Callaghan Auditorium inside the University of Iowa College of Public Health building was flooded with excitement on Friday morning. Around 200 people, including public health students, Ph.D. candidates, faculty, staff, UI President Barbara Wilson, and community members, gathered to watch Jim Yong Kim deliver the Hansen Distinguished lecture.
Started in 2001 by Richard and Barbara Hansen, founding partners of the College of Public Health, the lecture brings in an individual who has “demonstrated exemplary leadership in the public health field.”
Kim was chosen to be the speaker this year due to his relationship with the university and his exemplary career. This is the first time Kim has spoken at the UI.
“I am excited for this lecture because of the work he has done in Partners in Health. I am a fan girl of the organization. It is amazing to see the dedication to global health equity,” Jocelyn Demiglio, who is pursuing a master’s degree in public health, said before the lecture began.
Kim has a resume that many people only dream of. He spoke to the audience about his work with World Bank Group as its president to meeting with Obama in the Oval Office.
Kim began his lecture by discussing being born in South Korea, and his eventual move to State Center, Iowa, which has just over 1,000 residents.
Kim then talked about his educational journey. After a short time at the University of Iowa, Kim transferred to Brown University to finish his bachelor’s degree in human biology. He later received his M.D. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University.
He spent most of the lecture discussing his professional career and the projects he has worked on. The crowd sat in excitement as he discussed his time as president of Dartmouth College, the 12th president of the World Bank Group, director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDs department, founder of Partners in Health, and much more. Kim is also a huge Hawkeye fan.
He spoke to the importance of the University in his success.
Sharing that his dad was a professor at the UI School of Dentistry for 15 years after escaping from North Korea, Kim highlighted the positive influence of his parents and the University in his lecture.
“Starting in third grade, I loved the Hawkeyes. My mom was one of the first women to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in theology and religion,” Kim said during his lecture.
The work that propelled Kim into his global health career was his founding of Partners in Health.
He shared that Partners in Health is a nonprofit organization that establishes relationships with organizations worldwide to provide the best and most accessible medical care to underdeveloped areas. He expressed that he originally wanted to give back to South Korea with his work in public health.
“I went to Seoul for the Olympics, and saw that my people did not need me anymore,” Kim said.
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Partners in Health then decided to take their work elsewhere to parts of Africa and South America.
The group effectively went into communities during the tuberculosis crisis and treated the disease. They did the same for the HIV/AIDs crisis in Africa. Alongside many other projects, the group has been instrumental in advocating for global health and health equity.
His work with Partners in Health propelled him into many aspects of leadership around the U.S. and the world, securing him a spot in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2006.
“I think it’s important, from a student’s perspective, to see what is possible from what we’re learning. We read about these people and all the amazing things that they do, but to be able to hear from them, adds another level of reality to it,” Demiglio said.
Kim discussed that after his early work in Partners in Health, he was asked to serve as director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department.
Following his work with the World Health Organization and Harvard, he became president of Dartmouth College before being asked by former President Barack Obama to become the 12th President of the World Bank Group. He served in that capacity until 2019, when he joined Global Infrastructure Partner as a partner, vice chairman, and emerging markets chairman.
He has been a coworker and friend of Anthony Fauci — former chief medical advisor to the President of the United States — former President Obama, and many others who have made global impacts.
He finished his lecture by speaking to the importance of young people seeing a problem and wanting to fix it. He touched on the topics of the mental health epidemic currently facing the world, specifically in Korea, in hopes of inspiring students to make a change.
“He has done a lot of great work. I remember reading about his articles and his work in my undergrad, he has always been an inspiration,” Nafisa Kamal Ayntee, a public health student, said.
The full lecture can be viewed on the College of Public Health website.