Sualiha Abdulkader
Public health and leadership specialists
Sualiha Abdulkader is a public health and leadership specialists and professional certified coach, earned MPH, MBA and Diploma from local and International Universities. She has served in the Ethiopian health system for more-than 10 years as a trainer, project lead, researcher, coach, program coordinator, thematic lead, health management specialist, project coordinator and program officer with GO and NGOs including International Institute for Primary Health Care (IPHCE) with JHU, America International Health Alliance (AIHA) with University of Queensland/Australia, JSI research & training, Engender Health, and Management Sciences for Health (MSH). She is known by voluntary service provision for the MOH’s leadership incubation program from designing to cascading trainings. She is also a women leadership advocate by example: As an impact of a “women only leadership Program” she has established in JSI, 30% of the total trained women (86) were able to assume leadership posts locally as head and deputy positions.
All Sessions by Sualiha Abdulkader
[Workshop] Disrupting Harmful Narratives: Gender Transformative Leadership Skills
Led by: John Hopkins University.
Organizations perpetuate harmful narratives which disproportionately disadvantage women. Disrupting harmful narratives is gender transformational. These narratives include:
· Emotions should be separated from work.
· Conflict is negative and we should avoid it.
· You must negotiate.
· You must be authentically a woman or authentically a leader – but you cannot be both.
· You have imposter syndrome.
Gender-responsive, transformative leadership strives to mainstream gender into the “process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, in all areas and at all levels”. It’s not just about achieving gender equality, but also about equipping women and men with the tools to change the narrative and challenge and change inequitable systems and structures.
This workshop seeks to address these harmful narratives and asks participants to consider alternatives which they can incorporate into their own leadership, now. Since women’s leadership initiatives shouldn’t be about ‘fixing women’ but rather ‘transforming harmful systems’ - we start this workshop there. We aren’t equipping women with skills to help them conform, but rather, to dismantle oppressive organizational systems. The approach will also provide for context-specific lenses. Participants will first be asked to assess what isn’t working for them, in their context, in their organizations. Not everything is equally transformative (or feasible) in every space.
While all conference participants are welcome, this session might be particularly useful for emerging women leaders and male allies.
The workshop will include brief presentations and practical demonstrations. Participants will break into groups of two or three to role play, practice, and apply new strategies to different narratives. The session will conclude with a reflection period, providing space for participants to share their experiences and insights, and brainstorm ways to integrate new ideas into their leadership moving forward.
Facilitators
1. Dr. Anna Kalbarczyk, Associate Scientist, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2. Dr. Rosemary Morgan, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
3. Dr. Mehr Manzoor, Founder & CEO, BeyondParity; DEIA Consultant, EnCompass LLC
4. Dr Choolwe Nkwemu Jacobs, Country Lead - Women in Global Health Zambia
5. Meagan Harrison, Research Associate II, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health