Judi Aubel ’83 (MPH)
Judi Aubel is an internationally recognized leader in global health and community development whose career exemplifies Carolina’s highest ideals, including public service, innovation, and global impact grounded in deep respect for families, communities, and culture.
After decades of research and assessment work, program development, and program monitoring and evaluation in Africa, Asia and Latin America — with a particular focus on West Africa — in 2005 Aubel co-founded the non-profit Grandmother Project-Change through Culture. The organization aims to increase the capacity of communities to promote the well-being and rights of women and children, especially girls, in the Global South, using a change through culture approach. By demonstrating how engaging elders strengthens and complements existing health and education systems, her work has reshaped policies and programs in ways that are locally grounded and globally relevant.
Several years after earning a Master of Public Health from Carolina, Aubel earned a doctorate in education and anthropology from the University of Bristol in the U.K. She is a practitioner-scholar whose work bridges research and practice. Her publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes have shaped conversations about culture, family systems, and community development and are widely cited by practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. She has also played an important mentoring role for students and early career professionals, including those at the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Aubel has garnered national and international recognition. She was named a BBC 100 Women Laureate in 2016, selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2015, and received the Global Thinkers Forum Award for Excellence in Positive Change in 2017, among many other honors.
