At a moment of inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster underserved communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Carmen Villar, Vice President for Corporate Citizenship and ESG at Gilead Sciences.

Greg Behrman, CEO and founder, NationSwell: What brought you to this moment? Was there a formative relationship or experience that led to you becoming a leader in this field?

Carmen Villar, Gilead Sciences: I come from a background where social good and social justice was really important in our family. My mother was a public school teacher and my father was a social worker and a community organizer, and service is kind of baked into the DNA of who I am as a person. 

Most of the early part of my career was in public service. I worked for the U.S. government, and I did a lot of work on the ground with health departments and ministries of health overseas. Toward the end of my time in the public sector, there were some crises that were complicated to manage.  We called on private sector partners to assist, as they had unique abilities.  We started to partner with them a bit, and we were able to get their support through a foundation associated with our agency. 

When I thought about what I was going to do next in my career journey, I started talking to people in the private sector and was basically told, “Carmen, you can do all of the great things you’ve been doing in the public sector for the greater good where you are or somewhere in the non-profit sector, or you can come here and you can do that same kind of work with the power and the weight and the resources of this big company.” And that was when it clicked in my head that I was at this pivotal moment in my career development. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What are two or three facets of the work you are leading that you think are particularly special or differentiated in the field — what feels important to lift up?

Villar, Gilead: In the first quarterly all hands I attended at Gilead, two things were highlighted as key to the company. Scientific innovation and health equity. I almost fell out of my seat when I heard that — I thought, oh wow, I’ve made it. It was super exciting to think that a publicly-traded company would use health equity to drive a lot of its work. 

What my team at Gilead has done really well over time is embrace community through grantmaking and philanthropy and build trust in those relationships so that we can hear more from communities about what is working and what is not working. People know us, and most of the time trust us and want to share their feedback with us, and that has been a huge accomplishment for a company like ours. My focus now is on how we continue that in a way that can address our three big pillars, which are around reducing stigma, improving access to care, and focusing on community-led or -driven interventions in health.

Behrman, NationSwell: What makes you an effective leader in your organization? Is there a particular philosophy of leadership or an approach that comes to mind?

Villar, Gilead: As I think about how Gilead grows the next generation of workers and what that means, again, where people come from and what their world views may be is very important to understand as a supervisor. I know I was very fortunate to have had the parents that I had. My dad sometimes says that he thinks he was too hard on me because, as a woman, he knew it was going to be more challenging for me to navigate the workplace, and even harder as a woman of color. I remember when I was 14, he made me change a tire — I couldn’t even drive yet. 

That resilience that my father seeded in me has made a huge difference in my confidence, in my ability to fail quickly, in my performance, and in accepting that there are things I do well, things I don’t necessarily do well, and that’s okay. I carry an attitude of, ‘I’m just gonna do what I can and be my best self,’ and it’s served me well so far. I try to impart the same sentiment on the rest of my team at Gilead and in all that I do, as a voluntary board member, mother, etc.

Behrman, NationSwell: You mentioned the need to be comfortable with failure and learn from mistakes or missteps. How do you think about cultivating that mindset in a way that allows you to be successful and creative?

Villar, Gilead: Perseverance — you have to persevere. If this work is at the heart and core of who you are, then you have to keep on keeping on. When I think about leadership, mentorship is a huge part of what I do because not only does it invigorate me and help me understand what other people are doing, it helps keep people going and keeps them motivated to do this work. I try hard to provide that mentorship, to provide development opportunities to people that I work with, but also to people who might reach out or I might meet somewhere who just say, I’m really trying to do this, how do you think I can do better?

If you’re not developing your people, it’s hard to check in and make sure you’re doing the right things in the right way. Failing quickly, brushing that off and moving on, that’s not always the easiest thing to do, but with some encouragement and mentorship, it gets a little bit easier.

Behrman, NationSwell: As a leader in this space, how are you sense-making when it comes to this moment, and how are you thinking about the unique opportunities and challenges inherent to it?

Villar, Gilead: We had a huge upswing of interest in 2020, and we were able to harness a lot of that attention and those resources and do good things. In business, the pendulum swings one way or the other, and yet the advances that we have made over time keep us a little bit ahead in terms of the progress level, so even when we feel like we’re going backward, we’ve really made it two or three steps forward. 

My fear is that now we’re taking that step backward, particularly when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Without those diverse voices, we are not able to ask and answer hard questions that make our people and our business stronger and constantly growing and improving. It’s critically important to continue to bring those voices forward, even though policies or laws or rules have been changed, because that informs us and reminds us of why we do this work every day. 

Gilead continues to be a responsible business in all aspects of our operations. We have a strong network of employee resource groups (ERGs) and are focused on the inclusion of the range of perspectives across the enterprise. The company is very much aligned with global responsibility frameworks like the SDGs. In fact, SDG 17 (partnerships) is a critical aspect of how we operate.  Our commitments in the partnership space far exceed that of many others, and we continue to rely on our partners to help us understand where the biggest pockets of healthcare needs exist.This leads naturally to our focus on SDG 3 (health) and our efforts to improve access to health and positive health outcomes.

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some of your peers in this work that inspire you as a leader? 

Villar, Gilead: It’s hard to call out just a few, but I will try. Julie Gerberding, who was a former head of the CDC, hired me for a job at Merck, and she is great — talk about a total advocate for population health and for female leaders. 

I’d also name Ken Frazier, who was formerly the CEO of Merck. For people that don’t know him, Ken was an amazing CEO — he was very clear about where he stood on certain issues and on what was right and what was wrong, and he made that known in lots of different venues. That was groundbreaking for a CEO coming up when he did. I think Deb Telman, our EVP at Gilead, is very similar.  She is the person that really recruited me to come to Gilead last year.

Finally, I’d also shout out Alan Greenberg, who was one of the best mentors I ever had. He doesn’t work in this space, but he does run the Center for AIDS Research at George Washington University and is the Chair of Epidemiology in the Public Health School there. He was so critical in my development and was always sharing his pearls of wisdom around management and leadership and encouraging me to be who I was, even when things become difficult. With that kind of support, I was really able to test out my management style and figure out what worked for me.