Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Washington, D.C. Adjunct Professor of Global Neurosurgery Barrow Neurological Institute Phoenix, AZ Dr. Rosseau is Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. She also serves as Adjunct Professor of Global Neurosurgery at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, AZ. She has been involved in Global Neurosurgery all her career and is a leader in the Global Surgery movement. She has authored over 3000 peer-reviewed publications and been invited as Visiting Professor at over 20 universities. She is Global Champions Editor for World Neurosurgery, and Section Editor for Global Neurosurgery forNeurosurgery. Re: current research funding, she is co-PI on 2 NIH grants that are establishing TBI Registries in Zambia, and PI on a GW Equity Institute Grant to study surgical training in Africa. She is co-Founder of the Global Alliance for the Prevention of Spina Bifida-F(GAPSBIF), which is working with the member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) to eliminate Spina Bifida, one of the humanity’s most serious congenital defects. She has served as an officer of the WFNS Administrative Council, and as Chairman of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies World Health Organization Liaison Committee (WFNS-WHO). She has long served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for International Education in Neurosurgery (FIENS) and of ThinkFirst, the International Head and Spine Injury Prevention Program. She has also been elected to leadership positions in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)and the Société de Neurochirurgie de Langue Française (SNCLF). She is on the Advisory Board of the National Churchill Leadership Center and was invited by the Speaker of the House of Representatives to give official remarks on Churchill at the U.S. Capitol. She is a lifetime Board Member of Interfaith America, the leading religious pluralism organization in the country. She has been the Honored Guest of Neurosurgical Society of Australia and the Brazilian Academy of Neurosurgery. In 2021, she was honored with the AANS Humanitarian Award. Dr. Rosseau is married to orthopedic surgeon, Richard Rosseau. They have two children and enjoy travel, marathon running and history.

Daniel Peterson is a retired principal of ZS Associates, a global professional services firm that Dan joined as employee number four in 1984 and helped grow to a global firm of over 14,000 employees in 35 offices in 15 countries today. ZS helps companies use data to make better decisions in sales, marketing and other fields, with deep experience in health care and other fields. Dan has served clients in 31 countries, and traveled to over 100 countries and territories. Today, Dan serves as Vice President of Finance & Operations (CFO/COO) of his former high school, Loyola Academy, in Wilmette, Illinois. Dan joined the Board of G4 Alliance in 2019, and has served as Treasurer and then for over four years as Executive Director (Interim), and now as Vice Chairman of the Board. Dan has a bachelor degree from Drake University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. Dan is a certified public accountant and a private pilot, and resides in Glenview, Illinois.

Dr. Laura Hoemeke is a global health consultant with long-term experience in advocacy, communications, and program design and management, including 15 years of residence in Francophone Africa and short-term assignments in Asia and throughout East, West, and Central Africa. Dr. Hoemeke is the president of Hoemeke Global, Ltd., serving as a consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, WomenLift Health, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and several nongovernmental organizations and associations. She provides technical assistance in strategic communications and advocacy, program design, and program monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Prior to becoming an independent consultant in 2019, she worked for IntraHealth International, USAID, Africare, and the US Peace Corps. With significant experience in health policy development and analysis, Dr. Hoemeke’s passion is working with countries to support country-led health systems strengthening. She has technical expertise in family planning, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, nutrition, and malaria control, as well as good governance, decentralization, health financing, and community health. Dr. Hoemeke is a regular contributor to a variety of publications and invited speaker on global health and development issues.  As an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Gillings School of Global Health, she teaches systems and design thinking and communications courses. Her research interests include health policy and advocacy, communications, health care delivery, global health, health systems, maternal and child health, and reproductive health. Dr. Hoemeke has a doctorate in public health in health policy and management from UNC’s Gillings Global School of Public Health and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University, where she received a BS in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism. She is fluent in English, French, and Sango.

A nationally recognized advisor to health care providers across the country, Michael Callahan provides deeply informed business and legal counselling in all areas of hospital-physician relations and health care regulatory compliance and governmental investigations, including the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoPs), hospital licensure and accreditation standards. He is widely respected for his leading work on the Patient Safety Act from a regulatory compliance, policy, and litigation standpoint, including developing patient safety organizations (PSOs).

Prof. Pankaj G. Jani M.B.Ch.B., M. Med., FRCPS, (Glasgow), FCS (ECSA), FACS, is a G.I.T. Surgeon/Endoscopist, an Educator, trainer and leader, who has for over 30 years worked in Kenya and the ECSA region increasing the surgical capacity thro education and training. President, College of Surgeons, East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) and board member G4 Alliance (Baltimore Maryland) Prof. Jani graduated from University of Nairobi, and after his residency was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Fellowship to train in HPB surgery and G.I. Endoscopy at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Prof. Jani’s expertise is in Hepato – Pancreatico – Biliary and Laparoscopy Surgery, and therapeutic G.I. Endoscopy. Has been part of the team instrumental in setting up of Laparoscopic Surgery and G.I. Endoscopy in Kenya. Prof. Jani has been extensively involved with Surgical Training and Health Systems Strengthening in 20 countries in the East Central and Southern Africa region. Dr. Jani was a founder member, then council member and head of General Surgery examinations, then Chair of the Examinations and Credentials committee for 6 years followed by promotion to the Secretary General, then Vice President and after that, the president of COSECSA. With the team in COSECSA, there are now 1100 trainees in Surgery, training in 21 countries, with 25 accredited hospitals in Kenya, with the possibility of training more than 64 surgeons per year. Prof. Jani is actively involved in introducing Laparoscopy Surgery at 14 hospitals and also introducing the Wide Awake Local Anaesthesia No Torniquet method to surgery in Kenya. Prof. Jani was the co-chair of the task force to increase the number of Medical specialists training in Kenya and also in the task force to formulate the National Surgery Obstetrics Trauma and Anaesthesia plan for Kenya in 2018.

As Executive Director of PQMD, Elizabeth (EJ) Ashbourne is responsible for furthering the organization’s commitment to championing and advancing standards in medical supply and service donations by developing the vision, strategy, and execution of the organizations five pillars of work. Prior to joining PQMD, EJ was most recently the Managing Partner for EJA Consulting, a small private firm specializing in strategic planning, fundraising, international development and joint venture support, mission driven event management, and all aspects of non-profit turn-around. Prior to that, EJ spent 17 years at the World Bank in several senior level positions, in the areas of private sector partnerships, global public health, infectious disease, and health management information systems. Additionally she was a senior operations officer in the Office of Corporate Reform and Human Resources. In the area of health, EJ held the position of Lead, Global Health Information Programs for the World Bank and the Health Metrics Network at the World Health Organization; led the work on eHealth and mHealth in the Health Anchor of the Bank and contributed to research on a common metric for donor agencies, development partners and countries to measure their investment in health information. At the World Bank, she also spent many years working closely on issues specific to engaging the private sector in the fight against HIV/AIDS as the focal point for private sector partnerships with the World Bank’s Africa Region HIV/AIDS programs. Her role was to develop and implement the mechanisms through which the private sector can access financial and technical resources from the Bank’s initial 2billion dollar investment in HIV/AIDS. She has also worked for World Learning as a Country Director, overseeing a wide range of USAID capacity building programs in Eastern Europe and served as senior coordinator for international cooperative education programs at American University among other positions. EJ holds an MA in International Education, with an emphasis on Organizational Management from American University in Washington, DC and a BSc in Communications and History from Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.

Dr. Ruben Ayala, M.D., MSC, is a public health physician from Panama with more than 30 years of experience in advocacy and humanitarian assistance. During his career with Operation Smile, he has planned, executed, and overseen surgical programs in more than 40 countries. Dr. Ayala also guided the establishment of Operation Smile foundations in low- and middle-income countries, offering year-round health services to patients and families affected by cleft conditions. Throughout the years, Dr. Ayala has fostered collaboration between governments, nongovernmental organizations, industries, communities, universities, and other members of civil society. He served as Operation Smile’s Chief Medical Officer, focusing on the evolution of standards of surgical care for patients requiring reconstructive surgery. He joined the official delegation of the government of Vietnam to the World Health Assembly in 2015 and 2017, helping align the country’s support for global surgery and anesthesia. Dr. Ayala currently serves as Operation Smile’s Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer. He is also board Past-President of the Permanent Council of the G4 Alliance and represents Operation Smile at the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery, the Global Health Council, the Global Health Equity Network of the World Economic Forum, and the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council.

CHARITY CHENGE, M.B.B.S, MPH, MSc, DrPH Dr Charity is a seasoned Public Health Specialist and Health Systems Strategist with primary training as a physician, and advanced training in public health, health policy, health planning and public health leadership. She is the 2023 recipient of the Arthur B. Holzworth award in Public Health Leadership conferred by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has amassed twenty-five years of progressive public health experience, including leadership roles, spanning international, national, and sub-national positions across a range of Strategic planning, Policy development, Disease Control, Maternal & Child Health; HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment; Adolescent Health and Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Programs. She has worked at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) an International Development & Relief Agency; at the Geneva headquarters of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and currently at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she leads complex health portfolios (with a combined value of $141.6M+) through all stages of the funding cycle: concept design, proposal coordination, grant negotiation, implementation oversight, performance management, fiduciary and reputational risk management. She deploys consensus building skills in multistakeholder engagements that are a necessity in global public health. Two of Charity’s proud achievements include co-leading Nigeria’s successful roll out of the Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) of HIV using dried blood spots (DBS), an innovative and transformative initiative, resulting in an award by the US Department of State in Nigeria, in recognition of her role; Second is leading the Gates Foundation’s catalytic support to seven Nigerian states to install and adopt the Group Antenatal (G ANC) model which has recorded 1,028,766 pregnant enrolees across 81,473 cohorts formed between Jan 2021 and Feb 2023. The government of Malawi is now learning from the G ANC adoption in Nigeria to inform their own adoption. Charity has built and managed multi-culturally diverse teams in fast paced settings to deliver complex and ambitious strategic mandates. She has successfully managed teams that were diverse across social norms, ethnicities, race, academic backgrounds, religious affiliations, and technical expertise. She has received structured training in culturally sensitive team building, and in applying cultural competencies in public health practice and leadership. She is a life-long learner and learns from everyone and from every situation. She leads with empathy, with a transformational mindset, and with authenticity. She is undeterred by ambiguity, and intentional about transforming initial ambiguity into functional form. She is an incurable optimist in her public health practice and leadership, and her approach to life. Her personal philanthropy includes board service on three non-profit boards. She founded The Next Hundred Initiative and co-founded Women in Public Health Leadership, Africa (WIPHLA), and the Centre for Health Systems Support. Charity completed her medical training at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. She holds a master’s in public health (MPH) from the same institution and holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), both of the University of London. She is certified in entrepreneurial management and completed her doctoral studies (DrPH in Public Health Leadership) at the Gilling’s School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. USA.

Dr. John B. Sampson is a critical care anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins University and Director of the Johns Hopkins Global Alliance of Perioperative Professionals (JHU-GAPP). He is founding president of the Institute of Global Perioperative Care (IGPC). His global heath engagement began as a UCSF visiting medical visiting to Nigeria in 1989. Since that time Dr. Sampson has engaged in work in numerous countries, has founded Doctors for United Medical Missions, (DrUMM), IGPC and established numerous International Society of Critical Care Medicine courses in Africa and Asia. Dr. Sampson has an interest in bridging the medical and cultural divide between America and Africa through education, training, technology, and historical forums. He does this through his global health work, as faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Center of Africana Studies and as a board member of the Diaspora African Forum, (based in Ghana). Dr. Sampson has introduced dozens of physicians, students, and others to Africa in a manner that has altered their perceptions, careers, and interests. Dr. Sampson’s current focus is to improve access to anesthesia and critical care training as well as access to sustainable oxygen and renewable energy in Africa through the Society of Critical Care Medicine, (SCCM) African Infrastructure Relief & Support (AIRS) project.

Richard Boxer, MD, FACS, is a Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is the only American to be twice a Presidential Appointee to the National Cancer Advisory Board (Board of Directors to the National Cancer Institute) by President Clinton (1996) and President Biden (2023). He was a finalist for US Surgeon General twice, under the Clinton and W. Bush Administrations. He represented the US at the World Health Organization and was recently one of two finalists for Director of the National Cancer Institute. He was honored last year as the Alumnus of the year at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He has published extensively on health policy in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Health Affairs, New England Journal, JAMA, Harvard Business Review, Real Clear Politics, and numerous medical journals.

Dr. Gnanaraj Jesudian is an Urologist and General Surgeon trained from CMC Vellore with passion for rural surgery. He started the Kukna tribal Development Project in Dangs district (300000 population with no doctors) of Gujarat. He then worked with Emmanuel Hospital Association where he trained doctors and surgeons rural areas performing over 100000 surgical procedures in rural areas empowering more than 74 rural hospitals to start minimally invasive surgeries. He won innovations awards like [EHA award, Barkar Memorial award (Tropical Doctor), Antia Finseth award (Association of Rural Surgeons of India), DST Lockheed Martin award, Millennium Alliance awards (Government of India), GE Healthcare award, Lancet Surgical Champion award, the GAPIO Lifetime achievement award and WHO compendium of medical devises award. He has over 400 publications with 700 citations and the Past President of the Association of Rural Surgeons of India, member of board of directors of G 4 Alliance, Secretary of International Federation of Rural Surgeons and Adjunct Professor in Karunya University. He is the Project Lead for India of the NIHR – GHRG project of University of Leeds. He is currently working on devices and techniques like the Gas Insufflation Less Laparoscopic Surgeries and Laptop Cystoscope, etc., to take modern surgery to the poor and the marginalized in rural and remote areas and training and empowering rural surgeons.

Jimmy Kolker serves part-time as Senior Advisor to the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State.

Dr. Alfredo Enrique Borrero Vega, is an Ecuadorian neurosurgeon and politician. His educational journey includes a Diploma in Health Administration from Harvard University (2011), a Spinal Surgery Fellowship from Klinikum Benjamin Franklin in Berlin, Germany (1994), and a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery from the Catholic University of Cuenca, where he graduated with honors (1973-1980).