‘Gratitude in My Heart’
After five years with the Network, Dr. Apporva Gomber leaves a legacy of impassioned advocacy—and community.
Dr. Apoorva Gomber (right) poses with three of the original Voices for PEN-Plus advocates—from left, Tinotenda Dzikiti, a type 1 diabetes warrior from Zimbabwe; Ruth Ngwaro, a childhood heart disease warrior from Kenya; and Eunice Owino, a sickle cell disease warrior from Kenya—during the inaugural International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa in 2024. (Photo: Courtesy of the WHO Regional Office for Africa)
One of the NCDI Poverty Network’s biggest voices is departing after five years of advocacy, research, building partnerships, and training a team of new leaders to follow in her path.
Dr. Apoorva Gomber, associate director of advocacy for the Network and the U.S. office of the Network co-secretariat—the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital—will embark on a pediatrics residency at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh this summer. She hopes to eventually specialize as a pediatric endocrinologist, helping children with type 1 diabetes navigate challenges she once faced herself.
“I’ve always wanted to do diabetes care,” Dr. Gomber said. “As someone who was diagnosed at a young age, I know that so many things go on in a newly diagnosed child’s mind. Living with a chronic disease is difficult, and those early years are one of the most challenging times. Either you give in to the diagnosis, or you fight it. I want to be part of children’s journeys and their stories, to help them feel included in a larger community.”
Dr. Gomber has spent the past five years doing just that at the Network and the Center. She joined the team in September 2021, as a fellow for type 1 diabetes and global health equity. She was just finishing her master’s degree in public health at Harvard and already was a doctor, having completed medical school at Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, India, and then a pathology residency at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, also in New Delhi.
Her Network role initially focused on research and implementation of a feasibility trial on the use of continuous glucose monitoring in Neno District, Malawi. But Dr. Gomber changed direction—and her perspective—following trips to see PEN-Plus at work in Malawi and Mozambique.
“I realized that advocacy was not just about policy, or sitting in high-level meetings; it was more about interconnectedness and the experiences we were all going through,” she said. “Building trust and amplifying that lived experience were so much more important.”
Shortly after, she led the launch of the Voices for PEN-Plus program, which started as a pilot in September 2023 to offer advocacy training and mentorship to young adults living with severe, chronic noncommunicable diseases, so they could advocate for PEN-Plus and grow as lived-experience leaders in their communities.
“We didn’t start with a roadmap for the Voices, but every day showing up, it felt like we were building a strong movement—and that’s what is powerful with this Network and the Voices,” she said. “That’s what will help us create a system that supports every person living with a severe, chronic condition.”
The Voices program now has 16 members, many of whom lead advocacy-oriented organizations in their communities and countries. All the Voices are from PEN-Plus countries, and their public-speaking resumes are growing quickly. Last October, for example, Emmanuella Selasi Hermanoo, secretary general of Diabetes Youth Care in Ghana, spoke on two panels at the World Health Summit in Berlin.
Dr. Gomber said she looks forward to cheering on the next endeavors of Voices members. She will also be following the Network’s growing partnerships, which she helped foster, with like-minded organizations such as the NCD Alliance and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes.
As much as she has opened doors for the Network, Dr. Gomber said she has “gratitude in my heart” as she reflects on the doors the Network has opened for her.
“I feel like every conversation around equity, around access, and what this work really means, will make me a better pediatrician,” Dr. Gomber said. “I think I needed this, more than the Network needed me—I needed this to realize why I want to be a good pediatric endocrinologist.”
Dr. Apoorva Gomber (far left, in green) celebrates with Voices for PEN-Plus advocates and friends during the inaugural International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa. (Photo: Courtesy of the WHO Regional Office for Africa)