IGHI’s contribution as academic partner for the Global Patient Safety Collaborative, working with our colleagues at the World Health Organization and partners in Kenya, India, Pakistan and Mongolia. This includes a range of capacity building activities such as webinars, events, research and development of education and policy materials for patient safety.
What attracted you to the role?
I was keen to find a role that combined my passion for global health and experience working in the NHS. I was particularly attracted by the opportunity to work with a wide variety of stakeholders. Working with a range of brilliant people, both internally and outside of IGHI makes this role exciting and varied and means no two days are the same.
How would your colleagues describe you in three words?
I hope they might say something like reliable, sensible and passionate about improving healthcare!
What’s your biggest achievement to date – personal or professional?
Professionally and personally, one of the achievements most important to me was gaining a distinction and award for my MSc dissertation on maternal mortality and factors that might play a role in influencing the type of assistance at delivery in Afghanistan. My passion for global health particularly lies in improving access to services, understanding social determinants of health (the non-medical factors that influence health such as where people are born, their education and living conditions), and reducing preventable illness and death.
Who inspires you?
Since entering the world of healthcare, I have always been inspired by the people I have met, including NHS colleagues, researchers and patients or relatives who dedicate themselves to improving healthcare for others, often going the extra mile for someone else.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
To be able to travel quickly around the world without going by plane; I love going to new places, but I’m not a fan of flying!
What’s your guilty pleasure?
I love a good murder mystery or crime thriller, preferably accompanied by ice cream!