Christy Wistar '04

Constructing laboratories and educating locals, Christy Wistar ’04 helps combat Tanzania’s HIV/AIDS epidemic

By Rachel Farrell

When Christy Wistar was offered the position of vice president of Abbott Fund in 2006, the job came with a caveat: She had to move to Tanzania.

Wistar liked the idea at first, especially since the move would benefit her husband, Tom Wistar, director of Abbott’s anti-retroviral drugs for Africa, who flew there periodically to help broaden access to HIV therapeutics. But her feelings changed when she started looking for a home in Dar es Salaam, the nation’s largest city and location for Abbott Fund’s first non-U.S. office. It wasn’t what the Libertyville, Ill., resident was used to. “Our realtor took us to these places that were dirty, with mold on the wall and a hot plate instead of a kitchen,” says Wistar, a 2004 graduate of the Kellogg School Executive MBA Program. “And I thought, ‘I can’t live like this.’ I started questioning whether this was something that I could do.”

Finding a house that was “liveable,” she says, helped ease her concerns. But more significantly, Wistar discovered how important her work at Abbott Fund was to the Tanzanian people. According to the Ministry of Health of the United Republic of Tanzania, more than 2 million people are living in Tanzania with HIV, but only one doctor is available for every 25,000-30,000 residents. Transportation options are sparse in the country’s many rural areas, which makes it difficult for residents to travel to healthcare facilities, especially if they’re ill. As a result, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among adults ages 15-59, and more than 150,000 children living with the disease are without proper treatment and care, according to Abbott Fund.

To address this epidemic, Wistar has developed several initiatives that are improving the country’s public health system and infrastructure. Along with overseeing planning of the country’s first pediatric HIV/AIDS clinic in the Mbeya region (which borders Malawi), she is directing the Regional Laboratory Modernization Project, which aims to build or modernize 23 regional-level hospital laboratories by 2010. The first four, including the laboratory at Amana Regional Hospital, will be completed in 2008. The labs will be equipped with modern technology to improve accuracy in the hospitals’ record-keeping systems and doctors’ ability to access patient test results and communicate with one another. They will also reduce the time it takes for patients to see a doctor, take an HIV test, get lab results and receive treatment. Next year, Wistar says she will receive 40 percent more funding to complete these plans and develop new projects, as the recession in the U.S. is “too recent” to have affected her budget thus far.

Wistar’s work to improve Tanzania’s public health system has had a significant added benefit: It’s strengthening the country’s economy. “Without good healthcare, some people are too sick to work,” she explains. Also, the current system requires “people to [leave their jobs to] go to the health center and wait all day. And then they may go home and never get seen. It could be a week before they get seen.” In addition, the Regional Laboratory Modernization Project is creating jobs, as construction workers are needed to build the new laboratories. Once construction is complete, additional laboratory personnel will be hired. Abbott Fund is financing tuition and housing for 100 medical laboratory technology students each year to work in the new laboratories.

Before opening the new office in Dar es Salaam in 2007, Abbott Fund worked remotely with the Government of Tanzania from its headquarters in Lake County, Ill., since 2001. Abbott identified Tanzania because its HIV/AIDS epidemic hadn’t been properly addressed and the government was struggling to respond; at the same time, it was “a very peaceful, democratic country — we could put Abbott people there and they would be safe,” Wistar explains. But placing Wistar on-site has strengthened the Abbott Fund-Tanzania partnership and made the organization more effective in the country. Wistar frequently meets with Tanzania’s minister of health and chief medical officer to ensure that her plans align with the country’s needs. She also collaborates with colleagues from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the United States Agency for International Development to improve the overall response on the ground. Visiting construction sites allows Wistar to check on the progress of the laboratories, meet with CEOs of the hospitals and troubleshoot problems. “I see the issues firsthand,” says Wistar, who has worked for Abbott since 1984 in roles such as senior project manager, director of sales and vice president of U.S. marketing. “I’m able to go deeper into problems and ask questions, [which helps me] to formulate solutions.”

Under Wistar’s leadership, Abbott Fund is also building sustainability in Tanzania. In addition to helping modernize Muhimbili National Hospital, it paid for the hospital’s management team to get their MBAs. Abbott Fund is also training healthcare workers about the importance of maintaining the equipment and certain standards in the laboratory, such as organization and cleanliness. “I think when you grow up in an area where things are dirty and you never have enough money to buy things like cleaning supplies … then you become very complacent about [sanitation],” she explains. “If you’re going to run a lab, you have to have quality control, you have to organize and clean your instruments and you have to do preventative maintenance.”

Wistar’s emphasis on educating others may stem from her own positive experiences with school. A 1983 graduate of San Francisco State University with a bachelor’s degree in international business, Wistar began reviewing MBA programs after Abbott recommended her for the position of director of investor relations, pending her enrollment in business school. She looked at schools such as the University of Chicago, “but I just liked Kellogg so much better,” she says. “There was warmth there that I did not find at other places. It was like they cared whether I got my MBA; they cared whether I learned.”

Not only did Wistar’s rigorous education benefit her intellectually, but it also strengthened her on a personal level. “What Kellogg really did was give me more confidence,” she explains. “More than anything else, I learned about myself, that I could compete with anybody else at my level.”

Wistar says that she “has learned so much” in Tanzania, but doesn’t discount the possibility of coming back to America to further her education and growth. “If I could, I would get MBA No. 2,” she says. “You tell Kellogg that I am all over it.”

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Posted December 2008