By Erin Reid P’01,’05

Amelia Cao ’16 works to protect the health and rights of every child around the world as a coordinator for the Demand Hub for Immunization at UNICEF. Her interest in immunization was inspired by her great-grandfather, who pursued fellowships in the U.S. in the 1940s and became a pioneer of epidemiology in modern China. “Although I didn’t study or practice medicine, working in the field of immunization gave me an opportunity to follow in his footsteps.”

Cao learned about Hotchkiss from family friends who sent their children to boarding school in the United States. “I was finishing my ninth grade in China and applied as a lower mid. I vividly remember flying with my parents for the tour in the late fall, and I immediately fell in love with the School.”

She was strongly motivated in academics, music, athletics, and service by the Hotchkiss faculty. “Humanities and history with Thomas Drake ignited a true spark for me. I am grateful for Fabio and Gisele Witkowski’s incredible support in piano and music composition, and our concerts hosted in Beijing. I remember traveling to Mount Everest Base Camp with my Hotchkiss peers and mentor Charles Iannuzzi while we visited Tibetan monasteries and hiked in the Himalayas.”

The stunning natural environment around campus provided Cao with a lasting passion: cross-country running. “I loved running on our cross-country course around the lake, and training with the team made running outside a part of my routine that continues.”

Her inclination to serve others was fostered at Hotchkiss. “Dave Bolmer '73 would drive us to the retirement home at Noble Horizons on Sundays, and we would perform music pieces as part of a club called Songs for Smiles. Our conversations with the residents following performances were among my most rewarding memories.”

After matriculating at Brown University, Cao was drawn into political science and international public policy and affairs after taking a class on China’s political economy. “I was curious to explore the empirical lenses behind China’s economic growth and societal changes and understand the social-political dynamics behind countries’ developmental trajectories, geopolitical tensions, and the global economy,” she explains. Cao received her bachelor’s degree with honors in 2020 and then studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School, earning a Master of Public Policy in international relations.

While in Cambridge, Cao worked as a team researcher at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and also as a research assistant at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. In 2022, she spent a few months at the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance at the United Nations Secretariat before joining UNICEF that year.

UNICEF was established in 1946 by the United Nations to provide emergency relief to children in countries devastated by World War II and was expanded in the 1950s. According to Cao, “Current programs include key areas such as education, nutrition, health, child protection, climate change and environment, water and sanitation hygiene (WASH), and social policy. Immunization and health are among the many areas UNICEF works to ensure that children across the world—no matter who they are or where they live—have the right to survival, growth, and development.”

She explains that UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend them, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. She says that UNICEF is the world’s largest single buyer of vaccines, contributing to securing access to vaccines for routine immunization programs, preventive campaigns, and outbreak responses.

“The poorest and marginalized children are often the most in need of vaccines,” she said. According to data from UNICEF and the World Health Organization, there are 19.9 million unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children. Among those, 14 million have not received the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine. Countries undergoing conflict or that are economically vulnerable comprise 24 percent of the world’s birth rate, but they have more unvaccinated children (7.3 million) than the rest of the world.

“We stand at a precarious point with significant reduction in old threats yet are vulnerable to resurgence and new dangers, especially where conflict impedes health systems,” she said. The global effort to eradicate polio has been significant, yet polio is still endemic in some regions and countries. “Without vaccination efforts, polio could quickly return, undoing decades of progress and leaving thousands of children paralyzed each year. The final battle continues in places of fragility and conflict. Simultaneously, new and re-emerging threats from Ebola, mpox, measles, malaria, and cholera are surfacing globally.”

Smallpox is the only human disease ever fully eradicated, officially declared in 1980 by the World Health Organization. It is no longer part of UNICEF’s child health programming, but its historic eradication remains a vital lesson for global health partners and national governments engaged in immunization.

Cao shares her personal perspective. “It has been extremely difficult for me to see how much the public health care system has been endangered lately. The misinformation on vaccines not only poses critical challenges to our work on immunization but also to the public trust and health system that builds on science and effective health interventions.”

She is grateful to Hotchkiss for many things, including her fiancé and classmate, Jerry Yang ’16, and her brother, Zachary Cao ’28. Currently, she is volunteering as an alumni interviewer for the Hotchkiss Admissions Office. “Hotchkiss endowed me with the critical thinking mindset to explore and be challenged at a young age. It equipped me with the life skills of independence and social responsibility to grow in a diverse community, and it gave me lifelong friendships with cherished memories. I still draw on the traits of adaptability and perseverance I learned at Hotchkiss.”