At the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), we believe in empowering students with the spirit and vision to challenge the status quo and transform the landscape of healthcare delivery. There is a sense of satisfaction in graduating a leader like Sarah Warunee Derichs, whose passion for equity and systems-level change exemplifies the heart of our mission.  

Sarah’s journey reflects a deep-seated commitment to ensuring that dignity and quality are designed into every patient encounter. As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we are proud to see Sarah move forward with the tools and resolve to support communities. This proves that when compassion is backed by rigorous leadership, measurable change is not just possible, but expected. 

A Shift Towards Public Health 

Sarah trained as a medical doctor at the University of Münster in Germany, and has worked in both Germany and Thailand. These experiences improved her clinical skills, but also made her question why healthcare inequities happen everywhere, even when clinicians do their best. She began to think not just about treating patients, but about how systems can prevent delays, exclusion, and unnecessary suffering.  

As a pediatrician, Sarah saw many cases that made her question the healthcare system, motivating her to explore new ways to improve patient care.  

“When I was working in Germany, I wasn’t thinking about public health a lot.” Sarah reflects. “I started to see the differences in healthcare systems when I went to Thailand.” She adds.  

It’s not surprising, as Low- and Middle-Income Countries face many of the same challenges: delays, injustices, workforce shortages, lack of proper infrastructure and supplies, and issues outlined in the “Three Delay” Framework. Sarah witnessed notable gaps that potentially lead to life loss or ineffective care.  

In 2023, when she arrived in Rwanda, she noticed similarities between the Thai and Rwandan systems, which inspired her to work toward changing it.  

Journey with UGHE 

Witnessing the similarities and challenges within Rwanda’s health made her challenge herself with the question: 

“Why remain solely a doctor when you have so many ideas and insights about health systems as a whole?” 

This reflection led her to the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) and the Master of Science in Global Health Delivery (MGHD), where she pursued the Global Surgery option, a training designed for professionals seeking to improve access and quality of surgical care through systems leadership, policy, research, advocacy, and program management.  

For Sarah, the MGHD experience wasn’t an escape from clinical work. It was an expansion of what she believes medicine must include. Across countries and health settings, she saw patterns that medicine alone cannot solve: the hidden costs of waiting, the fragility of referrals, the strain of staffing gaps, the erosion of trust when services feel unpredictable, and the moral weight borne by health workers trying to deliver care inside broken processes.  

Her response was to seek tools that match the scale of the problem, tools that strengthen the system around the bedside so that compassion doesn’t depend on individual heroics.  

Looking Ahead 

Upon graduation, Sarah is eager to remain in Rwanda, dedicated to giving back to the community that shaped her education. Eventually, however, she considers returning to high-income countries to serve as a strategic bridge between the two worlds.  

Sarah feels the experience she gained at Butaro Campus will be invaluable to her career. Her philosophy, which also serves as a challenge to the entire field, is captured in a single line: “Every solution we have in healthcare starts with the community.” This reflects her refusal to fix systems from a distance.  

As UGHE marks a decade of impact, Sarah reflects what the institution has increasingly stood for: training leaders who can hold complexity, clinicians who understand systems, and systems thinkers who refuse to lose the human story.  

On 25 January 2026, when UGHE celebrates 10 years and graduates a cohort of global health leaders, Sarah will walk across the stage carrying a community-first principle and a surgical systems lens, ready to turn learning into measurable change, starting where it should: with the people the system exists to serve.