Elissa Ladd

Elissa Ladd has had a lifelong commitment to global health. As a young student and nurse, she worked with midwives in an inner-city clinic in Lima, Peru; with Cambodian refugees in camps on the Thai/Cambodian border; and with the Indian Health Service on the Navaho Reservation.

As an educator, Elissa joined the faculty of the MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP) in 2004 as an Assistant Professor of Nursing and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. The next year she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at Manipal University in South India, the only nurse from the United States to receive that honor in 2012. She spent six months teaching and conducting research. She also consulted with an Indian hospital system regarding nurse practitioner training and participated in clinical activities at village clinics.

During her time in India, Elissa laid the foundation for an ongoing educational exchange in global health. When she returned to the Institute, she proposed a travel study experience for nurse practitioner students completing their scholarly projects. As a part of the program, students conduct investigations and participate in clinical activities in rural villages on the coast of the Arabian Sea in South India. Outside of her regular teaching responsibilities, Elissa devised her own objectives, pre-departure orientation, travel arrangements, and project mentoring.

By 2016, the global immersion program that Elissa developed had run at capacity three times and successfully introduced an international experience into a tightly packed curriculum. In 2017, she redesigned the experience to include an interprofessional focus, with students from across the health professions.

The interprofessional experience has grown and run subsequently in 2018 and again in 2019 as a fully developed interprofessional global education program. This educational innovation is committed to sustainability, capacity building, and bi-directionality that fully infuses the prevailing principles of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, SDG #3, addresses health and wellbeing from the global vantage point, and stresses the importance of cross-sector cooperation, is fully imbued throughout her global efforts.

She has expanded her work through a grant from the US India Educational Foundation a cooperative organization supported by the US Department of State and the Government of India). The project will afford additional Indian participants the opportunity to cultivate professional and/or research collaborations with health professions educators from the US and around the world via exchange visits and other collaborative activities. By designing and implementing a project that expands the capacity of health professions education in India, Elissa’s work reflects a significant impact on the future of healthcare education and delivery in the Indian context.

Elissa currently serves as a consultant to Manipal College of Nursing in their implementation of one of the first nurse practitioner programs in India. She conducts seminars for Indian nursing faculty both in person and remotely and holds clinical instructional sessions for Indian NP students. As a part of her work here in the US, she serves as the Director for the Global Health Equity and Innovations Certificate Program at the Institute.

Elissa has proven herself to be a leader in global nursing education at the Institute and globally. Her work clearly exemplifies her life-long belief that enduring, sustainable change is inculcated most effectively through education. Through her scholarship, teaching, and partnerships, Elissa’s work has had a considerable impact on enhancing nursing capacity in India and educating the next generation of health professionals committed to improving the health of their society, wherever that may be.

– Deb

Elissa Ladd has had a lifelong commitment to global health. As a young student and nurse, she worked with midwives in an inner-city clinic in Lima, Peru; with Cambodian refugees in camps on the Thai/Cambodian border; and with the Indian Health Service on the Navaho Reservation.

As an educator, Elissa joined the faculty of the MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP) in 2004 as an Assistant Professor of Nursing and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. The next year she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at Manipal University in South India, the only nurse from the United States to receive that honor in 2012. She spent six months teaching and conducting research. She also consulted with an Indian hospital system regarding nurse practitioner training and participated in clinical activities at village clinics.

During her time in India, Elissa laid the foundation for an ongoing educational exchange in global health. When she returned to the Institute, she proposed a travel study experience for nurse practitioner students completing their scholarly projects. As a part of the program, students conduct investigations and participate in clinical activities in rural villages on the coast of the Arabian Sea in South India. Outside of her regular teaching responsibilities, Elissa devised her own objectives, pre-departure orientation, travel arrangements, and project mentoring.

By 2016, the global immersion program that Elissa developed had run at capacity three times and successfully introduced an international experience into a tightly packed curriculum. In 2017, she redesigned the experience to include an interprofessional focus, with students from across the health professions.

The interprofessional experience has grown and run subsequently in 2018 and again in 2019 as a fully developed interprofessional global education program. This educational innovation is committed to sustainability, capacity building, and bi-directionality that fully infuses the prevailing principles of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, SDG #3, addresses health and wellbeing from the global vantage point, and stresses the importance of cross-sector cooperation, is fully imbued throughout her global efforts.

She has expanded her work through a grant from the US India Educational Foundation a cooperative organization supported by the US Department of State and the Government of India). The project will afford additional Indian participants the opportunity to cultivate professional and/or research collaborations with health professions educators from the US and around the world via exchange visits and other collaborative activities. By designing and implementing a project that expands the capacity of health professions education in India, Elissa’s work reflects a significant impact on the future of healthcare education and delivery in the Indian context.

Elissa currently serves as a consultant to Manipal College of Nursing in their implementation of one of the first nurse practitioner programs in India. She conducts seminars for Indian nursing faculty both in person and remotely and holds clinical instructional sessions for Indian NP students. As a part of her work here in the US, she serves as the Director for the Global Health Equity and Innovations Certificate Program at the Institute.

Elissa has proven herself to be a leader in global nursing education at the Institute and globally. Her work clearly exemplifies her life-long belief that enduring, sustainable change is inculcated most effectively through education. Through her scholarship, teaching, and partnerships, Elissa’s work has had a considerable impact on enhancing nursing capacity in India and educating the next generation of health professionals committed to improving the health of their society, wherever that may be.

– Deb