Lethia is a Senior Health Financing and Advocacy Advisor at Open Development. She has over a decade of experience working on health systems strengthening, financing, and advocacy programs across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. She shepherds Open Development’s work on the $300M USAID Tuberculosis Implementation Framework Agreement project, which provides fixed amount awards directly to governments and national TB programs. She advises the project as well as government and civil society grantees on health financing, policy reforms toward universal health coverage, and opportunities for national and subnational advocacy to increase domestic resources for TB.

Prior to joining the Open Development team, she worked with PAI as a Senior Project Manager - UHC and led a health financing and family planning advocacy grantmaking project supporting civil society organizations engaging in advocacy across UHC reforms to advance family planning priorities. In this role, she collaborated with partners to track which countries were introducing UHC reforms and national health insurance schemes, map policy and decision-making entry points, and provide grant funding, advocacy strategy development, and technical support to local civil society organizations. Ms. Bernard holds a Master of Science in Global Health with a focus on health policy and financing from Georgetown University.