Finding New Paths Forward for Public Health

Seeking Project Ideas on How to Advance Humanity's Health

About

A group of public health professionals and former federal government colleagues within the Renaissance Philanthropy ecosystem are creating a space to collect and uplift promising, innovative projects in public health. This resource group was created for the public servants impacted by recent federal actions – federal employees, state/local employees in impacted programs, all grantees, contractors, and associations – as well as for those not directly impacted but who still want to help respond to the moment. The below form seeks:

  • Existing Projects recently impacted that now need new supports to continue.

  • New Ideas to meet pressing public health needs that are worth exploring.

For the purposes of the submission form, we are defining "public health" as broadly as possible. It includes all HHS, VA, USDA, HUD, and any other health-related agency or program. Essentially, if it can advance humanity’s health, we want to hear about it. Submitted ideas might involve:

  • Applying new technologies to old problems

  • Leveraging data to improve public health programs or systems

  • Formation of new, unexpected partnerships

  • Finding new revenue streams and/or business models

  • Creation of new organizations, whether nonprofit or startup

  • Innovative financing and/or fund-raising

  • Cutting edge health research and development

  • And other innovative ideas

Underlying all of this is our belief in the power of community — that simply by coming together, we can find new pathways forward. To that end, the community of former federal employees behind this effort include: Read Holman (ex-HHS OS, CMS) | Sandeep Patel (ex-ASPR) | Malini Sekhar (ex-HHS OS) | JP Chretien (ex-DARPA, current Renaissance Philanthropy) | Mindy Hangsleben (ex-ONC, CMS) | Sadena Thevarajah (ex-HHS OS) | James Elliott (ex-HRSA) | Daniel Stowell (ex-CDC, USAID) | Blair Corcoran de Castillo (ex-ACF) | and others.

Email publichealthsupport@renphil.org if you would like to support submitted ideas behind the scenes as a coach, connector, and/or potential funder.

Please know that this body of work is volunteer-led. Individuals involved represent themselves and their expertise. As a group of volunteers, the project team cannot guarantee catalytic next steps for each idea submitted. However, they can commit to the following:

  • We will read your idea(s).

  • We will schedule time to discuss your idea further.

  • We will help you refine the idea.

  • We will connect you to people who may be able to help, including to individuals and organizations that might be interested in collaborating and/or funding the effort.

  • We will help you find other more formal paths forward. These include learning & diffusion activities (webinars, group calls, etc) as well as accelerator programs.

  • For example, certain ideas could get fed into Renaissance Philanthropy's Big If True Science (BiTS) Accelerator

Submission

In many areas, new models of public health have long been needed. We want to help build those new models, and we want to do so thoughtfully, by building the right community with the right people at the right time. We believe, importantly, that the right people are in fact you. And we believe that the time, as pressed upon us, is now.

We look forward to reading your project ideas and connecting to learn more.

Please submit your ideas via this Google Form.

Submissions Due: End of Day July 31, 2025