Staff
Lisa M. Hilmi
Executive Director
lhilmi@coregroup.org
Lisa Hilmi has over 30 years of global health experience in over 20+ countries, employing both human rights and community-based participatory approaches to addressing health disparities for women, children and communities. As a nurse, researcher, and public health expert, Lisa has worked at multiple levels of global health, in policy, research, emergency relief and response, development, workforce development, health systems strengthening; from local to global levels. She has worked in development settings, led response to HIV/AIDS/STIs/GBV in refugee and conflict settings, and developed policy for outbreaks, disasters, and epidemics in multiple countries. She has led over $180 Million of development, relief and rehabilitation efforts. Clinically, Lisa has worked in pediatric hospital, community, academic, and crisis settings, and has held leadership positions in the UN, Sigma Theta Tau International, INGOs, and foundations.
Her research focuses on geographical health disparities for adolescents in urban settings. She has a strong history of partnership and coordination with UN, INGOs, CSOs, and other stakeholders. She sits on the WHO PMNCH Board, the Steering Committee of the Child Health Task Force, the Board of Directors at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation, as well as other review committees.
She holds an MPH from Columbia University, a BSN and completing her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, was a Jonas Nurse Scholar, is a Certified Pediatric Nurse, and holds a BA in Communications and Political Science from Villanova University.
Sarah Paige
Senior Advisor, Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)
spaige@coregroup.org
Sarah is a Health Geographer with 15 years of experience coordinating One Health research and implementation activities across the social and biological sciences, with the goal of preventing cross-species disease emergence in sub-Saharan Africa. Sarah has worked at many levels to educate and advocate for multisectoral approaches to infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and response. At CORE Group, Sarah is leading the integration of animal-borne diseases into existing community-based polio surveillance infrastructure as part of CORE Group Polio Project’s expansion into the Global Health Security space.
Before joining CORE Sarah was a Senior Infectious Disease Advisor providing day-to-day support to USAID headquarters and missions to advise GHSA portfolio implementation, including multisectoral community engagement and outbreak response in Central and East Africa. Prior to USAID, Sarah spent 10 years with the Kibale EcoHealth Project as a Research Scientist and Post-Doc at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This project examined the interface of human-animal contact, including livestock and wildlife in western Uganda, resulting in the discovery of novel zoonotic viruses, as well as new understandings of human-animal relationships. Additionally, in August 2014 Sarah co-Founded Naya Global Health, which is a nonprofit committed to community partnerships to address health and resilience among survivors of infectious disease outbreaks and conflict. Sarah received her PhD in Geography from University of Washington and her MPH in International Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In her personal time, Sarah enjoys taste-testing the growing world of healthy snacks, doing yoga, making lists, and spending quality time with the family.
Comfort Siodlarz
Director of Finance & Administration
csiodlarz@coregroup.org
Comfort has over 16 years of financial and technical experience with nonprofits. She has an in-depth understanding and experience in implementing programs by donors such as USAID, DOS, USDA, DFID, UNHCR among few. Over the years, she has developed strong skills in managing and handling financial reports, donor reports, billing, invoicing, contracts and procuring goods and services. She enjoys developing operational and proposal budgets and monitoring awards and grants from both the field and head quarter level. She has lived and worked overseas and has a diverse skills in working with people from many different backgrounds. Comfort holds an MBA in finance from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in accounting from Central University in Accra, Ghana. During her personal time she enjoys building things including home improvement projects.
Zaka Kuawogai
Senior Finance Accountant
zkuawogai@coregroup.org
Zaka has over twenty-five years of experienced working as consultant, at client sites doing accounting and financial management in the private and public sectors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia and a master’s degree in accounting from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. with additional post graduate studies in health care policy. Zaka has extensive overseas experience working with relief development and disaster assistance in East and West Africa and Eastern Europe.
Laura Tashjian
Program Manager, Humanitarian-Development Task Force
Ltashjian@coregroup.org
Laura Tashjian is a passionate global health professional specialized in gender sensitive programming and participatory community-based approaches to maternal health, education and nutrition. As Program Manager, she leads the Humanitarian-Development Task Force and cultivates related networks to strengthen the nexus between emergency responses to protracted conflict and transitions into recovery. She has multi-level program and research experience in South Asia and Africa and strives to support, co-create and inspire communities of action, change and responsibility throughout her work. On her personal time, she serves as a professional birth doula and childbirth educator focusing on under-served populations. Laura holds an MA at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with concentrations in humanitarian studies, conflict resolution and gender.
Shelby Brown
Operations and Membership Manager
sbrown@coregroup.org
As Operations and Membership Manager, Shelby provides overall office management and coordination for CORE Group activities including online and in-person event management, membership support, and human resources, ensuring administrative excellence for the organization and CORE Group’s International Community Health Network. Shelby brings a wealth of experience working in nonprofit organizations, including executive support at Catholics for Choice and human resources, administrative and membership management at the Environmental Law Institute. She holds a BA from Syracuse University in International Relations and English & Textual Studies.
Adrienne Todela
Knowledge Management and Communications Manager
atodela@coregroup.org
As Knowledge Management and Communications Manager, Adrienne strengthens knowledge-sharing and communications between CORE Group, its membership, and the broader global health and international development community to advocate for key community health activities and messages, and to demonstrate CORE Group’s value and impact in the field. Furthering her role in facilitating learning among social networks, Adrienne manages CORE Group’s Young Professionals Network (YPN), coordinating professional skills development activities for the membership in collaboration with partner organizations. She also oversees CORE Group’s Mentorship Program implemented under YPN. Adrienne previously supported The TOPS Program as its Knowledge Management Officer through CORE Group. Before her positions at CORE Group, Adrienne worked for various public sector organizations including Accion International, The African Foundation for Development, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She received her M.A. in International Development Studies from The Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University and a B.A. in International Relations and B.S. in Journalism from Boston University. In her free time, she enjoys trying different cuisines, collecting scarves from her travels, and spending quality time with loved ones.
Avani Duggaraju
Communications and Knowledge Management Associate
aduggaraju@coregroup.org
As the Communications and Knowledge Management Associate, Avani contributes to strategies to strengthen communication and knowledge sharing between CORE Group, its membership and the broader International Community Health Network. She has experience working in health communications and social science research both domestically and internationally. She has previously worked with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on a project examining women’s sanitation vulnerabilities in southern Tanzania and interned at an HIV/AIDS non-profit in India. Avani received her MSPH in Social and Behavioral Interventions from the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her BS from the University of Connecticut. She enjoys dance, travel, reading, and listening to K-Pop.
Nicole Stafford
Strategic Partnerships Fellow
nstafford@coregroup.org
Nicole has five years of experience working as a Strategy Consultant for large Fortune 500 companies where she tackled complex problems, turned them into actionable solutions, and communicated with a wide group of stakeholders to gain buy-in and support. She has hosted a series of design-thinking workshops for manager to VP-level leaders achieving a variety of objectives from brainstorming cost management solutions to soliciting feedback on website UIs. She has led global communication campaigns involving website management, key messaging development, and measurement design to determine success. She has applied extensive business strategy development, value architecture, and operating model design skills to influence client agendas through business insight. Nicole has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota. As CORE Group’s Strategic Partnerships Fellow, she is excited to leverage her private sector experience to expand and enhance CORE Group’s partnerships.
Board of Directors
The CORE Group Board of Directors is the governing body of the organization and is dedicated to advancing CORE Group’s mission, values, strategies, goals, priorities, and policies.
Sarah Ford
CHAIR, Catholic Relief Services
Sarah Ford is Director of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) Integrated Program Quality Unit. She provides strategic leadership and direction for three of CRS’ cross-cutting program areas: Equity, Justice, and Integrated Programming. Ms. Ford supports the design, delivery and evaluation of peace-building, governance, gender, protection, and youth, programming globally. She also supports monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning for CRS programs worldwide. Finally, she works in Partnership and Capacity Strengthening, supporting the design, delivery, and evaluation of high quality capacity strengthening interventions. Ms. Ford has over 35 years of professional experience in organizational sustainability, leadership, management, and non-formal education. Prior to CRS, Ms. Ford worked with Management Sciences for Health’s AIDSTAR-Two project, providing capacity building technical assistance to USAID-funded AIDS programs globally. At Lutheran World Relief, she provided leadership to the development and implementation of international public policy platforms and constituent education programs and at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, supported programs promoting the human rights of women, children, and oppressed racial and indigenous groups. Previously, while Director of Capacity Building at CEDPA, Ms. Ford led a team in developing programs to increase international partners’ organizational capacity and sustainability.
Dennis Cherian
CO-CHAIR, Jhpiego
Dennis Cherian, BHMS, MHA, MS, currently serves as Senior Director of New Program Development at Jhpiego. He was previously the Senior Director of Health for International Programs Group, World Vision US (WVUS). He has over 18 years’ experience designing and implementing international public health programs in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East starting as a missionary physician in his native India. Dennis provided leadership to a diverse team that develops, provides technical support to, and manages global health projects aimed at improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. Since 1997, Dr. Cherian has served as technical backstop for numerous Child Survival and Health Grants, and has pioneered work in mHealth — most recently in Afghanistan. As Co-Chair of the Core Group TB Working Group (2002-2008), he represented the organization at numerous TB technical fora and was instrumental in developing PVO TB Curricula on community-based TB control and program design. Dr. Cherian is currently active in public health fora including IUALTD, CORE Group, and APHA, and is an Advisory Member to Social Behavior Change for Faith-Based Organizations and the Country Task Force for mPowering Frontline Health Workers. He is a frequent contributor of technical and scientific papers at global health forum.
Kote Lomidze
TREASURER, Independent
Kote Lomidze is the senior vice president for finance, chief financial officer (CFO), and treasurer at World Learning, overseeing all global financial operations and activities. He originally joined World Learning in 2009 and spent three years at the organization, serving as finance director for international development and exchange programs and then deputy CFO. After spending nearly two years as CFO of Project Concern International based in San Diego, he returned to World Learning in 2014. Prior to joining World Learning, Lomidze spent 11 years working in finance at World Vision in his native Georgia, Russia, Zimbabwe, and the United States. Lomidze previously served as a board member and treasurer of San Diego Diplomacy Council, local NGO engaged in creating international connections to address common global challenges. Lomidze is a certified public accountant and holds a BA in mathematical economics and a law degree from Tbilisi State University and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Jennifer Nielsen
SECRETARY, Helen Keller International
Jennifer Nielsen received her AB from Harvard in 1982, an MA from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a PhD in International Health and Human Nutrition from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has worked in international development for the past 20 years, covering a variety of technical areas before specializing in public health. She served for ten years as a Project Development Officer with USAID, posted overseas in Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt, where she contributed to designs of maternal and child health and education strategies. She has worked for Helen Keller International (HKI) since 2006, providing technical guidance to nutrition and health programs in 13 countries of sub-Saharan Africa and 7 countries of South Asia. The mission of HKI is to save the sight and lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, combatting both the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition by establishing programs based on
evidence and research. The nutrition portfolio is guided by the Essential Nutrition and Hygiene Actions framework, an approach for delivering proven nutrition specific and sensitive interventions through all possible program platforms, from primary health clinics to agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene, and education. HKI’s nutrition strategies include improving the access of poor households to nutritious foods, promoting the adoption optimal practices especially for adolescents, women, infants and young children, promoting gender equity, and assuring access to adequate public services. HKI aims to build the capacity of local government and community partners to assume long-term responsibility for program management and financing. Jennifer served as co-chair of CORE’s Nutrition Working Group from 2010-2014.
Magnus Conteh
AT-LARGE, Last Mile Health
Magnus currently serves as the Executive Director to the Community Health Academy. Under Magnus’s leadership and through multiple partnerships across three continents, the Academy will help governments transform community health education and build capacity in health systems leadership. In addition to an international team of staff, the Academy draws on the expertise of a global faculty network that includes representation from WHO, USAID, the Global Financing Facility, former Ministers of Health and academic experts from Universities, including Harvard, the University of Liberia, and other academic and technical institutions in the global South.
Previously, Magnus worked for seven years at World Vision Ireland, including as the Deputy CEO/Director of Programmes and Strategy. Notably, he led World Vision’s involvement in the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Ebola Vaccine trial in Sierra Leone, which included overseeing the deployment of technology critical for the clinical trial. Magnus has also held other senior management positions including in the National Health Service in the UK and the Health Service Executive in Ireland, where he served as Director for the Regional Centre of Nursing/Midwifery Education at the University Hospital in Galway.
Erin Stieber
AT-LARGE, Smile Train
Erin Stieber is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at Smile Train. Erin began working in child health programming in 2002, and has overseen programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She obtained a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2007, with coursework in international law, health law, and human rights. Erin’s work at Smile Train focuses on strengthening treatment programs and access to care for children with cleft lip and/or palate through strategic partnerships, increasing awareness about the health and survival challenges faced by children with this facial deformity, and overseeing capacity building initiatives for health professionals in 75+ countries. During her career, she has led the development of strategic partnerships with nonprofit, government, and private sector collaborators, and the strengthening and expanding global health programs to achieve greater impact. She is committed to advocating for vulnerable populations, building capacity in the health sector, and promoting successful collaborations to expand and scale-up access to healthcare for all people.
David Pyle
AT-LARGE, Independent
David has over 40 years of experience in community-based health, nutrition, and family planning programming.His special expertise is in evaluation, having served as team leader in more than a dozen major evaluations and design of cost‑effective and sustainable programs. He is familiar with US and worldwide health, population and nutrition networks as well as with USAID and multilateral donor agency personnel and procedures. David has worked extensively with INGOs and local NGOs. His research has addressed the difficulties of “scaling‑up” community‑based integrated health efforts, considering how strategy influences structure, and identifying solutions which include strengthening information systems, effective decentralization, and increased collaboration with private sector.
Sonya Funna Evelyn
AT-LARGE, ADRA
Sonya Funna Evelyn is the Senior Director for Programs and Innovation with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (“ADRA”). She has been working in the field of public health for over twelve years. Immediately prior to joining ADRA, Sonya worked in counseling with a private firm that focused on delivering intensive home-based mental health interventions with refugee, adolescent and vulnerable populations. In her role with ADRA, Sonya works with field offices across Asia and Africa in the design, implementation and evaluation of health and nutrition programs. As part of her focus, Sonya conducts trainings for ADRA network staff in areas related to maternal and child health. Sonya has a keen interest in integrating psychosocial interventions with maternal and child health development and relief projects. Sonya has been attending CORE Group meetings since 2007 and looks forward to further contributing to the work of the CORE Group by serving as a member of the Board. Sonya holds Master’s degrees from Pepperdine University and the George Washington University.
Stephen Rahaim
AT-LARGE, Independent
Stephen has 20 years of experience designing, managing and measuring complex initiatives to improve development outcomes and create enduring social and economic value working with private sector, civil society, government and donors. Stephen has collaborated with a wide range of clients and stakeholders to develop local, national and multi-country strategies, leading project implementation, partner relationships and performance management among diverse technical and operations teams. He has designed, advised and measured social innovation funds and competitions, public-private partnerships, human-centered and market based research and interventions. As Chief of Party of the USAID Catalyst project for Resonance Global, Stephen supports the increased utilization of open innovation processes at USAID to improve the agency’s ability and efficiency in designing better and more impactful programs around the world. Also at Resonance Global, he is helping corporate clients find new pathways to impact through sustainable business models that reach low income and underserved communities. Prior to this, he built and led the Health Markets and Behavior Change practice at Palladium, led the Asia and Middle East Portfolio for the SHOPS Project at Abt Associates among other positions. Stephen received a Master of Public Health Degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Scott Jackson
AT-LARGE, Global Impact
A global development, fundraising and marketing veteran with more than 20 years of experience in international development, Scott Jackson serves as Global Impact’s President and CEO. Prior to joining Global Impact as President and Chief Executive Officer, he served as PATH’s Vice President of External Relations and led PATH’s efforts to increase institutional resources, develop and strengthen relationships with partners and donors, and maximize the visibility of PATH’s work. Mr. Jackson drew on his management, strategic communications and fundraising experience gained from a number of positions held for complex organizations in the public and private sectors: chief of staff, strategist, fundraiser, marketer, public relations/public affairs specialist and manager. He joined PATH from World Vision, where he was Senior Vice President of External Relations and provided oversight for several successful fundraising and advocacy campaigns. At World Vision, he served on the executive committee for ONE, the campaign to make poverty history—a global health and poverty advocacy and awareness campaign—originally composed of a coalition of international relief and development organizations including Debt AIDS Trade Africa, Bread for the World, World Vision, and CARE. Mr. Jackson serves on a number of boards and committees and holds an MBA from the University of Edinburgh. He is a Rotary scholar and has significant work experience in the United States and abroad.
Beth Outterson
AT-LARGE, Independent
In her previous role as Knowledge Management Senior Advisor at Medical Teams International, Beth Outterson guides the organization’s learning initiative and the development of a KM strategy. She builds staff competency in Community Based Primary Health Care through development of online resources, and training a cadre of field based Capacity Building champions. Previously, Beth worked as Adolescent Reproductive Health Advisor at Save the Children, and as Health and HIV/ AIDS Specialist at US Peace Corps. Beth has an MA and MPH from Tulane University. After many years on the East Coast, she is enjoying life in the Pacific Northwest!
Janine Schooley
AT-LARGE, PCI
Janine Schooley is Senior Vice President for Programs at PCI, ensuring quality and integrated programming for maximum impact, as well as overseeing all new business development, monitoring, evaluation and research. She obtained her MPH with an emphasis on Maternal and Child Health from San Diego State University in 1985. She spent the last 30 years in leadership positions with two San-Diego-based non-profit international health and development organizations: Wellstart International from 1985-2000 and PCI since October 2000. Janine is a specialist in NGO/PVO leadership, with emphasis on program design, evaluation and management, including capacity strengthening, gender and behavior change aspects of integrated, community-based health and development programming. Since 2007 she has been a faculty member at the Monterey Institute of International Studies where she teaches a course on behavior change. From 2002-2011 Ms. Schooley served as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the CORE Group and is currently a Co-Chair of CORE’s HIV/AIDS Working Group.
Dick Day
AT-LARGE, Catholic Medical Mission Board
Dick Day is the Senior Vice President of Programs and Volunteers for Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB). At CMMB, Mr. Day has led the formulation of an operational strategy for community-based MNCH care and the development of global performance indicators, and has guided programming of private resources for CMMB’s health care efforts. He brings more than 25 years of senior leadership experience, from the US Government and NGO worlds. He brings a deep strategic planning experience and has driven significant organizational change and growth. His program experience spans working directly at the community level in mobilization, capacity building and health care service delivery to leading large scale infrastructure development programs. Dick developed the country strategic planning and program performance management systems at USAID, and led all country planning and budgeting for the Africa Bureau ($800 million annually).
Jordan Hatcher
AT-LARGE, Family Planning 2020
Ms. Hatcher is Global health professional and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Senegal 2013-2015) and Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PEPFAR DREAMS, South Africa 16-17). Jordan earned her Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and has over five years of experience in Africa and Asia regions. In addition to her passion for advancing a rights-based agenda for global family planning progress, Jordan is enthusiastic about supporting the engagement and development of young professionals working in the field of global health. Jordan regularly networks and coordinates professional development events and opportunities; blogs about women’s empowerment and advancement in the workplace; and mentors young professionals by providing feedback on resumes and interview skills.
CORE Group has worked since 1997 to advance the field of community health by: