OLBIOS INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

With over thirty years of global, on-the-ground experience, Rachel Kiddell-Monroe is a thought leader in decolonizing humanitarianism. To launch this framework into practice, Rachel founded SeeChange Initiative in 2018, a non-profit organization which globally supports vulnerabilized communities by co-creating participative, innovative, community-led, community-owned and CommunityFirst Solutions to health crises. This decolonized approach to humanitarian action SeeChange proposes is inclusive, participative, co-created and, most importantly, inspired and led by communities to address their health crises, their way. This methodology continues to support communities in 12 countries across the Americas and Africa to respond to health crises including Tuberculosis and COVID-19.

The SeeChange Initiative builds on Rachel’s lifelong dedication to humanitarian work and speaking out against injustice. In 1989, she left her legal practice to work on Indigenous rights and East Timorese independence with grassroots organizations in Indonesia— a pivotal and formative experience. From there, Rachel joined Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and headed emergency humanitarian missions in Central and Eastern Africa, as well as Latin America.

Witnessing the profound global inequity in access to medicines, Rachel became the founding President of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines. She recently served as a Director on MSF’s highest governance platform supporting calls to reimagine humanitarian action through decentralizing governance. She continues to serve on MSF Spain’s board in particular, advancing anti-racism and decolonisation discussions. As a Professor of Practice at McGill University, where she completed her LL.M in Bioethics, Rachel teaches annual courses on Decolonizing Humanitarian Action.