The Power of Advocacy: A Conversation with Lucy Martinez Sullivan

Last week, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) hosted the first episode of Advocacy in Action— our newest series of conversations taking listeners behind the scenes of campaigns that save lives— via Twitter Spaces. Mena El-Turky introduced the conversation between GHAI Communications Director Jennifer Patterson and GHAI’s new Senior Vice President, Lucy Martinez Sullivan, about the power of advocacy.

Lucy started the newest phase of her career at GHAI in January and leads the organization as we work with advocates in 40 countries across eight programs to strengthen public health policies. She spoke about what she learned from a career spent advocating for policies that support new moms and babies, as well as wider nutrition efforts for organizations like Feed the Truth and 1,000 Days. Jennifer and Lucy also discussed the role of advocacy in advancing public health and how GHAI programs and partners have been successful in changing laws, ensuring basic human rights, increasing health budgets and enabling national collaboration to not only saves lives but helps people lead their healthiest lives.

“Advocacy can help ensure that people who are marginalized excluded or who are most affected by a particular problem are at the table whose interests are being served and whose voices are being heard. Deeply unequal system they don’t change themselves and so you really do need civil society movements advocates to push from the outside to change those systems.”
– Lucy Martinez Sullivan