About the Campaign #5: Global Campaign Structure page 2 of 5

Global Campaign

Structure and Staff

GCM Structure

The Global Campaign for Microbicides is not an organisation, but an international coalition or ‘umbrella’ of NGOs working collaboratively to shape and accelerate the development of microbicides and other prevention options. This structure was chosen explicitly in order to foster collective ownership and investment in microbicide advocacy.

The Global Campaign pursues its work through a small core staff based in Washington, DC, Brussels, Kenya and India and by funding partner organisations to pursue activities that directly advance the Campaign goals and objectives. The Campaign Secretariat is housed at PATH, an international, non-profit, nongovernmental organisation that improves the health of people around the world. The Secretariat works to coordinate strategy, build capacity among partner groups, and facilitate information exchange. They also help to create high quality advocacy materials with input from partner groups—such as fact sheets, standard presentations, talking points, policy briefs, photo exhibits and videos—both to unify the advocacy message and to maintain the quality and accuracy of information in this rapidly changing field.

The Global Campaign is guided by an international steering committee made up of leaders in the field of sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, women’s health and rights, and microbicide research. Each year, the steering committee discusses and endorses an overall strategy, a list of activities for the year, and a budget. Once the strategy and work plan are approved, the secretariat assumes responsibility for implementing it using a combination of its own staff time, contracts with outside entities (e.g. a media firm); and/or sub-grants or cooperative agreements with other coalition members.


Meet our Staff

Lori L. Heise, Director, Global Campaign for Microbicides

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

For the past 13 years, Lori has been one of the primary global strategists behind efforts to increase research into topical microbicides, earning her the distinguished President’s Award for Excellence in Advocacy in 2001 from the American Social Health Association. From 1994 to 2000, Heise co-directed the Centre for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), and co-convened WHAM (Women's Health Advocates on Microbicides), an international consortium of women's health groups dedicated to influencing the microbicide development program of the Population Council.

In 1998 she helped launch the Global Campaign for Microbicides and 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, PAHO, the World Bank, the National Institutes of Health and has published widely in academic journals, including the British Medical Journal, Social Science and Medicine; AIDS; Studies in Family Planning, and the Lancet. 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.

Anna Forbes, MSS, Deputy Director

Anna Forbes serves asthe Global Campaign'sDeputy Director with responsibility forday-to-day team management, cohesion and efficiency.Sherepresents the Campaign publicly and in the mediaon a regular basis. She also leads several major Campaign activities, with specific attention tocollaboration with constituencies sometimes perceived as ancillary to the microbicide effort -- includingsex workers, HIV positive women and those vulnerable to the fraudulent promotion of unproven products.

Anna has been working in HIV/AIDS since 1985 and in women’s health care and human rights advocacy since 1977. In 1992, she received her Masters in Social Services from Bryn Mawr College and became an outspoken advocate for the development of microbicides and other non-condom prevention tools. Prior to joining the Global Campaign staff, Anna worked as an independent AIDS and women’s health policy consultant for nine years. Her writing has appeared in the AIDS and Public Policy Journal, AIDS Policy and Law,Harvard Health Policy Review, PLoS/Medicine, Reproductive Health Matters and other journals and periodicals, as well as anthologies including the last two editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

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 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 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.

Bindiya Gillenwater Patel, MPA, Special Projects Manager
Bindiya currently manages the development of an on-line course on microbicides, helping to guide the GCM’s strategic review process, edits GC News, and facilitates outreach to HIV positive women and African American women in the U.S. 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.


Shannon Cali, MPH, MBA, Senior Program Associate

Shannon Cali is the Campaign’s financial and administrative manager. In this capacity, she manages and monitors the Campaign’s administrative, contractual, and financial activities. This work includes liaising with donors, consultants and contractors on all financial matters. Finally, she manages a number of the Campaign’s internal management needs. Shannon comes to the Campaign with a background in vaccine research and HIV/AIDS pharmaceutical sales. Shannon served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi and holds Masters degrees in Public Health and Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University.

Sydney West, MPH, Global South Coordinator

Sydney Westserves as Coordinator of the Campaign’s programs throughout the Global South and leads the Campaign’s initiative on community involvement in clinical trials. She oversees the Campaign’s work in developing countries and supervises staff involved in outreach, skills building and strategy work in Africa, India and Southeast Asia. Sydney has been working in sexual and reproductive health since 1991 and in HIV/AIDS since 2001. Since obtaining a MPH, with a focus in population planning, from the University of Michigan in 1995, Sydney has managed health behavior change communication, youth HIV/AIDS advocacy, and funding analyses projects for USAID, Advocates for Youth, and the Funders Network for Population, Reproductive Health and Rights. Most recently, Sydney worked on issues of community and country preparedness, and social and behavioral research with the International Partnership for Microbicides.

Katie West, Advocacy & Communications Coordinator

As the Global Campaign’s Advocacy & Communications Coordinator, Katie West is the key contact for partners who need to access the Campaign’s numerous resources for advocates and manages the US tour of the exhibit ‘Giving Women Power Over AIDS’. Katie currently acts as the Southeast Asia coordinator, providing technical backup to partner groups to build a regional network andcore activities and manages the Microbicides Media & Communications Initiative. 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 Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Arwa Meijer, European Programme Associate
Arwa Meijercontributes tothe development of Global Campaign Europe fromour 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 Brussels events. Arwa speaks Dutch, French, English and Spanish and therefore supports all communications and publications in Europe, including our European webpages. Arwa joined the Campaign with a background in working with NGOs in Latin America andwith 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.

Pauline Irungu, Programme Associate

From Kenya, Pauline will be working with African partners as a trainer and facilitator to help strengthen partnership between communities and research teams. Pauline comes to the Global Campaign from the Kenyan AIDS NGOs Consortium (KANCO), where she was managing the HIV vaccine preparedness program for civil society organisations and community groups. She is also very experienced in advocacy, networking, documentation and information management. Pauline holds a Bachelor of Science 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 advocate from India, supports the India Campaign for Microbicides from New Delhi. Paramita has six years of experience organizing trainings and developing resources on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV and AIDS, and gender. She has worked with influential Indian organizations such as Swaasthya, Naz Foundation (I) Trust, and TARSHI (Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues).

Jui Shah, Program Assistant

Jui Shah works in the D.C. office to support the entire secretariat team and help manage the Campaign’s information resources. Prior to joining the Campaign, Jui held internships at the American Cancer Society and the Reproductive Health Technologies Project. She also spent a summer running HIV/AIDS education programs in Malawi with Operation Crossroads Africa and studied abroad at Universidad de Sevilla in southern Spain. Jui earned a Bachelors degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Marc-André LeBlanc, Global North Programs Coordinator
Marc-André coordinates outreach and activities in the Global North, including North America, Australia, and support to the European staff. He also acts as the GCM link to the International Rectal Microbicides Working Group, where he serves as Secretary to the Steering Committee. He has 14 years of experience working in the HIV/AIDS field in Canada, and a wealth of experience in microbicides advocacy. Most recently, Marc-André was working with Health Canada and before that coordinated the Microbicides Advocacy Group Network (MAG-Net) at the Canadian AIDS Society. He is an excellent and experienced organizer and advocate, and will provide a new burst of creativity, talent, and energy in his support to microbicides advocates.

Sean Philpott, Ph.D., M.S.Bioethics, Policy & Ethics Officer
Sean Philpott guides and helps implement the Global Campaign's work related to 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 Alden March Bioethics Institute (AMBI). 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 AMBI 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. Sean brings a new level of energy and expertise to the Global Campaign's commitment to and work on issues of policy advocacy and ethics of clinical trials. He is based in the secretariat's Washington, D.C. office.

Ananthy Thambinayagam, MPH, India Program Advisor

Ananthy Thambinayagam assists in the Campaign’s work in India and the Global South, specifically acting as advisor to the Global Campaign India. She frequently conducts skills-building workshops and represents the Campaign at international conferences. In 2004, she oversaw the design and development of the traveling exhibit “In her Mother’s Shoes,” and the production and filming of our upcoming video. Prior to joining the Campaign, she was the International Liaison for the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS in Bangkok, where she authored the “Business for AIDS” declaration, which was signed by 20 corporate leaders in Asia. In 2005/2006, Ananthy took a leave of absence from the Global Campaign to earn her Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

Meet our Steering Committee

As described above, the Global Campaign’s steering committee is comprised of leaders in the field of sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, women’s health and rights, and microbicide research. Each year, the steering committee discusses and endorses an overall strategy, a list of activities for the year, and a budget. Steering committee members typically serve for renewable 3 year long terms.

Global Campaign for Microbicides Steering Committee Members

Deborah Arrindel / American Social Health Association / US
Manju Chatani / African Microbicide Advocacy Group / Ghana
Susan Chong / Asian Pacific Coalition of AIDS Organizations / Malaysia
Dazon Dixon Diallo
Kim Dickson / SisterLove
DFID Nigeria / US
Nigeria
Scott Jackson / PATH / US
Marc Andre LeBlanc / Health Canada / Canada
Sheena McCormack / UK Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit / UK
Promise Mthembu / International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS / South Africa
Margaret Muganwa / Society of Women and AIDS in Africa / Uganda
Vimla Nadkarni / Tata Institute for Social Sciences / India
Caroline Sande
Shira Saperstein / ActionAid International
Moriah Fund / South Africa
US
Gaye Kanokwan / Women’s health advocate / Thailand
Moniek Van der Kroef / AIDS Fonds / The Netherlands
Francoise Welter
Janneke Van de Wijgert / GNP+
International Antiviral Therapy Evaluation Centre / The Netherlands
The Netherlands

Individuals serve on this Committee in their individual, not institutional, capacities

Global Campaign for Microbicides. March 2007. Reproduction encouraged.

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Updates available at: www.global-campaign.org/download.htm