Ruth Stark S3E103

Lives Radio Show & Podcast with Stuart Chittenden

International health professional, Ruth Stark, talks about a life in global health, training local health workers and developing nursing programs, eventually being appointed by the World Health Organization as its representative to Papua New Guinea. Stark shares the origins of this calling in her grandmother's stories of exploration, which inspired Stark - as a young single mother - to sell everything and embark with her family on this lifelong vocation.

Doctor Ruth Stark is a nurse with over four decades of global health experience. From humble beginnings influenced by her grandmother's stories of exploration, Doctor Stark worked internationally for the World Health Organization, the United Nations, Catholic Relief Services, and other organizations across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands training local health workers, developing nursing programs, and leading initiatives like HIV/AIDS relief in South Africa. Her travels reshaped her perspective on health, deepening her understanding of the cultural, social, and economic factors affecting well-being. Doctor Stark has come to recognize the importance of local partnerships, sustainable solutions, and respecting cultural contexts in global health work, as reflected in her book ”How to Work in Someone Else's Country" published in 2011 by the University of Washington Press.