For Executive MBA student, Kevin El-Hayek, MD, “life is about relationships.” While this sentiment is straight forward on the surface, it holds a deeper meaning for Kevin when he reflects on his experience with mission work providing life-saving surgical care in Nigeria and how this intersects with his values, career, and academic pursuits.
Kevin is the section head of hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery and endoscopic surgery at the MetroHealth System, as well as an associate professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Over the past several years, he has selflessly shared his surgical skills and more recently also his business acumen to help improve lives by partnering with the GEANCO Foundation in Nigeria on their surgical missions.
It was Kevin’s friendship with Afam Onyema that planted the seed for this future mission work. Kevin first befriended Afam when they were undergraduates at Harvard University. Some years later, Kevin was completing his general surgery residency at the Cleveland Clinic when their paths crossed again. Afam and his family established the GEANCO Foundation in 2005 to improve healthcare in their homeland of Nigeria. They initially focused on orthopedic surgical missions, maternal and family health centers, and education for girls. Intrigued, Kevin reached out to Afam.
“I told him, ‘I see what you’re doing with your family. This is an amazing organization, and I’m really proud of you,’” Kevin said. He told Afam when the foundation was ready to branch into general surgery to let him know how he could help.
For Kevin, improving access to surgical care on the African continent, which struggles with exceptionally low rates of surgeons per capita compared to western countries, is a cause to which he has a long history of commitment through previous mission work with other organizations. Growing his relationship with GEANCO was a natural next step for him.
“I’m a surgeon and [the statistics] are not okay,” Kevin said. “For me to act as if there are not disparities, I can’t do that. I have to do something to move the needle so that more people have access to safe surgery. A specific niche where I focus is minimally invasive surgery because I see the benefits to decrease both recovery time and the pain and trauma on the body.”
In 2017, Afam took Kevin up on the offer to help expand GEANCO’s medical programs by performing minimally-invasive surgery and training Nigerian physicians in these techniques. They targeted 2018 for the first mission, with the goal to continue building on the mission every two years.
“This was kind of a ‘from scratch’ program,” Kevin said. “We had to acquire all the equipment and do a needs assessment of what they had and what were they looking for. What we quickly learned is that they didn’t have much.”
Through a multitude of funding sources, including GEANCO’s relationships with Hollywood celebrities such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Jimmy Kimmel, Kevin and Afam procured hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical equipment and supplies that needed to be shipped overseas to Nigeria, which posed other challenges.
“We would bring suitcases of donated supplies to do these operations. Some had to be shipped through other means, and some never arrived,” Kevin recalled.
Nonetheless, the first mission, based at COOUTH Teaching Hospital in Awka, Nigeria, was a success and provided valuable lessons for the next mission planned for 2020, which was ultimately interrupted and put on hold by the pandemic. Due to continuing pandemic restrictions, the 2021 surgical mission with GEANCO was executed in a simplified format, with just Kevin and Afam running the operation.
In 2021, Kevin began the Executive MBA (EMBA) program at Weatherhead School of Management, a decision that would coincidentally complement and support the future scaling of his medical mission work with GEANCO by developing innovative leadership skills, as well as insight into supply chains, strategic finance frameworks, and the interconnected global economy.
To minimize the pandemic’s interruption and keep the momentum going, Afam asked Kevin to run the mission again in 2022. They used the time ahead of this next mission to develop stronger relationships with local Nigerian medical trainees and build the training model out. By moving operations to a new hospital location with more resources and with the support of an expanded team of U.S. medical professionals, Kevin recruited by leveraging his Cleveland community relationships, and the team completed over 50 operations within the span of just five days, in addition to running continual on-site training. They were supported by nearly two dozen Nigerian physician trainees consisting of practicing surgeons, surgery residents, and medical students.
Within just five years and despite pandemic interruptions and limitations, Kevin and GEANCO were able to establish and substantially expand a minimally invasive surgery mission and training program in Nigeria, building out the infrastructure to expand and improve the mission while also setting up supports to plant the seeds for local leadership sustainability of the operation as a long-term goal.
Kevin sees important connections between his work with GEANCO and what he has gained through the EMBA program, which has enabled him to view the surgical missions through an expanded lens. The “wheels are turning” for how to put into practice what he has learned about change leadership, supply chains, and the global economy, among other areas.
“We learn in the EMBA program how our economy has become a global economy. There is really nothing that happens in a vacuum as it relates to business, healthcare, and so on. We’ve been given tools to look at our society in a more global way,” Kevin noted. “For example, the burden of hernia disease in Africa is tremendous, and the reason is many people don’t get them taken care of because they can’t afford it. By the time they become adults, eventually it causes significant disability—thereby disrupting the community workforce. So, it’s more than just a healthcare aspect; it’s economic as well.”
Kevin is gratified when he hears from the patients he operates on during the missions that by decreasing their disease burden through these improved surgical techniques that their financial and economic situations improve as well.
Kevin has also been tapped for additional leadership positions with GEANCO, including his recent appointment to the foundation’s board of directors.
“It is an important nonprofit to me and my family,” Kevin said. “My motivation to do missions was not to be put in a governance role, but it certainly matched the education I’ve received through Weatherhead, and it’s been fun to see this merge happen.”
In recognition for his work with GEANCO and the Nigerian community, Kevin was honored with a ceremonially-bestowed Igbo name, “Dibia Omenka Chukwu,” which translated means, “God’s Creative Doctor.”
But for Kevin, the most important takeaway always returns to the relationships he has made along the way and the “ripple effect” this has had on improving surgical access across the globe.
“I went on a mission and I met people, and they became my friends,” Kevin said. “It’s about the relationships I’ve developed with surgeons in Africa. I’ve seen them become surgeons and leaders all over the continent, and I’m excited to play a small part in their training. Of course, they give me lessons that I bring back to the U.S., as well.”
He hopes his experiences can inspire others throughout the medical and business communities. “Each person has a skill set and expertise that matches a significant global need. We can all find organizations that match our expertise,” Kevin reflected. “Ultimately, joining forces with these organizations provides a sense of connection that makes life more fulfilled.”
Learn more about Kevin and GEANCO’s journey here and more on the 2022 mission here.
Weatherhead School of Management’s Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program is grounded in the conviction that great leadership can be taught and learned. Our world-class, five-semester EMBA is meant for distinguished working professionals and is delivered by renowned faculty members who have pioneered principles of leadership. With only 16 total three-day visits to campus, the Weatherhead EMBA is designed to be manageable for busy executives, allowing students from around the world to participate in a one-of-a-kind leadership program.