Contexts of work
United States
Kenya
Tanzania
Nigeria
South Africa
India
Andrew Buhayar
The complex challenges we collectively face can only be solved with thoughtful collaboration and deep curiosity…with that in mind I believe in showing up with humility and open to learning.
Andrew is a design strategist focused on health delivery. He leads high-profile initiatives in complex, matrixed environments and engages diverse audiences in effective problem solving. He works with local, national, and global organizations focused on addressing multifaceted health delivery challenges. His work is focused on driving health equity and advancing health system performance – delivering better and often more health services to resource constrained communities. In addition to his technical expertise in data systems and digital care delivery, Andrew works to accurately define problems, support ideation, iteration, collaboration, and solution-building. Andrew has a genuine and deep care for people's livelihoods, a disarming humility, and indefatigable curiosity.
Andrew spent over fifteen years shaping and driving health delivery projects and initiatives internationally, working both on the ground in clinics as well as at national and global levels. Most recently he spent six years at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a program officer on the Vaccine and Primary Health Care delivery teams. He was responsible for the largest portfolio of digital health investments by the foundation primarily aimed at improving the quality, supply and uptake of digital public goods in low income countries.
Some of his favourite projects involve helping organisations understand and act on the spaces where systems and tools underserve patients and staff - whether that’s a data project where a cancer patient uses their oven to manage medical records or a surgical experience project that showed the heightened anxiety ahead of a procedure induced by a chaotic parking structure.
Andrew joined Sonder because he believes that an organisation that is rooted and principled in involving users and communities from the start is vital for successfully achieving goals and creating solutions that meet underlying needs.
Andrew completed his graduate studies in Design at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in addition to earning a Masters in Business through the IIT’s Stuart School. His undergraduate studies in product design and business were completed at Washington University in St. Louis. When not at his desk in Seattle or working abroad with a client or partner, he can be found with family and friends in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest - hiking, biking, and skiing.
