Today I’m answering the question: Where would you like the organization to be in 2020?

I am very impressed with the talent and willingness of employees and volunteers in the Red Cross to rally around some of the changes we’ve been making, whether it’s the One Red Cross initiative, the steps that are happening in biomedical to ensure compliance, the work we’re doing with Marketing and Development messages, and so on. In virtually every area, we are making enormous strides in transforming the American Red Cross.

I’m amazed and pleased with how quickly the organization has embraced the direction. It gives me great optimism.

When we have our operational changes in effect and our financial challenges are behind us, the big question is,

“What are we going to do next?”

The incredible answer is that we can do practically anything.

In the U.S. we have thousands of volunteers with great affection for, alliance to, and experience with the Red Cross; the opportunities are endless. There are areas we can start considering that can make a difference in the world.

I look at, for example, what we’ve done with the Measles Initiative. When I consider the stunning numbers of children’s lives that we’ve saved by galvanizing the arms and legs of everyone in this humanitarian movement, I believe that we can truly have an impact in stamping out pandemics, eliminating disease, and ensuring that every child around the globe is vaccinated against polio, measles, tuberculosis, and the like. We can stop the spread of AIDS, for example.

I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to consider our future and how we can help the world.

Each morning when I go off to work, my husband says to me,

“Have fun saving the world!”

and it puts a spring in my step every time, because I know that’s what all of us at the Red Cross are attempting to do.

Filed under: International, Leadership