Speakers

Patricia Abbott, PhD, RN, FACMI, FAAN

Office of Global Affairs, University of Michigan School of Nursing
Dr. Patricia Abbott is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, where she recently completed a study of the impact of tele-health technologies on disease self-management in home-dwelling African American congestive heart failure patients. She is also the PI on an ARRA grant that resulted in the development of 20 open-source courses to teach health IT/ICT, a co-editor of two new NIST Certification Standards for U.S. EHRs, and is a member of the BCHI Study Section at NIH. Dr. Abbott is passionate about developing IT for low-resource settings to increase health knowledge distribution to care-givers and patients in remote communities. She is currently collaborating with INCAP in Guatemala City on a mHealth project focused on cardiovascular disease.

 

Honorable Minister Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu

Minister of Health, Ethiopia
Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu was appointed Minister of Health in November 2012. Prior to his appointment as a Minister, he served as State Minister for Health Programs (October 2010 – 2012) and Director General of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention General Directorate (2009 - 2010) in the Ministry.
In his capacity as State Minister and Director General, Dr Admasu has overseen the health sector reform and led the implementation of the country’s flagship program, the health extension program. He is a champion of innovation, task-shifting and implementation at scale. In his tenure as DG, he has led the roll out of integrated community case management of childhood illnesses and insertion of single-rod implant through the health extension platform.
Dr Admasu has dedicated his entire career to public service and scientific research focused on major public health problems in Ethiopia. A Medical Doctor by training with Masters in Public Health, Dr Admasu has served in a number of clinical and public health positions. He has worked as public private partnership team leader, CEO of a tertiary hospital DG and State Minister before assuming his current ministerial portfolio.

 

Susan Albright

Director, Technology for Learning in Health Sciences, Tufts University School of Medicine
As Director of Technology for Learning in the Health Sciences at Tufts University, Ms. Albright works to enhance the administrative, research, clinical and educational functions of an academic health center through the use of technology. Since 1997, she led the creation of the Tufts University Sciences Knowledgebase (TUSK), an open enterprise educational system for the health sciences , a digital repository including mobile access for all aspects of competency based education. TUSK is used by medical schools in the US and India, and most recently Africa through a USAID RESPOND grant. In 2012 TUSK became open source. Ms. Albright serves on MedBuiquitous working groups for virtual patients and competencies and co-chaired curriculum inventory standards development. She graduated from Tufts University and studied Urban Planning at New York University. Her interests include serving as an elected official on the Board of Aldermen in Newton Massachusetts.

 

Jeff Arnold

Chairman & CEO, Sharecare
Jeff Arnold is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sharecare, a leading health and well ness social network launched in October 2010 by he and Dr. Mehmet Oz in partnership with Harpo Studios, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications. Previously, Mr. Arnold was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HowStuftworks.com. After selling HowStuftworks.com in 2007 for $250 million to Discovery Communications, he served Chief Digital Strategy Officer for Discovery until 2010 and continues to serve as Chairman Emeritus of HowStuffWorks.com. Prior to HowStuftworks.com, he founded and served as CEO of WebMD Corporation, the first healthcare company to harness the power of the Internet to create a destination for consumers, healthcare institutions and physicians to find trustworthy medical information.

 

Professor Dr. Abul Kalam Azad

Additional Director General and Director, Management Information System (MIS), Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Bangladesh
As Additional Director General, Prof. Azad is responsible for overseeing the future planning and ongoing development activities for health with current personal focus to health systems strengthening and global health capacity building. His MIS DMIS Department focuses on three major areas; Health Information System (HIS), eHealth and Medical Biotechnology (MBT). The health sector of Bangladesh has witnessed remarkable progress during his short tenure, in building electronic data communication network from national to grassroots level; paperless and web-based data transmission, reporting and dissemination system; inter-operability and data sharing; telemedicine; and various kinds of mHealth, such as, empowering citizens to participate in ensuring accountability of health care providers.
The HIS and eHealth success of his department has been able to draw national and international attention including being honored by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina with the “United Nations Digital Health for Digital Development Award 2011”. He is one of the members of the World Health Organization’s mHealth Technical Advisory Group (mTAG). Medical Biotechnology is a new inclusion in MIS department, and it aims at promoting development of awareness, skills and products relating to this new technology.

 

Sriram Bharatam, MBA

CEO & Founder, Iridium Interactive
Sriram Bharatam (Sri), left a Strategy role at Hewlett Packard to start a non-profit and raised over US$ 1.5m to support victims of a hurricane in India using digital media in 1999 which got him the Kauffman Award for Social Entrepreneurship. He founded India's leading Digital Strategy & Innovation Consulting company, iridium Interactive, serving over 700+ customers across Asia, the Americas, Europe & Africa. Rated as one of the top 100 IT Innovators in India, iridium seized a public private partnership opportunity for mHealth in Kenya with Ministry of Public Health & Sanitation to build an Innovative Tuberculosis monitoring and program management solution. Sri is currently spearheading the cause of Capacity building of Micro & Small Entrepreneurs across Africa through Kuza Biashara (literally "Grow Business" in Kiswahili). Kuza recently won Kenya's Vision 2030 Innovation award & currently supports 15,000+ small business owners across 22 locations in Kenya. Sri is an alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and nominee for Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year award."

 

Honorable Dr. Agnes Binagwaho

Minister of Health, Republic of Rwanda
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho is a pediatrician and has served as Minister of Health of Rwanda since 2011. After practicing medicine for over 15 years, Dr. Binagwaho joined the National AIDS Control Commission as Executive Secretary in 2002, after which she served as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health from 2008 to 2011. Dr. Binagwaho is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She chairs the Rwanda Pediatric Society and is a member of the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries. Dr. Binagwaho also serves on the International Strategic Advisory Board for the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. She chaired the Rwanda Country Coordinating Mechanism of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and co-chaired the Salzburg Global Seminar “Innovating for Value in Health Care Delivery: better cross-border learning, smarter adaptation and adoption.” Dr. Binagwaho’s academic engagements include research on health equity and pediatric care delivery, and giving lectures at Harvard and Dartmouth. She received an Honorary Doctor of Sciences from Dartmouth College in 2010, and is presently pursuing her Ph.D. at the National University of Rwanda.

 

Robert Bollinger, MD, MPH

Director and Professor, Johns Hopkins University Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE)
Dr. Bollinger is a Professor of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, with joint appointments in the Department of International Health of the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. He has more than 30 years of experience in international public health, clinical research and education in a broad range of global health priorities. Dr. Bollinger is also the Country Director for the Hopkins Fogarty International Programs in India, which has provided short-term and degree training to more than 100 visiting scientists at Hopkins, as well as in-country training for more than 2000 scientists, since 1992.
Under Dr. Bollinger's leadership, the CCGHE has developed educational and research programs in 18 countries and been a leader in the development and use of distance learning and mHealth technology in resource-limited settings, including eMOCHA, selected as a Finalist for the 2010 Vodafone Wireless Innovations Award. As a clinician educator, Dr. Bollinger’s insight has led to the development of mobile features most needed in the field of clinical care and research resulting in eMOCHA strengthening provider capacity in a variety of program areas around the world, including domestic violence, HIV, TB, dengue, oral cancer, and drug abuse.

 

Alice Borrelli

Director of Global Health and Workforce Policy, Intel
Alice Borrelli, Director of Global Healthcare Policy for Intel Corporation, works with U.S. and international policymakers on healthcare reform and health IT issues in developed and emerging economies. As former vice president of congressional affairs for AT&T, Alice represented the company on telecommunications, environment, benefits and labor issues. Alice has also served as a public affairs consultant for BGH&T, a private equity firm focused on health and technology solutions, the World Bank, the American Red Cross and the Cyber Security Industry Alliance.
Alice currently serves as co-chair of the Continua Health Alliance’s Emerging Markets Policy Working Group, and holds the office of Chairman of Women’s Policy, Inc, supporting the women’s congressional delegation and serves on the Board of Advisors for the College of William and Mary’s Thomas Jefferson Program for Public Policy. She was recently recognized by the American Telemedicine Association with the Industry Council Award and a recipient of the Continua Health Alliance’s Key Contributor Award.

 

Relly Brandman, PhD

Course Operations, Coursera
Dr. Relly Brandman is a senior member of the Course Operations team at Coursera. She works with universities all over the world to produce high-impact and engaging classes. Before coming to Coursera, Relly got her PhD at Stanford University as part of the Folding@Home team and did her postdoctoral studies at UCSF building computational models of critical Tuberculosis enzymes. She is an author on more than 10 scientific papers and patents. She has years of teaching experience in chemistry and computational biology, including curriculum design, hands-on workshops and coaching teachers. She is excited about her new adventure being part of a team bringing free, high quality education to anybody with an internet connection.

 

Kathryn C. Brown, JD

Senior Vice President, Public Policy Development & Corporate Responsibility Verizon Corporation
Kathryn C. Brown has been with the company since June 2002 and is the Senior Vice President of Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility. In this position she leads Verizon's global corporate responsibility initiatives, global and domestic policy development, and policy initiatives with the executive branch. She is Chair of the Verizon Shared Success Council and has responsibility for the Verizon Foundation.
Before joining Verizon, Ms. Brown was a partner at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Brown was the Chief of Staff to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman William E. Kennard, managing the agenda on all telecommunications, broadcast, and spectrum matters.
Additionally, Ms. Brown was the Associate Administrator, Office of Policy Analysis and Development, at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration. Ms. Brown worked for eight years at the New York State Public Service Commission as the Director of the Consumer Services Division and as Litigation Attorney and Managing Attorney for Telecommunications with the Office of General Counsel. Prior to joining the NYPSC, she was the Deputy Clerk of the New York State Court of Appeals.

 

Larry Chang, MD, MPH

Co-Director, Science and Implementation, eMOCHA; Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education eMOCHA
Dr. Larry Chang is a physician trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, and epidemiology with an interest in multidisciplinary, innovative, and pragmatic approaches to impacting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Global mHealth - A related and growing focus of his research is using novel mHealth (mobile technologies for health) strategies for improving global public health and clinical care, including novel applications for maternal/child health, intimate-partner violence, and HIV care, surveillance, and prevention. Dr. Chang is the Director of Science and Implementation for the Hopkins-based eMOCHA (electronic Mobile Open-source Comprehensive Health Application) mHealth Platform (www.emocha.org), and he oversees active projects involving eMOCHA in Baltimore, Afghanistan, and Uganda. He is a member of the newly formed Steering Committee for a University-wide Johns Hopkins Global mHealth Initiative.

 

Shawn A. Covell

Vice President, Wireless Reach Initiative, Qualcomm
Shawn Covell is Vice President of Government Affairs for Qualcomm Incorporated, where she helps manage global operations and strategic planning of a government affairs team of over sixty. In addition, Covell oversees two key government affairs teams responsible for elevating Qualcomm’s profile among policy makers, opinion leaders and governments.
Previously, Covell was Senior Director, Southeast Asia Government Affairs, based in Hong Kong., where she directed Qualcomm's public policy agenda and its relationship with government entities in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Covell was manager of congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), the largest U.S. wireless industry association. Covell serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego World Trade Center and the San Diego New Children's Museum.

 

Bakary Diallo, PhD

CEO/Rector, African Virtual University
Dr. Diallo has worked in the education sector for the past 23 years as an academic, consultant, project administrator, researcher, and secondary school teacher. He joined the African Virtual University (AVU), an intergovernmental organization based in Nairobi that specializes in open distance and eLearning, in 2005. Dr. Diallo has led AVU to become a respected player in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education in Africa. Prior to joining AVU, he worked at the University of Ottawa as a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Education, and as a consultant for integration of ICT in education at the Center for University Teaching.
Dr. Diallo holds a masters degree and PhD with a focus on the integration of ICTs in higher education institutes from the University of Ottawa. He currently advises on and is a member of several global organizations and initiatives, including the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, the Open CourseWare Consortium, and the European Research Network for Emerging Technologies.

 

Amir Dossal

Founder and Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum
Amir Dossal is Chairman of the Global Partnerships Forum, an international platform to address economic and social challenges, through innovative partnerships. He is also the Co-Initiator of the Pearl Initiative, a CEO-led program, promoting transparency and accountability in the Gulf Region. In addition, Amir is Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union for Global Partnerships and also serves as Commissioner of the Broadband Commission. He is also Special Adviser to the Chief Information Technology Officer of the United Nations. He is also Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union for Global Partnerships and also serves as Commissioner of the Broadband Commission and Special Adviser to the Chief Information Technology Officer of the United Nations.
Amir Dossal works globally across all sectors, including Health, Education, Environment, Peace, Security, and Human Rights. He has built complex, crucial alliances between governments, multilateral agencies, business groups, foundations and civil society, including but not limited to: Arab Foundations Forum, Business Council for International Understanding, Chambers of Commerce, China World Peace Foundation, Committee for Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, CITYarts, Commonwealth Business Council, European Foundation Centre, Foreign Policy Association, Humpty Dumpty Institute, IDP Foundation, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, Institute for International Sport, Institute for Large Scale Innovation, Jewish Children’s Museum, LTB Foundation, NEPAD Business Group, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Synergos Institute, United Nations Associations, US Council for International Business, US Department of State, World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists.

 

Ndimangwa Fadhili, MCA

Information Communication Technology (ICT) Analyst, KCMC Medical Education Partnership Initiative
Ndimangwa Fadhili is an ICT analyst at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center Medical Education Partnership Initiative (KCMC-MEPI) in Moshi, Tanzania. His vast skills in computer programming, including C, C++, Java, PHP, Javascript, CSS, and assembly language and electronics, led him to serve as network support engineer for Hotspot Business Solution Limited from 2007 to 2008. He is a member of Engineer Registration Board (ERB) of Tanzania, and received his masters in computer applications (MCA) from Bangalore University in 2011.

 

Ed Fantegrossi

Chair and CEO, EDCO/TellAlf
Ed Fantegrossi is the Chair and CEO of EDCO/TellAlf, an international telecom switching company partnership with a large Asia Pacific based, multi-national telecom for the last 15 years. He is also the Founder and CEO of Geographic Network Affiliates-International (GEO) a real estate development company that constructed, operated and owned full-service technology facilities internationally.
Mr. Fantegrossi was one of the Founders of the not-for-profit organization, known as the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF). His donations of fiber-optic connectivity evolved over seven years to cover 2/3’s of the globe. He helped found the IEEAF in 2001 with an intention of creating an international network of free global high speed broadband connectivity access to be utilized by the global research and education community, for the purpose of super-computational initiatives, including Healthcare and medical endeavors.

 

Seble Frehywot, MD, MHSA

Principal Investigator, MEPI Coordinating Center, George Washington University
Professor Seble Frehywot is an Associate Research Professor in the Departments of Health Policy and Global Health at the George Washington University. She has worked in Asia, Africa, and the United States, and brings in-depth knowledge of medicine, health systems and health policy to the challenges of building the health workforce and health systems and improving care to mothers and children. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative Coordinating Center (MEPI). She has worked on number of projects for WHO including , principal investigator for the study on the Effect of Compulsory Service on Retention of Health Workforce in Rural and Remote areas, various WHO technical core group member in the development of global guidelines/guidance : the “Task-shifting”, the “Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention,” the “Optimizing the Delivery of Key Interventions to attain MDG 4 and 5” and the upcoming one on “Transformative Scaling-up of Medical and Nursing and Midwifery Education.”

 

Florence Gaudry-Perkins

International Affairs Director, Alcatel-Lucent
Florence Gaudry-Perkins is currently International Director for Global Government & Public Affairs at the headquarters of Alcatel-Lucent. Her current position entails relations with governments, multilateral and bilateral funds, as well as international organizations, an ideal platform to address the economic and social enabling effects of mobile technology and broadband in the developing world. Her past work in higher education and familiarity with global health has influenced her in being a strong advocate of mLearning and mHealth in particular.

She believes that global corporations now hold a responsibility in bringing their core technologies, products, services and competencies to form alliances with NGOs, Social Entrepreneurs, Foundations, Governments and international organizations to help develop sustainable business models which can then be easier to scale and replicate across regions and markets.

 

Jackson Hungu, MA

Deputy Country Director, Kenya, Clinton Health Access Initiative
Jackson Hungu is the Deputy Country Director for Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Kenya. He is also CHAI’s global lead on e/mHealth. Jackson splits his time between CHAI’s Kenya country team and CHAI’s global diagnostics team. In Kenya he leads CHAI’s work in access to medicines and diagnostics. In addition to advising the ministry of health, he is in charge of managing the UNITAID HIV medicine and diagnostic commodity donation to Kenya to scale up HIV/AIDS treatment.
Jackson worked with Hewlett Packard to build and deploy an innovative electronic platform to accelerate diagnosis of infants with HIV in Kenya hence reducing time to treatment saving lives. This award winning solution is now in use at national scale in Kenya and has recently been deployed in Uganda. He is now working with HP to deploy a “Health Cloud” that will provide the platform to host all national level health application. On the global diagnostics team, Jackson’s role has been to advice point of care diagnostic (POC) manufacturers on appropriate mHealth technologies that would enhance POC diagnostic application in the field. Jackson holds a bachelors and masters degree in economics from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

 

Larry Irving

Co-Founder, The Mobile Alliance for Global Good
Mr. Irving is Co-Founder at The Mobile Alliance for Global Good. He was formerly the Vice President of Global Government Affairs for Hewlett-Packard Company. Previously he was President and CEO of the Irving Information Group, a telecommunication and information technology strategic planning and consulting business, head of the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Administration, principal architect of President Bill Clinton's telecommunications, Internet and e-commerce policies and initiatives, and worked with President Barack Obama's transition team of science and tech agencies

 

Reza Jafari

Chairman and CEO, e-Development International
Mr. Jafari is the Chairman and CEO of e-Development International, an executive advisory group that promotes, facilitates and participates in information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives for social entrepreneurships, connected healthcare and public-private partnerships worldwide. Prior to this he served as the Chairman and Managing Director of NeuStar International, and as the Chairman and CEO of The Omega Partners, and held various senior executive positions at Electronic Data Systems Corporation, now an HP company including Group President of Global Telecom, Media and Entertainment Industry group.
Mr. Jafari is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ITU TELECOM and a Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development. He has spent 35 years in IT services, competitive telecoms, media entertainment, education and health IT industries. His portfolio of business relationships and interests include advising established and start up companies and organizations in, mobile health, mobile value added services, distance learning, satellite communications, cyber security, Broadband, digital innovations and IT services.

 

Zachariah Jezman, BSc.N, MPH

Project Manager, VillageReach
Mr. Jezman is a registered nurse with BSc.N, and an MPH with interest in improving service delivery at all levels especially for HIV and maternal and child health related issues. He is currently the Project Manager for ICT in MNCH pilot project in Malawi. Funded by Bill Gates Foundation through Concern Worldwide, the project seeks to bridge the communication gap of vital health information which exist between the health staff and the community which in turn increase demand for MNCH services, improved MNCH case management, Promote appropriate household and community management of health conditions for pregnant women, children, and women of child bearing age.
Before joining VillageReach, Mr. Jezman was the Community Programmes Co-ordinator for the 3 years PMTCT Project of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Machinga District, and also worked with John Hopkins-College of Medicine Research project as Research Nurse for 3 years, and taught at Mulanje Nursing College for 2 years.

 

Mick Keyes

Senior Technologist, Enterprise Group, Hewlett Packard
Mick is a senior technologist In the Hp Enterprise Group and a leading expert in the areas of Cloud Computing and Advanced Analytics. He has worked with a number of Governments globally on competitiveness particularly related to Food and Life cycle industries. Keyes sits on a number of government advisory boards focused on developing future global competitiveness for their economies over the coming years. He is an advocate of empowering communities to adopt technologies to improve competitiveness and access global markets. He also works closely with international trade bodies on the development of standards to improve efficiencies and visibility in global trade.
Keyes also drives initiatives for Hp’s Social innovation teams in emerging markets working closely with global NGO’s such as Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), CHAI, Nethope, USAID and PATH in the adoption of Mobile and Cloud based technologies. He has recently led a team in the implementation of the industries first Mobile authentication system to combat Drug anti-counterfeiting in developing markets.

 

Erica Kochi

Tech Innovation Lead, UNICEF
Erica Kochi co-founded and co-leads UNICEF’s Innovation Unit in NY, a group tasked with identifying, prototyping and scaling technologies to improve UNICEF’s work in the field. Working with partners in private sector, academia, and international development, the team supports UNICEF’s 135+ country offices in the practical application of design and technology to strengthen international development outcomes. Erica has also worked with the Commission for Macroeconomics and Health, a joint collaboration between the World Bank and the World Health Organization, and developed and executed UNICEF global communication strategies for immunization, child survival and avian influenza and pandemic preparedness. Additionally, Erica co-taught ‘Design for UNICEF’ at NYU’s ITP with Clay Shirky. She has lectured at the Yale School of Management, Harvard University, The Art Center, Stanford University School of Engineering, and Columbia School of International and Public Affairs on technology, innovation, design and international development.

 

Andrew Litt, MD

Chief Medical Officer, Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences
Andrew W. Litt is Chief Medical Officer for Dell’s division of Healthcare and Life Sciences. He is responsible for providing strategic insight to Dell’s healthcare solutions to help healthcare organizations, medical professionals and patients realize the benefits of information-enabled healthcare.
Prior to his current role, Dr. Litt was the principal of Litt Healthcare Ventures a consulting firm for private equity firms and others seeking to invest in healthcare. Before that he was Executive Vice President and Vice Dean, Chief of Staff of the NYU Langone Medical Center and coordinated the activities and strategy across the NYU School of Medicine and the NYU Hospital Center. Dr. Litt has served on two outside Boards of Directors. He helped found CareCore National, a company that provides utilization and quality management programs for managed care company clients. He also was a founding board member of Imaging on Call, a company that provides emergency “off-hours” radiology interpretations for hospitals and radiology practices via the internet.

 

Amy Lockwood

Deputy Director, Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford University
Amy Lockwood is the Deputy Director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University, where she supports the design and implementation of innovative healthcare solutions by students and faculty members. She is also the co-founder of RIVET, an organization to support social entrepreneurs with health care solutions designed for emerging economies. She has worked at the intersection of business and global health since 2006, through several leadership positions in non-profit organizations and foundations with operations across India, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Her experience with patients, healthcare providers, facility administrators, business owners, and government officials in these regions has shaped her perspective on innovation and effective implementation of healthcare solutions. Before beginning her career in international development and global health, Ms. Lockwood was a strategy consultant with a focus on branding and communications.

 

Yvonne MacPherson, MSc

Executive Director, BBC Media Action USA
Yvonne MacPherson is the Executive Director of the BBC Media Action USA (formally BBC World Service Trust USA). Prior to this, Yvonne was Country Director of the BBC World Service Trust in India, where she was responsible for all strategic, program, financial and technical aspects of operations in India. From 2004-2011 in India, Yvonne designed and managed multi-media behavior change initiatives that reached over 300 million people. Prior to joining the Trust, she managed health projects in Africa and Asia and was a Healthcare Business Analyst in London. She holds a MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA from McGill University and completed courses including Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health. Yvonne was nominated for the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights in 2008 and was selected as an Asia Society Young Leader in 2011.

 

Yonas Maru

Founder & Managing Director, Bandwidth & Cloud services Group
Yonas Maru (Managing Director) – Mr. Maru is the founder & Managing Director of Bandwidth & Cloud services Group. Prior to BCS Group Mr. Maru was with the private equity firm, Kingdom Zephyr Management, where he initiated and headed the firm’s efforts on debt securitization transactions. He previously worked Mckinsey & Company in Johannesburg, where he advised several multi-nationals in the telecommunications and IT industries on operational & business strategy. Mr. Maru is a graduate of Colombia Business School and has several years of experience in the software development and sales in the New York region.

 

Caroline Mbindyo

eHealth Program Manager, AMREF
Caroline Mbindyo has worked in the technology sector for over 15 years. Currently, Caroline is the eHealth Programme Manager at the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF). She is responsible for the development and implementation of AMREFs eHealth programmes to include eLearning and mHealth across sub-Saharan Africa. Caroline leads the team that implemented the pioneering eLearning programme for nurses in Kenya, which significantly impacted the delivery of sustainable and cost-effective training for health workers in low resource settings. This programme is currently being replicated by the Ministries of Health of Uganda, Tanzania, Lesotho, Zambia and Senegal with a focus on various cadres of health workers. With the increase in access to mobile phones in Africa, Caroline is directing a two year multi-country study on how mobile devices can be leveraged to improve health care delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. Caroline has published and contributed to the publication of various papers.

 

Enawgaw Mehari, MD

Founder and President, People to People, Inc.
Dr. Enawgaw Mehari is Consultant neurologist at Morehead Medical Specialist and St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Kentucky ,Adjunct Faculty , University of Kentucky, Honorary Faculty ,Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and the founder and CEO of People to People Inc. (P2P), a nonprofit organization that aims to improve health care and reduce AIDS in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia. Ethiopian-born Enawgaw Mehari, MD, came to the US in 1995 to fulfill his dreams of becoming a neurologist, and began practicing neurology with specialties in pain management and neuro-AIDS at the Morehead Medical Specialist and St. Claire Regional Medical Center.
In his spare time, Dr. Mehari has since expanded the services of P2P, including opening the People's Free Clinic in Morehead, KY, in 2005 for the working poor who have no health insurance - - and a clinic online for anyone anywhere in the world. In 2006, Dr. Mehari won a distinguished service award from the Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora, and in 2007 he was nominated as a CNN Hero, awarded by the cable network to everyday people around the globe who have made a major impact on the world, and Humanitarian award by Black Hall of Fame. Dr.Mehari was also awarded by theAmerican Academy of Neurology the 2010 Patient Advocate award. He has been granted the highest commendation and recognition by the Senate of the State of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

 

Garrett Mehl, PhD

Scientist, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
Dr. Mehl leads work on mHealth and innovations for reproductive and child health. He leads mHealth evidence synthesis through the WHO mHealth Technical Advisory Group (mTAG) on Evidence, Impact and Scale in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, and facilitates the scale-up of mHealth solutions as technical lead of the WHO HRP Innovations Catalyst “UN EWEC IWG Catalytic Scale-up Grant Program for mHealth” in collaboration with the mHealth Alliance. Additionally, he is a PI of the “Dristhi” mHealth research study that is developing and assessing the impact of a smart-phone mHealth solution within the Indian rural health system, on maternal and child heath outcomes. Previously, Dr. Mehl coordinated research and evaluation on adolescents in the WHO Department of Child and Adolescent Health; and contributed to the development of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Previously, he worked at the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, Johns Hopkins University, and the International Eye Foundation.
Dr Mehl holds doctoral and masters degrees in International Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He has lived and worked on health in developing countries for over 15 years.

 

Margaret Mumbi Mongare

Team Lead, Biodesign Global Exchange Program, Stanford University
Margaret is a first year medical student at the Stanford School of Medicine and holds a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Economics from Smith College. Currently she serves as Team Lead for Government Partnerships and Chronic Disease Systems for Miti Health, a student-led project funded through the Biodesign Global Exchange Program at Stanford University. The project aims to build an integrated application for use by healthcare practitioners and managers at public health facilities in Kenya to guide electronic storage of patient data on low-cost Android tablets as well as clinical decision-making.
Before Stanford, Margaret worked at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and at Dalberg Research, where she researched on the role of management education in inspiring local entrepreneurship in Ghana and Nigeria. Margaret co-founded the grassroots nonprofit Masomo Mashinani, which addresses the lack of access to quality public education for residents of Kenya’s urban slums. At Smith College, Margaret co-founded the Global Medical Training Chapter. As a Kahn Liberal Arts Fellow, she has examined the key factors in downstream policy adoption of novel research findings in improving maternal health in South Africa.

 

Robert Noll

Director, Alvarez & Marsal
Robert Noll is a Director with Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services LLC, located in Washington, D.C. He previously served as a Senior Federal Executive for the US Congress and directed a comprehensive $250 million dollar business continuity and disaster recovery investment portfolio to ensure the survivability of the Legislative Branch post 9/11. In addition Rob served as Special Assistant to the Director in the Office of Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Operations for the Speaker of the House after 9/11 where he focused on managing day to day operations and continuity of government planning. Lastly, Mr. Noll served as an advance team member supporting the US Vice President, and started his career as a Legislative aide for Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest (retired). Mr. Noll has provided continuity and disaster recovery support during 9/11, Capitol Hill anthrax attacks, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Gustav, Ike, and American Samoa Tsunami.

 

Donald Nyakairu

Regulatory & Government Affairs Officer, LAP Green Group
Donald Nyakairu is the group regulatory and government affairs officer for LAP Green Group, the majority shareholders in Uganda Telecom Ltd, a total telecommunications service provider in Uganda. He entered the telecommunications sector in 2002 as chief legal counsel of Uganda Telecom Ltd, and until June 2012 served as managing director for the company. Don served as chairman of the Finance and Commercial Working Group of the Project Management Committee, which conceived and developed the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy).
He is an experienced commercial and corporate lawyer, with both a national and international background, having began his career in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda, where he worked for 11 years and rose to the rank of principal state attorney in the Civil Affairs Department. Don has also served on various boards, including West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) and Gemtel South Sudan and Zambia Telecommuncations Company Ltd.

 

Egbe Osifo-Dawodu, MD, MRCP, MSc, MBA

Partner, Anadach Group
Dr. Osifo-Dawodu joined the Anadach Group as a Partner, from the new Innovation Practice at the World Bank Institute, where she was an Adviser. In the newly formed group, she led the pilot innovation fair on fragility and conflict in South Africa. Having won one of the first innovation awards in the World Bank Group (the precursor to the development market place), she feels she has come full circle to now focus on innovative approaches to health care.
She has over 25 years experience in healthcare policy, provision and health care financing in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America. Egbe, who currently lectures at the University at Albany, has authored several articles, contributed to books and was a lead author of “Establishing Private Health Care Facilities in Developing Countries: A Guide for Medical Entrepreneurs”. Dr. Osifo-Dawodu is a member of the advisory boards of Sproxil and the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, and a board member of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas.

 

Kathleen Page, MD

Director, Latin American Programs Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education
Dr. Kathleen Page is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and directs the Latin American programs at the CCGHE. She is the Principal Investigator in NIH-funded projects evaluating the effect of BC on immune activation and HIV susceptibility, and developing a point-of-care diagnostic test for histoplasmosis. She recently completed an HHS-funded HIV training program for health care providers in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Panama. In collaboration with her CCGHE colleagues and Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, she is implementing mobile phone technology (eMOCHA) to collect and analyze data for a multisite dengue prevention study in Colombia.
She has over 25 years experience in healthcare policy, provision and health care financing in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America. Egbe, who currently lectures at the University at Albany, has authored several articles, contributed to books and was a lead author of “Establishing Private Health Care Facilities in Developing Countries: A Guide for Medical Entrepreneurs”. Dr. Osifo-Dawodu is a member of the advisory boards of Sproxil and the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, and a board member of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas.

 

Groesbeck Parham, MD

Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Director, Cervical Cancer Prevention Program, Zambia (CCPPZ)
Dr. Parham is a professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Since 2005 he has lived in Zambia where he directs the Cervical Cancer Prevention Program in Zambia (CCPPZ), the world’s first publically funded cervical cancer prevention program targeting HIV infected women. The primary funder of this effort, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), has called this flagship program the “best model for cervical cancer prevention of HIV-infected women in Africa.” The CCPPZ approach to cervical cancer prevention trains nurses to take magnified digital photographs of the cervix, which are used for diagnosis, patient education, documentation, forwarded to colleagues for an expert opinion and for quality assurance. Screening nurses also perform same-day cryotherapy, with referral of more complex cases. This matrix of task shifting combined with appropriate and affordable mobile technology has been used to screen over 100,000 women.

 

Samantha Parsons

General Manager, inPractice^® Africa
Ms. Parsons is responsible for the development and implementation of the inPractice® Africa program, a unique online and offline clinical training and support technology platform that includes original African curricula, made possible due to a USAID Private Public Partnership grant. The model provides clinicians the ability to work through courses, achieve certification, engage in self-directed study, and due to unique content design, it is easy to search and find immediate answers to management questions while in the hospital, the clinic or the village. She has worked for the past 10 years at Chemonics International, Inc., managing large-scale development projects in Africa, Asia, and Eurasia. Most recently as Director, she's designing and implementing large USAID-funded programs in Afghanistan including land reform, conflict stabilization, agricultural development and gender issues. She also led the design of an HIV/AIDS support program for South Africa, assessed the antiretroviral (ARV) drug supply chain management in Malawi, assisted in the design and development of a pharmaceutical supply chain PEPFAR program in Kenya, and assisted in the design of a “food by prescription” program for serving people living with HIV in Ethiopia.

 

Muhammad Ali Pate, MD, MBA, MHS

Minister of State for Health, Nigeria
Dr Muhammad Ali Pate is the Minister of State for Health in Nigeria. His appointment in July 2011 follows his success as the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), in Abuja, Nigeria. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Global Health of the Duke University Global Health Institute. He also serves on the agenda committee of the World Economic Forum and is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Vaccination and Humanitarian Emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.
He has served on several national and international expert panels, including the Pacific Health Summit 2011, Seattle WA, USA, First WHO Health Systems Research Forum, Montreux, Switzerland 2009, Mckinsey’s Geneva Health Forum 2009, Switzerland, Ernst Strungman Forum, Frankfurt, Germany 2010 and China-Africa Roundtable for Health 2010. He is also a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Steering Committee on Assessment of Impact of Polio Eradication on Routine Immunisation and a reviewer for OECD HQ Paris, Innovative Financing for Development 2010.
Prior to his appointment to the NPHCDA in 2008, Dr Pate had an extensive career spanning over 10 years at the World Bank in Washington DC and held several senior positions including Human Development Sector Coordinator for the East Asia/Pacific Region and Senior Health Specialist for the African Region. While at the World Bank, a major project lead by Dr Pate was the far-reaching health sector reform programmes in Africa, East Asia and other regions of the World Bank. Of note is his initiation of landmark Public Private Partnership to replace a National Referral Hospital in Lesotho, Africa.
Dr Pate is an American Board-Certified MD in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA (Health Sector Concentration) from Duke University USA. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Global Health of the Duke University Global Health Institute.

 

Christoph Pimmer, Mag.rer.soc.oec

University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
Christoph Pimmer is an educational researcher and advisor at the learning.lab, IWI, HSW, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and visiting researcher at the Institute of Education, University of London. His work merges education, information and communication technologies and health sciences, and in these fields, Pimmer has worked on and led a number of transdisciplinary projects in schools, universities, and corporate contexts. He regularly speaks at international conferences and his research has been published in leading academic outlets. Pimmer is co-editor of the book Work-Based Mobile Learning (Peter Lang, Oxford), and a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning. He is also a participant in several practical and scientific networks such as the London Mobile Learning Group and the Swiss Network of Educational Innovation.

 

Miriam Rabkin, MD, MPH

Director for Health Systems Strategies, ICAP; Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Dr. Rabkin is a senior staff member at ICAP Columbia, where her work focuses on HIV and health systems, access to HIV services in resource-limited settings, and the design, delivery and evaluation of chronic care programs for HIV and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). At Columbia University, Dr. Rabkin is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology. She teaches at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH), and has worked with MSPH colleagues to lead a mixed-methods distance education course on Health Systems Strengthening for mid-career health professionals at CDC, USAID and health ministries in Barbados, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, and Vietnam. Dr. Rabkin received her medical degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and a master’s degree in public health (epidemiology) from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

 

Sandhya C. Rao, MPH

Senior Advisor for Private Sector Partnerships, USAID
For over 20 years, Sandhya Rao has advised governments, NGOs and corporations on the design, management and evaluation of global development programs and partnerships. She is known for her advocacy efforts on issues that impact the lives of women and girls. As Senior Advisor for Private Sector Partnerships at USAID, Ms. Rao creates out-of-the-box solutions that improve global health through corporate engagement, mobile technology and social innovation. In 2010, she co-founded the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), a public-private partnership launched by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. MAMA engages an innovative global community to deliver vital health information through mobile phones to new and expectant mothers, and strengthens the capacity of organizations around the world to design and scale mobile messaging services that improve maternal and child health. In 2012, Sandhya led the design of mPowering Frontline Health Workers, harnessing mobile technology to improve the skills and performance of health workers in developing countries.

 

Scott Ratzan, MD, MPA

Vice Presient, Global Health, Johnson & Johnson
As Vice President, Global Health, Dr. Ratzan is charged with promoting communication, innovation and programs that focus on health literacy and public health policy. He is a pioneer in the areas of health literacy and mHealth communication. Additionally, Dr. Ratzan is the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives. He also serves as co-chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s Every Woman Every Child Innovation Working Group and serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, he was Senior Technical Adviser in the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development, (USAID), where he developed the global health communication strategy for U.S. funded efforts in 65 countries. Dr. Ratzan is Adjunct Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, Associate Clinical Professor of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and Professorial Lecturer of Global Health at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

 

Karen Rheuban, MD

Professor, Pediatrics (Cardiology), Senior Associate Dean,Continuing Medical Education and External Affairs and Director, University of Virginia Center for Telehealth
Dr. Rheuban is the founding medical director of the Office of Telemedicine of the University of Virginia, which serves as the hub of an 94 site telemedicine network in Virginia, funded by federal, state and foundation grants. The program was developed to utilize advanced technologies to enhance access to care for remotely located and underserved patients, and has supported more than 29,000 patient encounters in Virginia and thousands of hours of health professional and patient education. The UVA Center for Telehealth serves as the lead for the Mid Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center, serving 7 states and the District of Columbia. The Center is launching a certified telehealth technologist training program.
Dr. Rheuban is a past President of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), and she serves on the boards of the Center for Telehealth and E-Health Law (CTEL), the Medical Society of Virginia and its Foundation and she is the Board Chair of the Virginia Telehealth Network. She serves on the Southwest Virginia Health Authority, the Technology Advisory Committee of the Governor's Health Reform Initiative, and the Governing body of ConnectVirginia, Virginia's statewide health information exchange. She was recently appointed to serve as a trustee of the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (Medicaid).
Dr. Rheuban is a trustee and volunteer for the international charity, the Swinfen Charitable Trust, through which telehealth supported consultations are provided by more than 500 volunteer consultants to referring providers in 68 countries. UVA telemedicine is working with global partners to develop telemedicine collaborations in Rwanda, Uganda, Botswana, Tanzania and Guatemala. UVA also serves as a host telemedicine training site for international visitors in collaboration with the US Telecommunications Training Institute.

 

Taynah Reis

CEO, Global Digital Impact
Taynah Reis is the CEO of Global Digital Impact and the Vice President of New Frontiers of Cooperation Institution. In 2011 she won the “Midem Hack Day” competition (Cannes, France) and the “AT&T Mobile App Hackathon” at SXSW (Austin, TX) with the development of All.be.Tuned, a social network that collaboratively creates music. Most recently, Taynah was invited by the U.S. State Department to join the “Walk A Mile” global initiative and develop the platform that promotes its Global Activity around the world. Taynah has worked extensively with the Brazilian government – having developed “the Rural Social Network”, an online community for small agriculture/farm families that was expanded nation-wide by President Dilma Rousseff, as well as managing an e-learning platform with 100 classes that is educating workers and students alike across Brazil. Taynah established a holding company in Austria – Global Digital Impact – that allows her to expand her initiatives globally and invest in clean energy and security technology. Taynah is also part of Richard Branson’s B-Team.

 

LeoPold Rweyemamu

CEO, DataCom Consulting Group
LeoPold Rweyemamu was educated at the Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology, University of Dar es Salaam, and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, RWANDA. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of DataCom Consulting Group; and has directed world-class projects in Strategy formulation and Implementation of Telecommunications Infrastructure, Competitiveness strategy using the role of ICT’s, deployment and roll out of Mobile Applications Services. LeoPold under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has extensively participated in drafting ICT Policy statements, Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) both in Genève and Tunis Summits. He was the member of the Grand Jury of the World Summit Award and run the technology advocacy and sensitization program through IT Vision Magazine.

 

Toyin Ojora Saraki LLB LLM BL

Founder & President, Wellbeing Foundation Africa

Toyin Saraki is Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBF Africa), a pan-African maternal health and wellbeing charity. WBF Africa has become one of the most influential and active organisations in the area of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), working across sectors to deliver innovative solutions such as its flagship WBFA IMNCH Personal Health Record© and the MamaKit. WBF Africa goes beyond aid; it is dedicated to advocacy and the formation of best practices in health, education, women’s empowerment and social welfare.
A qualified barrister, Toyin Saraki built a successful private sector career before dedicating the last 21 years to philanthropy. Toyin is a global advocate of the UNs’ Every Woman Every Child effort, acts as Board Chair of the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, Chair of the FIDA International Committee on Law Protecting the Rights of Children, and is Goodwill Ambassador of the Olave Baden-Powell Society (OB-PS), which supports the efforts of the World Association of Girls Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). She also sits on the boards of the Global Foundation for the Elimination of Domestic Violence and The Africa Justice Foundation.
Toyin is married to H.E. Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki MBBS CON, Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Kwara Central), and together they are blessed with four children.

 

Mubashar Sheikh, MD

Executive Director, Global Health Workforce Alliance
Dr Sheikh is a specialist in health system policy and planning. He started his professional career with the Ministry of Health in Pakistan where he served in various positions. During this period, he also designed, implemented and led a nationwide community based childcare and reproductive health network under the ‘Lady Health Workers’ initiative.
Dr Sheikh has served on various committees and task forces at the national, regional and international levels. He is the author of numerous policy documents, training manuals and guidelines. He is also writing regularly on various aspects of health systems and human development.

 

Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD

Co-Chair, One Million Community Health Worker Campaign
Prabhjot Singh is Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs and Director of System Design for the Millennium Villages Project. He has worked in Africa, South Asia and the United States on health system design and development, with a particular focus on organizational management of distributed workforces such as Community Health Workers. His work blends operational research, analytical tool/technology development, with policy analysis to support sustainable development planning.
Prabhjot Singh has been a leader in the development of Community Health Worker (CHW) systems globally. In 2011, he chaired the “1 Million Community Health Worker Technical Taskforce,” which provides guidance on how low-income countries can deploy, finance and manage large scale health workforce extension systems to address structural gaps in primary health care delivery (i.e. lack of skilled workers in low-resource settings). The management systems deployed for CHWs have relevance to other extension workforces, such as in agriculture and education and are active areas of development.

 

Adam Slote, MD, MPH

Senior Health Advisor, USAID/Global Health
Dr. Adam Slote is the eHealth Coordinator for the Bureau for Global Health at USAID. In that role, he serves as the eHealth Advisor for the Bureau's Office of Health Systems and its Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact, and helps link together the efforts of the Bureau's offices of HIV/AIDS, Population and Reproductive Health, and Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition.
Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Slote served as a Senior Health Advisor for Strategic Planning, the Global Health Team Leader for the Asia and Near East Region, and as a Child Health Advisor in the Division of Maternal and Child Health. Prior to coming to USAID, Dr. Slote worked for the United Nations Volunteers program as an Essential Health Services Advisor in the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health, and for the International Rescue Committee as a Public Health Surveillance Manager.
Dr. Slote has a BA from Yale University, an MD from the University of California, San Francisco, and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is trained as a pediatrician, and during his clinical career worked for DHHS/Indian Health Service.

 

Kate Tulenko, MD, MPH, MPhil

Director, Capacity Plus
Kate Tulenko is a physician and global health specialist, Dr. Kate Tulenko has worked at the highest levels of health workforce, health financing, and health policy development with institutions around the world. She currently serves as IntraHealth International’s senior director of health systems innovation, as well as director of CapacityPlus, the USAID-funded and IntraHealth-led global project focused on the health workforce needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. She joined IntraHealth from the World Bank, where she coordinated the Bank’s Africa Health Workforce Program.
Dr. Tulenko has been an advisor to national governments on health policy and reform. She has served on expert panels for the World Bank, World Health Organization, American Public Health Association, Global Health Workforce Alliance, and American Hospital Association, and she currently serves on the National Physicians Alliance board of directors. She also holds academic appointments at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the George Mason College of Health and Human Services. Tulenko holds an MD and MPH from Johns Hopkins University, and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, Emmanuel College. Tulenko has published on a wide array of topics.

 

Deborah Van Dyke, MPH, MSN

Executive Director, Global Health Media Project
Deborah Van Dyke is founder and executive director of Global Health Media Project. She is also the non-profit’s producer and technical director, involved in all phases of design and production of their clinical videos and public health animation. Dr. Van Dyke has two decades of experience as a family practice clinician, trainer, and humanitarian aid project coordinator. Since 1993 she has worked internationally—most often with MSF/Doctors Without Borders—in conflict and post-conflict settings in Asia and Africa. She has broad clinical expertise, rare frontline experience, a knack for distilling “need to know” information from complex concepts, and a deep commitment to making knowledge resources accessible to health workers in low-resource settings. Dr. Van Dyke received her Master of Public Health (MPH) from Harvard in 1993 and Nurse Practitioner (MSN) degree from Yale in 1986.

 

Lee Wells

Head of Health Programmes (Africa), Vodafone Foundation
Mr. Lee joined the Vodafone Foundation to lead their health programmes in Africa at the end of 2011. He has designed, and is managing, the foundation’s multi-million dollar and multi-partner maternal health programme in Tanzania as part of the Vodafone Foundation’s ‘Mobile for Good’ commitment.
Previously he was Executive Director of the Touch Foundation, delivering practical health systems strengthening and human resources for health solutions in Tanzania, based out of McKinsey & Company’s offices in New York. As Head of Global Access to Medicines Policy at Novartis, based in Switzerland, Mr. Lee worked throughout Africa on the unprecedented scale-up of the ‘without profit’ Coartem malaria initiative. In addition to holding a senior leadership position for Novartis in the UK, he is a former Senior Health Policy Adviser in the UK Parliament.

 

Kelly S. Willis, MBA

Interim Executive Director, Sr. Vice President, Global Health Programs, Accordia Global Health Foundation
Kelly S. Willis is the interim executive director and senior vice president for global health programs at Accordia Global Health Foundation, a US-based non-profit working to build permanent health capacity in sub-Saharan Africa through innovative training, research, care, and prevention models.
In her role at Accordia, Ms. Willis works with Accordia’s academic, corporate, and philanthropic partners to develop, implement, and evaluate institutional strengthening programs for health leadership and innovation. She is responsible for shaping and expanding the organization’s health education programs in Africa, as well as their scientific evaluation to find the most effective and efficient models.
Among other projects, Ms. Willis led Accordia’s Integrated Infectious Disease Capacity Building Evaluation, a $12.6 million program designed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of methods to build capacity among mid-level health practitioners for infectious disease management in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Sarah Wynn-Williams

Manager, Global Public Policy, Facebook
Sarah Wynn-Williams is Manager of Global Public Policy at Facebook, where she focuses on international governance, international policy and trade issues. Sarah has managed many global initiatives for Facebook including Facebook's organ donation initiative and disaster relief program. Prior to joining Facebook Sarah was a diplomat for a decade with the New Zealand Foreign Service serving at the United Nations and managing Political and Congressional Affairs at the New Zealand Embassy in Washington DC. She also served as a technical legal expert to the United Nations Biosafety Protocol Working Group and was Chief Negotiator on an International Liability Protocol. Before entering a career in Foreign Relations Sarah worked as a lawyer at Australian Law Firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques. Sarah holds Law and Political Science degrees from Canterbury University.

 

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Moderators

Nalini Anand, J.D., M.P.H.

Director, Division of International Science Policy Planning and Evaluation; Acting Director, Center for Global Health Studies, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
At the Fogarty International Center since 2002, Nalini now currently serves as Director for the Division of International Science Policy, Planning and Evaluation, and Acting Director of the Center for Global Health Studies. Nalini received her BA from Cornell University, graduated from Stanford Law School, and in 2009 received an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is responsible for managing Fogarty’s policy, planning and evaluation activities. Second, she is directing a new global health “think tank” on the NIH campus that will serve as a platform for short-term, project-based scholarship in global health science and policy and a forum to convene NIH together with key stakeholders around specific, high-priority global health challenges. This new Center will also host short-term training opportunities in focused areas of global health.

 

Jeffrey Blander, PhD

Acting Deputy Director & Sr. Advisor, Private Sector Engagement, Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator
Dr. Blander services as the Acting Deputy Director and Senior Advisor for Private Sector Engagement (PSE), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC). Jeff’s role is to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of policies, interventions, and strategies for public private partnerships (PPPs) to achieve the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Jeff is an experienced research scientist, non-profit foundation director, and industry executive specializing in areas of health systems strengthening, business strategy development, health information systems, and microfluidic diagnostics. Prior to joining the Department of State, Jeff has held research and teaching appointments at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health as well as served as the President of the Bienmoyo Foundation, providing advisory support for the design of strategic partnerships to strengthen health systems to address the double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases.
Jeff received his Doctorate and Masters Degrees from The Harvard School of Public Health and his Bachelors of Science from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Jessica Colaço

Research Lead and Manager, iHub
Jessica Colaço is the Research Lead and Manager at iHub – Nairobi’s Tech Innovation Hub. She is passionate about Innovation, Research, Visualization, Mobile Technology, Robotics and Entrepreneurship in Kenya. Jessica mentors the team in research activities, leading the team in their day-to-day activities at the research firm. Her primary activities at iHub Research include leading major research projects at the as well as courting local, regional and international stakeholders to adopt Kenyan- made solutions.
She studied Computer Science at the University of Nairobi before joining Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre as the Research Lead where she worked for 3 years. She is a TED Global Fellow in 2009, Founder of Mobile Boot Camp Kenya, and Co-founder of AkiraChix. Jessica has organized several Mobile Boot Camps in Kenya as well as the first Facebook Developer Garage in Kenya in 2008 and was named Kenya’s Top 40 women under 40 in the business scene in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

 

John Forrer

Associate Director, Institute for Corporate Responsibility, School of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University
John J. Forrer is Associate Director of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility, as well as Research Professor at the School of Business and Associate Faculty at the School of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University. He recently co-led the United States Institute for Peace Task Force on Business and Peace and co-authored a USIP Special Report: “How Business Can Foster Peace.” He has written extensively on multi-sector collaborations for governance—public private partnerships and governance networks—and the role business plays in making such collaborations effective and impactful. He is currently leading the ICR research team that works with the Ford Motor Company and the US State Department on a pilot project that combines vehicles and connectivity to provide telemedicine services to women in remote villages outside Chennai, India.

 

Gary Fowlie

Head of Strategy and Policy Unit, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Gary Fowlie has been the head of the Liaison office of the International Telecommunication Union to the United Nations since 2009. ITU is the UN specialized agency for information and communication technology. Mr. Fowlie is an Economist and Journalist. He was a Producer/Reporter for the news service of the Canadian Braodcasting Corporation for 10 years and a freelance reporter for The Economist. Prior to joining the International Telecommunication Union in 2001, Mr. Fowlie worked as an Account Director for the technology practice of the global consulting firm Hill and Knowlton. His clients included Microsoft, SAP and many others. Mr. Fowlie was responsible for communications for the UN World Summit on the Information Society (2003 and 2005) and from 2005 until 2009 was the Chief of Media Liaison for the United Nations in New York. Mr. Fowlie is a graduate of the Universities of Alberta, Alabama and the London School of Economics.

 

Richard Gakuba, MD

Director of eHealth, Rwanda Ministry of Health
Dr Richard Gakuba is the Director of e-Health in Rwanda’s Ministry of Health. He has held this position for seven years. He has a medical degree from the National University of Rwanda and a Masters degree in e-Health from Brunel University in the United Kingdom. He is pursuing a PhD at the National University of Rwanda that is focusing on the impact of eHealth on Health System Strengthening.
He has been spearheading the development of e-health in Rwanda for six years. He led the process of developing a five-year National e-Health strategy for the Ministry of Health, and is now leading its implementation in collaboration with various development partners and other government stakeholders. The eHealth strategy involves deployment of various technologies in the health sector ranging from Enterprise Resource systems for various health organizations to mHealth applications for community Health Workers in the most remote parts of Rwanda.

 

Amita Gupta, MD, MHS

Deputy Director and Associate Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE)
Dr. Amita Gupta is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases (Primary appointment) and Associate Professor of International Health (joint appointment) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her undergraduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, medical school at Harvard, her internal medicine training at San Francisco General Hospital-University of California San Francisco, epidemiology training at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and infectious diseases training at Johns Hopkins.
Dr. Gupta has worked internationally including Guatemala, Vietnam, Micronesia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and currently focuses her research in India. Dr. Gupta leads a multimillion dollar NIH-funded research collaboration between Johns Hopkins and BJ Medical College in Pune, India (the JHU-BJMC HIV Clinical Trials Unit ), which conducts multi-country Phase 1-4 clinical trials focused on the prevention and treatment of HIV, TB and other co-morbidities in adults, including pregnant women, and children residing in low-income settings. She uses video-conferencing and web-based distance learning approaches to build research and clinical education capacity in India (e.g. monthly HIV case conference webcasts with 4 hospitals in India). She is a member of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group TB Transformational Scientific Group and Vice-Chair elect of the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials TB Scientific Committee. She is also an infectious diseases and HIV clinician at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

 

Patrick W. Kelley, MD, DrPH

Director, Board on African Science Academy Development Initiative
Patrick W. Kelley, MD, DrPH, joined the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the US National Academies in July 2003 as the Director of the Board on Global Health. He was subsequently appointed the Director of the Board on African Science Academy Development Initiative. Dr. Kelley has overseen a portfolio of IOM expert consensus studies and convening activities on a wide range of subjects, including the evaluation of the US emergency plan for international AIDS relief (PEPFAR), the US commitment to global health, sustainable surveillance for zoonotic infections, cardiovascular disease prevention in low- and middle- income countries, interpersonal violence prevention in low- and middle-income countries, and microbial threats to health. He has lectured in English or Spanish in over 20 countries, and have published over 70 scholarly papers, book chapters, and monographs. Dr. Kelly is also the founder of the the DoD Accession Medical Standards Analysis and Research Activity. He is board certified in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

 

Alain Labrique, PhD, MHS, MS, MACE

Founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Global mHealth Initiative, a multi-disciplinary consortium of mHealth research across the Johns Hopkins system.
An infectious disease epidemiologist with over a decade of experience running large population-based research studies, Dr. Labrique serves on the faculty in the Global Disease Epidemiology and Control Program of the Department of International Health. He holds joint appointments in the Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Department of Community-Public Health in the School of Nursing of the Johns Hopkins University. His projects measure the impact of mHealth and other interventions on improving maternal, neonatal and infant outcomes, with a focus on mortality in resource-limited settings. Dr. Labrique was recognized as one of the Top 11 mHealth Innovators in 2011. Dr. Labrique also designs and validates appropriate diagnostic and public health technologies, and is the inventor of a number of devices.

 

Patricia Mechael, PhD, MHS

Executive Director, mHealth Alliance
Dr. Patricia Mechael has been actively involved in the field of International Health for 15 years with field experience in over 30 countries primarily in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. She has worked on research, program design and implementation, strategic planning, and policy development for mHealth and eHealth initiatives as well as Reproductive Health and Women's Health and Rights with a broad range of institutions. Patty has a Masters in International Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene and a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she specifically examined the role of mobile phones in relation to health in Egypt. Prior to joining the mHealth Alliance, she was Director of Strategic Application of Mobile Technology for Public Health and Development at the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at the Earth Institute. She is also faculty at the School of International and Public Affairs and Earth Institute, Columbia University.

 

Dr. Tom O'Callaghan

Founder and CEO of iheed Institute
Tom is CEO and Founder of the iheed Institute. He is a practicing medical doctor with over 20 years' experience in Primary Health Care and healthcare reform. He has been at the forefront of developments in Planning, Implementing and managing new innovative Primary Care Centres in Ireland. He is the Founder and Clinical Director of Livinghealth Clinic, Ireland's largest and multi-award winning independent Not for Profit Primary Health Care Centre. He holds advisory positions to the National Primary Healthcare Conference and the National Health conference, Ireland. He is a member of the Steering Group for the Irish Health Innovation Hub. Tom served as a member of Council of Irish College of General Practitioners from 1997-1999 and acts as a mentor on the Irish College of General Practitioners Leadership Training Programme. He has been appointed by the Irish Health Minister to the board of the Irish Health Research Board. Tom has worked in programmes in countries both in Africa and Asia on Primary Care Programmes both as an undergraduate and postgraduate.
He holds academic teaching appointments in Primary Care in both University College Cork and University of Limerick. Tom is a graduate of The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (1991). He holds a Membership of Royal College of General Practitioners and Irish College of General Practitioners; he also holds Diplomas in Child Health Care and Obstetrics and further training in Global Health, High Altitude and Expedition Medicine and Mobile Health Care.

 

Dr. Esther Ogara

Head of the eHealth and Continuing Professional Development, Ministry of Health, Kenya

Dr. Esther Ogara, Head of the eHealth and Continuing Professional Development Division at Ministry of Medical Service, has worked with the Ministry of Health, Kenya in various health fields for the last 20 years. She led the development of national eHealth strategy, and the National Health Training policy processes and was a panelist at the mHealth Summit in Washington, DC in December 2012.
Dr. Ogara has obtained several certificates in the areas of quality management in international health, monitoring and evaluation, scientific report writing, HIV/AIDS consulting skills, and strategic communication and advocacy for adolescent reproductive health, among others. In 1996 she was awarded a World Bank scholarship to study public health medicine at the University of Wales, College of Medicine, where she obtained an advanced diploma in public health. Currently, Dr. Ogara is studying for her Masters of Science in Governance at the International Leadership University in Nairobi.

 

Adele C. Oliva, MBA

Partner, Quaker Partners
Ms. Oliva joined Quaker Partners as a Partner in 2007. Before joining Quaker, Ms. Oliva was a Partner at Apax Partners where she co-led the US Healthcare Group. Prior to joining Apax in 1997, she held positions in marketing and business development with Baxter Healthcare.
Her current Board responsibilities include New York Digital Accelerator, NovaSom, Precision Dermatology, Semprae Laboratories, and Tela Bio. Her prior Board participation includes: Ascent Healthcare Solutions (acquired by Stryker), EKR Therapeutics (acquired by Cornerstone), ESP Pharma (acquired by Protein Design Labs), Esprit Pharma (acquired by Allergan), Prometheus Laboratories (acquired by Nestle), and SkinMedica (acquired by Allergan).
Ms. Oliva was a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow, received a B.Sc. from St. Joseph's University, and a M.B.A. from Cornell University where she was awarded an Albert Fried Fellowship. She is the founding President of the Private Equity Women Investor Network, and is on the Board of Visitors of the Haub School of Business at St. Joseph's University. She was named to the 2012 Forbes Midas List of technology’s top investors worldwide and was also listed as one of the top five most powerful female venture capitalists. Ms. Oliva was a recently featured guest on the cable television show “Money Matters”.

 

 

Prof. Nelson K. Sewankambo MBChB, MSc, M.MED, FRCP, LLD (HC)

Professor of Medicine and Principal, Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Prof. Nelson K. Sewankambo MBChB, MSc, M.MED, FRCP, LLD (HC) is a professor of medicine and the principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, a position he rose to after serving as dean of Makerere University Medical School for 11 years. In 2010, backed by NIH funding, Prof. Sewankambo spearheaded the creation of a national MEPI consortium for Uganda universities to address the country's health professional education needs.

He is the founding principal investigator to Uganda for Rakai Health Sciences Program (formerly Rakai Project) and continues to serve as a researcher/investigator for the program's network. Prof. Sewankambo has devoted more than a decade to the advancement of medical education, research, and capacity development, and serves as a mentor to many Ugandan junior and mid-level researchers.

 

Dr. Francis Frederick Tusubira

CEO, UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking
Dr. Francis Frederick Tusubira is a Board member of: TENET, the Research and Education Network of South Africa; RENU, the Research and Education Network of Uganda; the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation; the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN Global); National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (Chair); and Advisory Panel to the Research and Education Networking Unit of the Association of African Universities. Key competencies: ICT policy and regulation; ICT for development, with extensive regional experience in sub-Saharan Africa. Holds a PhD (Southampton, UK); M.Sc.E (New Brunswick, Canada); and a B.Sc. (Engineering) 1st Class Hons (Makerere University, Uganda).

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Keynotes

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, MA, PhD

Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University; Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon

Professor Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. He has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past seven years: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011).
Prof. Sachs is widely considered to be the world’s leading expert on economic development and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more than a quarter century he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Professor Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees, and many awards and honors around the world. Prior to joining Columbia, Prof. Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development and the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Prof. Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard.

 

Hamadoun I. Touré, MS, PhD

Secretary General,International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) since January 2007, was re-elected for a second term at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2010. He served as Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) from 1998 to 2006, and has wide professional experience in both the public and private sectors.
A national of Mali, Dr. Touré holds a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad (LEIS, USSR) and a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow (MTUCI, Russia). He is committed to ITU as an innovative, forward-looking organization adapted to meeting the challenges created by the rapidly-changing ICT environment, and to continuing to spearhead the Union towards implementing the resolutions of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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