Team Members Archive - Page 2 of 4 - Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity

Rylie Garrison, MEd

Rylie Garrison is director of finance and operations for the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Garrison holds an MEd in higher education administration from Northeastern University. She has worked in grants and research administration since 2019, primarily focused on financial administration and compliance.

Prior to joining the Center, Garrison served as the primary financial administrator for the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Rachel Gasana, MBA

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

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.

Sheila Klassen, MD

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.

Gene Kwan, MD, MPH

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.

Mike Lawrence, MA

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.

Maryam Mansoor, MHS

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

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.

Ana Mocumbi, MD, PhD, FESC

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.

Nancy Mugisha, MD, MPH

Nancy Mugisha, MD, MPH, is the Policy Advisor for the NCDI Poverty Network.

In this role, she supports NCDI Poverty Commissions in planning and implementing policy-related activities aligned with the NCDI Poverty Network’s four-stage theory of change.

Dr. Mugisha has worked with ministries of health and non-governmental organizations in Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda on implementation research and health systems strengthening. While serving as the NCD Mentor and Senior Clinical Officer at Pivot, a non-governmental organization partnering with Madagascar’s Ministry of Public Health, she led the implementation and evaluation of a district-wide diabetes decentralization program that expanded diabetes services to primary health centers through healthcare worker training, clinical mentorship, and implementation research. She also led Pivot’s policy initiatives on financial protection for healthcare access, helping expand the program from the district to the regional level.

Dr. Mugisha completed her residency in Internal Medicine and a Global Health Fellowship at the University of Washington. She also holds a Master of Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physician with the Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.