Strong Ground - Clear Bridges

On the day of Lift-Off in my Women Lift Leadership Journey, I've taken a moment to reflect and first of all want to offer immense thanks to the Women Lift Health team, CCL coaches and mentors, my buddy, new friends I made and whole 2025 North America Cohort B (and A). This community didn’t just sharpen my leadership — it reshaped it.

Strong Ground

Over the past year, the Women Lift Global Health Leadership Journey has given me something rare: strong ground — a place to stand, reflect, and lead from in a time when global health systems feel increasingly fragmented and uncertain. (I write this with a wink to Brene Brown’s most recent book title, as so many of her chapters resonated with the last year Women Lift journey).

Leading from Values That Hold

One of the most powerful aspects of WomenLift was the space it created to return to values — not as words on a slide, but as lived anchors. Through the journey, four values clarified and settled in me: Integrity. Connection. Trust. Wholeheartedness.

WomenLift helped me recognize that values are not what we declare on our work page only — they are what we practice when things are complex. Brené Brown writes: “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” This journey reminded me that courage in leadership isn’t loud or performative. It’s the willingness to stay present in uncertainty, to name what’s uncomfortable, and to lead without armor.

Integrity, connection and trust directly link to my work in global health and building bridges among issues, sectors, stakeholders. I have learned that authentic leadership is to show up as me – wholeheartedly. Instead of downplaying a multi-passionate interest, the WomenLift Journey has encouraged me to bravely step into leveraging my strengths. My love for bright colours represents the glass ‘half-full’ mind-set and positive energy for getting work done. My creativity in making jewelry also fuels my ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking in global health issues. In my journey to authentic leadership, I’m stepping forward to not hide my creativity and colour from my work anymore but wholeheartedly use these as powerful skills.

Finding a new Way: Leadership as a Bridge

WomenLift helped me articulate something I’ve long practiced: a role as bridge-builder. Rather than choosing between polarities — strategy or compassion, depth or scale, pragmatism or innovation — two truths can live next to one another. From which arises a new understanding, one that brings clarity in chaos, connects people and systems that don’t naturally align, and celebrates impact without losing sight of dignity.

This “linking” function is at the heart of my leadership — and it’s the philosophy behind iLINQ2, a women-led social enterprise I launched this year. iLINQ2 is not separate from this journey; it is a direct product of it — shaped by WomenLift learning, coaching conversations, and the confidence boost from this community.

Intentionality: Moving to See Clearly

Some of my most important leadership reflections this year didn’t happen in meetings — they happened outdoors. Walking. Skiing. Skating.

These moments became intentional pauses — spaces to step back before a big decision, to listen more carefully in a difficult conversation, to notice where motivation was coming from. 2025 was a difficult year and some days all we could do is take one step after another and breathe. Intentionally not doing or keep going. Just pause.

WomenLift reinforced that leadership maturity comes from holding paradox — allowing two truths to exist side by side — and choosing with awareness, not urgency.

Skiing on the frozen river: opposite of 'strong ground' - sometimes the path is risky and still keep going

Take Space. Make Space.

In every gathering, I have appreciated the listening and sharing, and the intention with which workshops and meetings were shaped. It has sharpened a dual responsibility I now hold with more confidence:

• Take space — own my voice, my seat, my responsibility.

• Make space — stay close to implementation, lift the voices of women working on the frontlines, and ensure leadership remains grounded in lived realities.

That balance — visibility without disconnection — is something I will continue to practice deliberately.

Create Space: Carrying It Forward

We are living in a moment where care systems and global health are being deprioritized, and efficiency is often valued over humanity. In that context, women’s leadership is not a “nice to have” — it is essential infrastructure.

This has shaped my Women Lift Leadership Project — focused on empowering female health providers to advance people-centered, gender-responsive TB care. The work on the project has reinforced my belief that investing in women’s leadership is not just about equity—it’s a high-leverage strategy for building health systems that deliver measurable, sustainable impact at scale.

What I carry forward from Women Lift is a commitment to lead differently:

• To build bridges where systems are fragmented.

• To intentionally take and create space.

• To lead with courage, clarity, and connection — even when the path isn’t linear.

If the future of health systems is to be more just, more effective, and more human, then women must not only be present — we must be shaping it.

Women Lift helped me claim that responsibility.
And I’m carrying it forward — wholeheartedly.