Expanding Philadelphia’s Global Footprint to India: Lessons from Eisenhower Fellow Drew Bergman

Philadelphia is a city of great historic significance whose legacy continues through individuals like Drew Bergman, dedicated to expanding Philadelphia’s global footprint. As an Eisenhower Fellow, Bergman embarked on a life-changing journey to India, where he explored innovative community-driven mental health solutions and global engagement strategies.

With a career deeply rooted in storytelling and advocacy, Bergman has continuously sought ways to bridge the gaps in mental health research and implementation. From his early days as a national spokesperson for suicide prevention to his current role as Chief Advancement Officer at OIC Philadelphia, he has leveraged his personal experiences to drive impactful change. His recent travels as an Eisenhower Fellow provided him with fresh perspectives on mental health care, particularly in India, where he discovered and learned about approaches that challenge traditional Western methods.

In this conversation, Bergman shares insights into his professional journey, the lessons he learned abroad, and how Philadelphia can take advice and strategies from global leaders in addressing poverty, mental health, and civic engagement. 

Nayab: Can you walk us through your professional career so far? What led you to where you are today?

 Drew Bergman: As Chief Advancement Officer at OIC Philadelphia, I lead brand development, marketing, and philanthropic initiatives for an organization founded in 1964 by Reverend Leon Sullivan. OIC pioneered combining job training with life skills support for underserved communities—a model once replicated in over 150 locations globally.

Our mission connects individuals to future-proof employment with family-sustaining wages and growth opportunities. During my tenure, I've led a complete rebranding initiative and executed our 60th Anniversary Gala, raising $300,000+ for OIC Philadelphia and $10,000 for OIC Cameroon.

My background includes becoming a national mental health spokesperson after sharing my own experience as a suicide attempt survivor. My first speech was to the entire student body at St. Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia. By age 20, I delivered 200+ presentations annually nationwide. I founded "A Celebration of Life: Philadelphia," raising over $500,000 for mental health causes over nine years.

I serve on multiple Philadelphia boards and was recognized in the 40 Under 40 Philadelphia Business Journal and City & State. As an Eisenhower Fellow, I recently studied community-driven mental health solutions in Europe and India to implement in Philadelphia.

NI: What are your personal ambitions, and how do they align with your work in global engagement?

DB:  My mission, my passion, and my purpose is the fact that I'm here. And every day that I am here, I have the opportunity to not just survive, but to thrive. And that is why I wake up with a tenacity and a hunger to continually have an impact, as locally as Philadelphia, but as globally as it can be when it comes to mental health and suicide prevention.

There is this notion in the United States across, spanning all areas, that because we're world leaders that our way is the best way. That is far from the truth as we're seeing right now. We don't know everything. We don't have the answers to everything and we are naive and arrogant to think that we have all of the solutions here.

It is through global exposure that you begin to learn other ways and other approaches to these challenges that we may never consider. When I went to India, people questioned why I’d go there for mental health research.  And why would you go to a country where they have the deepest poverty in the world? And I said we have the deepest poverty in the United States. So while it may look very different, the feelings are very similar. And so it's this moment where you have to be humble and say, we don't have all the answers.

What I learned when I went to India is that when it comes to mental health care and treatment, we're third world. We've got things that we need to be learning from them, not the other way around. And I think it's through this constant exposure to other cultures, you begin to question the status quo of how things have been operating. At what point are we going to start to try things differently? Because clearly we're not moving the needle.

Philadelphia has been ranked the city with the deepest poverty levels in the United States for the last five years. We haven't moved the needle. Suicide continues to be the second leading cause of death for kids 10 to 34 years old. So at what point do we start to say, you know what, maybe we don't know everything, and maybe we should really take a step back and look at the way that other communities, other cultures are approaching this.

But that takes humility and a recognition that we don't know. I think a lot of people try to say that we have all the answers, but frankly, we don't. Just because the city may have some of the best educational institutions doesn't mean that they can understand the lived experience of the people in the communities that reside in these institutions.

This has been why this fellowship was so helpful for me. Back when I was doing my advocacy work every summer, I would travel, whether that meant I would go spend six months in Mexico or in Puerto Rico, or Thailand, just so that I could see the other ways that communities and cultures are approaching their day-to-day lives. And through those continual journeys, I realize that we have a lot of work to do.

NI: What inspired you to go on this trip? Was it part of a program, or did you organize it independently?

DB: About a year ago, I was having lunch with someone that I have worked with, and they mentioned the Eisenhower Fellowship. At the time, frankly, I had never heard of it. The fellowship has been around since the 1950s. It was a gift to President Eisenhower from some of his closest friends at the time that wanted to really ensure that his legacy continued.

This fellowship identifies, empowers, and connects innovative leaders through this kind of transformational fellowship experience. I selected my project based on my passion for mental health and prevention. They select ten people across the United States. I'm the second to youngest one of the cohort, and the only one from Philadelphia.

Some of the other alumni fellows in Philadelphia include Mayor Cherelle Parker, Jane Golden of Mural Arts, Loree Jones of Philabundance, and Matt Rader of the Philadelphia Historic Horticultural Society. The city's leaders have all gone through this program at some point in their career. It was an incredible honor to be selected through this intensive process.

I approached it from the standpoint of communities that had a large number of mental health professionals that were innovative in stigma reduction campaigns. I started in Paris, where I spent three days. They did a welcoming ceremony, which was hosted by the alumni fellows that reside in Paris. It was unbelievable. By day three, I was shaking hands with President Macron.

I met unbelievable people who are doing incredible work from the UN to the World Health Organization to people that are doing war refugee programs out of Ukraine, and these are folks that have all come through the Eisenhower Fellowship. It's a global network because they have the USA program for the folks like me that go through it, and then they have a global program where they choose 20 people from across the world to come to the United States.

My favorite meeting there was with the deputy general for the Dutch Ministry of Health. He's in charge of a 116 billion health care budget for the country. I spoke to him to ask questions, such as, what are the health care trends you're seeing? What are the mental health implications that you're experiencing in communities? How are you working to address the workforce shortage of mental health professionals? It was a fascinating conversation.

From there, I went to India, which was the most incredible two weeks of my life. I covered more than 10,000 miles in India alone, just a small portion of the country. I went from New Delhi to Mumbai to Bangalore to Chennai, with daily visits throughout. I probably had over 40 meetings in those two weeks in India, and I was just blown away. The culture, the warmth, the hospitality. It was truly just a remarkable experience.

One memorable visit was with Ratish Nanda, director of the Aga Khan Development Network, who gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of Humayun’s tomb restoration. He was in charge of the restoration project of the tomb and the surrounding 2000 acres. Another was breakfast with Nipun Vinayak, a former Indian government official, who hosted me in his home and introduced me to Dr. Hamid Dabholkar. Dr.Dabholkar is continuing the legacy his father established, which centered on promoting anti-superstition and rational thinking.

Dabholkar’s father was assassinated in 2013 for his work. He was revolutionary in his approach, but because of that, he had a target on his back. After the meeting with Dr. Dabholkar virtually, I took an eight-hour car road trip to meet him in person. At the time, he was working on building community-based mental health initiatives in very impoverished communities. He worked specifically in areas where there were statues to worship because many people would travel there and tie themselves to the statue to absolve themselves of their mental health problems.

Dr. Dabholkar's father started to build mental health treatment facilities in those same communities. He didn’t discourage the residents from praying at these worship sites, but in the same respect he chose to approach it from a rational and treatment perspective. He believed that what people need in life is a sense of purpose, and when people are told that their mental health diagnoses are going to be the reason that they can't be a productive member of society, it absolves them of that sense of purpose. By creating these workforce initiatives that support people with mental health challenges, he really created an environment where they could look at their diagnosis not as a liability, but rather as an asset.

NI: As an Eisenhower Fellow, how has that experience shaped your global perspective and professional path?

DB:  What has been especially impactful for me is returning here with a fresh perspective and questioning whether we've considered how others approach similar challenges.

For instance, I connected with an organization that built its own LMS and CRM systems internally. While we've invested heavily in developing Salesforce systems, they’ve achieved double the impact at a fraction of the cost. By engaging with such partners and discussing various social-emotional learning curriculums, I’ve had the chance to explore how we can implement similar strategies here. 

I’m constantly asking, how can we support the city to make meaningful progress? At OIC, we’ve secured funding from the mayor's office and the William Penn Foundation to build our program. My experiences abroad are shaping how we enhance this initiative and improve our supportive services to create a safe space for OIC participants.

Additionally, as a member of the mayor's LGBTQ affairs commission, I’ve engaged in conversations about community healing. I asked, “How can I help?” because this work is my passion—healing and moving forward together, not in isolation.

NI: Given your experience, do you see yourself as an ambassador for World Heritage, someone who actively promotes cultural preservation and global connections?

 DB: Yes, I always say I'm no rocket scientist. I love to play a game of connecting the dots, and connecting people that are aligned on the same mission, same vision, same purpose.

For example, at Global Philadelphia's event, back in September, I had my friend there who is Egyptian and lives in Belgium. She happened to be in Philadelphia that week, and I said, come to this event. I'm always figuring out how we can expand the pie of people.

When they hosted the Eisenhower Welcoming Ceremony in Philadelphia, which hosted both the Women’s Global Fellowship Program and the USA Fellowship Program, many attendees asked, Who should we talk to in Philly? I’d ask about their interests and then connect them accordingly. By the end of their time in Philly, I probably set up 10 to 15 different meetings with folks that had just come in for a few days.

NI: Were you able to identify any links between Philadelphia and the places you visited? How do these connections inform Philly’s role on the global stage?

DB: In one of the hospitals that I visited, they had a statue of Elizabeth Lundy. I toured one of their psychiatric facilities. We were walking around when I came across it. I was shocked to learn that in 1952 she founded the first occupational therapy school in India, and she’s from Philadelphia. I was like, are you kidding me? What are the odds of it?

From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the formulation of the Sullivan Principles, Philadelphia has consistently been at the forefront of movements that have shaped the world, and our designation as America's first World Heritage City in 2015 is a testament to that legacy. But as we celebrate the status, let's remember that this is not just an honor, it is a responsibility. How can we leverage this position to address the pressing issues of our time? Starting with poverty in our own backyard, how can we continue Philadelphia's legacy of fostering ideas that change the world? It's time to think big. We, and this city we’re a part of, have the historical significance of being at the forefront of movements. We can't take the backseat, especially right now.

NI: What new perspectives or insights from your journey do you plan to apply in your career or within the Philadelphia community?

DB:  I now have a global network of folks from the Rockefeller foundation to the United Nations, to the Prince of the Netherlands, to the head of Meta for India.

I don't think of this by wondering how these experiences and contacts are going to shape my future and career, because they already are right now. I'm staying on track of my mission-driven work. By doing this, I have been able to create a global network of leaders who are committed to addressing the most critical and pressing issues that are impacting our globe. Not just our country—the world.

 Not everybody has the opportunity to have these experiences. My exposure to these different cultures has given me a lens into the ways that other countries, other cultures are approaching this. I think about it twofold—it's obviously the global network, but also the enhanced exposure that enables me to look at things from a different perspective.

This exposure allows me to really look at the way that other people and innovators are approaching this with a fraction of the resources. We have first world problems here comparatively, but we're still not addressing them.