“We’re working to improve the health of largely ignored and vulnerable people. What could be more satisfying than that?”

Patti combines her interest in diverse cultures and public policy with her need to help people. “After teaching college students, I wanted a more active hands-on role where I could make a difference and help develop solutions to global health problems,” she says. “Bristol-Myers Squibb was willing to let me make this career turn and has provided me with training opportunities, both on the business side and the philanthropy side.”

Patti is now a director of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, which supports regional programs in four key strategic disease areas, specifically HIV/AIDS in Africa, hepatitis in Asia, cancer in Europe and serious mental illness in the United States. “With each initiative, we’re given the opportunity to help our partners working in the field explore and drive innovations in health care,” she says.

Patti often gets to see the impact of the projects first-hand. For example, in Swaziland, she accompanied community health workers to the home of a woman who’d recently given birth. She had lost her first baby to HIV, and, she and her family did not want to lose this one. “Her mother-in-law had learned about the project to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child and brought the woman to the clinic in enroll. As a consequence, the mother received treatment for HIV, her child was born HIV negative, and her husband was considering getting tested for the virus,” says Patti.

“A lot of companies just invest money,” Patti says. “We invest money and people. The skills and know-how that we have inside our company are often joined up with funding in order to have an even greater impact on improving public health. It makes me proud that our company mobilizes its philanthropy to improve the health of vulnerable and underserved people around the world.”