Elizabeth Sheehan

Activist, Athlete, Change agent, Connector, Entrepreneur, Investor, Philanthropist, Social entrepreneur

Elizabeth is a clinician, entrepreneur and global health expert passionate about advancing women's health and building resilient healthcare systems. With over two decades of clinical experience working on the frontlines of medicine in North America, Africa, and Asia, she has witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of limited healthcare access, poor social determinants, and climate change. Originally trained as a Physician's Assistant, Elizabeth provided critical care in both rural and urban emergency rooms in the United States. She also contributed to healthcare training initiatives in Cambodia and Mozambique and played a pivotal role in USAID's primary healthcare reconstruction efforts in post-war Mozambique and Angola. In 2010, Elizabeth founded Care2Communities (C2C), a non-profit organization delivering affordable healthcare to over 150,000 patients annually in Haiti through self-sustaining community-based clinics. The C2C model has garnered widespread recognition and accolades, including media coverage in The New York Times, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and NPR. As a philanthropist and founder of The Valerian Fund, Elizabeth is dedicated to fostering a gender-equitable, climate-safe, and health-resilient future for all. She champions the voices of women on the frontlines of climate change, advocating for policy change, mobilizing resources, and supporting resilient community-based initiatives. Through her philanthropic endeavors, Elizabeth provides unrestricted, multi-year support to innovative grassroots organizations, empowering them to elevate best practices and drive positive change. A firm believer in the power of collaboration, Elizabeth is a founding partner of Co-Impact, a board member of the Network of Engaged International Donors, and a member of Women Moving Millions and Connected Women Leaders. She is also a proud founding funder of Project Dandelion.

Birthing great ideas to empower and unleash the lives of millions without access to health, jobs, safety. Collaborative efforts to serve others. Building a women's movement to unleash millions to causes of women and girls. Good live music, fresh food, the natural world, and my children.

Building sustainable, community operated primary health clinics across the world will lift women out of poverty faster than any other health intervention. 90% of illnesses can be treated at the community level, by a doctor and nurse. Providing lab services and on onsite pharmacy are easy to add to the service provision and together, communities become healthier, more productive and resilient. I have built a model in Haiti and know of others around the globe. The time is now to invest in these models to build that level of care that is life changing. Women philanthropists, when working together, can change the fate of vulnerable women and girls in one generation if time, talent and resources are leveraged and deployed in a strategic way. I am working across sectors and philanthropy networks to unleash unprecedented resources to support women and girls because I am impatient and optimistic.

Building a Social Enterprise, Founding a Non-Profit and Establishing a Board of Directors, Global Health, Health in Northern Haiti, Women in Philanthropy

Teaching yoga, gardening, paddle boarding, organizing.