Our Leadership

A team of diverse, socially-driven development professionals, our leadership group steers the organization’s decision-making, strategic planning, and effectiveness.

Profiles

Dalitso Baloyi

Country Director, Malawi

Dalitso Baloyi is the Malawi Country Director for Last Mile Health. In this role, he oversees Last Mile Health’s partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health as they work to improve access to health services for 15 million people living in rural areas.

Dalitso is a seasoned program and country management professional with more than 18 years of progressive INGO management experience. Prior to joining Last Mile Health, Dalitso worked for Winrock International in the role of Country Director, where among other accomplishments, he spearheaded and supported the government of Malawi in the development of the first ever National Child Labour Mainstreaming Guide and developed a guide (known as Mbali Yanga- meaning “My Part”) for teachers to use in child and school-led advocacy to address child labour for Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania. He has also worked with BuildOn Inc and World Vision International. During his time with World Vision International, Dalitso developed an Integrated Primary Health Care Manual for Schools for use by teachers and community level health workers and participated in the development of Global Fund Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and TB for Malawi.

In all his roles, Dalitso has fostered country strategy development, built new programs and projects, developed comprehensive operational policies, fostered strong donor and stakeholder engagement, mentored staff, and designed program management tools (including undertaking gender analysis for different programmes and projects). He has experience managing USAID, DFID, Irish Aid, World Bank, EU, private sector, and philanthropically funded projects in the fields of education, nutrition, health, child protection, agriculture, disaster response, WASH, and governance. He is working to publish two books- “Compendium of Best Practices on Advocacy and Policy Dialogue” and “What Works to Integrate Gender and Social Inclusion in programmes?”

Dalitso is also an award-winning poet and a member of the Rotary Club of Bwaila in Lilongwe. He has an MA in Gender and Development Studies, and a Bachelor of Education degree.

Christina Bowles

Country Director, Sierra Leone

Christina Bowles is Country Director, Sierra Leone for Last Mile Health. In this role, Christina oversees our partnership with the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone to strengthen the implementation of the newly integrated community health program. The team in Sierra Leone leads several initiatives, including quality assurance of pre-service training for community health workers, partnering with the Ministry to operationalize the National CHW Program, co-designing sub-national exemplars in community health research, and digital training for the COVID-19 response.

Christina is passionate about implementing effective programs that meet the needs of key stakeholders and generate actionable results. Prior to joining the Sierra Leone team, Christina served as Interim Managing Director for the Global Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) team at Last Mile Health. In that role she oversaw global team support to MERL work across all Last Mile Health country programs. She was also the MERL lead for the Ethiopia and Sierra Leone country programs where she led the co-design of internal evaluations for multiple projects related to upskilling community and frontline health workers. Prior to joining Last Mile Health, Christina led the MEL department of OneVillage Partners, a community-led development organization in Sierra Leone, where there is a strong focus on participatory and community-focused evaluation methods. Christina also has experience coordinating multi-country Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health academic research projects and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) research. Christina holds a MPH in Community Health & Prevention from Drexel University and a BA in Biology from Hope College.

NAN CHEN

Co-Executive Director, Africa Frontline First

Nan Chen is Co-Executive Director of Africa Frontline First. Before assuming his current leadership role with this initiative, he served as Managing Director, Health Systems Strengthening, supporting Last Mile Health’s global work to understand what works and why in community health program scale. He also worked to diffuse those lessons via partnerships and advocacy for community health systems in collaboration with peer organizations to support countries strengthen their community health systems. Prior to Last Mile Health, Nan worked with the Millennium Challenge Corporation on private public partnerships, policy analysis, and nutrition/stunting interventions. Additionally, Nan worked with Open Capital Advisors in Kenya advising SME and impact investors on pathways to scale for social enterprises. Nan has also advised NGOs and social enterprises through the Harvard Law and International Development Society and Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs. Nan has an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, JD from Northwestern University, and BA from University of Chicago.

COURTNEY EVANS HENKE

Managing Director, Partnerships & Communications

Courtney Evans Henke is the Managing Director of Partnerships & Communications. In this role, she oversees Last Mile Health’s Partnerships & Communications department, which aims to cultivate and steward partnerships that advance and elevate Last Mile Health’s mission. Courtney has over 10 years of experience in fundraising, grant writing, and non-profit management. Previously, she served as Senior Director of Development at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality, an organization committed to improving child health outcomes in the United States. She began her career as a teacher and coach. Courtney obtained a BA in Anthropology and an MA in Educational Studies from Tufts University.

MEGGAN IRELAND

Chief Financial & Operating Officer

Meggan Ireland is the Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Last Mile Health. In this role, she oversees the organization’s financial strategy and the management of financial resources as well as risk, compliance, and components of enterprise operations. 

Meggan first joined the organization in 2016 in our Monrovia, Liberia office, where she led our grants management and partnerships functions during a period of rapid organizational growth. Most recently, she stepped into the role of Interim Chief Operating Officer in May 2023, providing direct oversight of our Finance team and setting up a new Risk, Compliance, and Management Systems team. Prior to joining Last Mile Health, Meggan worked at the Tropical Health & Education Trust, overseeing grant giving under the £30m UK Aid-funded Health Partnership Scheme, a role she took after working for Barclays Bank in their growing Global Development Organizations team. Meggan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

LISHA MCCORMICK

Chief Executive Officer

Lisha McCormick is Chief Executive Officer of Last Mile Health, leading an international team to strengthen community health systems in partnership with governments in Africa. Lisha joined Last Mile Health in 2013, serving as Chief Development Officer and President and Chief Operating Officer before assuming the position of Chief Executive Officer. Under her leadership, Last Mile Health has grown from a district-level pilot in Liberia to an international organization reaching more than 19 million people at the last mile.

Lisha began her career as a community health worker. For more than 20 years, she has worked to design and implement systems of care that engage historically excluded communities. Prior to joining the Last Mile Health team, her work was principally focused on public sector healthcare in the United States, where she tailored programs and services to meet the needs of runaway and homeless youth, those living with mental illness, and those navigating substance use disorders.

Lisha holds a Master of Public Health from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, a Certificate in Executive Administration & Non-Profit Management from Harvard Business School, and a dual Bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Lisha currently serves as a Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government Social Innovation & Change Initiative Visiting Social Entrepreneur.

Divya Nair

Chief Technical Officer

Dr. Divya Nair is Chief Technical Officer at Last Mile Health. She serves to provide executive oversight of the Health Systems Strengthening team and the Global Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning team. These teams together provide technical support for our work in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone. Among other roles, Divya is tasked with developing a shared technical vision for how community health systems can consistently deliver care in remote communities at scale, at quality, and sustainably.

Prior to Last Mile Health, Divya has worked with governments, multilaterals, NGOs and donors for over 15 years to improve evidence-informed decision making. She’s worked with the World Bank in Washington DC, IFAD in Rome, and the Institute for Health Policy in Colombo. Most recently, as Director at IDinsight in New Delhi over the last six years, Divya led several high-impact engagements, managed diverse teams, and designed and executed collaborations to support data-driven programming and policy. Clients included key institutions in national and state governments and several transformative NGOs. Divya oversaw the conceptualization of these technical partnerships and deployed a range of analytical tools to drive towards higher social impact.

Divya has a Ph.D. in public health and economics from Johns Hopkins University, an MPA from Princeton University, and a BA from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi.  Divya is passionate about justice and equity and has engaged deeply on topics of health and nutrition as well as women and girls’ empowerment, and has also worked on financial inclusion, agriculture, and sanitation.

JAMES NARDELLA

Chief Program Officer

Motivated by a passion for building resilient health systems and leaders, James Nardella serves as Chief Program Officer for Last Mile Health. Through partnership with governments, Last Mile Health expands access to high-quality community-based primary healthcare for millions of people living in remote and rural communities. James guides programs that strengthen community health systems, upskill the health workforce, and deliver community-based care and treatment in Liberia, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone. He also oversees Last Mile Health’s global advocacy to ensure government, philanthropy, and aid organizations prioritize investments and plans to supervise, salary, supply, and upskilll community and frontline health workers.

Prior to joining Last Mile Health, James served as Principal on the Portfolio & Investments Team at the Skoll Foundation. He led the Foundation’s relationship with a $40M portfolio of current Skoll Awardees and managed a team responsible for tracking the pipeline of candidates and monitoring the performance of past Skoll Awardees.

Prior to Skoll, James led the Lwala Community Alliance, a Kenyan health and development organization known for its community approach to increasing child survival, skilled delivery rates, and access to HIV care.

James holds a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Boston University and a M.Ed. in International Education Policy and Leadership from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.

SARAH PARISH

Chief of Staff

Sarah Parish is Chief of Staff at Last Mile Health. In this role, she supports the Chief Executive Officer in the management and growth of organizational operations and strategy to strengthen community health systems. Sarah first worked with Last Mile Health from 2014 to 2016, serving as Grants Manager and Deputy Program Director in Liberia, where she oversaw fundraising and grant activities during the Ebola crisis and supported the successful execution of the organization’s program strategy.

Sarah has over twelve years of experience managing fundraising efforts and strategic initiatives for development and public health programs across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US. Most recently, she worked as Director of Planning & Development for ICAP at Columbia University, leading efforts to secure diverse funding streams in support of their mission to transform the health of populations through innovation, research, and global collaboration. Sarah holds a BA in Foreign Languages and International Affairs from the University of Puget Sound and an MA in Rural Development from the University of East Anglia in the UK.

MALLIKA RAGHAVAN

Deputy Chief Program Officer

Mallika Raghavan is the Deputy Chief Program Officer. In this role, she directly manages Last Mile Health’s work in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone, supports Last Mile Health’s ongoing work in Liberia, and provides oversight on program strategy and performance functions in partnership with Last Mile Health’s Chief Program Officer.

She joined Last Mile Health in 2014. Most recently, she served as Director of Country Engagement from 2018 to 2021, where she supported the organization’s programming in Liberia and Malawi and led technical projects on community health systems strengthening. She served as Last Mile Health’s Director of National Community Health Systems from 2016 to 2018, and Deputy Director of Quality and Innovation from 2014 to 2016. In these roles, she helped lead the design, launch, and scale of Liberia’s National Community Health Assistant Program alongside the Ministry of Health

Mallika has over ten years of experience in community health systems. Prior to joining Last Mile Health, she worked under the Government of South Sudan to support eradication of neglected tropical disease efforts and in New Delhi and Bihar, India on disaster risk reduction programmes. She holds an MPH from Columbia University in Forced Migration and Health.

Tawah Reeves

Deputy Country Director, Administration, Finance and Operations

Tawah Hayes Reeves is the Deputy Country Director for Administration, Finance, and Operations at Last Mile Health Liberia. In this role, she supports the organization in designing and leading the management and technical expertise of operations, people operations, and finance departments. She is directly responsible for overseeing and driving management systems improvements in our business operations. Working closely with the Country Director, she builds and monitors strong policies; serves as the safety and security lead; and ensures effective coordination, technical support, quality assurance, and accountability in close collaboration with the programmatic and business services teams.

Tawah brings over 25 years of international development experience in financial and grants management, compliance and operations, and corporate financial experience working in parts of Asia, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Tawah previously worked as a consultant for Wells Fargo USA as a Senior Lead Auditor. Before this role, she worked at Population Services International (PSI) as Deputy Country Representative and Director of Admin Finance. She worked at Save the Children UK for many years in various financial roles. Tawah holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. She also has a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in management from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Katelyn Reinert

Managing Director, People Operations

Katelyn Reinert is the Managing Director, People Operations. In this role, she leads the People Operations team to achieve ambitious strategic goals and organization-wide people strategies designed to recruit, develop, and retain top talent at Last Mile Health. Katelyn joined Last Mile Health in 2013 and has held roles across our operations and people operations functions throughout periods of rapid geographic and headcount expansion and organizational change. During Katelyn’s tenure at Last Mile Health, she has co-authored our compensation model; launched our country programs in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone; and presently serves as a member of the Safety & Security Council. She holds a BA in International Relations from Boston University and is a SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP).

BRITTNEY VARPILAH

Country Director, Liberia

Brittney Varpilah is Last Mile Health’s Liberia Country Director. In this role, she is responsible for shepherding all of Last Mile Health’s Liberia-based projects, people, and resources in order to attain multi-year strategic objectives, annual key results, donor milestones, and overall impact in accordance with Last Mile Health’s theory of change. Brittney has worked alongside the Ministry of Health since the launch of the National Community Health Program in 2016. Over the last decade, she has contributed to the building of community health worker curriculum; coordinated donor partner funding; tested new community approaches to immunization, nutrition, and contraception; revised the national policy based on learning; and ensured continued political support for the national program.

Previously, Brittney worked at Mercy Corps in Liberia on youth development and community health programming and at World Learning where she led international youth exchange programming. She holds a Master of Arts in International Education from the School for International Training and Bachelor of Arts in International and Global Studies from the University of Maine.

Barbara Willett

Managing Director, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning

Barbara Willett is Managing Director, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL). In this role she works to support organizational strategy through effective monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning practices. She works across country programs to oversee the design and implementation of mixed methods MERL plans, data collection, analyses, data use for adaptive management and quality improvement, and dissemination of results to donors, partners, and the global community health sector.

Barbara joins Last Mile Health with more than 15 years of experience leading global MEL teams, designing M&E systems, building capacity, creating standards and policies, and adapting and adopting new and emerging tools and technologies for MERL. She previously served as MERL/MEL Director for Mercy Corps and American Red Cross (International Services), and has worked for a range of other nonprofits, domestic and international. For the past four years she has been a consultant, conducting research and evaluation and helping organizations build MERL structures, policies, and resources. Clients included Bixal (formerly Clear Outcomes), Mercy Corps, Digital Impact Alliance, American Red Cross, the Government of Canada, and World Learning. She has an MA in Development Studies from Ohio University, attended Claremont Graduate University’s Advanced Study in Program Evaluation certificate program, and completed doctoral coursework in qualitative and quantitative research at the University of Central Florida.

Naa Adorkor Yawson

Managing Director, Operational Services

Naa Adorkor Yawson is Managing Director, Operational Services at Last Mile Health. In this role, Naa is responsible for developing, coordinating, and deploying high-quality operational services for our country programs across Africa. She will also serve as the head of Last Mile Health’s Ghana office.

Naa comes to Last Mile Health from Zipline Ghana, where, as Country Manager, she oversaw the operation of Zipline’s aerial logistics service in Ghana through its partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Health. She led the expansion of the first national scale drone delivery service to cover about 60% of the country, including key hard-to-reach and island communities. Prior to this role, she was the Head of Health Systems Integration at Zipline, leading its integration into the existing health supply chain. Prior to Zipline, Naa served in senior operations, regulatory and technical advisory roles within Ghana’s pharmaceutical industry. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

ABRAHAM ZERIHUN MEGENTTA

Country Director, Ethiopia

Abraham Zerihun Megentta is Country Director, Ethiopia for Last Mile Health. In this role, Abraham oversees our work with the Federal Ministry of Health in Ethiopia to upskill the community health workforce. He leads several initiatives, including blended in-service training for community health workers, digital training for COVID-19 response, and health system leadership development for health leaders.

Abraham brings extensive experience working in public health programs implemented at primary healthcare and community levels to his work with Last Mile Health. Prior to joining our team, he worked at UNAIDS, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Yale University, and the Children Investment Fund Foundation in roles dedicated to health management, health system strengthening, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, and human resources for health in Ethiopia, Jamaica, Lesotho, and Rwanda. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from Addis Ababa University and a Masters in Public Health from Mekele University.

Board of Directors

OLUSOJI ADEYI, MD, MBA, DrPH
President, Resilient Health Systems
Board Chair

Olusoji (Soji) Adeyi is the President of Resilient Health Systems, a policy analysis and advisory services firm in Washington DC. He also serves as Senior Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In his prior career at the World Bank, he served as Director of the Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice, and as Senior Advisor for Human Development. Soji was the founding Director of the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He has led a number of initiatives on global health policies and strategies, and analyses of the integration of health systems and health interventions. Soji has extensive experience in policies, strategies and programs for health systems, service delivery, and disease control at the global, regional, and country levels across the world. He has also had responsibilities with the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and Harvard School of Public Health. Soji has authored many research papers and books on health policy, health systems, service delivery, quality of care, maternal health, health financing, disease control, and pollution.

 

MARINE BUISSONNIERE, MPP
Non-Profit Advisor and Practitioner

Marine Buissonniere is an independent advisor and practitioner in the fields of global health, health-related rights, and humanitarian action. In this capacity, she currently advises the Prevent Epidemics team at Resolve to Save Lives, where she partners with governments around the world to implement evidence-based strategies to find, stop, and prevent disease threats. Since working independently, she has been co-chairing Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s Transformational Investment Capacity, and has worked on a variety of projects with ISARIC, Physicians for Human Rights, Lifebox Foundation, the World Bang Group, American Jewish World Service, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Health. Until 2015, Buissonnière was director of the Open Society Public Health Program. From 2003 to 2007, Buissonnière served as secretary-general of MSF International. She worked with MSF in the field between 1995 and 2003. Buissonnière holds a master’s degree in public policy and a health and health policy graduate certificate from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. She serves on the Board of Directors and Investment Committee of Grand Challenge Canada, and on the advisory board of the Global Health Center of the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

 

PEGGY CLARK, MA
Gender equity advocate

Peggy Clark has had a 30-year career working on issues of poverty alleviation, global health, social enterprise, and development finance. Serving in founding and leadership roles at the Aspen Institute, the Ford Foundation, Save the Children, Realizing Rights, and on boards including Root Capital, Last Mile Health, Impact Assets, the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and the Calvert Foundation, Peggy has been a leading figure in identifying and building industries, movements, and creative advocacy on key issues of our times. Peggy most recently served as the President and CEO of the International Center for Research on Women. Peggy received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise from President Bill Clinton, and was instrumental in passage of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the Ethical Recruitment of Health Workers. Currently, Peggy provides strategic oversight and guidance to the Aspen Institute’s 30 policy programs and directs a portfolio of programs promoting breakthrough solutions to global development in the areas of health innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship. Previously, Peggy served as the Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute, co-founder and Managing Director of Realizing Rights, Chair of the Women’s Program Forum at the Ford Foundation, and as the first Director of Small Scale Enterprise and Credit at Save the Children Federation.

 

TIM EVANS, MD, DPhil
Director and Associate Dean, School of Population and Global Health in the Faculty of Medicine, McGill University

Tim Evans joined McGill University in September 2019 as the Inaugural Director and Associate Dean of the School of Population and Global Health in the Faculty of Medicine. Previously, Tim served as the Senior Director of the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank Group. From 2010 to 2013, Tim was Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Senior Advisor to the BRAC Health Program. From 2003 to 2010, he was Assistant Director General at the World Health Organization. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Health Equity Theme at the Rockefeller Foundation. Earlier in his career he was an attending physician of internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and was Assistant Professor in International Health Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health. Tim has been at the forefront of advancing global health equity and strengthening health systems delivery for more than 20 years. At WHO, he led the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and oversaw the production of the annual World Health Report. He has been a co-founder of many partnerships including the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization as well as efforts to increase access to HIV treatment for mothers and innovative approaches to training community-based midwives in Bangladesh. Tim received his MD from McMaster University in Canada and was a research and internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned a DPhil in Agricultural Economics from University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

 

TONY LEE
Social Impact advisor and investor

Tony Lee is a social impact advisor and investor. Formerly he was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he was a leader of the social sector and global health public practices. His client work focused on helping governments, NGOs, donors, and companies improve health and development outcomes. Tony has worked in over 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia supporting health system strengthening, economics development, and gender equity programs. His areas of expertise include innovation, financing, supply chain, and private sector development. Tony holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School.

 

Dr. Patrice MatchabaPATRICE MATCHABA, MD
Chief Executive Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute

Dr. Patrice Matchaba is Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute and former President of the Novartis US Foundation. Prior to serving as President, Patrice served in a number of leadership roles at Novartis, including the Novartis Group Head of Global Health and Corporate Responsibility from 2017-2021, as well as the Global Head of Cardiometabolic Drug Development Unit, and Global Head of Drug Safety and Epidemiology. Previously, Patrice ran a practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology in South Africa and worked at the Medical Research Council in Cape Town teaching systematic reviews and meta-analysis methodologies. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Last Mile Health and is a Board advisor to AXMEDRx. Patrice received the Daubenton Gold Medal from the College of Medicines, South Africa, for the Fellowship of the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of South Africa and completed the Program of Management Development at the Harvard Business School. He holds a Bachelor of Science with distinction in Chemistry from the University of Lesotho, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with honors from the University of Zimbabwe. Recently he was awarded the Doctor of Science from the University of Stellenbosch for his contributions to global health.

 

MOSES MASSAQUOI, MD
Liberia Country Director, Clinton Health Access Initiative

Dr. Moses B. F. Massaquoi currently serves as Country Director for Clinton Health Access Initiative Liberia. He has over twenty-five years of public health and clinical experience as a recognized expert in nursing, medicine, surgery, public health, infectious disease, humanitarian services, disaster preparedness, and epidemics in conflicts and vulnerable settings. He has worked in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with international organizations. He is well published in international scientific and medical journals, has presented at several international health conferences, serves as a peer reviewer, and sits on numerous international health-related boards.

 

MONA MOURSHED
Founding CEO, Generation: You Employed 

Mona Mourshed is the founding CEO of Generation: You Employed, a global employment non-profit. Mona has decades of experience as a leader in the education and workforce space and has authored widely cited reports and articles. Mona previously founded and led McKinsey & Company’s global education practice. She was selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s “40 under 40,” sits on the boards of New America and Teach for All, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mona has a BA from Stanford University and a PhD from MIT.

 

LARS-ERIC RÖDÉN
Executive Director, T&J Meyer Family Foundation

Lars-Eric is the Executive Director of the T&J Meyer Family Foundation, where he develops and executes strategies for social impact through grantmaking, investing, and capacity building. Having worked with over 100 organizations across more than 50 countries, Lars-Eric specializes in supporting entrepreneurs and early-stage programs that seek to advance innovative solutions for health, education, and conservation in neglected communities. Prior to this role, he worked at the Washington DC think tank Council on Competitiveness, where he focused on shaping US national policy debates in energy security and sustainability. Lars-Eric has served as an advisor to numerous charities over the years, currently sitting on boards for Last Mile Health and the Gould Family Foundation. He received an MA in European Studies and Modern European Languages from the University of Edinburgh.

 

WENDY TAYLOR, MPP
President and CEO, William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan

Wendy Taylor is a global innovation pioneer who has worked for the last 20 years catalyzing innovations to tackle some of the world’s toughest global health challenges and utilizing market-based solutions to scale for impact. Most recently, she was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to explore how to advance opportunities in artificial intelligence, digital and data technologies to transform global health, including applying advanced outbreak analytics to pandemic threats enabling effective outbreak prediction, earlier detection and precision response. In 2010, Wendy founded and built the Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact at the US Agency for International Development to apply innovative, business-minded approaches to accelerate the development, introduction and scale-up of priority global health innovations. In 2004, Wendy founded Bio Ventures for Global Health, a non-profit working to engage the biopharmaceutical industry in developing medicines for diseases of the developing world. Wendy also advises a number of start-ups, non-profits, and foundations. Wendy received a BA from Duke University and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University.

NANA A.Y. TWUM-DANSO, MD, MPH, FACPM
Senior Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Dr. Nana Twum-Danso is a public health and preventive medicine physician executive with more than 20 years of experience working at the interface of health care and public health in a wide range of political, socioeconomic, cultural and linguistic contexts in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the US. Her technical areas of expertise include quality improvement, patient safety, learning systems development, large-scale change management, health systems strengthening, community health, maternal and child health, parasitic disease control, and pharmacovigilance. She has applied her skills and talents to public health policy, practice, strategy, monitoring, learning, evaluation, research, and philanthropy at local, national, and international levels, including several years as a social entrepreneur in health transportation in northern Ghana.

Currently, Dr. Twum-Danso is Senior Vice President at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), where she has top-line revenue responsibility for IHI’s consulting portfolio that assists health care and public health systems around the world improve outcomes that matter to patients, families, communities, and the health workforce. She serves on IHI’s Executive Team.

Dr. Twum-Danso received her undergraduate and medical education from Harvard University and her public health and preventive medicine residency training from Emory University. She has been a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine since 2006 and is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the International Society for Quality in Health Care, and Health Systems Global.

 

RAJ PANJABI, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
President Emeritus & Co-Founder of Last Mile Health

Dr. Raj Panjabi is Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the White House National Security Council. Previously, he was appointed by President Biden as U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator to head the President’s Malaria Initiative, led by USAID and implemented with CDC.

Panjabi has served as CEO of Last Mile Health, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Panjabi served as Advisor to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her role as Co-Chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Panjabi was named by TIME as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, with a tribute from President Bill Clinton, and one of the 50 Most Influential People in Healthcare. He has twice been named as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune. He is a recipient of the 2017 TED Prize, Clinton Global Citizen Award for leadership in response to the West Africa Ebola epidemic, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year at the World Economic Forum, and Distinction of Knight Commander of the Most Venerable Order of the Pioneers of Liberia.

Panjabi has authored or co-authored over 80 publications in the scientific and popular press. He received a medical degree from the University of North Carolina, trained in internal medicine and as a clinical fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, received a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University, and served as visiting faculty at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

 

Advisory Council

JOSHUA ALBERT
Senior Associate, KONU

BRIDGITT ARNOLD
Vice President, Global Communications, Google

SUPROTIK BASU
Founder and Partner, Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital

NIRANJAN BOSE
Managing Director, Health and Life Sciences, Gates Ventures

NANCEE OKU BRIGHT
Senior International Civil Servant

ROBYN CALDER
Executive Director, The ELMA Philanthropies

BRENDAN CULLEN
Founder and Principal, Cause First Consulting; Former Founding Managing Director, Co-Impact

IRENE DANKWA-MULLAN
Chief Health Equity Officer, Deputy Chief Health Officer, Merative

TSION FIREW
Emergency Physician and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Columbia University; Advisor to the Ministry of Health for the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

PAPE GAYE
President Emeritus, IntraHealth

TOM KAGERER

ALINAFE KASIYA
Malawi Country Director, VillageReach

KIM KELLER, MSC.
Executive Director, David & Anita Keller Foundation

JENNIFER CAROLYN KING
Co-Founder and President, Rugged Elegance Foundation

JIMMY KOLKER, Advisory Council Chair
Former Secretary for Global Affairs, US Department of Health and Human Services; Former US Ambassador to Burkina Faso and Uganda

ROBERT LAWRENCE
Co-Founder, Physicians for Human Rights; Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

MARISSA LEFFLER
Health Program Director, UBS Optimus Foundation

OLIVIA LELAND
Founder and CEO, Co-Impact

K. RIVA LEVINSON
President and CEO, KRL International

YASMIN MADAN
Director of Philanthropic Collaboration, Co-Impact

KILEKEN OLE-MOIYOI
Executive Director, Novartis Corporate Strategy, Novartis

MADELEINE SCHACHTER 
Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine

BRIGHT SIMONS
Founder and President, mPedigree; Vice President, IMANI Centre for Policy and Education

HER EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF
Founder, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development; Health Workforce Ambassador, World Health Organization; Former President of Liberia

DAVID WASHER
Senior Impact Advisor, Adjuvant Capital

ROB YATES
Head, Centre on Global Health Security, Chatham House

SOLOMON ZEWDU
Senior Executive Resident, Mastercard Foundation