Helen Davies
Helen Davies (Jesus, 2006), is a queer feminist working to build health systems that work for women and girls everywhere.
After graduating from Cambridge and Yale, Helen started her career at Southern New Hampshire University - one of the largest non-profit providers of higher education in the USA. While there, she helped launch a global refugee education program, bringing online, accredited degrees to refugee camps around the world. She also built a local community hub for refugees and New Americans in New Hampshire.
It was during her time in the USA that Helen finally felt able to come out of the closet. She married her wife in 2018.
Having grasped some of the complexities of the global development environment - and witnessed how system failure disproportionately affects women and girls - Helen decided to transition from higher education to sustainable development. Her work is now focused on building national health systems that work for women and girls everywhere. Her current mission is ending obstetric fistula for every woman, everywhere, by using innovative financing and data to help identify trends that can reduce risk of maternal death and build local capacity within health systems across 17 countries.
This year, Helen co-created 'The Sidebar' - an innovative and dynamic open-access environment designed to convene global advocates and actors working in international development, philanthropy, and social impact. The Sidebar launched at the 2024 Skoll World Forum and has since traveled to convene communities linked to the UN General Assembly in NY. As part of this, she created the "Rainbow Road" - a community designed to provide safe, celebratory spaces and events for LGBTQIA+ people working in international development - especially those working in countries where it is not safe or legal to be out. The Rainbow Road is a global community and was launched in partnership with Queer & Allied Chamber of Commerce Africa and the Queer African Network.