Columbia Global EVP Interviewed on Foreign Policy's Podcast The Threshold

In a new episode of Foreign Policy's The Threshold — a podcast about the fight to end infectious diseases and the innovations that could get us there — Columbia Global executive vice president Wafaa El-Sadr shares how ideas born in Harlem reshaped HIV/AIDS prevention across Africa and what those lessons mean for public health today.

As founder and global director of ICAP at Columbia University, El-Sadr pioneered a community-based model that challenged conventional approaches to care, showing that reaching people where they are can save lives and strengthen entire health systems.

Traditionally for health care systems, the thinking is that you sit in your office, in the exam room, and you wait for people to come to you. But if you think about it, that means you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

If you really want to have a public health impact, meaning a positive impact on populations — not individuals but populations — you have to go out there. To not just reach the tip of the iceberg, but to reach the full iceberg.

- Wafaa El-Sadr

Listen to the full conversation on The Threshold.