LEONARD A. SCHLESINGER FUND FOR GLOBAL HEALTHCARE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Entrepreneurial approaches to the world’s biggest health challenges.
About the Fund
The Schlesinger Fund for Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship has been housed within the Institute for Social Innovation since 2013. We are supported by the Kletjian Foundation whose mission is to build collaborative networks and support entrepreneurial leaders that promote global health equity. The fund provides opportunities for Babson faculty and students to apply Entrepreneurial Thought and Action (ET&A™) to global health challenges.
Meet the Team:
, Faculty Director
Alexis Cohen, Student Fellow '19
Alexander Correa-Garcia, Student Fellow '22
Our Mission
To activate entrepreneurial leaders and thinkers in global health.
What is Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship?
- Improve Existing Healthcare Organizations & Processes,
- Create New Organizations and Processes,
- Improve How Organizations Keep All Stakeholders Healthy, with a focus on healthcare practices in the U.S. and abroad.
Why Does Global Health Need Entrepreneurship?
As our world's health care systems strain to deliver prompt effective care under countless, ever-changing barriers, the emerging field of global health entrepreneurship (GHE) at Babson College addresses the challenges posed in the field of global health. The barriers to delivering quality care are many, and they require us to think not just about one specific disease but rather about health systems overall. Entrepreneurial thought and strategic action help us re-imagine the global health agenda and think differently about the paths to poverty alleviation and building a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in support of local health delivery systems.
Our Programs
We offer a myriad of opportunities for Babson faculty and students, and the local greater Boston and international communities to connect. Through the power of collaboration, we leverage the existing work of other phenomenal partners engaged in complementary efforts to offer rich opportunities for learning and breakthrough interactions to the Babson and larger community. Among the organizations with which we have partnered include The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, Consortium for Affordable Medical (CAMTech) and Harvard Medical School Program for Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC). Below are our offerings.
Thought Leadership
- Case Studies – Through our cases, we explore health system challenges ranging from human resource development to electronic medical record systems and are freely available online to both students and educators.
- Faculty Research Funding – In partnership with the Babson Faculty Research Fund (BFRF), the Fund for Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship makes funds available to support faculty in research related to global health and healthcare entrepreneurship.
Student Programs
- Global Healthcare Start-up Coaching – We offer support to new Babson student ventures that address existing challenges in the global healthcare systems.
- GHE Fellowship – We offer one to three sponsored summer internships a summer in organizations addressing the health challenges in low resource settings in the US and abroad.
- GHE Internships – We engage one to two student interns a year to work on our GHE efforts.
Learning Events
- Interactive learning events – Our community is able to apply their entrepreneurial and teamwork skills at our events whether the event is a hack-a-thon, or a different hands-on problem-solving exercise with entrepreneurial healthcare leaders.
In the News
Coming Together to Address a Drastic Need
By John Crawford
Small Talk With Wiljeana Glover
By John Crawford
Scaling and Sustaining Healthcare Innovation: Insights from a U.S./Ugandan Partnership
By Prof. Wiljeana Glover
My Experience at the CAMTech Uganda Co-Creation Lab
By Jacob Fohtung
ET&A in War-Torn Syria
By Gyda Sumadi
Entrepreneurial Opportunity Amidst One of the World’s Largest Challenges
By Rebecca Obounou, Soloni Sharma, Sthuthi Jebaraj, Wei-Ning (Dennis) Huang
Why This Doctor Went to Business School
By Sthuthi Jebaraj
Read