Rx by Text

Matt Berg '00 has never really settled in one place. Born in Cameroon, Berg grew up in Senegal, attended high school in Springfield, Illinois, studied abroad in Zimbabwe, and graduated in Galesburg. Since graduation, he's continued his globetrotting — from Mali to New York City — seeking to transform communities around the world.

Berg began doing exactly this when he signed on to work for Geekcorps, an organization that's been called the Peace Corps for young tech workers. With Geekcorps, Berg helped develop online presences for Mali's radio stations, allowing important reports to be broadcast more quickly. When he became the Geekcorps' Mali director, he created the Last Mile Initiative, which brings basic information and communication technologies to rural African villages.

He continued to link African communities with technology as he developed ChildCount+, an open source mobile health system that enables networks of community-health workers who treat local children to register and then text back the status of every sick child they find. This technology ensures doctors easy access to immunizations while also allowing for better health monitoring and more effective treatment campaigns. For his work with ChildCount+, Berg was included in Time magazine's 2010 list of most influential people in the world; he was #19 in the magazine's list of "leading thinkers," a group that also included the likes of Zaha Hadid and Steve Jobs.

Currently, Berg is the CEO of Ona, which he co-founded with Peter Lubell-Doughtie, Ukang'a Dickson and Roger Won. He previously worked as the director of information and communications technology for the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University's Earth Institute.