In July 2019, Last Mile Health launched a bold strategic plan that aims to bring high-quality primary healthcare within reach of millions of people. Meet two of the leaders that are helping to achieve this ambitious plan.
Marion Subah: Liberia Country Director
Marion Subah, Liberia Country Director (Photo Credit: Jhpiego/Kate Holt)
After decades leading public health programs across Liberia, Last Mile Health is delighted to welcome Marion Subah into the role of Liberia Country Director. A trained nurse midwife and pediatric nurse practitioner, Marion began her career as the Director of the Family Health Division at the Ministry of Health. Subsequently, Marion led an impressive career working with national and international NGO, including Jhpeigo, a Johns Hopkins-affiliated nonprofit, in primary healthcare systems strengthening initiatives focused on health workforce capacity building.
A common theme throughout Marion’s long career has been a commitment to putting communities and people first. This commitment brought Marion to Last Mile Health, and she believes it’s also essential to realizing universal health coverage.
“At Last Mile Health we are working to reach the world’s most remote communities. We are teaching these communities to not only be accountable for their own health, but we are empowering them to demand accountability and quality in the care they receive. If we leave them out, we will not achieve universal health coverage.”
As Marion visits the counties where Last Mile Health supports the Government of Liberia to implement the National Community Health Assistant Program, she’s actively reflecting on one of Last Mile Health’s core values: we are all teachers and learners. “If we remember this, then we are able to respect people and value what they are bringing to the table. I have so much to learn and share,” she says. Last Mile Health looks forward to Marion’s application of her extensive experience to advance organization’s four-year Strategic Plan in order to ensure a qualified health worker is within reach of everyone, everywhere.
A note of thanks to Garrett Hubbard
Garrett Hubbard
Over the past two years in his role as Country Director, Garrett was fundamental in leading Last Mile Health staff in Liberia to articulate a clear vision and strategy to support the Government of Liberia to scale the National Community Health Assistant Program—deploying nearly 4,000 community and frontline health workers to serve 1.2 million people who have historically lacked access to care. Further, he was instrumental in enhancing the quality of services provided through innovative changes to the community health worker service delivery package.
Garrett’s commitment to being proximal to communities at the core of Last Mile Health’s mission and to listen and learn are foundational to the leadership he’s demonstrated over the past two years. Garrett built an incredible team who value each other and the mission and values of Last Mile Health. He’s helped to build a culture of trust and teamwork, embodying the value we are all in this together.
Lisha McCormick, Last Mile Health President and Chief Operating Officer, describes Garrett as “relentlessly humble with high integrity. Garrett is the definition of a leader in service to a bigger team and a higher mission.” The Last Mile Health team is deeply grateful to Garrett for his service, and wishes him success in his future endeavors.
Nan Chen: Managing Director, Health Systems
Nan Chen, Managing Director, Health Systems
After an exciting four-year tenure, Last Mile Health recently promoted Nan Chen to Managing Director of the Health Systems Team. The Health Systems Team partners with Ministries of Health to improve community health systems performance and institutionalization. The team includes a global advocacy function, which seeks to share and learn best practices from the community health movement. “As I heard in a recent meeting with professor Francis Omaswa in Uganda, ‘Universal health coverage starts with integrated primary healthcare. Without it, there is no universal health coverage.’ We have a lot of evidence that interventions at a community-level work, but many governments are struggling to scale these promising practices and integrate them into government systems,” Nan says. His team is hoping to change that.
Nan values the people who make Last Mile Health’s work possible. During one visit to Liberia, he received an unexpected phone call from his wife with the news that they were going to have a second child. “Though I was across the world from my wife, I had the privilege to share that huge shift in my world with my partners in this mission in Monrovia. I’ll never forget celebrating life with them in that little palava hut, and reinforcing our collective mission to ensure all children get a chance to survive and thrive.”
Other notable promotions for staff guiding strategy for the organization:
- Lisha McCormick, promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer: Lisha continues to serve as a co-leader and thought partner to the CEO in setting and executing the organization’s strategic vision. Additionally, Lisha will provide executive oversight to leadership across organizational functions.
- Nathan Hutto, promoted to Chief People Officer: Nathan recently joined Executive Team. In his role as Chief People Officer, Nathan will work alongside the People Operations teams in the US and country offices to drive Last Mile Health’s global talent strategy.
- Jeff Rozelle, promoted to Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL): In this role, Jeff leads the MERL Liberia team vision and strategy, oversee organization-wide learning, and lead research and evaluation efforts of Liberia-based programs.
Last Mile Health is incredibly grateful for its staff—who are collectively contributing to a global movement for universal health coverage through the Within Reach strategy.
