In May, the Population Council’s Board of Trustees appointed Patricia C. Vaughan and James Sailer as Co-Presidents of the Council. Pat and Jim bring decades of experience to their roles—both from within and outside the Council. At a time of unprecedented upheaval in the global health and development sector, the Council’s new Co-Presidents spoke about why they wanted the job, what they’ve learned working together, and how the Council is poised to meet this moment.
You each have worked at the Council for more than 20 years—what has motivated you to stay with the organization for this long?
Pat: I came to the Council in 1997 after getting to a point in my career when I knew I needed a change after years of working as a corporate lawyer. My undergrad studies were in development, and I was always interested in pursuing development work. When I saw the job opening for the General Counsel at the Population Council, it seemed like the perfect way to use my skills to further a mission I cared deeply about. I was fortunate to get the job and, since then, working here has been a constant source of learning and collaboration. It’s my dream job that became a reality.
Jim: I haven’t been at the Council for quite as long as Pat, but it has been 21 years and, for me, there’s a strong feeling of stewardship. The work the Council does is so vital and the issues that we work on are so fundamental to drive better outcomes for people around the world. Both of us want to make sure that this organization is in a better place because of the work that we do to support it, but it takes hard, sustained effort all the time. That’s both a daily challenge and a daily privilege.
You have different professional backgrounds. How do your skill sets complement each other, particularly in a co-leadership model?
Pat: The opportunity to work with Jim for so many years is a plus, plus, plus. Over the years, you get a sense of what each person brings to a project and how their personality, temperament, and skills complement yours.
We are building upon this strong foundation and our shared goal of putting the interests of the Council first. This is number one for us—how to deliver on the Council’s mission, improve the lives of the people we serve, and create a meaningful work environment for our colleagues.
Jim: I don’t know how I can improve on that answer! But I’ll say that, if you work at the Council long enough, you appreciate how much you learn from people with different backgrounds, different cultures, different expertise.
Pat is somebody I’ve learned from, probably more than anyone else, because she’s taught me a whole new way to think and how to approach problems. Being able to confer with Pat about the best way to proceed often provides clarity on a way forward—and, when you have the responsibilities we do, we really need that partnership.
Pat: There’s a level of openness and trust. There has to be to get things done.
You’re taking on leadership in an incredibly turbulent time. Has that changed how you think about your priorities going forward?
Jim: Pat and I have such a deep commitment to the organization, and this extends to making sure we continue to do the groundbreaking research the Council is known for. Our research portfolio encompasses a lot, but it’s rooted in understanding the drivers that affect population health and wellbeing and finding solutions to improve people’s lives.
This includes research focused on expanding access and method choice for contraceptives and HIV prevention products, keeping girls safe and in school, stopping gender-based and sexual violence, and looking at which populations are the most vulnerable—whether because of gender inequities, their refugee status, if they live in a climate-vulnerable area—and developing targeted interventions.
Pat: Agree. When you think about our work in context—the populations we are working with, the circumstances they face—our priorities become quite clear. We need to do all we can to ensure that the people we serve are front and center in how we approach our research and what we prioritize.
And that we are always coming back to what the Council is particularly good at, which is taking complex research questions on issues that affect underserved populations and producing data and evidence that communities and policymakers can use. This is not abstract research, it is grounded in addressing major challenges people experience every day.
Many of the issues the Council works on—including sexual and reproductive health and gender equality—are under intense scrutiny and attack. How do you respond to that pressure?
Pat: We can’t compromise on our work. We need to keep doing good science, ethical science. That’s the best way to stand up to this. That’s fundamental to who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Just because for the time being there are some people in power who say certain populations or certain issues aren’t important, it doesn’t mean it’s true. They are even more important in times like these.
Jim: The Council was founded by someone—John D. Rockefeller 3rd—who was constantly told the issues he thought were important were not important.
Take the birth control pill, approved in the US in 1960. People thought it would change everything for women in America. And it certainly changed a tremendous amount for women to have more control over their fertility. But while everyone else was celebrating and thinking this was the end of the need for new contraceptives, Rockefeller had the vision—against the grain—to know this wouldn’t be the only solution needed for everyone in the world. That one option wouldn’t be enough. And so he started this decades-long research to pursue long-acting reversible contraceptives—which led to the world’s first successful hormonal intrauterine system, the Copper-T IUD, the contraceptive implant, and the one-year contraceptive vaginal ring. That is quite a legacy!
The reason I mention this history is that, today, we are again against the grain. We have an administration that says reproductive health and HIV prevention isn’t in the interest of the United States. We know that’s not true, it’s not pragmatic, it’s not moral. As Pat said, it makes good science and evidence all the more important.
There’s a lot to worry about right now in this field. What makes you hopeful?
Jim: We don’t have unlimited resources, and we are affected by the environment we’re operating in —and it is a tough environment. But we’re just going to have to be creative in figuring out how to achieve our mission. The Council has had extraordinary impact on major health and development issues for almost 75 years. If we can be as successful in addressing those issues going forward—and I firmly believe we can—then I think there’s an incredible need for an organization like ours.
Pat: Jim and I feel a real responsibility to make sure our work can continue to improve lives around the world—and we also see a real opportunity. Science is critically important to advancing workable solutions to major problems. There’s not only a place for the Council, but a need for it. And so that makes me hopeful.