In this issue, our Alumni Spotlight shines on Anita Zaidi, MBBS, SM, who has extensive experience as a physician, researcher, and innovator, as well as a track record of leading programs that have truly changed women’s lives. She grew up in Pakistan and attended the Aga Khan University’s medical school before pursuing further studies at Duke University, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Returning to Pakistan as a clinician and researcher, she focused on improving women’s and children’s health in poverty-stricken communities around Karachi. She says those life experiences will continue to inform her work in gender equality. Throughout her career, she has been passionate about mentoring younger colleagues, and she helped create the WomenLift Health program to promote diversity in global health leadership.
Anita Zaidi, MBBS, SM, is the president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Gender Equality Division. In this role, Zaidi oversees the foundation’s efforts to achieve gender equality by integrating gender across the foundation’s global work and investing in women’s economic empowerment, women’s leadership, and removing the barriers for women and girls to thrive. The mission of the Gender Equality Division is a world in which women and girls have equal opportunity.
Zaidi also serves as the foundation’s director of the Vaccine Development, Surveillance, and Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases programs. Since joining the foundation in 2014, she has led a team focused on vaccine development for people in the poorest parts of the world, surveillance to identify and address causes of death in children in the most under-served areas, and significantly reducing the adverse consequences of diarrheal and enteric infections on children’s health in low and middle-income countries. Through this role, Zaidi champions innovative work on behalf of low-income women and children, including the creation of the Women Leaders in Global Health program—now called WomenLift Health—to promote diversity in global health leadership. She also works closely with the foundation’s Maternal Newborn Child Health Discovery & Tools program.
Anita Zaidi, MBBS, SM, was a pediatric resident at Duke University Medical Center from 1990 – 1993, and a medical microbiology fellow from 1994 – 1995.
Previously, Anita was the department chair of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, where she worked to reduce child mortality through the prevention and treatment of illness. She obtained her medical degree specializing in pediatric infectious diseases at Aga Khan University, and completed further training at Duke University, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. To date, Zaidi has published more than 200 research papers on vaccine-preventable diseases and newborn infections in resource-limited settings.
In 2013, Zaidi became the first recipient of the $1 million Caplow Children’s Prize for her pioneering work bringing health services and wraparound care to mothers and children in poverty-stricken communities in Karachi. She was also nominated as a notable physician of the year in 2014 by Medscape. The Aga Khan University recognized her research contributions in 2013 by awarding her the Aga Khan University Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Research. She was also elected to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in October 2021 and was honored by the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases with the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award in December 2021.
In her own words
“Gender inequality holds back women and girls—that’s half the world’s population, and it’s indisputably unjust. It’s also the biggest barrier to progress in global health and development. I’ve seen this throughout my career, as a physician, as a researcher, and here at the foundation. The root cause of a lot of disease is poverty-related, and poverty is sexist. Without addressing gender inequality, progress on both health and development will be stunted.”
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