Hala Aldosari

Hala Aldosari is a scholar of social determinants of health and gender-based violence research. She examines the influence of gender norms on women’s political, economic, legal, and health statuses in the Arab Gulf states. At Radcliffe, Aldosari is researching gender dynamics, a significant determinant of health in Saudi Arabia. She employs interdisciplinary frameworks to study the impact of behavioral factors, cultural beliefs, social networks, socioeconomic status, and legislations as determinants of women’s health. In particular, Aldosari examines the impact of “constrained choice” on women’s access to care, quality of care, and health outcomes in Saudi Arabia

Dr. Anne E. Becker

Dr. Anne E. Becker, MD, PhD, SM is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. An anthropologist and psychiatrist, Dr. Becker has been lead investigator on a series of studies demonstrating the relationship between media exposure and eating pathology in the small-scale indigenous iTaukei population of Fiji. Her NIMH-funded research has also investigated the impact of rapid social transition on eating pathology, suicide, and other youth health risk behaviors in Fiji. She is co-PI for a school-based youth mental health intervention in central Haiti and co-PI for another study of a school-based mental health intervention in Beirut. Dr. Becker served as vice chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, is past director of the HMS MD-PhD Social Sciences program, and is former co editor-in-chief of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. Dr. Becker is founding and past Director of the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program at MGH, former associate editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, and past president of the Academy for Eating Disorders.

Brittany Cesarini

Brittany Cesarini is a social justice advocate passionate about diversifying global health leadership and building community. In her current role on the Advocacy and Communications team at Global Health Corps (GHC), Brittany works closely with GHC's young leaders around the world to develop and hone their ability to inspire and mobilize others to effect change. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of AMPLIFY and works on a range of media, public engagement, digital, and advocacy initiatives towards this aim. Fluent in Swahili, Brittany has conducted research and worked in the fields of gender-based violence prevention and HIV/AIDS education in Tanzania. As a recipient of the Henry Richardson Labouisse ’26 Prize, Brittany launched the Shikamana initiative in Dar es Salaam, working to train Tanzanian activists to educate youth on public health topics including conflict resolution, family planning, and disease prevention. She was also a Princeton Project 55 fellow and led communications for New York City Council Member Fernando Cabrera. Brittany holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and certificates in Gender and Sexuality Studies and African Studies. Proposed topic: Impactful Global Health Leadership: Start With the (Wo)man in the Mirror The concept of changing the world can be both motivating and overwhelming. Where do we begin? What exciting adventures await? How will we overcome challenges along the way? The road to creating lasting change - especially in the complex field of global health - is long and windy, but it starts with effective leadership. In order to develop into effective global health leaders, we have first examine ourselves in the mirror, coming face to face with our perceptions, our passions, our strengths and our weaknesses. Most importantly, we have to understand that the lens through which we see the world is not the only one. Only once we recognize this can we learn from and collaborate with others in a way that amplifies our impact beyond what any of us alone could ever achieve. Brittany will speak about the importance of self-awareness, humility, and empathy in global health leadership, sharing lessons learned from Global Health Corps' experience developing the next generation of health equity leaders. Aspects of our program she will touch on include: our co-fellow model, our work with partners in Africa and in the U.S., and our efforts to include diverse voices and perspectives at the decision-making tables of global health.

Dr. Roopa Dhatt

Dr. Roopa Dhatt is a physician by training and an advocate by principle, striving for greater health and well-being for all people through working in global health. She is the Executive Director and co-founder of Women in Global Health (#womeningh), a movement that strives to bring greater gender equality to global health leadership. She also serves as the Initiative Director for the Women Leaders in Global Health Initiative (WLGHI), hosted by Global Health Council, as the Board Member of GlobeMed, and as the Chair of the Consortium of University for Global Health (CUGH) Working Group on Increasing Women’s Leadership in Academic Global Health. She is an Internist, providing primary care in Washington D.C. at Kaiser Permanente. She completed her training at Case Western Reserve University, Department of Internal Medicine in the International Health Track. Formerly, she was the President of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, a student led organization, present in over 120+ countries, where she oversaw world-wide campaigns on global health issues including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Climate Change, Social Determinants of Health, Universal Health Coverage, and Health in All Policies. She is the founder of the Young Voices, Youth: Pre-World Health Assembly (#yWHA) in 2013 with the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute. She has a B.A. and B.S. from the University of California, Davis; a Master in Public Affairs from Sciences Po, Paris, France; and an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine.

Dr. Senan Ebrahim

Senan Ebrahim is the founder and CEO of Hikma Health, a tech nonprofit creating open source health data systems for millions of refugees. He also previously worked on health related products at nference, CrowdMed and Daktari Diagnostics. Senan hails from San Jose, CA and studied neuroscience in college and then in his PhD on seizure prediction in epilepsy. He is currently in his final year in the M.D.- Ph.D program at Harvard Medical School. Senan is passionate about sharing the data revolution in medicine with those who can benefit from it most After graduating from Harvard College, he spent a year living in the Peruvian Andes, conducting an ethnography of traditional healers. Senan enjoys playing intramural water polo for Quincy House, eating Brazilian food, and listening to deep house mixes; he aspires to eventually do all three at the same time.

Yvette Efevbera

Yvette Efevbera received her master of public health from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, where she is currently an advanced doctoral candidate focusing on global health, adolescents and youth, and program leadership. Her research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand contexts affecting the health and well-being of children, adolescents, youth, and women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Yvette previously served as Program Associate for the International Children’s Rights, Protection, and Education Programs at Wellspring Advisors and Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator for mothers2mothers in Malawi, Southeastern Africa. She also brings 9 years in diversity, inclusion, and culture work in higher-education and non-profit organizations and 6 years of experience in mentoring and advising youth, such as in her role as Resident Tutor at Harvard College. Yvette holds a Bachelor of Arts, High Honor in International Relations and African Studies from Michigan State University. A fun fact: She enjoys musical theatre and recently coordinated and performed in a production with undergraduate students. Proposed Topic: Road to Global Health Yvette will talk about her personal experience growing up in Africa, coming to the United States, and studying HIV.

Dr. Bogdan Chiva Giurca

Bogdan Chiva Giurca is an award-winning, final year medical student at Exeter Medical School in the UK. He has worked as a student advisor for the UK National Healthcare System (NHS), National Medical Director for Primary Care, and Government, as well as establishing a National Student Strategy Group. His work has influenced national healthcare policy and has driven key changes within the Undergraduate medical school curriculum. Throughout medical school, Bogdan has contributed to several peer-reviewed publications, including the UK NHS Long Term Plan (a 10-year roadmap for the future of healthcare), as well as authoring three books, including the most recent 370-pages ‘Unofficial Guide to Getting into Medical School’.Working with a team of 5,000+ medical students internationally, Bogdan is the founder of multiple large-scale projects, including the NHS England Social Prescribing Champion Scheme, International Social Prescribing Day, TalkCancer, and Medefine Education. In August 2019, Bogdan will start working as a newly qualified Doctor in London, South Thames.

Dr. Omar Haque

Dr. Omar Haque is an honors graduate of Harvard Medical School and Brown University, and has over 14 years of caring for patients, with an expertise in treating patients with MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) which has not responded to medication trials. Dr. Haque is the Founder and Medical Director of Dignity Brain Health, a clinic for TMS therapy for depression. He is a member of the Clinical TMS Society, American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, American Psychiatric Association, American Neuropsychiatric Association, and is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Drawing on his training in neuroscience as well as the humanities and social sciences, and with his background as a teacher and researcher at Harvard, he takes a holistic approach to patient care, and integrates the most up-to-date and evidence-based treatment plans for patients, whether from biological, psychological, interpersonal, existential, or social science approaches.

Dr. Kazumi Hatasa

Dr. Kazumi Hatasa received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He started teaching at Purdue University in 1988, and is currently a professor in School of Languages and Cultures. He was Director of the School of Japanese at Middlebury College from 2004 to 2018. His primary area of specialization is computer application of technologies in Japanese language teaching. He has published articles and book chapters in this area both in English and in Japanese, and regularly makes presentations at conferences of professional organizations including AATJ, ACTFL, and CALICO. He is currently working on applications of GPS games in language learning by using ARIS developed by University of Wisconsin Madison. He is co-authoring an advanced level textbook in Japanese using culinary culture as the main theme to be published in 2020.

Yuichi Ishii

Yuichi Ishii is the Founder and CEO of Family Romance, a company in Tokyo, Japan for renting actors to play the role of family members and friends in the client’s daily life. The company’s name comes from Freud’s “The Family Romance of Neurotics,” an essay published in 1909, about children who believe that their parents are impostors, and that their real parents are nobles or royals. According to Freud, this fantasy is a child’s way of coping with the inevitable, painful experience of disillusionment in his or her parents. Ishii and his “cast” actively strategize in order to engineer transformative outcomes for clients acting as a parent for a fatherless child, a spouse for a widow, or a friend for emotional support.

Jackie Jenkins-Scott

Jackie Jenkins-Scott,Founder and President of JJS Advising, is a nationally recognized leader with more than three decades of experience in senior and executive leadership positions in both public and nonprofit sectors. She is the first African-American president of emeritus of Wheelock College, a 129-year old private college specializing in educating teachers and social workers. Under Jackie’s strategic leadership, Wheelock significantly increased its endowment and successfully completed the largest capital campaign in the College’s history.Her personal commitment to improve society extends to active community and civic engagement. She is currently a member of the Boards of Directors of the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Schott Foundation for Public Education, Center for Community Change, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and Century Bank and Trust Company. Jackie raises public awareness about education and other public sector issues on a national (and global) scale by speaking and writing in a variety of media.

Paul Lewis

Paul M. Lewis is a TMS Therapy Clinician. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College where he concentrated in Neurobiology with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy. He has experience in diverse areas of global and public health having served as the Director of a program for underprivileged Native American youth, the President of a peer education group to promote holistic wellness, and the Community Education Chair of a drug and alcohol education group. Paul is the Founder of Harvard College VISION Global Health Society and the Global Health and Leadership Conference, which aims to educate high school students on global health topics, create evidence-based community interventions, and sustain a bidirectional mentoring pipeline of support for youth. Paul is the recipient of the Robert T. Benjamin Prize for his contribution to the health and wellness of Harvard, The Harvard Phillips Brooks House Association Houston Award for exceptional commitment to serving underprivileged communities, and the Harvard Transcript Project Prize for excellence in writing and reflection. He was awarded the Finley Fellowship from Harvard to spend a postgraduate year in Japan learning about end-of-life care. He aspires to become a physician leader involved in the holistic health of communities by caring for the whole person during treatment, promoting dignity for the marginalized, and acting as a mentor for youth to become conscientious caregivers.

Dani Poole

Dani Poole is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her overall career goal is to leverage data to improve health in humanitarian crises. Dani uses epidemiological and statistical methods to quantify health outcomes and their predictors for intervention design and monitoring and evaluation in crises. Dani works at the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative on evaluating the use, effectiveness, and inequalities of information communication technologies in crises. She is a current Graduate Research Fellow at the Weatherhead Initative on Gender Inequality and a former International Data Responsability Group fellow. Her dissertation research includes 1) the study of mobile phone usage and refugee mental health in the European migration crisis, 2) mental health screening for refugee populatoins, 3) absolute and relative economic inequality and exposure to violence in South Africa, and 4) geographical trends in HIV acquisition. She serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Harvard Public Health Review and Editorial Assistant for Trauma Psychology News.

Shigeko Sasamori

Shigeko Sasamori was 14 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, the hypocenter of the explosion just two miles away from where she lived. Sasamori sustained extensive burns, but she survived the explosion. In 1955, Japanese reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto and American journalist Norman Cousins raised funds to bring 25 women from Hiroshima to the United States for reconstructive surgery. The women were later known as Hiroshima Maidens and Sasamori was one of them. She worked as a nurse in the U.S. for many years. Sasamori now acts as a peace advocate to protect the international community against the hazards of nuclear weapons through lectures and other forms of education.

Dr. Michael Ashley Stein

Dr. Michael Ashley Stein holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School for over a decade, Stein holds an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, and a visiting professorship at the Free University of Amsterdam. An internationally recognized expert on disability law and policy, Stein participated in the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, works with disabled people’s organizations around the world, actively consults with governments on their disability laws and policies, advises a number of UN bodies and national human rights institutions, and has brought landmark disability rights litigation. Stein has received numerous awards for his work, including the inaugural Morton E. Ruderman Prize for Inclusion, the inaugural Henry Viscardi Achievement Award, and the ABA Paul G. Hearne Award, and was appointed by President Obama to the United States Holocaust Council.

Tomoko Takagi

Tomoko Takagi is the co-Founder of JP Bridge Greater Boston Language & Business Communications. She has a degree in Linguistics from Tokyo Woman’s Christian University focused on second language acquisition. She has worked in the Intellectual Property field for more than 15 years in US and Japanese law firms with considerable international business experiences. She currently teaches Japanese language classes for business settings in companies and organizations such as Cambridge Center of Adult Education, as well as for high school and college students. Tomoko also provides translation services for various business needs. JP Bridge Greater Boston Japanese Class: https://www.jpbridgeboston.com/; contact@jpbridgeboston.com

Additional Speakers

Dr. Renzo Guinto A Filipino physician with broad interests in global health and sustainable development, Dr. Renzo Guinto is a third-year Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He was gifted with a broad array of skills that are essential in reimagining health in the 21st century – from global perspective and effective communication, to strategic thinking and network-building. His experience spans a wide breadth of the public health realm – from universal health care, medical education, and migrant health, to global health diplomacy, noncommunicable diseases, and climate change & energy policy.
Kelly Phouyaphone Kelly Phouyaphone joins HGHI as Program Manager for HGHI’s initiatives in Climate Change and Health and Healthy Cities. Prior to joining HGHI, she oversaw research programs in urban slum health and infectious diseases, including the Zika virus epidemic in Northeastern Brazil, at the Yale School of Public Health. She has also been based in Southeast Asia as a Malaria Program Associate for the Lao PDR country office under the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). She received her MPH in Global Health Program Design, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Milken Institute School of Public Health and a BSc. in Biomedical and Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Jack Li
Vincent Lin
Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children
Green Medicine Initiative
Harvard Health Policy Review
Medical Humanities Forum
Partners in Health
Red Cross
STEM Inspiration Organization
Storybox Books