Under the Sisterhood
The Under the Sisterhood Podcast is where women's lived experiences become a catalyst for understanding, connection, and change.
Hosted by Elizabeth Elfenbein, each conversation invites women from around the world to share their stories with honesty, courage, and vulnerability. Together, they explore the moments that shape our lives—from health and mental wellness to leadership, identity, relationships, caregiving, equity, and the many experiences that define what it means to be a woman.
More than a podcast, Under the Sisterhood is a storysharing platform. Every conversation contributes to Women's Lived Experience Intelligence™, helping transform individual stories into insights that can shape healthcare, innovation, research, and culture.
At Under the Sisterhood, we believe every woman's story matters. Through storysharing, we create space for women to be seen, heard, valued, and celebrated—one conversation at a time.
Seasons & Special Editions
Season 1: Being a Woman in Today's World
Season 2: Women's March of Voices
Season 3: Women Making the World Healthier
Season 4: Women's March for Mental Wellness
Season 5: Women's March for Change
Special Editions: Under the Hood Vlogs • Women Investing in Women's Health • Women Making History
Produced by Matt Butler with original music by Ayla Schafer.
Under the Sisterhood
Dr. Ru Cheng on driving impact in Women's Health at a population level.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Today we’re getting under the hood of Dr. Ru Cheng a mother, daughter, sister, wife, aunt, daughter-in-law, ob-gyn physician, clinical researcher, therapeutics developer, women’s health expert, leader, and passionate advocate for women and girls.
Ru Cheng is Director of the Women's Health Innovations team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where all lives have equal value. She leads a team focused on the development and adoption of high-quality health products that address the needs of women and girls in low and middle-income countries.
Ru’s career path defies traditional boundaries and classifications with a common thread of applying science and medicine to address health areas that prevent women from achieving optimal health. As a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, she began her career in academic medicine as a clinician educator. After a mentor introduced her to clinical research, Ru saw the opportunity to drive impact on a bigger scale. She transitioned to the pharma industry and spent the next 15 years working in clinical development roles of increasing responsibility and leadership in women's health which took her to Wyeth/Pfizer, Bayer, and Johnson&Johnson. In her role at Johnson & Johnson, she developed public health initiatives aimed at the maternal mortality crisis in the US and the associated inequities.
In her current role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ru draws upon all of her experiences as a woman’s health clinician, big pharma R&D leader, and public health innovator. And throughout her career, Ru has brought her lived experiences as a female immigrant from a minority race, facing and overcoming inequities, further fueling her passion to advocate for marginalized women. In her free time, Ru enjoys spending time with her family, global travel, and staying fit.
The opinions expressed are Ru’s own and are not reflective of her employer.
If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on Apple podcasts and Spotify and don’t forget you can follow us FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
