Years ago, global health expert King Holmes was called in to help connect the disparate divisions of a large, unnamed organization. On his first day, he went to talk with a division leader and saw the following on an office white board:

Eat them or be eaten.

He thought a moment. Then he picked up an eraser and cleaned the board. In place of the carnivorous phrase, he wrote: 

Help them and grow stronger together. 

For Holmes, a professor in the departments of Global Health and Medicine at the University of Washington, the phrase exemplifies the global health credo. He recalled the story Saturday after accepting the Distinguished Leadership in Global Health Award at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health conference. 

Also honored for Distinguished Leadership was Ken Bridbord, senior scientist emeritus at the  Fogarty International Center in the National Institutes of Health.

Read the Global Health NOW article