Upon returning from work in Africa in 2001, Susan Rickman became executive director of the International Hospital for Children, a new pediatric nonprofit that wanted to link pediatric critical care to children in developing countries. It was a passion project of orthodontist Julian Metts and the South Richmond Rotary Club.
Almost 20 years later, Rickman leaves an organization that merged with a St. Louis-based nonprofit to form the World Pediatric Project, which has touched the lives of more than 27,000 patients and has helped change health care policy in Central America and the Caribbean.
“My wish is that WPP finds the next global health expert who can come in to take WPP to the next level by expanding our proven model,“ Rickman says.
It was from her mentor, Dr. Paul F. McCleary, that she learned perseverance and making sure that you were working in partnership with the country’s leadership. “For critical care, you had to establish trust with the hospitals, local doctors, governments and with the families we served. I took great joy in developing those deep relationships.”
Lasting change in the countries in which WPP works is what Rickman circles back to. “When we cut the ribbon on a dedicated operating theater in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for World Pediatric teams in 2015, it was a milestone,” Rickman says. “That’s where our hub is now for serving all the children in the Eastern Caribbean.”
And in Belize, “we started with folic acid supplements in the southern part of Belize, where there was the largest Mayan population and highest incidence of neural tube defects.” It took seven years to convince the government to pass a law that all rice had to be fortified. The law passed in 2009, and WPP continues to work with the government on implementation of that program.
“Again,” Rickman says, “it was done through perseverance and through partnership.”
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