Committee leadership bios

Co-Chair
Ann Starrs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Ann Starrs joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Director of Family Planning in July 2019. In this capacity, she leads the Family Planning team's overall strategy and coordinates with other global strategies within the foundation and with external partners to achieve greater access to voluntary family planning. Before joining the foundation, she served as the President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute; during that time, she co-chaired the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Prior to joining Guttmacher, Ann was President of Family Care International, which she helped found in 1986. As of June 2021, she serves as co-chair of the Strategic Advocacy Committee of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, and previously served on the PMNCH Board from 2005-2018; was part of the Developed Country NGO Delegation to the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ann holds a master’s degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a certificate in demography from Princeton’s Office of Population Research; she received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Vice-Chair (<30)
Sahil Tandon, YET4H Transform Health Coalition

Sahil Tandon is a young developmental professional, trained in economics and public policy, with a keen focus on gender equity and human rights. Over the past several years, he has worked with various international civil society organisations on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, adolescent development and youth leadership, and technology for health. He currently works with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in India, supporting grantmaking, learning and strategy within the Reproductive Health program.

Sahil actively engages with various global platforms, including representing South-East Asia region in Young Experts: Tech 4 Health (YET4H), that advocates for technology and youth empowerment in universal health coverage. He is also on the global advisory board of the Principles for Digital Development at the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL).

Secretary
Desmond Nji, Cameroon Youth Network

Desmond Nji is an award-winning and passionate young promoter of gender equality with a record of more than 14 years of community engagement to promote sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and the fight against HIV/AIDS among adolescents, youth and women in Cameroon and more widely. He researches on health services issues. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Dschang, Cameroon; graduate and postgraduate diplomas in Economics from The University of Bamenda, Cameroon and an MSc in Health Economics from the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. As a Queen’s Young Leader, he took the Leading Change courses from the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge.

Since he founded DESERVE, became National Vice President of the Cameroon Youth Network, PMNCH Adolescent and Youth Constituency member and Women Deliver Young Leader, he led the Advocating for Change for Adolescents Project (ACAP) in Cameroon launched in 2018 and recently endorsed for signature by the Cameroon Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education; including the adaptation of the toolkit used in English and French and development of a toolkit for disaggregated data collection on adolescent health and well-being. Desmond also led two sexuality education projects in Cameroon between 2016 and 2018 which developed an age-appropriate sexuality education manual for secondary schools. He also served as co-chair of the Advocacy Working Group of PMNCH.

Co-Chair
Joy Phumaphi, African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA)

Joy Phumaphi has served the People of Botswana as Principal Local Government Auditor, responsible for all Local Authorities in the country. She subsequently served as a Member of Parliament holding portfolio responsibility in the cabinet, first for Lands and Housing, and then for Health. She was awarded the Stanley H. Knowles Humanitarian Award in 2003. During her tenor as Minister of Health, she launched the annual indoor spraying campaigns by personally spraying two to three houses. Joy Phumaphi later joined the World Health Organization as the Assistant Director General for Family and Community Health. She was responsible for the 2005 World Health Report, "Making Every Mother and Every Child Count".

She has also served as Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank where she oversaw a dramatic expansion of the network evaluation program, introduction of health results based financing, growth in the World Bank’s contribution to basic education, and the Network’s extensive role in expansion of social protection programs during the 2007/8 Global Food and Financial crises.

Since 2010, Joy Phumaphi is Executive Secretary, African Leaders Malaria Alliance. She is Co-Chair of the UN Secretary General’s Independent Accountability Panel for Women Children and Adolescent health, Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on health in the zero carbon economy, and a member of the COVID 19 Task Force on Global Health, Diplomacy and Cooperation.

Co-Chair
Vandana Gurnani, Government of India

Vandana Gurnani joined the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1991 and currently heads the National Health Mission (NHM) in her capacity as Additional Secretary to Government of India. In her capacity as Mission Director, NHM she has been leading the initiative to achieve Universal Health Coverage through comprehensive Primary Health Care along with Health systems strengthening to develop resilient health systems to manage the current and future pandemics. She has also been coordinating and supporting several elements of the emergency COVID-19 response in India including the world’s largest Immunization drive against COVID-19. Prior to this, she led the Reproductive and Child Health Programme under the National Health Mission for over three years. Her notable achievements include implementation of various programmes like Mission Indradhanush to expand vaccine coverage to last mile, introduction of Midwifery Nurse Practitioners, Safe Motherhood Assurance (SUMAN), Anaemia Free India Campaign and Home Based care of the Young Children, to name a few, for improved health of women, children and adolescents and reaching the marginalized and unreached. In her 28 years of public service, Vandana has served as an administrator, policy-maker and public health strategist holding a wide range of assignments in the fields of Health, Women & Child Development, Urban and Rural Development. She was instrumental in organizing the 4th PMNCH Partners’ Forum (2018) for women’s children’s and adolescents’ health at New Delhi, which was presided over by the Honourable Prime Minister of India and attended by more than 1600 participants from 92 countries. She also has various publications in her name in reputable journals, mainly focusing on health issues and solutions. A native of New Delhi, Vandana earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the prestigious Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University and started her career as a lecturer in Economics in the same university, before joining the IAS.

Vice-Chair
Jeanne Conry, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)

Jeanne Conry is President-elect of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. She was the 64th President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a membership organization representing over 57,000 OBGYNS in the USA. She Chairs the Women's Preventive Services Initiative, a United States coalition of health professional organizations and advocates with expertise in women’s health. WPSI develops, reviews and updates recommendations for preventive healthcare. She introduced the US National Maternal Health Initiative to reduce maternal mortality and improve health before, during and after pregnancy. Jeanne leads national policy on Reproductive Health and the Environment and received the Environmental Protection Agency Health Champion Award. Jeanne Conry served in leadership as an obstetrician gynecologist at Kaiser Permanente, the largest health maintenance organization in the United States. She is President and CEO of the Environmental Health Leadership Foundation. She received the Visionary Leadership Award from the University of California, and The United States House of Representatives honored her for accomplishments in women’s health. Jeanne earned her medical degree and completed residency at the University of California, Davis where she served as an Associate Clinical Professor. She has a PhD in biology from the University of Colorado.

Secretary
Mwesi Yosia Habagaya, Universal Health and Development Foundation

Mwesi Yosia Habagaya, born in Butaleja district in Eastern Uganda, is a graduate of clinical medicine and community health from Kampala International University and currently taking post graduate studies in clinical research and pharmaco-vigilance in India. He very passionate about medical research and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH). He is the Founder and director of Operations at Universal Health Development Foundation (UHDF) a local organization working in Uganda to improve and promote the health and well-being of people living in rural, slums and other hard to reach areas. Mwesi has worked with various organizations from grassroots to international levels and in his medical clinical practice he has previously worked at Kabale Regional Referral Hospital, Kitagata hospital in Bushenyi and Murchison Bay Hospital Luzira in Uganda’s maximum Prison headquarters. He has also on various national and regional boards including Girls Not brides Uganda where he is a member of the national governing body and Eastern region coordinator. He served as the membership coordinator and member of the National steering committee of the African Youth and Adolescents Network Uganda and he is a member of other community and district task forces. Away from Medical and NGO lifestyle, Mwesi is a upcoming community film maker and director.

Chair
Flavia Bustreo, Fondation Botnar

Flavia Bustreo is a leading physician, public health professional and advocate for the health and human rights of women, children, adolescents and the elderly, and is known for taking action on the social and environmental determinants of health. She is currently Vice-Chair of Fondation Botnar and Co-Chair of The Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and maltreatment of young people. Flavia Bustreo is a member of several boards, including the United Nations University's International Institute for Global Health and advises several governmental and non-governmental entities, such as the Global Future Council on Health and Healthcare of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Flavia Bustreo was the former Assistant Director-General for Family, Women's and Children's Health for the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2010 to 2017 and also served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, from 2015 to 2017. At WHO she led the organization's work in reproductive, maternal, child, and adolescent health, climate change, aging, vaccinations, health and human rights, health and gender equity. Previously, she was the Executive Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, and served in a variety of roles at WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and as Interim Deputy Director of the Child Survival Partnership and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Norway helping shape the government's USD 1 billion contribution to infant and child health.

Vice Chair
Dorothy Shaw, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)

Dorothy Shaw recently retired as Vice President, Medical Affairs for British Columbia’s Women’s Hospital, responsible for quality and safety in patient care using patient-centred, cost-effective approaches. She is a Clinical Professor Emerita in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia.

She is Past President of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (1991-1992) and was the first woman President of FIGO (2006-2009). She was the inaugural chair of the FIGO Committee for Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights (2000-2003). Dorothy has a longstanding history of engagement in civil society advocacy related to policy in global Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health. She was the inaugural chair of the Canadian Network for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (2010-2014) and was Treasurer of what is now the Canadian Partnership for Women’s and Children’s Health until November 2019.

Dorothy Shaw is academically recognized through many peer reviewed papers and chapters for her contributions to the health and rights of women in Canada and globally, including an award-winning film on insights into FGM. She is the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards including the Christopher Tietze Humanitarianism Award by the National Abortion Federation (2012) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Distinguished Service Award (2015).

She was the inaugural recipient of the May Cohen award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada for Gender Equity (2003). In July 2016, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for her work as an advocate for women’s health and reproductive rights.

Vice Chair (< 30)
Alan Jarandilla Nuñez

Alan Jarandilla Nuñez is a lawyer and human rights defender from Bolivia. Alan is the Executive Director of the International Youth Alliance for Family Planning (IYAFP), a global youth-led organization working to advance the Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (SRHRJ) for young people and promote meaningful adolescent and youth engagement in projects, programs, interventions, and decisionmaking processes.

Alan has over ten years of experience advocating for SRHRJ in different decision-making processes. He is a vocal advocate for human rights, and meaningful youth engagement and partnerships at different levels. He believes that an intersectional and holistic approach to global issues is fundamental to achieve sustainable development and dismantle systems of oppression. He has global leadership expertise as a member of the Family Planning 2030 Transition Oversight Group, the Civil Society Advisory Group for the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All, and member of the Generation Equality Forum Youth Task Force. He studied an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy at the University of Oxford.

Secretary
Leslie Elder, Global Financing Facility

Leslie Elder is a Senior Nutrition Specialist at the Global Financing Facility Secretariat. She has more than 25 years of experience in international public health, focusing on nutrition and supporting work on maternal, newborn, and child health. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2009, Leslie was Senior Director, Newborn Health and the Deputy and Acting Director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Saving Newborn Lives program at Save the Children/US. She has additional professional experience supporting USAID-funded nutrition and health projects implemented through the Academy for Educational Development and John Snow, Incorporated as well as earlier stints at the World Bank. She received her MPH degree from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BSN from the University of Pennsylvania.