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 Artwork

The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career

Sujani Sivanantharajah from PHSPOT.org sits down with public health heroes of our time to share career stories, inspiration, and guidance for building public health careers. From time to time, she also has conversations with friends of public health - individuals who are not public health professionals, but their advice and guidance are equally important. The emotions, energy, and passion that comes from these stories act as a reminder that this space we’ve created for the public health community is a space that you can lean on as you navigate your career. We believe that to build a successful career in public health does not mean that it has to live up to a certain level of standard set out by somebody else...or that we need to burn ourselves out in the process. We believe that you can craft a career perfect for you, and your unique life. The message we hope to get across through these conversations is that building a career is not only about climbing up the ranks, but about crafting a life that you want, around your unique needs, and one that gives importance to your mental health, wellbeing, and building relationships and friendships: you can only do good in the world if you take care of yourself. Through PH SPOTlight, you will connect with peers you have never met before, and build relationships in a deep and meaningful way. What you will hear the most, from every single person is also passion. Passion to do good. Passion to advance human health and the human race. And a passion to share back with the public health community.

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The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career

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

December 06, 2023 • Episode 144

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 health
Taking risks at the beginning of your career and rethinking your narratives
Peter’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 next
What Grand Challenges Canada is and how it came to be
Social entrepreneurship and steps to take once you have found a problem and are now stuck on how to solve it
Being ok with failure and learning from your mistakes
Using your lived experience as an asset to become a great leader
How 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 Work

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