Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Dawson-Hahn on her acceptance to The Obama Foundation’s Leaders program! Following a competitive selection process, Dr. Dawson-Hahn will join 100 other participants in the Leaders USA program, where they will receive training in leadership development and civic engagement to help build their skills and scale their work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Dr. Dawson-Hahn is the medical director of the Community Innovation Hub at the Odessa Brown Children's Clinic and an associate professor in the UW Department of Pediatrics, where she leads the Migration Health, Resilience, and Multilingual Research Collaborative and co-leads the Refugee Health Promotion Project at Harborview Medical Center. She also serves as medical advisor to the UN International Organization for Migration, where her work centers on the health and well-being of children and families impacted by migration, bringing together public health and community-based organizations to create systems-level solutions.
"I'm looking forward to learning and growing alongside leaders from multiple sectors all around the country,” said Dr. Dawson-Hahn. “The values-based leadership model is inspiring because it invites us to draw on what drives us, and to identify collective solutions. The first meeting of the new leaders cohort opened with this quote from Barack Obama: ‘Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.’ It feels like a powerful reminder of each of our roles in our democracy — regardless of the sector that we work in day to day."
Dr. Dawson-Hahn’s work has included leading cross-disciplinary teams that conducted over 200 interviews across public health, social services, and community groups to inform the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants (now the Migration Health Initiative) and publishing over 80 online best practices and 10 peer-reviewed studies to improve health outcomes. She has also written clinical and public health guidance to support 100,000 people annually resettling to the US through the refugee resettlement program.
Participants in The Obama Foundation Leaders USA program will convene virtually each week for sessions designed to help them drive change by honing their leadership skills, building deep relationships with their peers, and engaging with thought leaders and members of the Foundation’s community. They will also have an opportunity to participate in virtual experiences and special events, including conversations with experienced mentors in the Foundation's global network.
The Obama Foundation Leaders program is designed to inspire, empower, and connect emerging leaders from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the United States to change their respective communities and the world. To learn more, visit obama.org/leaders.