Vital People

Joseph joined Vital Strategies in 2017 as a project officer for the Partnership for Healthy Cities, where he has helped the program grow to more than 70 cities. Joseph mostly focuses on 14 cities in Africa plus Amman, Jordan, helping them to develop policies that reduce noncommunicable diseases and injuries.

Ellie Hendrickson joined Vital Strategies in 2019 and helps lead various efforts within the information technology department. She’s been integral to Vital Strategies’ growth.

When Fiona joined, the HR team only had two members. Since then, Fiona and the larger (but still small) Vital HR team have recruited and onboarded more than 600 employees—averaging more than 100 a year.

In 2017, Melissa was hired to be the Data Impact country coordinator in Colombia. In 2020, she added on the role of senior manager for six Latin American cities in the Partnership for Healthy Cities.

Steve was one of Vital’s first employees and has helped usher the organization through tremendous growth.

As a grants officer for the Brazil office, Juliana Mendes ensures that Vital Strategies meets the commitments it has promised in grant agreements with funders.

Sumi Mehta, Vice President of Climate and Environmental Health, owes much of her career direction to a chance encounter in graduate school.

Jason is in charge of Vital’s annual audit, completed each June. He manages two account managers who manage four accounting staff.

Sharan was one of the first people hired to work on STOP, Vital’s tobacco industry watchdog, which aims to expose the tobacco industry’s tactics in hooking future generations of smokers. She is proud of having helped the project grow from an idea to a fully executed initiative.

Riksum Kazi’s work week never ends. On weekdays, he’s the Security and Operations Manager at Vital Strategies. On the weekends, he responds to crises, as the Disaster Action Team Program Lead in New Jersey for the American Red Cross.