• Patricia
E. Bailey, PhD
• Judith
A. Fortney, PhD
• Lynn
P. Freedman, JD, MPH
• Martha
de la Fuente, MD, MPH
• Sourou
Gbangbade, MD, MPH, PhD
• Zafar
Ullah Gill, MBBS, MPH
• Nadia
Hijab
• Grace
Dangothe Kodindo, MD
• Barbara
Elise Kwast, MTD, McommH, PhD
• Deborah
Maine, DrPH
• Dileep
V. Mavalankar, MD, DrPH
• Anne
Paxton, DrPH, MA
• Allan
Rosenfield, MD
• Jason
B. Smith, PhD, MPH
• Irina
Yacobson, MD
Patricia
E. Bailey, DrPH
MCH/FP Evaluation Specialist, Family Health International
Dr. Bailey has worked at FHI in a research
capacity for 19 years. She received her doctorate in Maternal
and Child Health in 1991 for her work on the relationship
between young maternal age and infant mortality and child
morbidity. Much of her work has focused on programmatic
evaluation in the areas of maternal health, adolescents
and HIV prevention. She is experienced in both quantitative
and qualitative research methods, having provided technical
assistance on study design, sampling, questionnaire development,
data management systems and analysis, using both complex
statistical techniques and text analysis.
Between 1993-98, she participated in
the Women's Studies Project (WSP) where she collaborated
on a manual for reproductive health providers in Bolivia
to incorporate a gender perspective into services. Also
for the WSP, she set up a prospective study of adolescents
in Brazil to determine the impact of abortion or motherhood
on educational status, self-esteem, and family relationships.
For the last eight years, she has focused
on programs to reduce maternal mortality, working in Guatemala
and Honduras with MotherCare and the Maternal and Neonatal
Project and working more recently in Mozambique, Nicaragua
and Peru on the Averting Maternal Deaths and Disability
Program (AMDD) at Columbia University. The AMDD Program
addresses the improvement of the delivery of emergency obstetric
care (EmOC) by focusing on 1) the clinical management of
major obstetric complications according to evidence-based
protocols and standards, 2) health facility management (supervision,
team-building, MIS systems, supply and drug logistics, quality
improvement process, etc.) and 3) human rights. She collaborated
on a manual to improve EmOC through criterion-based audit
designed to audit clinical treatment of complications, management
issues and human rights in a clinical setting. She has also
played a strong role in the use of the United Nations process
indicators as a tool for monitoring availability, utilization
and quality of EmOC.
She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
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Judith
A. Fortney, PhD.
Corporate Director for Scientific Affairs/Epidemiologist,
Family Health International
Judith Fortney, PhD, is a recognized
leader in the field of maternal health who has served as
advisor and consultant to the World Health Organization,
the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund, the
Asian Development Bank and the United Kingdom's Department
for International Development. She has worked mainly in
Asia and Africa. Dr. Fortney has published more than 90
scientific papers on reproductive health and is a fellow
of the American College of Epidemiologists. She is on the
faculties of the University of North Carolina and Columbia
University.
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Lynn
P. Freedman, JD, MPH
Associate Professor, Clinical Public Health and Director,
Law and
Policy Project, Columbia University
Ms. Freedman is a senior advisor on human
rights with AMDD. After receiving her JD from Harvard School
of Law, she worked as an attorney at Patterson, Belknap,
Webb & Tyler in New York. She then received an MPH from
Columbia School of Public Health in 1990. From 1990 to 1996
she worked as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Public
Health and director of the Reproductive Rights Project in
the Development Law and Policy Program at the Center for
Population and Family Health at the Columbia School of Public
Health. In 1997 she was appointed Associate Professor of
Clinical Public Health and Director of the Law and Policy
Project. She has published articles and given many conference
papers and presentations on human rights and women's health,
reproductive rights, population policy, health activism,
and maternal mortality.
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Martha
de la Fuente, MD, MPH
Associate Research Scientist, AMDD Program
Dr. de la Fuente is an Associate Research
Scientist with AMDD with experience in epidemiology, health
planning and prevention. After receiving her MD from Cordoba
University, Argentina, Dr. De la Fuente worked there as
a physician and specialist in respiratory care from 1968
to 1976. She also took special courses on tuberculosis and
epidemiology. In 1978 she received a MPH from the Mexican
School of Public Health, State University, Mexico City.
From 1976 to 1981 she worked in Mexico as the Chief Officer
of Epidemiology for the Secretariat of Health and Social
Assistance (SSA) for Sinaloa State. From 1979 to 1982 she
was the Community Clinical Coordinator and from 1980 to
1987 Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at
the Medicine School of the University of Sinaloa State.
She also developed and produced a weekly radio phone-in
program on sexual education, founded a women's group that
brought together grassroots, academic, and union women.
In 1988 she joined the Coordination Office of Women's Global
Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) in Amsterdam and
in 1994 became its Coordinator. In 1999 she was a Visiting
Scholar in Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. She has written
and presented papers as a medical doctor. She has written
and organized national, regional and international conferences
on women's and reproductive rights.
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Sourou
Gbangbade MD, MPH, PhD
Dr. Gbangbade joins the AMDD technical
team with extensive professional and academic experience.
Dr. Sourou Gbangbade received his Doctor of Medicine degree
from the Universite Nationale du Benin. He then served as
the District Medical Officer in two district hospitals for
three years. Dr. Gbangbade then went on to get both a Master's
in Public Health and a Doctor of Philosophy in International
Health from Johns Hopkins University. During this time,
Dr. Gbangbade also taught Family Health and Management of
Health Systems at the WHO Regional Institute of Public Health
in Cotonou, Benin. Dr. Gbangbade has also served as a consultant
to many international health organizations. In 1991, He
worked with UNICEF on the evaluation of Maternal and Child
Health Program in the Republic of Central Africa. In 1993,
he worked in conjunction with IPPF on a program evaluation
for the Association for Family Promotion of Benin. 1n 1997,
Dr. Gbangbade worked with USAID Benin, MotherCare and John
Snow Inc. on a Safe Motherhood needs assessment in Benin.
He worked again with MotherCare/John Snow Inc. in the same
year to organize a workshop on Essential Obstetric Care
for USAID Benin. Dr. Gbangbade used his experience to organize
another workshop in conjunction with INTRAH/PRIME on the
role of midwives in the Reduction of Maternal Mortality.
Dr. Gbangbade's most recent consultancies include working
with MACRO International Inc on a technical review of the
Services Provision Assessment Tool and with JHPIEGO on a
technical review of maternal and neonatal care knowledge
and skills training manual.
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Zafar
Ullah Gill, MBBS, MPH
Associate Director--Program Implementation, AMDD
Program
Dr. Gill has more than 30 years of experience
in conceptualizing, managing, and leading health and population
programs, including the management of hospitals. He received
a MBBS from Nishter Medical College in Multan, Pakistan
(1971) and a MPH from both Columbia University (1978) and
San Diego State University (1984). In 1978 Dr. Gill started
the Rural Health Care Project, the first Primary Health
Care program in Pakistan, which also included environmental
sanitation and eye-screening/surgical camps. He served as
its director until 1991. From 1985 to 1991 he was the medical
superintendent of the Memorial Christian Hospital in Sialkot,Pakistan.
From 1987 to 1991 he served as the director of Surgical
Contraception Services for three hospitals in Pakistan.
In 1990 he worked as a WHO Medical Officer for the Government
of Bangladesh. From 1992 to 1993 he was director of the
Memorial Christian Hospital in Sialkot. From 1993 to 1999
he served as a Reproductive Health Adviser for the UNFPA
to the Government of Bangladesh. Dr. Gill assisted the Directorate
of Family Planning, Ministry of Health of the Government
of Bangladesh in the establishment of reproductive health,
STD/HIV/AIDS, and comprehensive essential obstetric care
services at Maternal and Child Welfare Centers throughout
Bangladesh.
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Nadia
Hijab
Author and development consultant
Nadia Hijab serves as consultant on documentation
and communication to the AMDD Program. She is author of
two books - Womanpower: The Arab Debate on Women at Work
(Cambridge University Press, 1988), and Citizens Apart (co-author;
I.B. Tauris, 1990) - and of several essays, articles, and
lectures.
She served at the United Nations Development Programme
in New York from 1989 to 2000, first as regional programme
officer in the Arab States Bureau; then as senior human
development officer at the UNDP Policy Bureau, where she
offered technical assistance to UNDP offices in all world
regions; and finally as a member of the organization's change
management team. She helped the organization prepare for
and follow up to 1993 World Conference on Human Rights,
drafting the first organizational strategy on human rights.
Prior to joining the UN, Ms. Hijab was a writer and journalist
based in London. She was editor-in-chief of The Middle East
magazine, and was a frequent commentator on the British
Broadcasting Corporation and other radio and television
stations. Overall, Ms. Hijab's 20-year career in the media
covered many forms of print and audio-visual communication.
Since leaving the UN, Ms. Hijab has undertaken
short-term consultancy assignments for the World Bank, UNICEF,
UNFPA, UNDP, in addition to Columbia University. Her areas
of expertise include human development, communication, gender,
and human rights.
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Grace
Dangothe Kodindo, MD
Chief of Obstetrics-Gynecology Unit, General Reference
Hospital, N'Djamena, Tchad)
Dr. Kodindo received her Medical Doctorate
from the University of Montreal, Canada in 1976. From 1981
to 1986 she worked for government hospitals in Tchad, providing
medical and EmOC services and trained nurses and mid-wives.
In 1990, she received a Master of Obstetric and Gynecology
from the University of Khartoum, Sudan. Since 1990 Dr. Kodindo
has served as Chief of Obstetrics-Gynecology Unit at the
General Reference Hospital, N'Djamena, Tchad, where she
designed and implemented a prenatal and postnatal care system
and provided emergency obstetric care. Dr. Kodindo is a
recipient of the Distinguished Community Service Award in
Emergency Obstetrics Care from the International Federation
of Gynecology and Obstetrics in 2000. She is a founding
member of Chad-PMM and ASTBEF, a family planning association.
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Barbara
Elise Kwast, MTD, McommH, PhD
International Consultant, Maternal Health and Safe
Motherhood (The Netherlands)
Dr. Kwast serves as a Senior Advisor
to the AMDD program. She received a General Nursing Diploma
in the Netherlands in 1960, a Midwife Tutors Diploma (MTD)
in 1968, and a Certificate in Family Planning Nursing in
1976. She worked as a nurse and surgical technician in the
Netherlands and San Francisco, as a Midwife tutor for the
DTH (Department of International Technical Co-operation,
The Netherlands) in Malawi and Nigeria, and as a lecturer
in Tropical Medicine in Amsterdam. In 1980 she received
the degree of Master of Community Health (McommH) from Liverpool
University. From 1981 to 1986 she held the position of Lecturer
in Community Obstetrics at the DGIS (Directorate General
of International Technical Co-operation, The Netherlands)
and the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and worked in
refugee/relief camps for the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission
during the famine crisis. She received a PhD in Epidemiology
from the University of Wales in 1985. From 1986 until 1991
she worked as a scientist for the Family Health Maternal
and Child Health/Family Planning division of the WHO in
Geneva. From 1992 to 1995 Dr. Kwast served as a Women's
Health Advisor to the MotherCare project of John Snow, Inc.
Since 1995 she has been an International Consultant for
Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood located in The Netherlands.
Dr. Kwast has also served as a consultant for numerous institutions
in Africa, South America, and South Southeast Asia.
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Deborah
Maine, DrPH
Professor of Clinical Public Health, Columbia University
and
Director, Averting Maternal Death and Disability
(AMDD) Program
Dr. Maine is an expert in women's health
and reproductive health in developing countries with special
emphasis on maternal mortality. She received a MPH in Epidemiology
from the School of Public Health, Columbia University in
1982. From 1983 to 1987 she worked as a Senior Staff Associate
for the Center for Population an Family Health at the School
of Public Health, Columbia University. From 1988 to 1996
she was director of the Prevention of Maternal Mortality
(PMM) Program at the Center for Population and Family Health
and an Associate Research Scientist (through 1994) at the
School of Public Health, Columbia University. From 1997
to 1999 Dr. Maine was a research scientist at the Center
for Population and Family Health. In 1998 she received a
DrPH in Epidemiology from the School of Public Health, Columbia
University. In 1999 she was appointed Professor of Clinical
Public Health and director of the Averting Maternal Death
and Disability (AMDD) Program. She has published many articles
and reports on human rights, maternal mortality, obstetrics
and health care in the developing world, and human rights.
She is a consultant to UNICEF, the United Nations Development
Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations
Fund for Population Activities, and the World Bank.
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Dileep
V. Mavalankar, MD, DrPH
Associate Professor, Public Systems Group of the
Indian Institute of
Management (Ahmedabad, India)
Dr. Mavalankar is a senior consultant
with AMDD. In 1981 Dr. Mavalankar received an MBBS from
Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, India and in 1983 a MPH
from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
In 1987 he received his MD in Preventative and Social Medicine
from Gujarat University. From 1986 to 1989 he was a
Lecturer and from 1989 to 1990 an Assistant Professor in
the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine in N.H.L.
Municipal Medical College in Ahmedabad, and he was also
head of the Rural Health Training Centre at Sabermati. In
1990 he received his DrPH from Johns Hopkins School in the
department of Population Dynamics. From 1990 to 1991 he
was a visiting fellow at the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics
and Prevention Research at the National Institute of Health
in Bethesda, MD. From 1991-2000 he has been Assistant Professor
and since 2001 he has been Associate Professor at the Public
Systems Group of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)
in Ahmedabad. He has also been chairperson of the same department
from 1997-2001.Dr. Mavalankar has authored over twenty publications
on epidemics, family planning/ welfare, quality of care,
maternal and child health, policy, and public health. He
has also advised numerous organizations and governments,
including the MotherCare Project (USA), the WHO ( Geneva,
Philippines & China), the International Council on Management
of Population Programmes (Malaysia), the CEDPA and UNICEF
(New Delhi), the governments of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh
(India), the Indian Institute of Health Management Research
(Jaipur), National Institute of Health and Family Welfare,
Government of India, the DANIDA & UNDP/World Bank (India),
and the Aga Khan Foundation. He also has worked with several
NGOs in India.
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Anne
Paxton, DrPH, MA
Assistant Professor of Clinical Public Health (Epidemiology),
Columbia University
Anne Paxton joins the AMDD program with
many years of experience in program design, management,
monitoring and evaluation, and applied research, primarily
undertaken in Africa and Asia. After receiving a Masters
in Public Health and Masters in International Affairs from
Columbia University in 1984, she served as Regional Manager
for Africa for Helen Keller International, performing needs
assessments and designing and establishing vitamin A deficiency
control projects throughout francophone Africa. In 1991
she joined the Maternal and Child Health Unit of the Center
for Population and Family Health of Columbia University
and served as Project Director on a maternal nutrition research
project that served as the basis of her doctoral dissertation
in epidemiology. Since receiving her doctorate in 1994,
she worked on numerous research projects including the Ghana
Safe Motherhood Demonstration Project, as a consultant for
The Population Council, operations research projects in
trachoma control in Morocco, and prevalence surveys of trachoma
in China. Dr. Paxton currently teaches a course in the department
of epidemiology at Columbia University, and has taught epidemiology
as faculty of the Institut de la Francophonie pour la Medicine
Tropicale in Vientiane, Laos.
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Allan
Rosenfield, MD
Dean, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Allan Rosenfield currently is Dean, Mailman
School of Public Health, Columbia University, DeLamar Professor
of Public Health and professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
He came to Columbia in 1975 as founding director of the
Center for Population and Family Health and director of
ambulatory care for the Department of Ob/Gyn. He also served
for two years as Chair of the Department of Ob/Gyn. Earlier
in his career, following training in ob/gyn at Harvard's
Brigham and Women's Hospital, he worked first in Nigeria
as an obstetrician and then in Thailand as Population Council
Representative and advisor to the Ministry of Public Health
for family planning and maternal/child health. He earned
his B.A. at Harvard and his M.D. at Columbia.
Dr. Rosenfield is a diplomate of the American Board of
Ob/Gyn, a fellow of the American College of Ob/Gyn and an
elected member of the Institute of Medicine. He is a member
of many scientific and professional organizations and serves
on the boards and/or committees of a number of international,
national, state and local health?related organizations.
He is a member of the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation
and the Packard Foundation and serves on advisory committees
to other national foundations, including the Dyson Foundation
and the Open Society Institute (Soros). He has served, in
the past, as president of the New York Obstetrical Society,
president of the Association of Schools of Public Health,
chair of the Executive Board of APHA, chair of the Scientific
and Technical Advisory Committee of WHO's Human Reproduction
Programme, and chair of the Boards of the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, the Alan Guttmacher Institute and
EngenderHealth.
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Jason
B. Smith, PhD, MPH
Senior Scientist, Health Services Research
Dr. Smith is a senior advisor to the
AMDD Program. He is a behavioral
scientist with two decades of experience in reproductive
health research and programs. Dr. Smith joined FHI in 1981,
after receiving his MPH in Health Education from the University
of North Carolina. From 1981 to 1985 he worked in the maternal
health area primarily as a research analyst and administrator.
In 1985 Dr. Smith joined the Center for Development and
Population Activities. During his tenure at CEDPA, he conducted
a national primary health and population training program
in Nigeria designed to trengthen state level Ministries
of Education. He also served as staff Evaluation Specialist
for CEDPA's US-based management training programs. After
completing coursework for his doctorate in Health Behavior,
Dr. Smith rejoined FHI in 1990 as a Research Associate in
the Office of the President. During this time, he served
as key personnel for a Ford Foundation comparative study
of maternal morbidity and a USAID outcome evaluation of
the health impacts of TBA training. After receiving his
PhD in 1996, Dr. Smith served as Senior Research Associate
in the Contraceptive Use and Acceptability group at FHI.
During this time he contributed to studies of barrier contraception
in South Africa, Zambia, and the United States. In addition
to his work with the AMDD program, Dr. Smith is currently
in FHI's Health Services Research group serving as principal
investigator on an NICHD-funded study of dual method use
decision-making in Texas and provides research technical
assistance to a study of female condom use among sex workers
in Bangladesh. Dr. Smith has authored over forty publications
on reproductive health topics, including maternal mortality
and morbidity, child health, family planning, contraceptive
technology, and STDs/AIDS. He holds adjunct appointments
as Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, School of Public Health and as Senior Lecturer
at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
He has served as a consultant to a number of public health
agencies, including the National Academy of Sciences/Office
of International Affairs, the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development/Center for Population Research,
and Camp, Dresser, and McKee International, Inc. Dr. Smith
has research field experience in many developing country
contexts, including Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana,
Haiti, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Viet Nam and Zaire.
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to top
Irina
Yacobson, MD
Assistant Medical Director, Family Health International
Dr. Yacobson is the Technical Assistant
and Monitor for the AMDD project in Tajikistan. After receiving
her MD from Medical College in Russia, Dr. Yacobson worked
as a Cardiologist at the Institute of Circulation Pathology
at the Academy of Medical Sciences in Novosibirsk, Russia.
Dr. Yacobson then became a Physician of Internal Medicine
at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine also
at the Academy of Medical Sciences in Russia. From 1991-1994,
Dr. Yacobson performed clinical research at Wake Internal
Medicine Consultants, Inc., where she performed endoscopic
evaluation and clinical assessment of patients participating
in clinical trials. In 1994, Dr. Yacobson joined Family
Health International as a Clinical Training Associate where
she developed training curricula for health care providers,
conducted training for family planning providers in various
countries in clinical procedures and counseling, and also
evaluated training programs. Since 1997, Dr. Yacobson has
been the Assistant Medical Director at Family Health International.
In this leadership role, Dr. Yacobson develops educational
materials and training curricula for health care professionals
on various reproductive health topics. She also plans, conducts
and evaluates workshops and training activities in reproductive
health and provides technical assistance for the development
of family planning service delivery standards and practice
guidelines. At Family Health International, Dr. Yacobson
provides technical assistance in developing clinical studies
protocols and study specific procedures while also training
clinical staff in study specific procedures prior to the
initiation of a study.
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