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Home » About the Campaign » Meet our Staff

Meet our Staff

The Global Campaign does most of its work in collaboration with our many partner organisations around the world. We do have a small core staff in Washington DC - USA, Brussels - Belgium, New Delhi - India, Ottawa - Canada, Johannesburg - South Africa and Nairobi - Kenya and great people representing the Campaign in other places.

Lori Heise, Director	Anna Forbes, Deputy Director
Dr. Samu Dube, African Programme Leader	Bindiya Gillenwater Patel, Operations and Special Projects Officer
Pauline Irungu, East Africa Regional Coordinator	Rebekah Webb, Coordinator, Global Campaign Europe
Paramita Kundu, Indian Programme Associate	Arwa Meijer, European Programme Associate
Marc-André LeBlanc, Global North Programs Coordinator	Sean Philpott, Policy & Ethics Officer
Mialy Clark, Communications Officer/Technical Writer	Katie West Slevin, Program Associate
Fred Lee, Financial and Administrative manager	Gary Wolnitzek, Program Assistant
Danielle Altares, North American Policy and legislative officer	Nandinee Bandyopadhyay

Staff Bios & Contact Information

Lori L. Heise, Director Lori Heise is a well-known advocate and policy expert in the field of women's health and HIV. As GCM's Director, Lori is responsible for overall management, strategic vision, and fundraising. She also provides intellectual leadership for the Campaign's program on ethics and public policy.

From 1994 to 2000, Heise co-directed the Centre for Health and Gender Equity and co-convened Women's Health Advocates on Microbicides, an international consortium of women's health groups dedicated to influencing the Population Council’s microbicide development programme.

In 1998 she helped launch the Global Campaign for Microbicides. In 2002, she became its full time director and moved the Campaign to PATH. She has served as an expert advisor to the World Health Organization, the Pan-American Health Organization, the World Bank, and the US National Institutes of Health. She has published widely in academic journals, including the British Medical Journal, Social Science and Medicine; AIDS; Studies in Family Planning, and the Lancet.

Lori’s work as one of the primary global strategists behind efforts to increase research into topical microbicides earned her the American Social Health Association’s distinguished President’s Award for Excellence in Advocacy in 2001. In 2003, she was recognised by Ms. Magazine as one of their “50 women who made a difference” due to her leadership on woman-controlled HIV prevention. Most recently, she received the Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy from her peers at the Microbicides 2008 conference.

Anna Forbes, MSS, Deputy Director Anna Forbes serves as the Global Campaign's Deputy Director with responsibility for day-to-day team management, cohesion and efficiency. She represents the Campaign publicly and in the media on a regular basis. She also leads major Campaign activities, with specific attention to constituencies sometimes perceived as ancillary to the microbicide effort -- including sex workers, HIV positive women and those vulnerable to the fraudulent promotion of unproven products.

Anna has worked in HIV/AIDS since 1985 and more broadly in women’s health care and human rights advocacy since 1977. In 1992, she received a Masters of Social Services degree from Bryn Mawr College and became an outspoken advocate for the development of microbicides and other woman-initiated HIV prevention tools. Prior to joining the Global Campaign, Anna was instrumental in founding two HIV/AIDS service organizations and worked with several others. She also designed and taught a course on AIDS and Public Policy at the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. Her writing has appeared in the AIDS and Public Policy Journal, AIDS Policy and Law, Harvard Health Policy Review, PLoS/Medicine, Reproductive Health Matters, other journals and periodicals, and various anthologies including two editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Dr. Samukeliso Dube, African Programme Leader Dr. Samukeliso Dube (Samu for short) oversees GCM’s work on social mobilization, community involvement, and capacity building in East and Southern Africa.

Dr. Dube is a public health physician with more than eight years experience in clinical management, policy, programming and advocacy of public health programs in Southern Africa. She has worked in the HIV/AIDS field with a number of international NGOs, including Oxfam UK and ActionAID, and is a commitee member of Physicians for Human Rights in her home country of Zimbabwe. Dr. Dube came to GCM from the Infectious Disease Research Unit at the University of Limpopo, where she was a co-investigator on various HIV prevention trials, and manager of the South African Vaccination and Immunization Centre in Medunsa. Dr Dube holds a degree in Medicine and Surgery, a Masters in Public Health, Tropical medicine and Infectious diseases and is a PHD candidate in Public Health.

Mialy Clark, Communications Officer/Technical Writer Mialy Clark is responsible for developing GCM's body of print and electronic materials. She works with programme staff and undertakes independant writing projects to effectively communicate with the campaign's target audience.

Prior to coming to the campaign, MIaly developed advocacy tools on HIV prevention for young women and girls with the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She has also worked on child rights and protection issues as a consultant for various United Nations agencies, including writing the UNESCO reports for the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Pauline Irungu, Programme Associate Based in Nairobi, Pauline works as an organiser and facilitator, strengthening the Global Campaign’s collaborations with community groups and microbicides research teams in eastern Africa. Pauline comes to GCM from the Kenyan AIDS NGOs Consortium (KANCO), where she managed the HIV vaccine preparedness program for civil society organisations and community groups.

She has substantial experience in advocacy, networking, documentation and information management. Pauline holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Sciences from Moi University (Kenya) and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Sociology and Community Development from the University of Nairobi (Kenya).

Paramita Kundu, Programme Associate Paramita Kundu, an experienced organiser and advocate, is based in New Delhi and supports the India Campaign for Microbicides.

Prior to joining the Campaign, Paramita has spent six years organizing trainings and developing resources on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDS, and gender. She has worked with several influential Indian organisations such as Swaasthya, Naz Foundation (I) Trust, and TARSHI (Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues).

Marc-André LeBlanc, Global North Programs Coordinator Marc-André coordinates GCM’s outreach and activities in North America and Australia, as well as provides support to our European staff. Based in Ottawa, he also represents GCM in the International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA) and serves the Secretary of IRMA’s Steering Committee.

Marc-André has 15 years of experience in the HIV/AIDS field in Canada, a substantial portion of which has focused on microbicides advocacy. Before joining GCM’s staff, he worked with Health Canada and coordinated the Microbicides Advocacy Group Network (MAG-Net) at the Canadian AIDS Society.

Fred Lee, Senior Program Associate Fred Lee is the Campaign’s financial and administrative manager. In this capacity, he manages and monitors the Campaign’s administrative, contractual, and financial activities. This work includes liaising with donors, consultants and contractors on all financial matters. He also manages a number of the Campaign’s internal management needs.

Fred comes to the Campaign with a background in biochemistry and HIV/AIDS prevention. He served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin and has a Masters degree in Francophone Literature from Middlebury College

Arwa Meijer, European Programme Associate Arwa Meijer contributes to the development of the Global Campaign’s work in Europe from our Brussels office. She is the coordinator of the European tour of the exhibit “Giving Women Power Over AIDS” and provides logistical coordination for all our events in the region. Arwa’s facility in Dutch, French, English and Spanish enables her to supports our multi-lingual communications and publications, including the GCM website.

Arwa joined the Campaign with a background in working with NGOs in Latin America and with the lobby ‘Emerging Biopharmaceutical Enterprises’ in Brussels. She received her Bachelors degree in European Studies from the Institute of Higher European Studies at The Hague.

Bindiya Gillenwater Patel, MPA, Operations and Special Projects Officer Bindiya currently manages the development of an on-line course on microbicides and helps to manage GCM’s overall operations including donor relations, steering committee relations, and finances.

Prior to joining the Campaign, Bindiya helped manage an outreach program at Philani Nutrition Centre, a women and children's health clinic in Khayelitsha, South Africa. She also worked as a grants officer at Action in Rural Sussex, a British development organisation. She has a Masters degree from Princeton University, and is the proud mom of young feminist, Keya.

Sean Philpott, Ph.D, Policy & Ethics Officer Sean guides and helps implement the Global Campaign's work related to clinical trial ethics, access and policy advocacy. He holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health and a Masters of Science in Bioethics from the Graduate College of Union University.

Prior to joining the Campaign, he was Associate Professor of Medicine at Albany Medical College and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany School of Public Health. In addition, he served as the Associate Director of Alden March Bioethics Institute (AMBI) of Albany Medical College and as Executive Editor of the award-winning journal The American Journal of Bioethics. He also worked for ten years as a tenured Research Scientist and Public Health Officer with the New York State Department of Health, focusing on issues of HIV transmission and pathogenesis.

Rebekah Webb, MA, Coordinator, Global Campaign Europe Rebekah Webb is the Coordinator of the Global Campaign in Europe. She is based in Brussels where she oversees policy advocacy at the EU level and coordinates outreach and support to collaborating NGOs throughout Europe. Rebekah travels frequently to recruit new NGOs to the microbicide cause and manages sub-agreements and trainings for European partner groups.

Prior to joining the Campaign, she was a policy analyst at the National AIDS Trust in London, where she helped to found and coordinate the UK Campaign for Microbicides, our UK affiliate. Rebekah has a Masters degree in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

Katie West Slevin, Program Associate As a Program Associate with the Global Campaign's Ethics, Science & Policy Team, Katie West assists primarily with the Campaign's efforts to promote community and civil society involvement at clinical trial sites. In the context of this work, Katie recently helped to map the standards of care and prevention offered at microbicide trial sites and is now working to establish a community of practice among local trial staff engaged in community outreach work. Katie also assists GCM's public outreach and education efforts.

Prior to joining the Campaign, she worked as a fair trade organizer and for various community clinics and international projects focused on reproductive and sexual health. Katie earned a Bachelors degree in International Studies from the University of Washington and a certificate in documentary studies and photography from the Centre for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Gary Wolnitzek, Program Assistant Gary Wolnitzek works in the Washington D.C. office to support the entire team, coordinate Campaign events, and help manage the Campaign’s information resources.

Prior to joining the Campaign, Gary was the Programs and Volunteer Services Manager at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland where he oversaw an HIV research project aimed at using social marketing to reduce HIV risk among young men who have sex with men; an HIV vaccine awareness project; and other LGBT focused programming. While working at Health Education Resource Organization, (a Baltimore-based AIDS service organization), he co-coordinated the Maryland Campaign for Microbicides. He is a certified HIV prevention counsellor with a Bachelors of Science degree in Health Science from Towson University.

Danielle Altares Working part-time for GCM, Danielle Altares works in the Washington, DC office to provide support for the policy and legislative activities of the team. Danielle also helps to facilitate the US social mobilisation work of the Campaign.

Danielle joined the Campaign with previous experience as the National Organiser of the Student Campaign for Child Survival, a grassroots organisation addressing issues of child survival, as well as with experience working in the health care systems of China and Nicaragua. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Society with a concentration in Human Development from Cornell University.

 

Nandinee Bandyopadhyay. Based in New Delhi, Nandinee Bandyopadhyay supports the Global Campaign for Microbicides in India, especially in relation to the key populations who are most at risk of HIV in India. Nandinee provides technical support to the Global Campaign for Microbicides India team specifically to build capacities of key population groups and other Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) organisations on vaginal health, HIV/AIDS, SRHR and microbicides.

Nandinee has worked in HIV/AIDS since 1995, focusing on interrelationships between class, gender, sexuality based inequalities and HIV/AIDS. Between 1995 and 2002 she was an advisor for Durbar, an organised forum of female, male and transgender sex workers in India. Since 2005 Nandinee has been working in PATH, India, as an Associate Director (HIV), where she designs, coordinates and monitors implementation of the capacity strengthening strategies for National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and NGOs on peer facilitated, dialogue-based, interpersonal communication for HIV/STI prevention, care and treatment with key populations. She has provided technical support to NACO for the start-up of the third phase of the national AIDS programme (NACPIII). In 1994 she received a Masters in Gender and Development degree from the University of Sussex, U.K.