Alumni Focus: Tom Cotter ’06

SERVICE

A JOURNEY OF HOPE &

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ALUMNI FOCUS | TOM COTTER ’06

Cotter has responded to major earthquakes in Haiti and Papua New Guinea, Category 5 hurricanes across the Atlantic, cyclones in Africa and the Philippines, the 2015 Avian Flu outbreak, a polio outbreak in Nigeria, and most recently the COVID-19 global pandemic and war in Ukraine.

His interest in emergency response came early, at BC High, when Ms. Tonya Winter brought Dr. Paul Farmer, Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, to speak with the class. Cotter knew he was called to a career in the field. Tom Cotter ’06 is no stranger to a crisis. As the director of emergency response and preparedness at Project HOPE and more recently president and executive director at Healthcare Ready, he has over a decade of experience in international disaster response and global health emergencies.

“At Jesuit schools, we hear a lot about vocations,” said Cotter. “Even as high school students, we’re asked to be seriously reflective. To think about our talents and where we find fulfillment. Like many of my classmates and fellow BC High alumni, I found it serving others.”

His journey took him from Morrissey Boulevard to Providence College for a bachelor’s degree in Public and Community Service Studies, then on to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for training on the management of health emergencies in large populations and the University of

the Philippines for a field study on the socioeconomic determinants of health. At Boston University, he earned a master’s in Public Health with a focus on complex humanitarian emergency management.

Well educated, but not afraid to get his hands dirty, Cotter is most at home when his boots hit the ground – where he can directly reach out to help people. It’s there when his academic training kicks in. The two immediate objectives after a response is launched are to start doing immediate lifesaving activities and then to coordinate with local partners for increased efficiency.

When Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas in September 2019, that meant closely coordinating with the National Emergency Management Agency and the Ministry of Health. Then and on to the local organiza-

tions already working to respond quickly and effectively. But in all of the planning, the weight of the emotional toll is not lost.

Cotter remembers flying over the Bahamas, “looking into people’s bedrooms and bathrooms. There were no roofs on the houses. It was really emotional to see. Folks were dazed, just sitting on their porches sifting through rubble.” The impact of natural disasters, victims’ lives laid both literally and figuratively bare, can be overwhelming. Cotter’s toughest deployment was to Haiti in 2010, where a magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed hundreds of thousands and caused unimaginable damage. But for emergency management professionals like him, the only response is action.

Cotter was already working with authorities in Wuhan, China when there were only 250 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The initial goal was to slow the spread of the virus, but as the crisis became global, he worked to reverse the supply chain of PPE to countries in North America and Europe. Cotter called countries across the globe, helping each to develop an emergency response plan that included training for their doctors and nurses, especially surrounding mental health resiliency. In total, he has worked with more than 200,000 health care providers around the world in the past two years. More recently, his work has shifted to developing COVID-19 training programs at colleges and universities including Brown University.

The overlay of disasters over the past three years has been intense. Cotter recently deployed to Romania to aid refugees fleeing Ukraine and to train healthcare workers in providing mental health support. In pivoting from a natural biological disaster to a human conflict, Cotter sees the indiscriminate destruction of both. And in them, the interconnected web in which our fragile global society sits.

“These tragedies need to serve as a massive wake-up call for all of us,” urged Cotter. “Boldness and thought and action are needed by all countries worldwide. We can't just continue to hit snooze on the alarm.”

COVID-19 was the first time, perhaps ever, that the entire world was united in crisis. Few could have expected that we would witness the largest European land conflict since World War II just a few years later. But the lessons of the pandemic are not lost on Cotter, and must not be lost on those of us who lived through such an unprecedented moment. For every instance of selfishness, there were two more examples of unity and solidarity.

BC High was a beacon of that response, whether serving as a staging ground for the distribution of 8,600 gallons of free milk to thousands of families in Boston, or in coming together as a community to support restaurants and small businesses owned by Eagles and their families.

“We can’t forget those bright moments,” said Cotter. “And we have to be ready for the next zoological threat. The next armed conflict. But we also have to work toward solving the problems that create these disasters – combating climate change, advancing global economic opportunity, and more.”

BC High has always trained leaders ready to answer the call of their day and age. But with the recently established Jack Shields ’79, P’06 Center for Innovation and Michael D. White '70 Center for Emerging Leaders joining the rest of the Centers for Human Excellence at BC High, that formation has become even more intentional and expansive. Students currently walking the halls of Morrissey Boulevard will be called upon in the coming years to solve the pressing issues of equity and inclusion, climate change, public health – and challenges yet unforeseen. They will be well-prepared. Until then, Cotter will be ready – his boots touching ground wherever the world needs him most. n