Emily Bancroft

Field Placement: Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), Kampala, Uganda

As a fellow with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and their Ugandan-based partner, the Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), Emily Bancroft divided her time between supporting AGHA’s health rights advocacy campaigns, connecting AGHA and PHR’s work in Uganda to broader international campaigns and movements, and building AGHA’s capacity through organizational development, fundraising, and office administrative duties. Emily led AGHA’s new Human Resources for Health campaign and their work with Students for Equity in Healthcare, a student-led advocacy group. She was also responsible for finding ways to enhance PHR’s US campaigns by bringing the expertise of AGHA members and stories from the field to inform US policymaking.

Policy Placement: Physicians for Human Rights, Boston, MA

As a fellow with Physicians for Human Rights, Emily managed PHR’s relationships with their advocacy partners in Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda. In this role, Emily brought stories and data from the field that informed PHR’s Health Action AIDS Campaign and helped to mobilize health professionals to advocate for a comprehensive response to the global HIV epidemic. Emily organized advocacy exchanges between US and East African health professionals and continued to support the efforts of PHR’s partners in Uganda and Kenya, including organizing an East African health professional student conference focused on health and human rights. She also worked to develop new advocacy partnerships in East Africa, including helping the Rwanda Medical Association to build their capacity to engage their members in health and human rights advocacy efforts. In collaboration with the Health Action AIDS team, Emily also helped to develop advocacy strategies for the next phase of the campaign.

Pre-Fellowship Education/Experience:

Emily has an MPH from the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Before the fellowship she worked as a Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist for the International Training and Education Center for HIV, an organization based at the University of Washington. As a graduate student, Emily completed her degree project work with the Uganda Health Workforce Retention Study, a joint project between the Uganda Ministry of Health and the Capacity Project to document job satisfaction, working conditions, and intent to leave among health workers across Uganda.

Prior to her graduate study, Emily was a program manager for a number of public sector organizations including NPower, a national organization that provides technology assistance to nonprofits and the City of Seattle, and a support and education organization for people living with hepatitis C. Emily has a BA in Religion from Princeton University. She is originally from Cumberland, Maine, but considers Seattle, Washington home.