Evelyn Cherow, MA, MPA
Bio Sketch 2025
Evelyn Cherow is CEO & Founder of GlobalPartnersUnited, a woman-owned social enterprise consultancy designed to facilitate adoption of robust 21st century, digital health technology systems design and applications in LMICs to ensure accessible, inclusive, integrated and affordable public health, healthcare, early childhood, and education systems strengthening and capacity building. Focused on mitigating inequities in human and social capitol development in low- and middle-resourced countries, GPU offers thought leadership expertise to improve well-being and economic outcomes for individuals and nations, bridging the digital divide and forming unique public, private, academic, and social enterprise partnerships for implementations. As an early adopter of knowledge transfer technologies for a large professional and scientific healthcare association, I have fostered creating inclusive early childhood, education, public health and healthcare workforce development, communities of practice, and coalitions for enhancing knowledge exchange and influencing public policy advocacy and development.
Over a multi-decade career in nationally and internationally-scoped agencies and organizations, I have served in senior management of a large US national professional and scientific association (ASHA), and led creation of two national, federally-funded, university-based, demonstration programs serving children with disabilities and families, and in early career, served as a clinician at DC’s Children’s Hospital serving families lacking equitable access to children’s healthcare and families’ resources. With expert committees and in leadership of coalitions, I have negotiated consensus and promulgated evidence-based, practice policies, and with diverse coalitions, advocates for infusion of these practices into global and US public health, health care, early childhood development, disability, education, and (re)habilitation public policy.
Throughout my career, I have served as an advisor to Congressional policymakers, US federal agencies (CDC, NIH/NIDCD, Education Department, FDA, OSHA, EPA, SSA), UK’s National Health Services, Asia and Africa Ministries and Ambassadors, academia, national and international Organizations of People with Disabilities, and US medical diasporas (Ethiopia and Sri Lanka) and served as a consultant on community-based capacity building serving people with disabilities (India) .
Currently, I serve as Chair, APHA’s Global Maternal and Child Health Network/Intersectional Work Groups, serves on the International Health Section leadership team, has formed collaborations on professional development panels for APHA Annual Meetings and webinars with the APHA Office of Global Health, as a member with the WFPHA Women, Children and Youth Committee, with Mental Health and HIIT Sections, and the Global Alliance on Behavioral Health and Social Justice, and GlobalPartnersUnited is approved by United Nations ECOSOC in Special Consultative Status, served as core leadership advisor of UNICEF/RISE Institute Early Childhood Development international task force of 800 professionals, co-chaired UNICEF Task forces on children with disabilities, and served as a research project consultant to UNESCO.
During the devastating war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, I collaborated on advocacy policy planning and deployment with colleagues from MUSC and select APHA subject experts from Peace Caucus and our Ethiopia Tigray APHA colleague to expedite the cessation of the armed conflict in Ethiopia through raising awareness among professional organizations and the US Congress as to escalating war crimes and crimes against humanity reported, and the exacerbation of famine, massacres, gender violence, weaponizing destruction of health facilities, and the Ethiopian government’s expulsion of international aid and human right agencies’ representatives.
I hold an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (2001-02) and an MA in Audiology from Northwestern University. I am a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and have received special recognition awards from APHA’s International Health and Disability Sections as well as the Global MCH Network.