Profiles

Dan Chang: Global Health in the Field

As the director of headquarter operations at Health Alliance International (HAI), Dan Chang is in the middle of the action, building a big organization working for big causes. His job providing vision, leadership, and overall management to maintain global administrative operations at HAI’s headquarters and field locations requires him to draw from his many different skills and experiences. “I think of myself as being in charge of HAI’s engine room. “I make sure the ship is watertight,” said Chang of his role overseeing the human resources, accounting, grants management, and information systems at HAI.

HAI seeks to improve access to health in resource poor countries by strengthening health systems in much needed areas such as prenatal care, HIV treatment, and malaria control. HAI is an independent 501c (3) non-profit organization that also functions as a center of the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health, and has close ties with the UW School of Public Health. Through its projects, research, and faculty, HAI remains deeply involved with UW research.

Founded in the early 1990s, HAI first focused on health projects in Mozambique and since then has expanded programs to include global field operations in Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan and Timor-Leste. Now HAI is actively looking at setting up new programs in the Republic of Colombia. As HAI grows, so does its need for highly qualified staff. After working five years as an administrator for PATH’s diagnostics development lab, Chang was hired at HAI in 2006 to strengthen administrative capacity at HAI to meet the organization’s recent growth and expansion. “What we are finding is that communicating has been very challenging because the need to hear our message is so much greater than before,” Chang said.

Chang has a bachelor of arts degree from the UW and master’s in public administration from Rutgers University. He worked as a Peace Corps volunteer for two and a half years in Guatemala, then worked in the Peace Corps recruiting office in Seattle, before becoming the director of the Peace Corps Community Economic Development Program in the Dominican Republic.Chang is currently working on initiatives to strengthen and streamline HAI’s administrative operations. He is introducing a new database system for accounting and human resources, and developing a strategic planning initiative. He has four children, ages 2, 3, 11, and 13 who always make his life “fun and exciting.”