Moving global health forward in times of change

The inspiration for much of Dr. Ingrid T. Katz’s research came during her first project with the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008. Katz, an infectious disease physician and public health researcher, worked with a Soweto hospital in a perinatal HIV research unit. HIV/AIDS had taken a terrible toll in South Africa, and antiretroviral medications were just becoming available in the country through the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

At that time, only people with T-cell counts low enough for an AIDS diagnosis qualified for the medication, and people lined up outside the hospital’s doors to be tested. Despite effective treatment being free, available, and just down the hall from testing, 20% of the people clinically diagnosed with AIDS did not start treatment. They did not return to ask for it until they were so sick, they would soon die.

Katz didn’t understand why. A system was now available to provide care: why wouldn’t everyone use it? She soon realized that it was because the system did not meet everyone’s needs. She has since spent more than 15 years collaborating with the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town on ways to change that.

The partners have modeled and piloted different types of care delivery for vulnerable people living with HIV. They’ve found these people can stay healthier when they get their HIV care in community settings from their peers. Stigma against people living with HIV/AIDS can be a very big problem in large health care systems and a barrier to care.

Katz became the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) at the start of 2026. She is also chief of evidence and program innovation at the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State.

Katz leads YIGH at a time of significant shifts in global health funding and programmatic support. In an interview, Katz gives her thoughts on how to move global health forward in times of change, and her hopes for YIGH.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A: I’m always of the belief that transitions provide opportunity, and I feel incredibly privileged to be at Yale and at YIGH during this turning point in global health. While we face many challenges, we also should take stock of how far we’ve come in global health, and what has worked. We have seen novel therapeutics — like long-acting HIV prevention tools, and smarter vaccines — achieve a wider reach. We have also witnessed three countries achieve malaria elimination in 2025, alongside new regional genomic surveillance platforms that are strengthening early detection and response capacity — a critical investment in future global health security. In the past, investments had been made that were either very sequestered within a single discipline or disease or established within parallel systems. Our opportunity now is to embrace an interdisciplinary approach and connect across areas like technology, economics, and policy. We also need to think about the impact of climate and larger sociopolitical forces on global health. It behooves us to consider ways we can support regional and local leadership and prioritize partnerships that provide long-term capacity in countries as opposed to short-term interventions. More than ever, we need to lean into local expertise and have locally driven solutions to some of our biggest global health challenges. My hope for Yale is that we can help support this endeavor by leveraging the incredible resources we have here.

A: I see opportunities to grow the interdisciplinary work that has already been started here and to work closely with students, faculty, and trainees across disciplines and across the full university. I think a lot of other academic institutions may have been more connected to some of the older models of how global health was delivered. We have great opportunities with the Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Nursing, and the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. But I also think we have opportunities beyond that, including with The MacMillan Center, Yale School of Management, Yale School of the Environment and Yale Office of Global Affairs Planetary Health, and Yale Law School. We want people from many disciplines across Yale at the table.

A: I think about trust constantly because it’s fundamentally what undergirds the success of big public health interventions. Trust is built generally through consistency and transparency and accountability. If you lose trust, you lose everything. And this is particularly important in settings where communities have experienced frequent disruptions or unmet commitments. I am committed to work in spaces where there’s shared decision-making and respect for local expertise. Long-term experience and collaboration are central to this.

A: My focus over the next six months is developing our strategic plan and listening carefully to faculty, students, trainees, collaborators, and partners. I’m more interested in trying to lean into this moment and, as we might say in New England, follow where the hockey puck is going, not where it is. My team wants to take a very intentional approach to shaping our strategy and ensure that we’re listening and learning. Just as with communities, trust must be built both within Yale and with our external collaborators and partners.

A: It comes down to human-to-human exchanges. There is a deeply human connection that happens over time when we work together, and that hopefully guides our work such that we are meeting the moment. If we don’t, we come up with solutions for things that aren’t problems, or we develop incomplete solutions. That’s exactly what happened in that moment in Soweto when I realized we solved part of the problem through delivery of HIV medications, but we didn't solve the whole problem. You have to work in partnerships to understand a problem and figure out a full solution.

A: It’s a core responsibility. The long-term health of this field depends on emerging leaders — on people we will partner with and whom those people will partner with globally. Supporting them could happen through mentorship, training, partnership models, career support, and leadership pathways. YIGH has activities in these areas, and I’m hopeful we can respond to this moment and try to leverage opportunities and future investments to do even more.