Dear Community,
It has been a great honor to serve in the role of CEO for the past 11 years. My approach has been to recruit people smarter than me, equip them with the resources they need to do inspired work for others, and make sure everyone involved could focus on our shared mission. Today, I am writing with news that it is time for me to transition out of my role as CEO of Medic Mobile. This is a hard path, and also the right one. While the decision weighed on me heavily, I know it will set up the organization and our open-source community to continue growing and flourishing.
Why now? Three things aligned in the past six months. First of all, the organization is ready. Medic Mobile is thriving and filled with leaders who bring moral imagination, skill, and dedication to this work. We are incredibly fortunate that Jacqueline Edwards, Medic Mobile’s long-time COO, is stepping up as Interim CEO to guide our work during our CEO search. Our partnerships are aligned and strong, and we are in a healthy financial position. Secondly, I began to develop an intuition that there is other work I need to do. Following this sense and exploring what social good I might contribute is one of my core responsibilities as a human being. Finally, knowing that I will be able to continue contributing to Medic’s mission as a board member and founder played a deeply important role in my decision.
This has been a wonderful journey. I will always remember that the community health workers in Namitete in Malawi recognized the potential for the organization well before I did. “This must work, for our community and for communities like ours,” encouraged Verona Kapagawani, one of the group’s leaders, during the first training session for the CHWs’ new communication platform. These health workers set out to change how the health system worked for their patients and the Medic Mobile team acted by their side. That first network of 100 health workers has now grown to a global network of 35,000. Their dedication and service to others calls all of us to do more.
The frontlines of our work now extend from ranges of the Himalayas in Nepal to the most remote areas of Uganda to bustling neighborhoods in Mali. We have built human-centered software together with health workers and our partners in more than a dozen countries. Every hour, the Community Health Toolkit supports people caring through 10,000 home visits in the hardest-to-reach communities. A team of 100 wonderful and talented souls, living in 30 cities, drives this mission forward every day. Hundreds of others are now contributing as partners and open-source community members; our designs, tools, and ideas have taken root across continents and now serve the movement for health for all. More announcements are on the way from the team and you can expect great things from this singular organization, a unique group of people who have come together to do what they can only do together.
So many of you – advisors, teammates, friends, family, the many colleagues caring for their neighbors – have stretched and grown with me. I am grateful for every effort and the solidarity I have witnessed and felt. Truly, this work has given me windows into the best of humanity. Thank you.
With immense hope for the future,
Josh