Caitlin Lee Cohen

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“In 2005, I volunteered to work the night shift in a maternity in a slum in Mali. One of the children I helped deliver was stillborn, and the experience of seeing the reality of the child mortality statistics shook me.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: Bamako, Mali
  • Hometown: Westminster Station, Vermont
  • Age: 24

Biography

PROFILE: Some college students take time off to discover themselves and the world around them. Some may go to Europe and backpack, others may stay at home and take a job before heading back to college. Caitlin Cohen, from rural Vermont, decided to take a leave of absence from prestigious Brown University for a year and see how the other half lived. At Brown, with the help of several mentors, she developed a passionate interest in the “intersection of activism and health in the developing world” and was encouraged to leave Providence to learn first-hand what the lectures and lessons were all about. She borrowed $1,500 from her artist father and moved to a slum neighborhood in Mali to work with the poorest of the poor. Twelve months later she returned to New England to finish her undergraduate degree with her future goals in clear focus. “I want to spend the rest of my life working for health care equity, and [graduate] scholarship gives me the unparalleled education and flexibility that I need to pursue this passion.”

INSPIRATION: Caitlin’s first and second grade teacher, Claire Oglesby, opened her horizons by transforming her two-room schoolhouse in Vermont into a Guatemalan rainforest and the Great Wall of China “to help us learn about other cultures.” Caitlin was also mentored by Dr. Madeleine Togo, the first woman to be a Chief of Medicine of a Malian hospital. “She once sold shoes in a marketplace and now shapes a nation’s health policy. There is nothing more inspirational.”

ASPIRATION: Caitlin intends to develop, research, and advocate for community co-managed government-funded primary health care systems in the developing world.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE:   Her work in helping to create the Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP) is, perhaps, her proudest achievement. Caitlin said the project aims to create a model clinic and health delivery system in Mali by enabling slum communities to design and build their own health systems, capitalizing on users' innovative ideas. “We jumpstart the power of slum residents to catalyze change in their own communities.”

ACCOLADES: Caitlin gained international fame in 2008 as one of nine finalists for the “Do Something Award” for her work in co-founding the MHOP. Caitlin and her organization’s mission were profiled on the back panel of 100 million bags of Doritos chips. Caitlin also won the Huntington Award for Public Service and was named to the USA Today All Academic Team.

INTERESTING FACT: When Caitlin was 18 she worked on the Vermont set of an independent film called “The Undeserved”. One of her official job titles was “salamander wrangler.”

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