Global Health NOW Celebrates 10 Years
Global Health NOW is celebrating a decade of sharing essential global health news, reporting, and perspectives. Throughout 2024, we will publish a series of special features, campaigns, and events that showcase what makes GHN an essential and unique must-read. Our goal is to thank our loyal readers and to grow this special community.
Together, We Made GHN’s First Decade
Looking back is dangerous—it’s easy to become mired in nostalgia. But as Global Health NOW turns 10 today, let’s risk it.
When I clicked send on a proto-GHN email at 8:19 a.m. on January 2, 2014, I had a passion for global public health and no idea how long the newsletter would last. Certainly, 10 years was beyond the realm of wild dreams.
Where We Are Now
GHN reaches 50,000+ readers in 170 countries.
We’ve clicked send on 2,444 newsletters.
We’ve published 600+ original articles and commentaries on our website.
Team GHN: None of this would be possible without Dayna Kerecman Myers, our indefatigable managing editor (and only full-time GHN staffer), and invaluable colleagues Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Jackie Powder, Melissa Hartman, and Kate Belz.
The hardest part of GHN is producing the newsletter day-in, day-out. Each morning they meet that challenge with fresh commitment.
Critical Support: We are grateful for early support from then-Dean Michael J. Klag, associate dean Joshua Else, and Bloomberg Philanthropies—and ongoing support from Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie and associate dean Lymari Morales.
You: We have one other critical partner: Our loyal subscribers. You read GHN and send us ideas, you correct us when we mess up, you share GHN with friends, and you support us with generous gifts. Thank you!
The Future: Even as we celebrate GHN’s past 10 years, we’re looking forward to the future issues we need to cover, the new subscribers we can introduce to global health, and the new ways to share the essential global health news.
And NOW, let’s get started on GHN’s second decade.
All best,
Brian W. Simpson, MPH
Editor-in-Chief
Flashback: GHN’s Style Evolution
Have you been with us since our very first, no-frills newsletter on January 2, 2014?
We've gradually added more color and style:
A Decade of Milestones:
2014: First newsletter (January 2)
2015: GHN’s first website; Untold Global Health Stories Contest (in partnership with NPR's Goats and Soda and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health)
2016: Newsletter and website redesign; published the first Untold Global Health Story winner: Mycetoma: The Most Neglected Disease by Amy Maxmen
2017: First live event: Adapt: The Climate Has Changed (November 30); covered the World Health Assembly for the first time.
2018: 1,000th issue (January 4)
2019: A “Pretty Good Miracle” Turns 5 (January 2); formed partnership with IFMSA; Rise with Refugees: A GHN LIVE Event with the Stanford Refugee Research Project (March 12)
2020: Topped 50,000 subscribers during the COVID-19 pandemic; launched Expert Reality Checks
2021: Joint GHN/Pulitzer Center/Consortium for Universities for Global Health communications workshop in Washington, DC (April 16); GHN’s COVID Country Dispatches
2022: Launched Local Reporting Initiative; New look, new logo
2023: Launched Storytelling series with The Story Lab at Olin College of Engineering
2024: GHN’s 10th Anniversary (January 2)
Help Us Expand GHN's International Reach
To keep providing and expanding this service, we need to ask you a favor: Please share our free subscription with at least one friend or colleague overseas.
This will be an immense help as we strive to bring the most important global health news to more people across the globe.
Two girls light sparklers against a blue sky background during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations in Pugoda on April 14, 2023.
