People

Leadership

Gene Bukhman
Gene Bukhman, MD, PhD
Executive Director

Gene BukhmanGene Bukhman, MD, PhD, is a cardiologist and cultural anthropologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Program in Global Noncommunicable Disease and Social Change at Harvard Medical School. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School

Between 2010 and 2015, Dr. Bukhman was the senior technical advisor on noncommunicable diseases to the Rwanda Ministry of Health. Over the past 15 years, he has argued that for those living in extreme poverty, NCDs are best understood as part of the “long tail” of global health equity that demands a new “science of integration.” He has translated this critique into practical delivery strategies such PEN-Plus (the Package of Essential Noncommunicable Disease Interventions–Plus). These strategies are now impacting the lives of thousands of people living with severe childhood-onset conditions such as type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, and rheumatic and congenital heart disease in more than a dozen countries.

He is the author of more than 125 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters that apply a range of methodologies from ethnography and archival research to epidemiology and mathematical modelling to identify solutions to the problem of “NCDI Poverty.”

Dr. Bukhman was the lead author and co-chair of the 1996–2020 Lancet Commission on Reframing NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion. He is currently Co-Chair of the 27-country NCDI Poverty Network launched in December 2020 to support implementation of the Lancet Commission’s recommendations.

In 2023, Dr. Bukhman received the World Heart Federation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Global Cardiovascular Health.

Emily Yale
Emily Yale, MPH
Director of Finance and Operations

Emily Yale is the Director of Finance and Operations for the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity. She holds an MPH in Global Health from Boston University School of Public Health and a BA in Public Health from Elon University. Emily has worked for several global health organizations dedicated to improving the health of vulnerable populations. She has primarily worked in the areas of program management, finance and administration, operations, compliance, and business development.

Prior to joining the Center, Emily worked at the Center for Global Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), supporting community health projects in rural Uganda. Before MGH, Emily worked for an International NGO, John Snow, Inc. (JSI), where she managed large USAID-funded HIV/AIDS projects in East Africa and frequently traveled to field offices to provide local staff with training on operations, finance, and U.S. government contract compliance.

Rachel Gasana
Rachel Gasana, MBA
Senior Director of Advancement

Rachel Gasana

Rachel Gasana is the Senior Director of Advancement for the Center for Integration Science. She oversees partnerships, advocacy, marketing, and communications for the Center, the PEN-Plus Partnership, and the NCDI Poverty Network. Gasana brings 15 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, mobilizing $200M+ for high-growth, mission-driven organizations in a variety of contexts. While at Partners In Health, she expanded programming and partnerships across 11 countries and 3 continents, including support for the initial implementation of PEN-Plus. She started her career establishing a grassroots literacy nonprofit in New Haven, Connecticut, and building public and private sector support for a Tony-award-winning theatre company in the state’s Capitol. Gasana holds a BA from Dartmouth College (2006) and an MBA from the Yale School of Management (2021).

Neil Gupta, MD, MPH
Senior Director of Policy

Neil Gupta, MD, MPH, is the Senior Director of Policy for the NCDI Poverty Network, where he plays a lead role in facilitating and supporting National NCDI Poverty Commissions and the NCDI Poverty Network Steering Committee.

An internist and pediatrician by training, Dr. Gupta was previously the Chief Medical Officer for Partners In Health in Rwanda, where he was responsible for the strategy, design, and implementation of clinical programs in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. He later joined the NCD Synergies team of Partners In Health and supported the development of the Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr. Gupta is also the Primary Investigator for the Simplifying Hepatitis C Antiviral Therapy for Elsewhere in the Developing World study, which aims to promote access and availability of hepatitis C treatment.

Dr. Gupta is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health, and he completed his residency training at Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s hospitals. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Emily Wroe, MD, MPH
Senior Director of Programs

Emily Wroe, MD, MPH, an internist and global health expert, serves as the Senior Director of Programs for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science. In this role she supports the implementation and expansion of PEN-Plus programs.

Dr. Wroe’s expertise in health systems for chronic diseases stems from several years working as Partners In Health’s Chief Medical Officer in Malawi, where she worked closely with the Ministry of Health to strengthen health care in the rural district of Neno. In Malawi she led the team to integrate HIV and noncommunicable disease clinics, spearheaded a stepped-wedge study of a community health worker program, and helped launch two clinics for patients with severe NCDs, which was the beginning of the PEN-Plus programming in Malawi. Her role expanded to support southern Africa as NCD Synergies’ Associate Director of Policy and Implementation and as the co-chair to the Ministry of Health for Malawi’s National NCDs and Injuries of Poverty Commission.

Dr. Wroe is also deeply experienced in pandemic response and acts as a Senior Advisor for PIH’s COVID-19 response. She graduated from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health and completed her residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Alma Adler, PhD, MSc, MA
Research and M&E Director

Alma Adler is the Research and Monitoring and Evaluation Director for the Center for Integration Science (CIS) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital since 2018. Dr. Adler began her career as a bioanthropologist receiving her PhD in 2005, but later received an MSc in Public Health/Developing Countries, Epidemiology Stream from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Before joining CIS, Dr. Adler was an Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where she was a member of the Centre for Chronic Diseases and the Centre for  Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive, & Child Health. Other positions Dr. Adler has held include systematic review specialist at the Cochrane Heart Group and Science Officer at the World Heart Federation. Dr. Adler’s research focuses on three areas: Implementation science, mixed methods evaluations of complex interventions, and evidence synthesis. She has led implementation research projects in nine countries on three continents. Dr. Adler has over 50 publications and numerous media appearances.

Paula Byron
Paula Byron, MA
Communications Director

Paula ByronPaula Brewer Byron is the Communications Director for the NCDI Poverty Network. She has spent most of her communications career in the fields of medicine, public health, and human rights. Most recently she worked at Virginia Tech, first as communications director for a startup medical school and biomedical research institute, then as senior editor at the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. For the previous dozen years, she was editor of Harvard Medical School’s magazine, and before that she served as communications director for what was then the Harvard AIDS Institute, an initiative of the Harvard School of Public Health. One of Byron’s principal specialties is publications. In addition to editing Harvard Medicine, she has served as editor of Illumination, an annual magazine at Virginia Tech; Carilion Medicine, the biannual magazine of a regional health system; Silent Spring Review, a publication focused on the environmental causes of breast cancer; Baobab, the daily newspaper for an AIDS in Africa conference in Senegal; and a range of publications for the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria, the Reebok Human Rights Awards Program, and the Harvard AIDS Institute. Byron has also edited three books on AIDS in Africa and coauthored a book on human rights heroes around the world. She earned her bachelor’s in English at Williams College and her master’s in Asian Studies at the University of Michigan.

Chantelle Boudreaux, ScD, MA
Associate Director for Integration Research

Dr. Chantelle Boudreaux is focused on understanding how to build better health systems, specifically how to merge a country’s epidemiologic profile with their existing resources to best respond to current and anticipated health needs.

At the Center for Integration Science, her research focuses this question at the hospital level. This requires an understanding of the optimal clustering of tasks among providers, and a consideration of the interfaces both within and outside of the health system, to better understand how diverse clinical skills and interdisciplinary roles, programs, and service tiers can influence the delivery of healthcare services and population health outcomes.

Chantelle completed her doctoral studies at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She also holds Masters degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

Apoorva Gomber, MD, MPH
Associate Advocacy Director

Dr. Apoorva Gomber is a physician from India with an interest in global health centered around pediatric diabetes, health equity, disease epidemiology, and improving access to care in low- and middle-income countries. She graduated with a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) in the Department of Global Health and Population from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Gomber has worked on various advocacy initiatives with global organizations to improve access to insulin and understanding childhood diabetes. Her research interests focus to overcome health disparities in diabetes care globally and looking for solutions to complex problems using evidence-based data and cross-sectoral collaborations. She also serves as one of the WHO Technical Advisory Group of Experts on Diabetes to further WHO’s leadership and coordination role in promoting and monitoring global action against diabetes.

Apoorva served as the South East Asia Regional Representative-elect from 2017-2019 for the Young Leaders in Diabetes Program by International Diabetes Federation and also for the Young Leadership Program at NCD Child.

Apoorva advocates for overcoming stigma among people living with diabetes and the prevention of diabetes-related complications. Outside of research, she spends her time traveling, hiking, and running marathons.

Colin Pfaff, MD
Associate Director of Programs

Colin Pfaff, MD, is the Associate Director of Programs at the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Pfaff is a family medicine and public health doctor from South Africa, where he is currently based. He has more than 25 years of experience in district-level primary health care services in South Africa, Nepal, and Malawi, including HIV, tuberculosis, and noncommunicable disease programs.

Sheila Klassen, MD
Assistant Director for Cardiac Integration

Sheila Klassen, MD, an adult cardiologist with subspecialties in echocardiography and structural heart disease, serves as the Assistant Director for Cardiac Integration at the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In that role, as part of PEN-Plus, she leads programs for decentralizing and integrating care for people with advanced cardiovascular disease at the rural district hospital level across the Network’s Phase 3 and Phase 4 implementation countries.

Dr. Klassen has had extensive experience carrying out heart failure and echocardiography training related to PEN-Plus implementation in sub-Saharan Africa and has chaired or directed sessions at international conferences related to heart failure care in limited-resource settings. She also manages cardiology fellowships supported by the Center for Integration Science.

In addition, Dr. Klassen serves as a Lecturer in the Program in Global Noncommunicable Disease and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Klassen earned her MD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, in 2011. She completed a residency in internal medicine at McMaster University, followed by an Adult Cardiology fellowship at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Dr. Klassen completed a fellowship in Advanced Echocardiography and Clinical Research with Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019 and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2020. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography, and an Emerging Leader within the World Heart Federation.

Dr. Remy Nkwiro Bitwayiki
Remy Nkwiro Bitwayiki, MD, MMed
Regional Advisor for West Africa

Remy Nkwiro Bitwayiki, MD, MMed, is the Regional Advisor for West Africa for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is also an internal medicine specialist with more than ten years of clinical practice in diverse African healthcare settings, particularly in managing noncommunicable diseases.

As the internal medicine consultant and NCD lead at Partners In Health in Sierra Leone, he has significantly contributed to the implementation of the PEN-Plus project at Koidu Government Hospital. He has also helped the initiation of a bachelor’s program in internal medicine for local health officers.

Dr. Bitwayiki’s previous challenging roles have included supporting Ebola and COVID-19 management with the World Health Organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Early in his career, he established the Department of Internal Medicine at Aweil State Hospital in South Sudan, where he focused on quality improvement, the development of clinical protocols, and healthcare provider training.

In addition to his MD, Dr. Bitwayiki holds a master’s degree of medicine in internal medicine from the University of Rwanda. His work is driven by a deep commitment to equity and compassionate care.

Dr. Natnael A. Abebe
Natnael A. Abebe, MD
Regional Advisor for East Africa

 

Natnael A. Abebe, MD, is a Regional Advisor for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In that role, he focuses particularly on Ethiopia’s and Uganda’s PEN-Plus initiatives.

Dr. Abebe’s previous work centered on decentralizing cancer care, particularly through the development of models to extend palliative care to periurban and rural communities. Additionally, he has been actively involved in the clinical and programmatic management of noncommunicable diseases, and he spearheaded the Ethiopian PEN-Plus initiation project as a medical coordinator.

As a medical oncologist and palliative care specialist, Dr. Abebe has been recognized for his contributions to expanding palliative care in low-income countries. He received the IDEA-Palliative Care Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncologists in 2022 and the International Physician Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2023.

Dr. Abebe completed his medical oncology fellowship at Tata Memorial Hospital in India and pursued Palliative Medicine training at the Cipla Palliative Care & Training Centre in Pune, India, and St. Christopher’s Hospice in London, United Kingdom. He studied leadership at the University of Delaware, where he was also honored as a 2022 Mandela Washington Fellow under the Young African Leaders Initiative.

 

Dr. Marta Patiño Rodriguez
Marta Patiño Rodriguez, MD
Associate Director of Education and Training

Marta Patiño Rodriguez, MD, is an internal medicine physician who serves as the Associate Director of Education and Training for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr Patiño has more than 20 years of work experience in Spain with the National Health System and in Sierra Leone with Partners In Health. Through this work she has had extensive involvement in a broad range of activities from clinical practice to clinical education, research, and program implementation across multiple health system environments.

In her role as Clinical Projects Specialist for PIH–Sierra Leone, Dr. Patiño managed several large grants including MIND-TB, a gender-sensitive tuberculosis screening project and PEN-Plus funded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she conducted the National Assessment in Emergency Care for Sierra Leone, and led development of data management and evaluation in the Emergency Department at Koidu Government Hospital.

In her role as clinical educator, Dr. Patiño has trained and mentored clinical students throughout her career as well as supervised local and visiting trainees completing their research and implementation projects in Sierra Leone. She supervised the development and implementation of the Advanced Training Program for Emergency Care in conjunction with Chicago University and was part of the training faculty for Non-Communicable Diseases at Koidu Government Hospital.

Most recently, she co-led the development and implementation of a novel Bachelor Degree Program in Internal Medicine for Clinical Officers in Sierra Leone together with the Makeni School of Clinical Sciences. In her current role at PEN-Plus, she continues to build on her prior experience as she steers organizational efforts toward ongoing curriculum development, on-site training, cross-site collaboration and standardization, and cultivation of context-relevant learning resources.

Gedeon Ngoga, MPH
Clinical Advisor

Gedeon Ngoga, MPH, is a Clinical Advisor for the NCDI Poverty Network. Over the last decade, his work has focused on the implementation of noncommunicable disease care delivery models in low-resource settings including developing a dedicated training and mentoring program for PEN-Plus health care workers, principally nurses and clinical officers in clinics supported by Partners In Health. This has involved clinical duties as well as a wide programmatic and leadership role for the NCD program which eventually led to national implementation of the model and scale-up of NCD services to all district hospitals of Rwanda.

Ngoga holds a master’s of public health in international health and development.

Dr. Shela Sridhar
Shela Sridhar
South Asia Regional Advisor

Shela Sridhar, MD, MPH, serves as the NCDI Poverty Network South Asia Regional Advisor. She is a dual-trained physician in internal medicine and pediatrics and a global health systems researcher. She completed a Global Health Service Delivery Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, during which time she worked as a Pediatric Clinical Advisor at Partners In Health, Rwanda, focused on quality improvement and health systems strengthening at the hospital level.

Dr. Sridhar has also served as an NIH Fogarty Fellow and spearheaded studies evaluating adolescent malnutrition at a community level and referral systems to tertiary hospitals for children with malnutrition in Zambia. She continues to work closely with colleagues in Zambia to improve community-based nutrition, optimize data systems, and measure clinic outcomes to address gaps in care delivery.

She is committed to improving access to and the quality of healthcare globally with a focus on translating research into actionable, scalable protocols. After completing a residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin, she received a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Collin Whelley
Collin Whelley
Associate Director of Data Systems and Monitoring & Evaluation

Collin Whelley, MA, is the Associate Director of Data Systems and Monitoring & Evaluation for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Whelley has more than 15 years of experience working in the United States and abroad to strengthen health and homeless response systems through research, evaluation, monitoring, and data system development.

Ana Mocumbi, MD, PhD, FESC
NCDI Poverty Network Co-Chair

Prof. Dr. Ana Olga Mocumbi (MD, PhD, FESC) is a cardiologist with a particular interest in neglected cardiovascular diseases specifically rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathies, heart failure in young people, and women’s cardiovascular health. She is Professor of Cardiology at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Mozambique and is Head of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases at the National Public Health Institute (INS), at the Ministry of Health in Mozambique.

Dr. Mocumbi obtained an MD in 1992 at UEM. She worked in several rural areas of Mozambique from 1992 – 1997 acting as a general practitioner and health manager, gaining experience on management of National Control Programs for major endemic diseases.

Her post-graduate training in cardiology was done in Mozambique (Central Hospital of Maputo and Instituto do Coração) and France (Hospital Necker-Enfants Malades). She holds a Diploma in Pediatric Cardiology from the University René Descartes, Paris V – France.

Dr. Mocumbi worked as a Research Assistant at the Imperial College London (from 2004 until 2008) where she obtained her PhD investigating the Epidemiology of Neglected Cardiovascular Diseases. Under this program she launched a research project on Endomyocardial Fibrosis, which included large-scale community-based studies and clinical research in a rural endemic area of Mozambique (Inharrime), involving collaboration with the Heart Science Centre and Magdi Yacoub Research Institute in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Mocumbi is involved in several local and international research projects and partnerships including international registries and clinical trials. She is Editor of the Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy Journal and has published original papers in peer-reviewed journals and didactic publications.

She is currently Vice President of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) South Region (and Member of the PASCAR Taskforce on Hypertension), Co-Leader of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute for the Sub-Saharan Region and Member of the World Heart Federation’s Scientific Policy and Advocacy Committee.

Maureen Achebe, MD
Assistant Director for Hematology Integration

Dr. Maureen Okam Achebe is the Assistant Director for Hematology Integration at the Center for Integration Science. Dr. Achebe is Clinical Director of Hematology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Clinical director of Hematology Services at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). In these roles she devises strategies for clinical operations improvements and oversees all classical hematology patient care at BWH and DFCI. She is the director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Center at BWH that delivers state-of-the-art care to adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). Dr. Achebe is deeply involved in the care of individuals with SCD in the US and internationally. She is the co-chair of the data subcommittee of the American Society of Hematology Consortium on newborn screening for SCD in Africa (CONSA) that seeks to demonstrate the benefits of screening and early intervention for SCD underway in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa. She has represented ASH and CONSA at 2019 World Health Assembly side meeting in Geneva and at WHO Afro regional meetings in Brazzaville, Congo to advance support for the care of individuals with SCD worldwide. Dr. Achebe serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Non-Communicable Disease and Injuries (NCDI) Nigeria Poverty Commission as the sickle cell disease expert and guides the identification and prioritization of policies, interventions and integrated delivery platforms to effectively address and reduce SCD burden in the country. She is actively involved in clinical trials and translational research at BWH and was an investigator in the development of two of the most recently US FDA-approved drugs for SCD. She is Co-Director of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology ICM: Hematology Clinic for Harvard Medical students. 

Dr. Achebe is a graduate of University of Port Harcourt medical school, specialty training in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Yale School of Medicine and is a graduate of Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

Yogesh Jain, MD
South Asia Regional Advisor

Dr. Yogesh Jain is a public health physician who earned his MD in Paediatrics from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He founded and runs the community health program Jan Swasthya Sahyog (People’s Health Support Group) which operates in rural Bilaspur, India and Sangwari in northern Chhattisgarh. Indigenous people that call more than 2,500 of the most marginalised villages home access the services of Jan Swasthya Sahyog for their health care needs. Dr. Jain helps address the technical, operational, economic or political issues that affect health care for the rural poor through clinical care, careful documentation, observational research studies, developing appropriate health related technology, training, and lobbying. Since observing health and illnesses through the lens of hunger and extreme poverty, Dr. Jain has become an advocate for the state as the primary provider of social services and believes that unbridled privatization while not rectify the inequities in global access to health care.

Researchers

Whitney Puetz
Whitney Puetz, MPH
Research Specialist

Whitney Puetz, MPH, is a research specialist for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

In 2024, Puetz earned her master of public health in global epidemiology from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, where she also earned certificates in Humanitarian Emergencies and Social Determinants of Health. She obtained her bachelor’s in anthropology and public health sciences at Hamline University in 2015 and earned an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Eastern Gateway Community College in 2018.

Puetz’s prior experience includes collaborating as a research assistant with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Emory University, and the Africa Health Research Institute to develop a cost analysis, time and motion study, and fidelity assessment for a study evaluating and implementing an in-person and mHealth intervention to address low transition readiness from pediatric to adult care services and maintain retention in care and viral suppression for adolescents living with perinatally acquired HIV in Durban, South Africa.

In addition, as a global violence epidemiology fellow, she has provided technical support on the Violence Against Children Surveys of the Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch of the Division of Violence Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention. She has also assessed healthcare workforce supply as a data intern with the Georgia Board of Healthcare Workforce and served as a medical examiner technician for Hennepin County in Minnesota.

Puetz strives to make a meaningful impact as a public health professional, researching and implementing evidence-based solutions to improve the health outcomes of vulnerable populations.

Matt Coates, MPH
Research Specialist

Matt Coates is a Research Specialist with the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity. He began working with the Lancet Commission on NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion in 2016, conducting analyses for the commission report and supporting national commission work. He has contributed to research about the burden of NCDIs by socioeconomic levels, risk factors for these conditions, the availability of health services for NCDIs in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and potential impact of scaling up coverage of interventions to prevent and manage NCDIs. His general interest is in quantitative modeling to project population impact of policies and interventions, incorporating equity considerations.

Matt is currently pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned an MPH in Global Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, where he contributed to demographic estimates and estimates of disease burden attributable to alcohol consumption for the Global Burden of Disease project from 2013 to 2016.

Maryam Mansoor
Maryam Mansoor, MHS
Research Coordinator

Maryam Mansoor is the Research Coordinator for the Center of Integration Science. She earned a Master of Health Science degree from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with a certificate in Evaluation of International Health Programs. Her prior work includes managing a program related to social determinants of health and mental health and research on maternal and child health in Pakistan, and quality of care in Guinea Bissau.

Ryan McBain, MA, ScD
Health Economist

Dr. Ryan McBain is the Health Economist for the Center for Integration Science and a faculty member of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Ryan holds a secondary appointment at the RAND Corporation—a global policy think tank. Dr. McBain received his Doctor of Science and Master’s degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health and his Bachelor’s degree from Gordon College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

A central focus of Dr. McBain’s work pertains to health program and policy evaluation. He combines econometric analysis, costing and simulation methods to assess the efficiency, equity, and cost effectiveness of interventions. Routinely, Dr. McBain has applied these tools in the context of health system strengthening and reform—at local, regional, and national levels.

Dr. McBain has published over 80 articles in top tier journals, and he has led projects sponsored by organizations ranging from the National Institute of Mental Health and Department of Defense to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Skoll Foundation.  Dr. McBain’s work is also featured in news outlets such as the New York Times, U.S. News, and NPR, and he has written opinion editorials for outlets such as LA Times and The Hill.

Devashri Salvi, MPH
Monitoring & Evaluation Lead

Devashri Salvi is the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Lead at the Center for Integration Science. She is a physical therapist by training and has an MPH with a specialization in Environmental Health and the Design and Conduct of Public Health Research from Boston University.

Devashri has worked in NCD-related research since 2011 on projects conducted in India, Zambia, Kenya, and the United States. After spending five years in India conducting lung health and air quality related research, Devashri moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Most recently Devashri served as the Director of Program Monitoring and Evaluation at a Boston-based anti-poverty nonprofit where she designed the M&E strategy for 11 social programs while serving as a consultant for 110+ partner organizations. Devashri believes in continuous learning and has completed certificate programs in nonprofit leadership and management in 2020 as well as practical quality improvement in 2021.

At the Center for Integration Science, Devashri leads and supports M&E activities that will help scale‐up service delivery within the NCDI Poverty Network. Devashri works to establish and execute the near and long‐term strategy to grow M&E capacity at the local catchment, national, and regional levels within the PEN-Plus program.

Ada Thapa, MPH
Senior Research Assistant

Ada Thapa is a Senior Research Assistant at the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, focusing mainly in the qualitative analysis of the CGM trial.

Ada completed her MPH in Health Policy Analysis and Evaluation with a Global Health certificate from the University of Maryland, College Park. During her MPH program, she interned with Save the Children, US on their USAID-funded Maternal and Child Survival project where she oversaw the qualitative analysis for a key pilot project in Mozambique called “Our First Baby”. Following her graduation, she worked in the Global Mental Health Equity lab at George Washington University as a Research Assistant and performed qualitative analysis for the Gates STAND STRONG project. Ada also worked as Research Associate at Health Foundation Nepal for more than two years on their Non-Communicable Disease project.

Staff

Sanjanaa Seshadri
Sanjanaa Seshadri, MPH
Advancement Coordinator

Sanjanaa Seshadri earned her master of public health from Johns Hopkins University, specializing in global and humanitarian health, and a bachelor’s in public health from Texas A&M University.

Before graduate school, Seshadri worked in clinical research at Massachusetts General Hospital, managing cardiovascular trials. Her experience also spans health systems analysis, global pediatric research, and community health promotion, including tobacco cessation programs in rural Texas. During her MPH program, she engaged in applied global health research through the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, examining humanitarian response coordination, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, supporting projects on the humanitarian development in Afghanistan.

Having lived in multiple countries as an Indian immigrant, Seshadri is passionate about advancing equity in health programs, and she applies human rights–based approaches to public health.

Jules Teichert
Jules Teichert, MPH
Partnerships Manager

Jules Teichert, MPH, is the partnerships manager for the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She holds a master’s in public health from Florida International University and a bachelor’s in allied health–medical sciences from the University of Tampa.

Teichert started her career in patient care, working as a certified nursing assistant in a long-term-care facility during the COVID-19 pandemic. That role fueled her interest in public health as she witnessed severe inequities in health care.

While working on her graduate degree, Teichert transitioned to development work at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. There she worked to secure support for future physicians during a time of extensive growth at the organization. She also gained a passion for development work and advancing health-oriented organizations through financial means and partnerships.

While completing her MPH, Teichert worked as a graduate research assistant on an initiative to evaluate the impact of transitions in care intervention to reduce health disparities among African American and Latino/Hispanic patients being discharged from the hospital with chronic illness and co-occurring mental illness.

Lhakpa Nyinjee
Lhakpa Nyinjee, MA, MPA
Finance and Operations Manager

Lhakpa Nyinjee, MA, MPA has a decade of experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating development policies related to public finance and fiscal strategy, tax reforms and regulations, municipal finance, and public administration. She has held various roles at the Ministry of Finance in the government of Bhutan, including policy analyst, manager, and trainer. Throughout her career, she has contributed to formulating fiscal policies, enhancing public service delivery, and mobilizing domestic resources to achieve the development philosophy of Gross National Happiness.

Additionally, Nyinjee served as a research/program associate at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. There she also gained experience as a teaching assistant for the Adaptive Leadership course. Recently, she was an African Bridge Network fellow in the Grant Administration Division at the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University.

Nyinjee holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Delhi University, a master’s degree in international economics and finance from Chulalongkorn University, and a master of public administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Christa Cepuch
Christa Cepuch, MPH
Medicines and Health Technologies Advisor

Christa Cepuch, MPH, attended the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Toronto. Following a year’s residency program, she started her career as a clinical pharmacist in internal medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. She has since gained over 20 years of experience in global access to medicines research, policy, and advocacy, both with Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Health Action International Africa. She received her MPH from the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Most recently she was the pharmacist coordinator at MSF’s Access Campaign, with a focus on the quality of medicines and access to medicines for people living with diabetes and hypertension. She is based in Geneva.

Daphne Nakawesi
Daphne Nakawesi, MPH
PEN-Plus Coordinator

Daphne Nakawesi, MPH, joined the NCDI Poverty Network as PEN-Plus coordinator in November 2024. She holds a master of public health with a concentration in global health monitoring and evaluation from the Boston University School of Public Health and a bachelor of science in biology from the University of Massachusetts Boston.

With extensive experience in global health, Nakawesi is passionate about health-system strengthening and advocacy across Africa. She has contributed to research and implementation projects, including while serving as a research assistant with Duke Global Neurosurgery and Neurology, where she focused on neuropsychology and epilepsy medication adherence. Additionally, she worked on a study examining the utilization of postnatal care among pregnant women in Rwanda.

Nakawesi has supported diverse initiatives, including an annual medical camp providing free healthcare services to a rural Ugandan village, and she has implemented a women’s economic empowerment program to promote sustainable livelihoods. Nakawesi also serves part-time as a capacity-building fellow with Doctors for Global Health, where she continues to leverage her expertise and passion to drive sustainable healthcare solutions.

Andrea Fleurant
Andrea Fleurant
Project Coordinator

Born and raised in Boston by Haitian immigrant parents, Andrea Fleurant has been deeply motivated by a passion for service, particularly in improving healthcare and educational outcomes for underserved communities.

Fleurant holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics, with a concentration in psychology, from Lasell College. After graduating from college, she gained research experience at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Mass General Hospital, where she focused on chronic conditions such as pruritus in patients with kidney disease. She later served as a Research Assistant in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she gained valuable clinical experience and contributed directly to patient care, further strengthening her commitment to advancing health equity.

Most recently, she served as a Project Assistant at Ariadne Labs, where she contributed to global health initiatives aimed at improving healthcare access. These experiences have reinforced her dedication to addressing health disparities.

Nadege Ade
Piniel Nadege Ade
Policy Coordinator

Piniel Nadege Ade joined the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as policy coordinator in October 2024.

Ade is a health systems specialist with 13 years of experience dedicated to strengthening health systems across the African continent. She has collaborated with African ministries of health and international organizations such as UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank on initiatives to improve health information systems at the district level and to develop more evidence-based national health strategic plans. She has also contributed to programs aimed at aligning development assistance for health with countries’ national health plans, adhering to the principles of “one plan, one budget, one report.”

In addition to her technical work, Ade has been deeply involved in advocacy, working for many years with the Engage Africa Foundation to promote awareness and support evidence-based interventions addressing noncommunicable diseases across the continent. Her passion lies in advancing health equity, health justice, and realizing health as a fundamental human right.

Ade holds an MSc in Global Health and Public Policy and a bachelor’s in medical science from the University of Edinburgh.

Mike Lawrence
Mike Lawrence, MA
Communications Manager

Mike Lawrence, MA, is the Communications Manager for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Lawrence joined the team in September 2024 after spending three years in local government for the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, as administrative manager in the Health Department and city spokesperson in the Mayor’s Office. He spent the previous four years on the marketing and communications team for Partners In Health. As a senior writer, he focused on the organization’s work to strengthen health systems and advance health equity in Rwanda, Malawi, and Lesotho.

In the fall of 2022, Lawrence had a significant medical scare involving heart disease, kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. While his experience was a fraction of the lifelong challenges faced by the people whom the NCDI Poverty Network serves, the world-class care he received at Brigham and Women’s Hospital—and the fact that he was able to be med-flighted there from his hometown—made global inequities even more apparent. Everyone should have access to high-quality care, in emergency situations and in daily life. The experience has made him even prouder to advocate for that care in places where it does not exist, or is not accessible.

Earlier in his career, Lawrence spent more than 12 years as a newspaper reporter and editor in Colorado; Shenzhen, China; and his native New England. He has a bachelor’s in philosophy from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a master’s in journalism from the University of Colorado.

Katia Domingues
Katia Domingues, MPH
PEN-Plus Program Manager

Katia Domingues (MPH) is the PEN-Plus Program Manager for the NCDI Poverty Network at the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity.  She received her MPH from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with two certificates in Monitoring & Evaluation of International Programs and Humanitarian Health. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Community Health from Tufts University. In addition to her work with PEN-Plus, Katia is a part-time epidemiologist at a local health department in Massachusetts.

Prior to joining the NCDI Poverty Network, Katia served as a COVID-19 Case Investigator Lead for the Portuguese-speaking division of the Internal Language Line at the CTC, a joint program of PIH and the state of Massachusetts. Simultaneously, she was on the JHU COVID-19 Training Initiative team as a student intern and helped create training modules to be used by local boards of health on pandemic response. She also served in the Peace Corps as a Community Health Services promoter in Chicumbane, Mozambique, and helped train health workers at the district hospital in data collection of infectious diseases. While in Mozambique, she trained Mozambican community-based organizations on grant writing skills and successfully acquired two grants to start a health literacy project and community library initiative in the village she served.

Outside of work, Katia likes to go on walks, travel, drink tea and spend time with her family and friends.

Ramon Ruiz
Instructional Designer

Ramon Ruiz is an Instructional Designer in the Division of Global Health Equity at the Center for Integration Science. He collaborates with experts across the Global Health Delivery Partnership to design, develop, and launch courses for clinicians working at NCD clinics in rural health facilities within low- and lower-middle income countries.

Before joining the NCDI Poverty Network team, Ramon worked at Massachusetts Port Authority, State Street Global Advisors, and Natixis Investment Managers in learning and development, learning management system (LMS) administration, and graphic design. He has a BA in Visual Arts from Brown University.

Leslie Wentworth, MS
Health Information Systems and Analytics Manager

Leslie Wentworth is a Manager for Health Information Systems and Analytics at Partners in Health (PIH). She earned her MS in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a BA in Spanish and Film Studies from Wesleyan University. Prior to joining PIH, Leslie worked as a monitoring and evaluation manager for child health and cervical cancer programs at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. During this time, she collaborated with leaders at the World Health Organization to model and cost the scale up of national cervical cancer screening and treatment programs in low resource settings. Leslie’s background is in program implementation and management, research design, and evaluation, and has a strong interest in strengthening information systems to improve health.

Affiliated Faculty

Gene Kwan, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston University

Dr. Gene Kwan is a cardiologist and global health researcher with expertise in the intersection between these two fields. His primary goal is to push the frontier of global cardiovascular disease epidemiology and health service delivery research through the development, implementation, evaluation, improvement, and dissemination of integrated chronic care programs targeted to overcome specific barriers in rural low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). He leads heart failure and cardiovascular disease initiatives to support the PEN-Plus strategy with the NCDI Poverty Team. This includes training providers in echocardiography, patient management, as well as identifying and eradicating barriers to care faced by our patients.

Fellows

Gina Ferrari, MSN, MPH, FNP-C, CDCES
Type 1 Diabetes and Global Health Equity Research Fellow

Gina Ferrari joined the team in 2019 as a research fellow after completing a dual Master of Science in Nursing/Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests focus on the implementation of training and mentorship programs facilitating behavioral approaches to chronic disease management for clinicians caring for patients in rural areas of low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). She has a background in diabetes technology research and has spent over 10 years working at diabetes camps for children in the U.S. and abroad. Gina currently practices as a clinician and diabetes educator at a Federally Qualified Health Center in San Diego, California caring for adults with type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. Gina’s passion for promoting and providing equitable access to high quality diabetes care stems from her own type 1 diabetes diagnosis over 10 years ago.