Former first daughter to speak about global health care

Barbara Pierce Bush, CEO and founder of Global Health Corps, will address global health care challenges during a presentation at Grand Valley in late February.

The former first daughter’s presentation is next in the Frederik Meijer Lecture Series and set for Monday, February 27, at 7 p.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River Room, on Grand Valley’s Allendale Campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public. RSVP online at www.gvsu.edu/honor, click on the Lecture Series icon. Her presentation is sponsored by the Frederik Meijer Honors College.

Global Health Corps, founded by Bush in 2008, creates a pipeline of young professionals who work as fellows on global health initiatives with partner organizations like the U.S. State Department, ActionAid International and the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

Jeffrey Chamberlain, director of the Meijer Honors College, said Bush’s presentation is generating buzz among students.

“Her work will be of interest to so many of our students,” Chamberlain said. “The organization Miss Bush started is involved in health care in Africa — a huge number of our students are headed into health care occupations, and many of them are keenly interested in the developing world.”

Bush graduated from Yale University in 2004. She then worked for Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Capetown, South Africa, and for UNICEF in Botswana. She is a member of UNICEF’s Next Generation Steering Committee and serves on the board of directors for Covenant House International.

For more information, call the Meijer Honors College at (616) 331-3219.