Samara Andrade
Co-Founder & Principal Strategist, Juniper Spark | Co-President, Global Leadership Forum
Samara Andrade is a senior global health leader and long-term consultant to the United Nations with over 20 years of experience leading complex, multi-country initiatives across health systems, gender equity, and community development. As Co-Founder and Principal Strategist of Juniper Spark, she advises nonprofits, UN agencies, and social impact organizations on strategy, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL), partnerships, and organizational effectiveness to drive measurable impact.
Samara has held leadership roles with WomenLift Health and CureBlindness. At WomenLift Health, she led leadership development programs supporting mid- to senior-level women across global health to expand their influence and impact. At CureBlindness, she oversaw programmatic strategy across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen health systems, with a focus on primary care, prevention, and policy and advocacy. She led partnerships with ESG funders, national governments, and nonprofits to deliver integrated, people-centered services for rural communities.
Her earlier career with the United Nations spanned over a decade across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S., where she advanced global policy and programming in gender equity, women’s health, and mental health, and supported large-scale partnerships with governments, donors, and multilateral institutions.
Samara is also Co-Founder of Feet on the Ground, a nonprofit supporting trauma-exposed populations through mental health and somatic practices. She is a WomenLift Health Leadership Journey Fellow (2022) and Global Leadership Forum Fellow (GLF VII, 2018), and is deeply committed to advancing inclusive, equity-centered leadership.
She holds a Master of International Policy Studies (Gender & Development) from the Middlebury Institute for International Studies and a Bachelor of International Business from San Diego State University.
Samara has held leadership roles with WomenLift Health and CureBlindness. At WomenLift Health, she led leadership development programs supporting mid- to senior-level women across global health to expand their influence and impact. At CureBlindness, she oversaw programmatic strategy across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen health systems, with a focus on primary care, prevention, and policy and advocacy. She led partnerships with ESG funders, national governments, and nonprofits to deliver integrated, people-centered services for rural communities.
Her earlier career with the United Nations spanned over a decade across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S., where she advanced global policy and programming in gender equity, women’s health, and mental health, and supported large-scale partnerships with governments, donors, and multilateral institutions.
Samara is also Co-Founder of Feet on the Ground, a nonprofit supporting trauma-exposed populations through mental health and somatic practices. She is a WomenLift Health Leadership Journey Fellow (2022) and Global Leadership Forum Fellow (GLF VII, 2018), and is deeply committed to advancing inclusive, equity-centered leadership.
She holds a Master of International Policy Studies (Gender & Development) from the Middlebury Institute for International Studies and a Bachelor of International Business from San Diego State University.