Finding the Resources

As a Volunteer in Mission with the Presbyterian Church, USA, in Thailand in the late 1980s, Rick Santos found himself in the middle of great socioeconomic and cultural shifts in Southeast Asia.

Santos, MTS ’92, now president and CEO of the global public health NGO IMA World Health, was in Thailand during a time of political unrest and uncertainty in the region, with refugee camps filled with hundreds of thousands of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese people on the northeast Thai border and with the first Burmese refugees who came in from the West. It was a pivotal time for him, and one that eventually led to HDS.

“What was really important for me was to be able to put into context multiple experiences that I’ve had in my life and then also give myself a good framework for what I want to do next,” he says. “The questions I wanted to ask I was not going to get any answers to at other institutions.”

The education and training Santos received at HDS provided context for his experiences overseas and solidified his belief that the humanitarian and development world was where he could best serve.

“I took a lot of religions of the world courses. I took courses on Islam. I took several courses on Buddhism,” he says. “The MTS track gave me the ability to really go as broad and as wide as I needed to really understand and give context to the world in which I live, and where I came out of, while also grounding me in the Christian tradition.”

For Santos, like many other HDS alumni, service is not just a vocation; it’s a calling. He views his service as a ministry in three parts: action (“working overseas in some of the most difficult places in the world, really trying to make a difference in people’s lives), policy (“action without correct policy is often self-defeating”), and modeling a spiritual compass (“being true in what you do and also how you deal with other people”).

As head of IMA World Health, Santos travels to some of the poorest countries in the world, establishing partnerships and leading his organization in its mission to build healthier communities. IMA sends essential medicine and supplies all over the globe, targets specific diseases, works with governments to strengthen the infrastructure of health care, and promotes health, equality, and opportunity for women in the world. The work is sometimes slow and often intense. In 2009, he lived through a massive earthquake in Haiti by surviving for 55 hours in the rubble of a collapsed hotel. Where many get burned out, Santos says that he has developed a resilience that helps him endure.

“Growing up in a very traditional Catholic home, being drawn to reformed theology and an ecumenism while studying in university, exposure to Buddhism in Thailand, and then divinity school—all of that builds your inner resources,” he says. “All of that has contributed to creating an inner compass that has brought me where I am. That inner spiritual resource is always being challenged and tested, and hopefully it is continuing to grow and guide me.”

—by Michael Naughton