Meet Your ASTMH Staff

Posted 11 July 2019

Rebecca Hamel, Development Manager

Rebecca Hamel serves as the Development Manager for ASTMH. In this role, she leverages ASTMH’s well-regarded reputation and existing foundation to increase sustainable resources to support the mission and goals of the ASTMH membership. Rebecca has 15+ years of resource development and multi-stakeholder engagement experience with health and development nonprofit organizations, including WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations, Africare and the Global Health Council. She holds an MA in International Development (concentration: Environment and Development) from American University and a BS in Chinese and an Asian Studies Certificate from Georgetown University, both schools in Washington, DC. 

What attracted you to ASTMH?
The short answer is recognizing the importance of reducing the global burden of tropical infectious diseases to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, and knowing of ASTMH’s leading efforts around all aspects of the scientific evidence base necessary to do this. 

The longer answer is that I have a passion for social justice and recognize that access to good health is a critical element of achieving this. Yet much work to improve health is siloed by disease, by affected populations and the regions in which they live, or by the stakeholders involved. How can we effectively achieve the Sustainable Development Goals if we don’t understand the role of our own contributions in the larger framework necessary to accomplish this, and collaborate and learn from each other?

The way that ASTMH addresses its vision of a world free of tropical infectious diseases – through generating and sharing scientific evidence, informing health policies and practices, fostering career development, recognizing excellence, and advocating for investment in tropical medicine/global health research – and its prominent vehicles for doing so – ranging from the Annual Meeting and American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to educational opportunities, honors, and awards – provide great focal points and opportunities for funding partner engagement.

What do you bring to ASTMH? 
Believe it or not, the first part of my career was in strategic marketing and business development, building global tours of Disney On Ice at Feld Entertainment. With this foundation, I bring business rigor, strategy, processes, relationship management, creativity and an eye for promotion to develop and implement fundraising strategies and build relationships. 

Beginning with my membership and sponsorship work with the Global Health Council (GHC), I have worked with health organizations to help translate what they do for a donor audience to identify potential funding partners and to articulate the synergies between both parties. I also have extensive experience in donor stewardship, sponsorship activation and event-based fundraising that can help ensure sustainable funding for ASTMH.

Through this and my consulting work I understand the role of bringing all stakeholders – including academia, communities, foundations, government, multilaterals, non-governmental organizations and the private sector – to address health, as well across multiple sectors. Multi-stakeholder engagement can achieve partnerships to better meet shared public health goals. 

What opportunities do you see?
Endless ones. Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit. We are only four months out from the 2019 Annual Meeting, November 20-24. Approximately 4,800 tropical medicine and global health professionals representing academia, government, non-profits, philanthropy, NGOs, the private sector, military and private practice will be in attendance. Who is interested in reaching, connecting and learning from this audience? For starters, there are sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities for those with tropical diseases around global health security, lab strengthening, Ebola and malaria vaccines, counterfeit drugs, drug resistance and more. Those who are experts in diagnostics, surveillance, lab strengthening, community partnerships, ICT and innovation will be interested as well. 

ASTMH is very interested in extending the reach of the scientific content of the Annual Meeting. This year, there are new sponsorship opportunities around travel awards. Another way to do this is to make the Annual Meeting content available digitally for those who cannot attend in person, particularly those from a Low and Low-Middle Income Country where the burden of tropical diseases is greatest. Investing in the infrastructure to share content, and to build ongoing discussions and engagement with these stakeholders, offers great partnership opportunities. Contact me at [email protected] to learn more.

There is increased competition for global health resources everywhere. How do we address this when the diseases we focus on aren’t here in the U.S.?
Two things: First, there is a larger economic development and national security argument for investment in tropical disease research that affects every American. The shorthand version of this is that investments in global health mean improved health and earning potential, and decreased health costs. That means increases in GDP for the endemic countries and greater earning and purchasing power for their consumers. This economic prosperity adds to national security for the country, which comes back as trade and investment opportunities and job creation for the U.S., as well as improved national security here at home.  

Second, understanding where tropical diseases fit in the larger health space, under Universal Health Coverage, the World Health Organization priorities and the United Nations framework, and articulating tropical disease comorbidities, allow for meaningful partnership opportunities. Identifying the linkages and potential areas of collaboration, like collaboration around counterfeit malarial medications that disproportionately affect pregnant women, creates new relationships and new potential funding streams.

Any other thoughts? 
Ask me again after the Annual Meeting! I am looking forward to learning and connecting at this amazing event.
GoTropMed