Find a problem and solve it, with Dr. Peter Singer, Former Special Advisor to the Director General of the WHO and cofounder of Grand Challenges & UofT Joint Centre for Bioethics
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
English - December 06, 2023 11:00 - 46 minutes - 32.1 MBSelf-Improvement Education Business Careers public health career health health career education higher ed self-improvement school job community Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
In this episode, Sujani sits down with Dr. Peter Singer, the Former Special Advisor to the Director General of the WHO and cofounder of Grand Challenges & UofT Joint Centre for Bioethics. They walk through Peter’s careers as a professor, cofounder of various organizations, and work in the WHO, using your lived experiences to find problems, and steps to take to solve these problems.
You’ll Learn
How finding problems and solving them drew Peter into public healthTaking risks at the beginning of your career and rethinking your narrativesPeter’s three careers as professor of medicine, cofounding University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for Bioethics, and cofounding Grand Challenges Canada and how each career cascaded on to the nextWhat Grand Challenges Canada is and how it came to beSocial entrepreneurship and steps to take once you have found a problem and are now stuck on how to solve itBeing ok with failure and learning from your mistakes Using your lived experience as an asset to become a great leaderHow Peter became the Special Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization and his experience working in global health
Today’s Guest
Dr Peter Singer has dedicated his career to improving the lives of people by building innovative institutions with high social impact.
Between 2017 and 2023, Singer was Special Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, supporting Dr Tedros to transform WHO into an Organization focused on measurable impact in countries. He co-chaired the transition team; was the architect of WHO’s strategy and its “triple billion” target; and supported strategy implementation of initiatives to speed up the Sustainable Development Goals using data and delivery, innovation, and partnerships. During the pandemic, he was a passionate advocate for vaccine equity.
From 2008-2018 Singer was Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada, raising CAN $450M to support 1000 innovations in more than 90 countries, which have the potential to save ~1 million lives and improve ~20 million lives by 2030. From 1996-2006 he was Sun Life Financial Chair and Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics.
Resources
Connect with Dr. Peter Singer on LinkedIn Learn more about the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics Read Peter’s career advice series on finding a problem and solving it, mentorship, and hopping aboard a rocket-ship and his blogpost Replace the SDGs with the GSDs Learn more about Grand Challenges Canada and read the paper that contributed to the formation of organization Learn more about the WHO's Thirteenth General Programme of WorkJoin The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.