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Helene Gayle

President and CEO, CARE USA

by Allison Shirreffs

July 2, 2009

GaylePlace_2700 When asked if she has any hobbies, Helene Gayle, a medical doctor with a doctorate in epidemiology and president and CEO of CARE USA, answers, tongue in cheek, "Sleep."

CARE operates in over 70 countries, and on Delta alone Gayle has collected over two million SkyMiles. She visited the Netherlands in June, and this August she'll find herself in Kenya with policy makers in tow. CARE recently began "Learning Tours:" trips that take those who write and vote on policy to the places they make decisions about. "Seeing is believing," says Gayle. "They never come back the same."

Most people can't imagine the reality of living on less than a dollar a day, but in many places across the globe, it's a reality. Founded more than 60 years ago to assist in the rebuilding of Europe in the wake of WWII, CARE now sees itself as "Moving from aid to impact," explains Gayle. "We're building capabilities so in the long-run, people are able to sustain change."

Over the course of her career, including a stint as director of the HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and in various roles at the CDC (most of her time devoted to HIV/AIDS), Gayle learned that one organization can't do it all; but if it focuses on its strengths, she believes, any impact the organization makes will be long-lasting.

At CARE, the focus is on changing the lives of women and girls. As women and children suffer the most from poverty (well over two-thirds of the world's poorest inhabitants are women), helping them affects positive change for entire communities. To educate a girl means to empower her and give her a way out of poverty via economic viability and leads, as a result, to better health - not just for her, but for future generations.

While in college, Gayle thought she'd become a pediatrician, but discovered that public health suits her wish to affect broader societal issues by looking at medicine at a population level and "as a tool for social equity," she says. "You get to a point in life where you realize that change is evolutionary. Each little bit does make a difference."

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
"Helene's experience is diverse and rich...She is a leader that has succeeded because of teh authenticity of her care and her completely engaging, powerful and thoroughly enjoyable presence." - Maria Eitel, President, Nike Foundation

"Helene has a deep empathy, but also a strength of character that is clear to any constituency. She has a sense of humor and a quick wit that is inclusive." - Jeffery A. Rosensweig, Director, Global Perspectives Program, Goizueta Business School, Emory University

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