Dr. Dilys Walker, MD | Principal Investigator

Mike Aono, Msc | PTBi Information System Developer

Alejandra Benitez, MA | Statistics Lead

Kimberly Calkins, MA | Simulation Lead

Elizabeth Butrick, MPH, MSW | Senior Program Manager

Joseph Capito | PTBi Information System Developer

Hana Azman Firdaus, MPH | Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation Technical Advisor

Ryan Keating, MPH | Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation Program Manager

Dr. Felicia Lester, MD, MPH | East Africa Training Specialist

Tiffany Lundeen, CNM, MSN, MA | Lead, Group Care Model Development

Rikita Merai, MPH | Research Analyst

Dr. Caleb Miles, PhD | Implementation Scientist

Lara Miller, MS | Program Manager

Dr. Meghan Morris, PhD, MPH | Epidemiologist

David Mugume | PTBi Information Lead System Developer

Dr. Roger Myrick, PhD, MA | Director of Monitoring and Evaluation

Hannah Park | Strategist

Dr. Nicole Santos, PhD, MS | Discovery Research Manager

Hilary Spindler, MPH | Data Scientist

Mona Sterling | Program Assistant

Fitti Weissglas, MS | Monitoring and Evaluation Informatics Specialist

Contact: [email protected]

Pierre Barker, MD

Dr. Pierre Barker is the senior vice president at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). He is responsible for IHI’s large-scale health systems improvement initiatives outside the USA. Dr. Barker also retains a position of clinical professor of Pediatrics in the Maternal and Child Health Department at Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC Chapel Hill. Currently, his work focuses on advising the World Health Organization on health systems strengthening and infant feeding guidelines.

Zulfiqar Bhutta, PhD, MBBS, FRCPCH, FAAP

Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, co-director of the Sick Kids Centre for Global Child Health, and the founding director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health at the Aga Khan University. He also holds adjunct professorships at several leading universities globally including the Schools of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, Boston University, University of Alberta, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Dr. Bhutta’s research interests include newborn and child survival, maternal and child undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, as well as RMNCAH&N in conflict settings. He leads large research groups based in Toronto, Karachi, and Nairobi with a special interest in research synthesis, scaling up evidence-based interventions in community settings and implementation research in health systems research.

Alex Coutinho, MD, MPH

Dr. Alex Coutinho, a global health leader, has practiced medicine and public health in Africa for 34 years. He is the executive director for Partners in Health in Rwanda and previous board chair for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York and International Partnership for Microbicides in Washington DC. Dr. Coutinho began his work with HIV/AIDS in 1982. He was the executive director of TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) from 2001 to 2007. From 2007 to 2014 he served as executive director of the Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University, Kampala. In 2015, he helped to respond to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Since September 2015, Dr. Coutinho has been working with the Rwanda Ministry of Health to build innovative health systems in the areas of oncology, neonatology, mental health and NCDs. In 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Hideyo Noguchi Africa prize. Currently Dr. Coutinho serves on the IPM board in Washington DC, the WHO strategic advisory board for the elimination of Malaria, and the Ashinaga Board in Japan. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda.

Ambassador Eric Goosby, MD

Dr. Eric Goosby is a professor of medicine and the director of Global Health Delivery and Diplomacy, Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.  Previously, he served in the Obama Administration as ambassador-at-large and U.S. global AIDS coordinator, overseeing the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In January 2015, Dr. Goosby was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the U.N. special envoy on tuberculosis (TB). As special envoy, Dr.Goosby works toward raising the profile of the fight against TB and promoting the adoption, financing and implementation of the WHO’s global End TB Strategy after 2015, and its international targets for tuberculosis prevention, care and control.

Geeta Rao Gupta, PhD

Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta is the executive director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women and Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation. She is also a member of the WHO Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for health emergencies. In 2017 she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University and served as co-chair of the Gender-Based Violence Task Force of the World Bank. From 2011 to 2016, Ms. Rao Gupta served as deputy executive director at UNICEF and from 2010 to 2011 was a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to that, for over a decade, Ms. Rao Gupta was the president of the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), a non-profit based in Washington, DC. Ms. Rao Gupta earned a PhD in social psychology from Bangalore University and an MPhil and MA from the University of Delhi in India.

Anneka Knutsson, PhD

A midwife by training, Dr. Anneka Knutsson holds a PhD in health care pedagogy from the University of Göteborg.  She currently serves as the chief of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Branch for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Previously, Dr. Knutsson served as the head of development cooperation for the Embassy of Sweden/Sida.

Ruth Levine, PhD

Dr. Ruth Levine is currently the program director of Global Development and Population at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Ruth is an internationally recognized development economist and expert in global health, education, and evaluation. Since 2011, she has led the foundation’s team responsible for grantmaking to improve living conditions in low- and middle-income countries, and to advance reproductive health and rights in developing countries and in the United States. Previously, Dr. Levine was a deputy assistant administrator in the Bureau of Policy, Planning and Learning at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She holds an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Cornell University and a doctorate degree in economic demography from Johns Hopkins University.

Jerker Liljestrand, MD, PhD

Dr. Jerker Liljestrand (MD PhD) is a deputy director in Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, and lead on maternal health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is an obstetrician-gynecologist, originally from Sweden, who started off his career in international health as an obstetrician working in Mozambique. He has worked in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in over 30 countries and for various organizations including WHO, the World Bank, UNICEF, and most recently USAID in Cambodia where he focused on maternal-newborn health and family planning. He has done extensive teaching, research and program work in SRHR, spanning HIV/AIDS, adolescent SRHR, gender-based violence, and strengthening midwifery and health systems for maternal-newborn health.

Janna Patterson, MD, MPH

Dr. Janna Patterson leads global health and life support initiatives for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Previously, she served as a senior program officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) team. Dr. Patterson is a board- certified pediatrician and neonatologist. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was a practicing neonatologist and researcher on faculty at the University of Washington. Her research in Kenya focused on transplacental transfer of antibodies to respiratory pathogens in the mother-infant dyad. Her peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters are focused on maternal-neonatal infections, HIV, and prematurity. Previously, Dr. Patterson spent several years living and working in Tanzania including work as a Programme Officer at the Tanzania Public Health Association. She remains fluent in Swahili. Dr. Patterson received a BA in African development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MD and MPH from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, with graduate medical studies at the University of Washington/Seattle Children's Hospital.

Jaime Sepulveda, MD, DrSc, MPH, MSc – Committee Chair

Dr. Jaime Sepulveda is the executive director of Global Health Sciences, professor of epidemiology, and the Haile T. Debas Distinguished Professor in Global Health at UCSF. His areas of research expertise include HIV/AIDS, vaccines, health surveillance and metrics, neglected infectious diseases, maternal & neonatal health, health policy, and global health initiatives. Previously, Dr. Sepulveda was the principal investigator for the FIRST (Fighting Infections through Research, Science & Technology) program, which tackles neglected infectious diseases in Mesoamerica, and a member of the Foundation Leadership Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Sepulveda worked for more than 20 years in a variety of senior health posts in the Mexican government.

Marleen Temmerman, MD

Marleen Temmerman was a professor of OB/GYN at Ghent University in Belgium before being elected to parliament in 2007.   She subsequently served as the director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the WHO.  After medical school she worked in Nairobi as a lecturer at University of Nairobi and Pumwani Maternity Hospital. She has recently returned to Nairobi to work with the Aga Khan Development Network as Director of Maternal Child Health Research.

Dilys Walker, MD

Pricinpal investigator for PTBi-EA, Dr. Dilys Walker is an obstetrician gynecologist and a professor in the departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, and Global Health Sciences. Dr. Walker and her team developed a novel approach to emergency training—PRONTO—using highly-realistic simulation and team training to improve obstetric and neonatal outcomes. She is executive director for the NGO PRONTO International and is currently running PRONTO implementation trials in Mexico, Guatemala, and Kenya.