Duff Gillespie, IntraHealth Board Member

For someone who first became interested in global health “accidentally,” IntraHealth Board Member Duff Gillespie has taken that initial accident and turned it into a passion and, as he notes, a “truly rewarding career.” 

His accidental move to global health started nearly 40 years ago when Duff was working at the National Institutes of Health. At the request of some USAID colleagues, Duff joined the agency to start an operations research program in 1973. “At the time, I had never even been to a developing country,” he says. His career with USAID went on to include work in dozens of developing countries, and such positions as the deputy assistant administrator for population, health, and nutrition, and deputy assistant administrator for global health.

Duff joined IntraHealth’s board in 2005, but his interest in the organization began at USAID. He admires the organization because it tries to anticipate and respond to global health changes, and because it “has maintained a programmatic and philosophical anchor of supporting health care providers, and a long-term commitment to reproductive health.” He adds that “the degree of enthusiasm is high at IntraHealth,” and he enjoys working with dedicated, committed staff.

Duff is passionate about global health “because it’s the right, ethical thing to do. If we have the resources—financial and technological—to keep people from dying unnecessarily, we have a moral obligation to use them.” He also says that “supporting better health for all means creating stronger markets for each other and stronger global security.” Most importantly, global health leads to “global social and economic advancement, ultimately making the world a better place.”

Since leaving USAID in 2002, Duff has focused his passions on reproductive health and family planning. Duff is a senior scholar with the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health and a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, he served as a visiting scholar with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. “Family planning is an extremely powerful intervention that has an impact on maternal mortality, infant mortality, child mortality, and much more.” Duff adds, “It’s a question of human rights. We have an obligation to help meet the unmet need, to get people the services and information that they need.” 

Duff holds a PhD in sociology from Washington University. He received the 1977 Arthur Flemming Award for groundbreaking research on community-based family planning and primary provider systems; the Presidential Rank Award in 1988, 1990, and 2001; the 2003 Lifetime Recognition Award from the Global Health Council; and the USAID Administrator's Distinguished Career Award.

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