Alumna rises to the challenge of helping vulnerable populations around the globe

For School of Medicine alumna Sarah J. “Sally” Hanson, M.D., obstetrics and gynecology is “the best job in the hospital.” It doesn’t matter whether the hospital is in Africa, Thailand or rural Alaska – just a few of the many places around the world where she has practiced medicine. 

“I've always said I’m going to work in the most challenging places with the people who need the most help,” said Hanson, director of Global Health Programs at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. 

Hanson and her family are based in Botswana, spending 75% of the year there. (Contributed photo)

Since 2022, Hanson, her husband and four children have been based in Gaborone, Botswana, where she spends 75% of her time building sustainable women’s health initiatives and teaching residents through the Botswana Harvard Health Partnership. The remainder of the year she returns to Boston, where she is a member of the Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians.

“Having a baby or being a doctor is the same no matter where you are,” Hanson said. “But in Botswana, I’m definitely a ‘boots on the ground’ person as one of their few faculty members. We wear a lot of hats.”

Advice for global health: ‘Stay humble and curious’

Hanson discovered her passion for global health and reproductive health care while she was an undergraduate at George Mason University. In the late 1990s, she worked in a clinic that saw a significant number of HIV patients at a time before anti-retroviral treatments and therapies were widely available.

“It captivated me that the people who were most impacted by that disease faced factors that were out of their control, people that were in some way vulnerable,” Hanson said. The observation later inspired her to want to work in places where patients had less access to care. “I chose to come to the MCV Campus because of its philosophy of being completely immersed in the community.”

It was at the VCU School of Medicine where Hanson found support for what she calls her “crazy ideas.” After earning her medical degree in 2006, she went on to complete her residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital before working internationally with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and spending over a decade serving Indigenous communities in Alaska through the Indian Health Service.

“There’s a saying that if it’s important to you, you find a way. If not, you find an excuse,” said Nicole W. Karjane, M.D., one of Hanson’s mentors who serves as professor and residency program director in VCU’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “Sally’s always just found a way. She has the attitude that she can fix things.”

‘OB-GYN can be intense and physically draining – you get the highest highs’

Hanson and her residents during laparoscopy training. (Contributed photo)

Learning new approaches still fuels Hanson today, much like her residents in both Botswana and Boston. Sometimes it’s a creative solution rather than cutting-edge technology that can make a difference – like using a chest tube to mitigate postpartum hemorrhaging, which has helped reduce the maternal death rate in Botswana.

“I think your creativity sparks when you’re a little bit pinched,” Hanson said. “My goal now as the Global Health Program director is to find simple solutions to take better care of patients. You have to bring together excited, energetic people who have great ideas.” 

Hanson and Karjane have kept in touch over the years, bonded by their love of their field and their common experiences as mothers, physicians and educators.

“Sally is everything you would want in a doctor,” said Karjane, who completed her OB-GYN residency on the MCV Campus in 2004. “It’s really rewarding watching her career and seeing all that she’s done. The people that we train at VCU do amazing things.”

Hanson agreed. After working with a 2023 graduate of the School of Medicine who was completing his residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, she could tell the culture of serving the community lives on for today’s students. "High quality care for patients, no matter their background, is still part of the training."

She continued, “You become who you are because of the people who trained you. When your students are better than you, that’s so gratifying. Medicine is a way of people handing down knowledge, and I’m glad to be able to be part of that legacy.”