Conference Speakers

Deb Derrick is a global health thought leader with nearly two decades of policy and international development experience. As President of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, she leads the organization in educating and engaging U.S. decision makers on the lifesaving work of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She also serves on the board of the NGO alliance, InterAction. Deb previously served as a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she directed approximately $15 million annually in advocacy contracts and grants with the U.S. government and worked on the foundation’s highest-profile global health projects. In this work, she facilitated the foundation’s partnership with the U.S. government to eradicate polio and to fund and strengthen the Global Fund and GAVI (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation). In addition, she coordinated global health-related visits by the foundation’s leadership and co-chairs to Washington, D.C., and Africa, and worked with Melinda Gates to help build bipartisan support in the U.S. for expanded access to women’s health care. 

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Prior to her work at the Gates Foundation, Deb served as Executive Director of the Better World Campaign, leading efforts to foster a stronger relationship between the U.S. and the United Nations through outreach and advocacy. Earlier in her career, she served as a senior advisor at the UN, at the State Department and on Capitol Hill, where she worked on the House Appropriations and Budget committees, devising strategies to contend with budget constraints. She also worked as a producer at C-SPAN.

Ada Williams Prince was the director of policy for OneAmerica, based here in Seattle, where she was responsible for state, local and federal policy and helped to build its immigrant integration strategy. She is very familiar with many of the foundation’s grantees, having worked with several on immigration policy issues. She worked on OneAmerica’s education portfolio for K-12 racial justice, led advocacy efforts, and published a report on the human rights of local residents along the northern border. Deploying her background in gender, she spearheaded internal planning of a gender equity policy at OneAmerica. As director of special projects, she helped to sustain the Rights Working Group, shaped Seattle city policy on English Language Learning for adults, and was responsible for the multi-million dollar expansion of the English Innovations program that she previously directed.

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Ada was the senior advocacy officer for the Women's Refugee Commission in New York City, leading advocacy efforts with the United Nations and community building organizations, pushing for global systemic change to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugees and displaced persons. She has worked with many refugee aid organizations including the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Survivors, Save the Children UK, Refugees International, and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance/USAID. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Neighborhood House and iLEAP and previously served on the board of the Refugee Women’s Alliance in Seattle, and as Chair of the Board of Directors of Wandsworth Women’s Aid UK, a domestic violence shelter.