Interim Provost Saavedra offers key lessons learned from global medicine in VCU Globe Speakers Series
By: Sydney Lowrey, communications intern
Nicol Tinsley, communications manager
Contact: Nicol Tinsley
VCU Global Education Office
(804) 828-6463
nctinsley@vcu.edu
Richmond, VA (April 14, 2026) - Students gathered in the Cabell Library at Virginia Commonwealth University to hear Arturo Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D., MBA., interim executive vice president and provost, share insights from his global work in medicine and academic leadership experiences during the VCU Globe Speaker Series held on April 1, 2026.
Saavedra's lecture titled “Lessons from Global Work that Have Informed and Impacted My Professional Career,” emphasized the importance of context, curiosity and impact over content alone. “I think sometimes we expect people to learn content in talks,” he explained, “but what I really want is for them to learn context, excitement about doing things and the understanding that you can be of impact.”
Stephanie Tignor, executive director of Global Learning, shared her perspective on the event, “Dr. Saavedra’s talk allowed students to hear directly from VCU’s interim provost and chief academic officer. His expertise across medicine, pharmacology, finance and global health offered an inspiring perspective on the global challenges our students are preparing to address in their own future careers.”
Saavedra shared lessons that he felt he would only have learned from global medicine. He gave the audience three important ideas that can be used in their professional lives, including how to communicate a vision and the necessity to use every mode available to do so; establishing the right partnerships with the aligned incentives; and avoiding quick fixes, but to instead think of structural change. These lessons influenced his career, and "shaped how I really think about taking on problems, creating partnerships and how to enunciate a vision, no matter what you’re doing,” he said.
Saavedra began his presentation with engaging accounts of the global experiences he has had as a doctor volunteering in global situations and how they affected his professional trajectory. Reflecting on the personal nature of his stories, Saavedra acknowledged, “I think it’s a pleasure and a privilege; the most important thing we do in higher education is understand that there should be people that come after us and keep these important traditions alive.” He emphasized that lessons learned from international experiences apply domestically. “These lessons around creating a vision and partnerships are applicable to work nationally, 
to work in our own country in underserved areas, even in the cities,” he explained. “Understanding how to partner with local government, with community leaders and how to create the right structure so that your initiatives have a lasting impact.”
To demonstrate the lessons being introduced, Saavedra led the participants through an interactive exercise he called “How to Communicate a Vision.” The exercise split the audience members into five groups, of which each group had a “pilot” and a “tower.” Pilots were given a drawing and instructed to describe it precisely so the tower could accurately reproduce it. The activity proved challenging, with many groups struggling to fully communicate their images correctly. This hands-on exercise highlighted Saavedra’s key points of clarity, repetition and specificity as essential tools when communicating a vision. He explained that assuming others understand your vision without explicit communication can lead to misunderstandings, a lesson crucial not only in global work but in any professional environment. The exercise continued to explore and demonstrate the other ideas of his lesson.
When asked how his career might have differed had he stayed entirely domestic, he shared, “I would have had a much more limited perspective. When you travel you become a learner. You see that things can be done in different ways, sometimes better than the ways you do them. The more important thing in life isn’t to have all the resources but to have the human connections and partnerships necessary to solve problems,” he said.
Saavedra’s global career spans across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Turkey, Spain and Italy, experiences that shaped his perspective on leadership and the power of global understanding.
Students left the lecture inspired to think beyond their immediate environments and were reminded of the lasting impact they can have whether at home or internationally.