In this week episode, Lady Marieme Jamme speaks to Phyllis Kurlander Costanza, Head of Social Impact, CEO UBS Optimus Foundation. Both met a few years ago when iamtheCODE was founded. They discussed the education of young girls, vaccine equity, food for adolescent girls, their reproductive health, family planning, and general health.

UBS was the first organization to fund the iamtheCODE program. Phyllis started working at UBS in 2011; she was instrumental in reshaping the UBS Optimus Foundation’s strategy, helping clients fund impactful philanthropic programs like iamtheCODE that improve children’s lives and fight climate change globally. Prior to this, she was with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and also served as a CIFF board member for eight years. Before joining the non-profit sector, Ms Costanza worked for more than a decade as a management consultant in Washington, DC and Vienna, Austria and lived and worked in Kyiv, Ukraine, on a USAID program involving the privatization of state-owned enterprises. She also worked for New York State Governor Mario Cuomo, advising on policy and politics in Manhattan, and started her career working for Prudential.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed during the interview are Phyllis’s personal opinion.