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An opportunity for outsized impact

The Lead Exposure Action Fund seeks to address a critical — yet overlooked — health crisis. Lead exposure has severe impacts on cognitive and physical health, and contributes to an estimated 900,000 to 1.6 million deaths each year. But we’ve seen significant progress over the last few decades in reducing exposure from many different sources, largely using methods that haven’t yet been scaled up in the developing world. With up to $150 million in collaborative donor funds, we hope to make significant strides toward eliminating lead exposure across the globe.

A collaborative fund

LEAF connects funders with people and organizations who are driving progress on reducing lead exposure. Thanks to the grantmaking and logistical expertise provided by Open Philanthropy, our donors can support excellent opportunities without needing to find charities, hire staff, or set up their own foundations. Meanwhile, charities working on this critical issue have access to a sizable pool of funding.

 

We seek out opportunities for leveraged impact — prioritizing approaches that can be adopted and scaled up by governments, aid agencies, and multilateral institutions. And we strive to remain flexible — our approach is driven by the evidence, and we’ll change our plans as the evidence warrants.

Our partners

Each of our donors has contributed at least [amount] to accelerate the elimination of lead exposure. Their support will help outstanding charities to drastically reduce the burden of this issue across the globe.

Patti Bao and Tony Xu

Our team

LEAF’s work is led by public health experts and experienced grantmakers from Open Philanthropy.

James Snowden

Senior Program Officer

James Snowden

Alongside Santosh Harish, James manages Open Philanthropy’s grantmaking on lead exposure. He has deployed more funding toward reducing lead exposure than any other grantmaker to date. He additionally oversees Open Philanthropy’s grantmaking in other areas of global public health policy, global aid policy, and effective altruism.

Before joining Open Philanthropy, James led GiveWell’s work on public health policy. He holds a BA from the University of Oxford and an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Santosh Harish

Program Officer

Santosh Harish

Alongside James Snowden, Santosh Harish manages Open Philanthropy’s work on lead exposure. Santosh additionally leads Open Philanthropy’s work to improve air quality in South Asia. 

He previously worked at the Centre for Policy Research, a leading Indian think tank in New Delhi, as well as the India center of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He has completed post-doctoral fellowships with J-PAL South Asia and Evidence for Policy Design. He holds a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Emily Oehlsen

MANAGING DIRECTOR, GLOBAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Emily Oehlsen

Emily leads the Global Health and Wellbeing portfolio at Open Philanthropy, which allocates hundreds of millions of dollars per year across nine focus areas. Emily wrote about lead exposure in the context of Open Philanthropy’s approach to cause prioritization in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

She previously worked at DeepMind, Uber, and TGG Group. She completed her PhD in Economics at Oxford University and has a BSFS in International Political economy from Georgetown.

Chris Smith

Program Officer

Chris Smith

Chris leads Open Philanthropy’s grantmaking in alcohol policy, conducts research across our Global Health and Wellbeing portfolio, and works to engage new donors with Open Philanthropy’s work.

He previously worked as a strategy consultant at OC&C Strategy Consultants in London and on a freelance basis. He completed his Masters in Global Public Health at Imperial College London and holds bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Oxford and in Economics and Mathematical Sciences from the Open University.

Organized by Open Philanthropy

 

Open Philanthropy is a philanthropic funder. It operates according to the principle that choosing causes is the most important decision a philanthropist can make — by seeking out important, neglected, and tractable causes where its funds will go especially far toward helping others.

 

LEAF’s work is made possible by logistical support from Open Philanthropy’s Grants Management team, which has delivered over $3 billion in funding to recipients around the world.

Lead Exposure Action Fund
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