Geraldine Nyaku is an ardent women’s rights advocate who has worked in civil society for over seven years. She is currently the National Coordinator for White Ribbon Alliance Zimbabwe. Geraldine brings extensive experience in advocacy for children and women’s rights, gender-based violence, and national legislation to the Alliance. She holds a BA Law degree from the University of Johannesburg and professional trainings on advanced human rights from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria; comprehensive sexuality education from ActionAid Zimbabwe; and is an alumna from the Young African Leaders Initiative from USAID and the University of South Africa. She has worked with diverse communities at grassroots level and with different government structures from local authorities to ministries and policy makers to advocate for the rights of women and children. She brings her multifaceted leadership style and innovative solutions to improve and promote maternal and newborn health and rights both in the national and global alliance.
Category: Leadership
Soo Downe, Executive Committee
Soo is a member of the International Mother Baby Childbirth Organization, and of the ICI Board. She spent 15 years working as a clinical and research midwife. In 2001 she joined the University of Central Lancashire where she is now the Professor of Midwifery Studies. Her main research focus is the nature of, and cultures around, normal birth. She has been a member of the Technical Working Group of the World Health Organization antenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, and optimising caesarean section guidelines. She has published over 160 peer reviewed papers, and has undertaken research using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods. She is a member of the NHS England Better Births national Stakeholder group. She was the founder of the International Normal Birth Research Conference Series.
Carlos Fuchtner, FIGO President
Dr. Carlos Fuchtner was Extraordinary Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hospital Municipal de la Mujer from 2009 to 2015 in Bolivia, President of the Bolivian Obstetrics and Gynecology Society from 2000 to 2002, President of the FLASOG from 2005 to 2008. In 2010 he was awarded Honorary Fellowship Society SOGC and in 2014 MAESTRO of Latin American Obstetrics and Gynecology in Ecuador.
Dr Fuchtner has been actively involved in numerous aspects of FIGO’s work for many years, including being a member of FIGO’s Executive Board from 2002 to 2005 when he represented FLASOG, and from 2012 to 2018 representing SBOG. Dr Fuchtner became President FIGO on 19 October 2018. Dr. Fuchtner selected ICI as the Presidential Initiative for his term.
Dr. André Lalonde, Executive Committee Co-Chair
Dr. André Lalonde has developed extensive knowledge and expertise in several areas of women’s health such as: risk management; assessment and development of collaborative care models; health programs to meet the unique health needs of aboriginal population; development and implementation of clinical practice and consensus guidelines; consumer health education programs; capacity building of health delivery systems in Canada and in low resource countries.
His expertise includes the implementation of safe motherhood programs, reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity programs and audits, management of clinical services in hospitals, risk management, sexual reproductive health, and partnership programs with low resource countries.
Dr. Lalonde has been responsible for the development and implementation of several maternal and newborn care risk management programs which are currently implemented across Canada (MOREOB, ALARM). In recent year, he was instrumental in integrating the ALARM International program in over twenty low resource countries as a method to address maternal mortality and morbidity and strengthen obstetric and gynecological societies. He has been active in partnerships with family physicians, nurses, midwives, and other stakeholders involved in reproductive health at the national and international level.
Debra Pascali-Bonaro, Executive Committee Co-Chair
Debra Pascali-Bonaro is a dynamic leader and inspirational speaker who has utilized her extensive experience, training, and acquired skills in perinatal care to develop community-based programs as well as consulting and trainings to create optimal models of maternity care. Recognized internationally for her expertise, she has become a sought after speaker and recognized authority in MotherBaby models of care, perinatal doula care, comfort techniques in labor and birth as well as creating her acclaimed online childbirth birth class Pain to Power Childbirth. She directed an award-winning documentary focusing on physiologic birth and co-authored a related book.
Since 2007, Debra has been the Chair of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization (IMBCO), an ongoing international initiative promoted by working with global Leaders, grassroots organizations and Ministries of Health to promote optimal MotherBaby care through a human rights approach with the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative (IMBCI). Debra has also been a part of a number of National Boards and Initiatives. including Childbirth Connection, CIMS with the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative, Lamaze, DONA, and Advisor to ICEA and the Birth Sanctum.
Debra has numerous published works, has authored two books, directed a film, and has been featured on ABC’s 20/20, Good Morning Russia, The NBC Today Show, Discovery Health, in The New York Times, The LA Times, The UK Times as well as numerous Parenting and Health Magazines around the world. Debra has spoken in 40 countries reminding parents and practitioners that birth can be full of respect, pleasure, and love.
Claudia Hanson, Executive Committee Member
Claudia Hanson is an Associate Professor (Obs & Gyn, PhD) working in Maternal Newborn health research at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK. She is working on global maternal and newborn health since the early 1990s. She leads several research projects in Africa and Asia focusing on quality improvement, capacity building, and health system strengthening and is passionate to make delivery a safe and joyful event everywhere in the world.
Suellen Miller, Executive Committee Member
Professor Suellen Miller is Director of the Safe Motherhood Program and Professor, UCSF Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Professor Miller has been practicing as a certified nurse-midwife since l977, in private and public practices, and is the author of the Hesperian Foundations’ “A Book for Midwives,” which has been translated into French, Spanish, Nepali, and Urdu. She conducts both qualitative and quantitative research, mainly in lower resourced settings, primarily focused on maternal survival and maternal health. Her studies include the clinical trials of the Non-pneumatic Anti-Shock Garment (NASG) and the continuum of maternal care in Peru, Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Timor Leste, and Tanzania. She is currently Principal Investigator on an NIH-funded study on community reintegration for women having had fistula repair surgery in Uganda and the integration of NASGs in 300 primary health care centers and ambulances in rural Tanzania. The author of over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, Professor Miller is co-author of “Beyond Too Little Too Late, Too Much Too Soon,” in the Lancet 2016 Maternal Health Series as well as author of one on the seminal works on Respectful Care, Quality of care in institutionalized deliveries:
The Paradox of Maternal Mortality in Dominican Republic, 2003 . She is currently co-editing special sections of the BMC Reproductive Health Journal: one on Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation and one on Respectful Maternity Care.