Siobhan 'Chevy' Lazenby - Social Change-Maker, Knox Fellow, Global Health Advocate
Siobhan ‘Chevy’ Lazenby is a Graduate Student at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
Throughout her studies in environmental sciences and international development at McGill University in Canada, Chevy became fascinated by the ways in which our physical and social habitats actively shape health outcomes. Opportunities for field research galvanized these interests and it was while working for Médecins Sans Frontières during the peak of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that Chevy became captivated by the need for a gendered lens in global health interventions.
Intrigued by the space where technology, data science and global health equity meet, Chevy spent the next five years implementing innovations with private, public, non-profit and academic institutions in fourteen countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Her most recent position was with Dimagi — a social enterprise that builds scalable technology solutions for frontline workers in low-resource settings. By matriculation, Chevy had managed projects for: reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health; HIV/AIDS; nutrition; eye health; malaria; financial inclusion; and, gender-based violence.
As a Knox Fellow at Harvard’s School of Public Health, Chevy is studying how we can effectively analyze and draw insights from data (big data, lean data, adjacent data and gender data!) to inform interventions that can save and improve lives. She hopes to leverage her learnings to effect change on a larger scale, both internationally and within Canada.
Q. Best advice for women who want to go out in life and crush it!
A. What you achieve is often just as important as how you achieve it. I’ve learned that the most effective way to improve the lives of others is to build their capacity to empower themselves. If you’re privileged enough to have a seat at the table, think about how you can pull up chairs for the womxn who traditionally don’t have the same access. The late Toni Morrison articulated it best, “If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”
Q. What do you do to celebrate women?
A. There are so many systems designed to pin us against each other, that actually pausing to celebrate women (beyond International Women’s Day and beyond Instagram!) doesn’t happen enough. I’m still figuring out how to be better at this, but I think that physically showing up (at their race, fundraiser, election, protest, art installation, dissertation, kid’s birthday, etc.), giving women credit for their work, and opening up opportunities for other women are a great place to start! Carving out time to celebrate the little wins (for me and the women that inspire me) gives me fuel for the harder days.
Q. What do you want to see more of?
A. Right now, there is nothing global about global health leadership. The top 200 global health organizations are dominated by older males from high-income countries and, though they make up the majority of the healthcare workforce, women from low- and middle-income countries hold just five percent of leadership roles. I would like to see more women in leadership positions and more women with increased decision-making power over their bodies and the body politic!
Q. Recommended reading:
A. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez Caroline Criado Perez tells the story of how so much data fails to take into account gender and the costs that women pay as a result. I’ve long been fascinated by the intersection of gender and disease (and the need for sex-disaggregated data during outbreaks) which this book covers, in addition to economic development, education, urban planning and so much more!
Q. The theme for this year's women's history month is Valiant Women of the Vote. What women's rights are you most passionate about?
A. I am most passionate about reproductive rights. We know that transformative shifts occur when women have access, voluntary access, to contraceptives. While laudable progress has given us cause for applause, I am deeply concerned by the number of countries and states that seem to be reverting to harmful policies. It’s important to understand the importance of intersectionality and remember that the rights of all women are connected and worth fighting for.
Q. Shout out to another woman who has made a difference in your life and how she/they did that.
A. There are too many women who have made a difference in my life to fit into this space! The women in my family made me inquisitive and bold and my female friends keep me humble and grounded. I am deeply grateful for my high school guidance counsellor who gave me my first ‘moment of lift,’ for the authors and activists who inspire me daily, and for the guidance of coaches in sports, work and life. My "shout out" goes to the Community Health Workers charged with saving and improving the lives of millions of people living in their communities — often overburdened and under-compensated, these are the world’s unsung heroes.
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