Isabelle Bertrand had waited to apply. Only employees who have been with Pfizer for more than three years are eligible for its competitive and prestigious Global Health Fellows program, which financially supports employees in volunteering for capacity building projects in countries all over the world.

“I’ve always been interested in corporate responsibility and helping under-resourced communities,” says Bertrand, a Pfizer regulatory affairs strategist. She is a trained pharmacist who also holds a master’s degree in international drug development and registration. “I wanted to be able to use my knowledge and experience in a community, where people possibly don’t have the same skills as I have, so that I can help contribute towards improving the health care in their country.”

Through the Global Health Fellows program, Pfizer employees apply for specific projects and complete three-to-six month assignments for NGOs dedicated to health care in developing countries. Bertrand has been selected to work in Tambacounda, Senegal with IntraHealth’s Mobilize Against Malaria project, funded by Pfizer.

The project addresses critical gaps in malaria treatment and education in Senegal, and its goal is to increase the number of people who seek and receive effective anti-malaria medication. IntraHealth is collaborating with Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Pfizer to design, implement and monitor a community-level malaria prevention and treatment program.

“At Pfizer, we are committed to sharing best practices and deploying our research and development, medicines, funds, and our people to advance malaria treatment efforts and help save lives," said Caroline Roan, Vice President, Worldwide Corporate Responsibility and Philanthropy. "IntraHealth is one of our key partners on our Mobilize Against Malaria initiative, and we are looking forward to engaging Isabelle’s skills on this important initiative to reduce the burden of malaria mortality and morbidity in Senegal."

One of Bertrand’s main roles will focus on training community health workers and village volunteers in malaria prevention and treatment—targeting pregnant women and children—in very small villages in the Tambacouda region.

Working in the community attracted Bertrand immediately: “This project appealed to me because I would really be in contact with the local population. I would be able to gain an understanding of their issues and really get to know the people in our work together.”

She adds that this fellowship assignment is a good fit as well because her current job encompasses some of Pfizer’s malaria medication work. “I thought I could use the knowledge that I have gained at Pfizer in my fellowship in Africa. Malaria is such a terrible disease which impacts so many people—I was very interested in helping with malaria treatment and prevention.”

Bertrand is an ideal candidate in another way: she is used to adapting to new places. Currently, Bertrand works for Pfizer in England, but she is not from the UK. With a mother from the Czech Republic and a father from France, Bertrand has dual nationality. She grew up in France but traveled often to the Czech Republic—as a child to see family, and as a university student to take part in a pharmacy traineeship in Prague. Fluent in Czech and French (as well as English), Bertrand says she is accustomed to immersing herself into new cultures.

One of Bertrand’s early volunteer experiences was a stint in Burkina Faso when she was a university student.  She helped raise funds to build a new school in a very small village with no electricity.

“They lived in terrible conditions,” Bertrand says. “They knew they were poor, but they never complained about it. It was important for them just to be alive. It did change my vision of the world. When I came back to France, I realized how lucky I was and stopped complaining about small things. I was able to see the bigger picture.”

Bertrand, who is starting her six-month fellowship this month, will be IntraHealth International’s fifth Pfizer Global Health Fellow. Other Fellows have worked for IntraHealth’s Capacity Project in Tanzania and Namibia and also for IntraHealth’s Mobilize Against Malaria project.