Bio

Judy Lewis is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Public Health Sciences and Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, USA. She is a founder and Board Chair of Women and Health Together for the Future. Prof. Lewis has worked on women’s health issues locally and globally, with a long-term focus on Haiti. She has worked on teen pregnancy, community oriented primary health care, school health, comprehensive family planning, reproductive health, chronic disease and breast cancer.

Bio

Prof Dr. Surekha Tayade, MBBS, MD, DNB (Obstetrics and Gynecology), MNAMS, FICOG, ACME, FAIMER Fellow, MPH and PhD is a full Professor and Unit Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Datta Meghe University of Health Sciences , Wardha , India. She is presently the Vice Chair of Women and Together for the Future and Chair of the Programs and the Membership Committee. She is also Master Trainer, Emergency Obstetrics Care (EmOC) project of Bill Melinda Gates foundation, Skilled Birth Attendant trainer, Basic EmOC trainer, Member of core committee of the National and State Quality Assurance Cell, EmOC, part of curriculum building team for EmOC /Life Saving Anaesthetic Skills training. Most of her work has been in High-Risk Obstetrics. She has also lead a program to reduce gender based and sexual violence in rural Indian villages and has been awarded the prestigious Savitribai Phule Achievement Award 2018 for community service

Bio

Michelle Andipatin has a PHD in Psychology and is currently the Deputy Dean Research in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences at the University of the Western Cape. She has a broad array of research interests that include but are not limited to: Women’s reproductive health, men and masculinities, alternate healing modalities, mental health and well-being, philosophical issues in science and research methodologies. Understanding and measuring social impact has become an important interest of hers. In addition to her role as Deputy Dean, she has also championed the Centre for Diversity in Psychological Practice since 2015-2023. As part of her Community Engagement, Professor Andipatin is involved in many projects related to women’s health, GBV and Quality of Life and Women’s Health. She is excited to assume the Executive Director position for Women and Health Together for the Future to support our activities to improve the health and health care of women.

Bio

Godwin Aja is a Professor of Health Promotion and Community Health, and the MPH Program Director at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, Philippines. He is Treasurer and Board Member of the Women and Health Together for the Future (WHTF). Prof. Aja has worked on women’s health issues in Nigeria, particularly using community-oriented strategies to communicate women`s health issues. He has contributed to mobilizing church-based assets for women’s health and HIV/AIDS prevention and control, including advocacy for social action and community partnerships and engagement in women’s health and social care.

Bio

HESTER JULIE is an Extraordinary Professor in Nursing. My previous management and coordination portfolios included being the Deputy Dean: Clinical & Community Engagement of the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, UWC; Head of Clinical, School of Nursing; and Regional Coordinator for the Western Cape Engaged Teaching and Learning (ETL) Working Group of the South African Higher Education Community Engagement Forum (SAHECEF). My primary focus is to work collaboratively towards a shared understanding of ETL and to build sustainable communities of practice through enabling and advocacy strategies in the areas of GBV and Women’s health and Interprofessional Practice.

Bio

Amany Refaat is a Professor Emeritus of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in the Departments of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt. She is a founder, board member, and chair of the mini-grant program of Women and Health Together for the Future. Prof. Refaat has long experience of working on Egyptian, regional (Middle Eastern) and global women’s health problems. She conducted different operational research targeting women`s health problems on national and international levels with an emphasis on Gender-Based Violence & Female Genital Mutilation, Maternal & Child Health, and Reproductive health.

Bio

Dr Khalifa Elmusharaf is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Public Health Programme at the University of Birmingham Dubai. Dr Elmusharaf is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Irish Global Health Network (IGHN) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Women Health Together for the Future (WHTF).

He is a fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians UK, an accredited reviewer for the European Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation APHEA, a certified strategic project manager from the International Project Management Association IPMA, and a certified health professional educationalist from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland RCSI. Dr Elmusharaf is medically trained and obtained his PhD in Public Health from the University of Galway, Ireland. Dr Elmusharaf is an advisor to the WHO on Mother and Newborn Information for Tracking Outcomes and Results and to UNDP on the economics of non-communicable diseases. He is an associate editor at the BMC Public Health, BMC Health Services Research and International Health Journals. Dr Elmusharaf has more than 20 years of experience in academia, ministries of health, and international organizations in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Bio

Deyanira González de León is a Full Professor in the Department of Health Care of the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Xochimilco Campus in Mexico City, Mexico. She is a founder and active member of Women and health: Together for the Future. Her academic interests include health professions education, health promotion, gender issues, and women’s health. Most of her teaching and research work has been focused on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, including issues related to abortion, adolescent pregnancy, contraception, and violence against women.

Bio

Jean Berchmans UWIMANA (Berky) is a Rwandan Medical Doctor for Choice graduate of the University of Rwanda. He is pursuing his Masters` degree in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a Young Champion in Reproductive Health and RiseUp awardee. He has 5+ years` experience volunteering for local grassroots organizations in the Public Health sector, especially in Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice. Besides being the Medical Students For Choice (MSFC) alumni, Berchmans developed MSFC at the University of Rwanda into a robust and sustainable students group that continues to thrive on his foundation. This group of students is a chapter of the international MSFC (Philadelphia, PA 19107) that aims at creating tomorrow`s pro-choice physicians.

Berchmans is recognized Regionally for coordinating Medical Students For Choice`s first African Regional Meeting in Rwanda, Kigali, 2017. His work at that meeting set the chapters from other 8 African countries up for success and led to the development of three additional chapters. As a result of a successful meeting, he again coordinated the 2nd African Regional Meeting of Medical Students for Choice in Kigali, Rwanda.

Berchmans is the co-founding member of Healthy People Rwanda (HPR) and supports HPR in designing and implementing the LUBRICATE project, transforming sexual health counseling and therapy for women cancer patients and survivors in Rwanda. During his undergraduate program, he found the first non- U.S.A chapter of Globemed at the University of Rwanda that links students and grassroots organizations to promote health equity and social justice. He served as the General Secretary of the Medical Students Association of Rwanda in 2015. Upon graduation, Berchmans initiated Flavours of Family Planning_ Disrupting male engagement in family planning using edutainment by employing kitchen materials for hands-on simulation to provide quality, gender, and youth-friendly family planning information. 2019, He won an honorable mention award for future of Family Planning thoughts leadership honored by the Bill

WHTF Board of Directors Election Application for Nomination

Jean Berchmans UWIMANA, MD` 19, MPH`23
and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health. In Rwanda, he won the Iaccelerator phase II program award for bringing innovative solutions that respond to the challenge of teenage pregnancies. The award was Honored by Her Excellency, the first lady of Rwanda.

Berchmans is the co-author of "The shadow in a woman`s journey book." Upon completing his undergraduate program, he co-developed Medical Doctors For Choice (MDFC, a network of pro- choice physicians) to sustainably facilitate a transition of Medical Students For Choice to keep

the same mission and transfer the knowledge from a student`s to provider`s perspective.

WHTF membership and contribution

I joined WHTF in 2021 through a competitive process whereby I received a mini-grant to expand my work in my home country. The contribution was to use video edutainment as a humble approach to continue featuring current and future young Rwandan physicians who engage in providing messages using edutainment. The edutainment is about employing kitchen materials for hands-on simulation to give quality and gender-friendly family planning information, focusing on engaging men and boys in all aspects of family planning and gender understanding. With the technical and financial assistance of the WHTF network, I passed the information developed through this unique innovation to men and boys through where they randomly gather for services and through a popular local TV Show for a broad reach. I have been able and continue to disseminate the information through popular Rwandan barbershops, where men and boys gather randomly for services and spend a good range of time worthy enough to gain compelling knowledge.

Application of previous experience and exposure to the WHTF network growth Since I joined the WHTF, I have learned a lot from the network, which has allowed me to understand how the network operates and its priorities. This strong foundation is blended with my previous exposure to organizations that work in identical frameworks as WHTF. The combination of these exposures is a significant balance that helps me to amplify my knowledge of women`s health, gender promotion, harm reduction, family planning, reproductive health, and related topics. Through my contribution, I gained foundational leadership, communication, time- management, research, and fundraising skills. I hope to use the acquired skill set to support the WHTF in terms of organizational growth, engagement, and strategic planning for the future of the network. In closing, I am sure I will contribute to WHTF together with team members, so being the desired team member with integrity will be my front aim in whatever my work in this leadership position entails.

Bio

Nighat Huda is Professor and Senior Advisor of Health Professions Education at Liaquat National Hospital & Medical College Karachi Pakistan. She is the Founder and Board Member of Women and Health Together for Future (WHTF). She also serves as the co-opted member for the National Committee on Maternal and Neonatal health(NCMNH). Prof Huda has pursued her interest in women’s health. She worked on university community partnership program promoting training of lady health workers, development of primary health care workers, health practitioners competencies, and advocate for women doctors to pursue their professional career. Prof Huda has served international agencies as consultant.

Bio

Dr. Anjali Joshi is an intern doctor from Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Nepal. She is the founding president of National Youth Movement Nepal through which she supports Nepali youths’ positive impact on their communities. Dr. Joshi also serves as the Council Member of United States Embassy Youth Council Nepal through which she is working on projects to support her local community in collaboration with the embassy and the local government. She mainly focuses on educational interventions to empower school-going children and was also the co-recipient of Women and Health Together For Future Mini-grant 2021 where her team provided self-defense training to over 1000 Nepali school-going adolescents.

Bio

Anamika is a public health professional in Nepal who has focused on empowering women. She has worked on various projects related to women`s health, including Hamro Bahini, Kopila, and awareness and training programs for issues such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, and family planning. Anamika is also a board member of Women and Health Together for the Future and has co-founded organisations such as National Youth Movement and United for Impact. Her current project, Hamro Bahini, aims to empower adolescent girls on issues such as gender-based violence and reproductive health.