Jim Ansara has stayed busy during his retirement.
The founder of Shawmut Design and Construction, who retired from the firm in 2006, has leveraged his building experience and connections to help provide state-of-the-art healthcare facilities in developing countries across the world.
The nonprofit that he co-founded, Build Health International, has designed, built and equipped over 200 spaces across the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. Based in Beverly, Massachusetts, BHI works closely with ministries of health, partner organizations, local communities and workers to create world-class, sustainable facilities while overcoming the challenges inherent in working in resource-constrained regions.
This year, BHI is one of the few international organizations to have remained active in Haiti, supporting an all-Haitian team that completed work on the country’s largest solar energy project ever — ensuring that healthcare workers have the power to continue caring for patients, even amid political unrest.
Last month, Ansara was named a recipient of the 2025 AARP Purpose Prize award, which is presented annually to “extraordinary people ages 50 and older who tap into the power of life experience to build a better future for us all.” Purpose Prize awardees receive $50,000 for their founded nonprofit, as well as a year of dedicated support from AARP.
Here, Ansara talks with Construction Dive about the challenges of designing and building healthcare facilities across the world.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CONSTRUCTION DIVE: Why did you create BHI?
JIM ANSARA: BHI was officially founded in 2014, but the story begins several years earlier. In 2006, I had recently retired from Shawmut Design & Construction, which I founded in the greater Boston area and ran for over 30 years. Following my retirement, I began volunteering with Partners In Health, a global health organization that had done tremendous work in Haiti. It was through PIH that I met global health expert Dr. David Walton, who ultimately co-founded BHI.
PIH was working to build a 100-bed community hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti, a small city 60 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince. David and I nearly had the design finished when the January 2010 earthquake struck Haiti, destroying up to 70% of the country’s existing healthcare infrastructure, including its largest hospital, in Port-au-Prince.
In response, the Haitian Ministry of Health asked us to change our plans, and our 100-bed hospital became a 300-bed national teaching hospital, the Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, which was built in just over two years.
Through that experience, I recognized the critical need for designing, building and maintaining healthcare facilities around the world, particularly in regions where it can be incredibly hard to access the tools and resources we often take for granted in the global north. BHI has built a model that centers local partners and workers, and that prioritizes innovation and collaboration to overcome barriers.
Jim Ansara and logistics manager Charles Jenkins Bartholomew stand in front of the jobsite for the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone.
Permission granted by BHI
BHI’s team is made up of over 130 architects, engineers, global health leaders and other individuals based throughout the world.
What types of projects does it sponsor?
BHI is a design-and-build nonprofit that delivers high-quality, dignified and equitable healthcare solutions in low-resource settings throughout the world. We partner with nonprofit organizations and local governments to provide architecture, engineering, construction, facilities maintenance and training services that strengthen healthcare infrastructure and systems.
BHI’s international team works specifically in low- and middle-income countries. We take on jobs that often no one else wants, and we build in some of the most resource-constrained areas of the world.
Our projects range from designing and building maternal and newborn healthcare services, including the future 166-bed Maternal Center of Excellence in Koidu, Sierra Leone, which is expected to greatly decrease maternal mortality.
Following the emergence of COVID-19, we worked to strengthen healthcare systems throughout sub-Saharan Africa through assessing and repairing broken down oxygen plants, as well as providing education and training to local technicians and hospital management to ensure that their plants continue to run sustainably.
Lastly, we focus on enabling renewable energy systems, especially in countries like Haiti where fuel shortages and rising costs can inhibit hospitals from running their operations smoothly. We just finished upgrading and installing 1,800 solar panels at our first project, which will reduce 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
How have you been able to stay working on the ground in Haiti even with the current political uncertainty in the country?
BHI began in Haiti, and we have deep roots in the country. Our long-term commitment to hiring local Haitian workers has enabled us to remain in the country, even when so many other organizations have left.
We have over 40 Haitian team members who continue to advance our in-country projects — working every day to overcome supply chain and logistical challenges, power outages, fuel shortages, political uncertainty and more. We remain committed to the communities where we design and build critical infrastructure, while also exercising appropriate caution, prioritizing safety and remaining in close touch with all team members about conditions on the ground.
Why do you use local labor?
From our earliest days, BHI has prioritized equipping and empowering local workforces. This is a more sustainable model long term, and that way, we can ensure that knowledge stays within the community.
At the same time, volunteers and experts from the United States and other nations are critical to supporting and training local workers. In the early days of our work in Haiti, volunteers from the United States and the Dominican Republic helped train Haitian workers, including electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other trades. Now, those workers are training the next generation of skilled team members in Haiti.
We still encourage industry and in-kind partners to collaborate with us to support local workers; for example, one of our major partners, Laticrete, recently sent a volunteer to support installing hospital flooring at our maternal center project in Sierra Leone.
Why is the construction of healthcare buildings in developing countries so important?
Healthcare services require healthcare infrastructure. Without the staff and space to operate a clinic, equitable healthcare access remains out of reach for too many people.
We believe in health equity, or the idea that every person should have accessible and dignified care, regardless of their ability to pay or geographical circumstances. By providing architecture, engineering and construction services to facilities maintenance and research development, our goal is to strengthen healthcare infrastructure and healthcare systems.
While BHI’s international team is made up of experts, we are constantly learning. Materials and resources that are available in Haiti may not be available in Sierra Leone and vice versa. We never go into a project assuming that we know everything, and we aim to meet the unique needs of every partner.
We find that we can achieve the greatest impact — and help provide the highest quality of care — when we merge our experience working in resource constrained environments with the knowledge of local partners.
