At Pathfinder, Ms. Quam and her colleagues provide global leadership demonstrating the vital role women play, when supported, in addressing the central challenges of our day. Deeply committed to putting power and decisions closer to those who experience their impact, Ms. Quam relinquished her role as Pathfinder’s President to form a leadership group with two other women, a Pathfinder President based in Burkina Faso and a Pathfinder President based in Pakistan. Under Ms. Quam’s leadership, Pathfinder has formed a Global Leadership Council to make key decisions for the organization and has expanded its scope to do more work in areas including women-led climate resilience, women’s economic empowerment, and humanitarian settings.

Before joining Pathfinder, Ms. Quam served at the U.S. State Department as leader of President Barack Obama’s Global Health Initiative with annual U.S. investment over $8 billion addressing the biggest health challenges facing millions of people across more than 80 countries. In the corporate sector, she was the founding CEO of a division of UnitedHealth Group, providing services to older Americans and low-income families across the United States through the Medicare and Medicaid programs and in partnership with AARP. Ms. Quam also served as Chief Operating Officer of The Nature Conservancy and as a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

A Rhodes Scholar from Minnesota, Ms. Quam has degrees from Oxford University and Macalester College.

Empowering women is the long-overdue step toward justice that’s needed to address the enormous and growing challenges facing our world today.

Lois Quam, CEO, Pathfinder