Leilani Johnson, Executive Director (leilani[at]cohintl.org)
Leilani Johnson’s focus is on international health in complex situations. From her father's Peace Corps experience and trips around the world, to her mother's experiences in Hawaii, she knew that she wanted to live and work abroad. She holds a B.A. in both Psychology and Sociology from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA, and Stockholms Universitet in Stockholm, Sweden. She then went on to pursue a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University. There, she concentrated on International Health, with a focus on complex humanitarian emergencies. After graduation, she volunteered for the United States Peace Corps, serving in Mombasa, Kenya from May 2004-July 2006. In Kenya she was a technical adviser for public health matters and helped coordinate a drug abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention and care program. Upon returning to the United States, Leilani advanced her health related studies in nursing and science related classes, including becoming fully trained in the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health in Crisis Situations before returning to COHI full-time. Leilani continues to work and travel in the public health field in various capacities including local volunteering opportunities through Boston Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Boston University, Boston and Worcester Medical Emergency Reserve Corps, and COHI. In her role as Executive Director at COHI, she hopes to continue the successful programs COHI has worked on in the past, as well as bring in new programs to help solidify COHI’s future. With this plan, COHI will show the international and maternal health fields its distinct place in crisis settings and help create an environment in which affected women have better access to women’s health services.

Sarah Morgan, IT Manager, Media & Print Communications (smorgan[at]cohintl.org)
Originally from Bristol, Tennessee, Sarah recieved a BS in Computer Science from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. While living in Florida, Sarah did work with the county Economic Development office that ranged from IT to web development. She now lives in Boston, Massachusetts where she works as a Systems Engineer.

Aisha Saifi (asaifi[at]cohintl.org)
Aisha Saifi holds a B.S. in Nursing as well as a Diploma in Midwifery from Bethlehem University in Palestine. She currently works in a maternity hospital after spending nearly two decades working and raising awareness for various nonprofits and associations in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. She comes to COHI because she has always believed in empowering women and believes that her work in changing the social environment is an indicator of helping her to better know herself and further develop her own ideals. She states, “COHI is a place where I can transform my conscience into my consciousness and help me realize the necessity of struggling in this part of the world for a greater good.” Aisha is the proud mother of four children.

Gomer Ben Moshe, MA, CNM (gbenmoshe[at]cohintl.org)
Gomer is the Israeli Project Coordinator. She worked as a midwife in a hospital delivery room for many years, and now spends most of her time working for COHI in Israel. She also works as an independent midwife and teaches women's health issues at the Haifa University. She attained a BA of Nursing is from "Haddash", Jerusalem, then worked on a surgery ward in the Tel Aviv medical center for 3 years. She then went on to get her midwifery diploma and recently, her Masters degree in women's studies from Lesley University. One of Gomer's main interests are grief and loss during pregnancy and childbirth, in which she tries to support women and their families as well as health staff.

Amna Rizvi, Public Relations Coordinator
Amna Rizvi was raised in Karachi, Pakistan and did her Bachelor’s in Communications and Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. Coming from a family full of doctors, Amna grew up in and around hospitals and from a very young age was involved with her mother and aunts in helping the underprivileged people of Pakistan with their health needs and educating them about various preventable diseases and infections. After graduating from college in Pennsylvania, Amna moved back to Pakistan and worked for a year as a health reporter for an English language broadcast news channel and covered stories about polio, thalasseamia, abortion, maternal health, and domestic violence. She then went on to volunteer with the Midwifery Association of Pakistan and the National Committee of Maternal and Neonatal Health as a communications consultant. Amna has moved back to the US and is going to pursue a Master’s in Public Health. In the meantime, she is very excited to be part of the COHI team and to be actively involved in improving quality health care access to women and children all around the world.

Mindy Levy, Volunteer
Mindy Levy currently works as a homebirth midwife and a midwifery educator in Northern Israel. She worked as a hospital midwife for nine years in Haifa, left the hospital five years ago, and has been working independently ever since. She has a Masters Degree in Women's Studies from Lesley University. Mindy teaches midwives, midwifery, nursing students, doulas, and childbirth educators. Her special interest is trauma and its effect on women's maternity experiences, a topic that she has researched in the past and continues to investigate today. She is now training to become a Somatic Experience Practitioner. She served as the Israeli coordinator for the Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence Project for two years and is now an active participating volunteer. She participated in the Kisarawe-Kilimanjaro Challenge in Tanzania in 2007 and the Second Annual Kisarawe Summit for Women and Children's Health in Tanzania in 2008.

Leslie Wolff, Volunteer
Leslie worked for many years as a hospital midwife, working to promote natural childbirth within the hospital walls. For the past four years, she has served as the Breastfeeding and Childbirth Education Coordinator of Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, working in the mother/baby Units – postpartum, newborns, prematures, and the birth ward. Together with her COHI partner and close friend, Palestinian midwife Aisha Saifi, she promotes "Skin to Skin for the Healthy Newborn." She also specialize in Kangaroo Care and breastfeeding for the premature baby. Leslie and Aisha presented their mutual plan and actions at the International Kangaroo Mothers Care Conference in Sweden in 2008. They hope to continue presenting on the two intertwined topics of Skin to Skin for Newborns and COHI's efforts in future midwifery, nursing, and breast feeding seminars and conferences within their countries and throughout the world.

Nechama J. Wildanah, CPM
Nechama Wildanah, CPM, is a homebirth midwife practicing in the Boston area through her business, MotherRoot Midwifery. She graduated from Maternidad La Luz, a small midwifery school on the U.S/Mexico border, where she worked in a fast-paced birth center serving primarily low-income Latino families. As part of a cultural exchange program, Nechama worked and lived with a traditional midwife in Guatemala, and saw midwifery’s role in promoting cultural health. Nechama has also organized many events dedicated to women’s health promotion, VBAC/birth options and story-sharing in small-town Oregon, though she has now moved to the big stage of Boston! As a women’s health activist and educator, she is passionate about how much women’s bodies and stories matter, and about making quality, culturally competent maternity care accessible for all women. She feels strongly that women’s health care is a human right, and can and should be a vehicle for empowerment. Nechama’s dream is to go back to school and study public health-maternal/child health. In her spare time, Nechama likes to make cartoons, eat ice cream and be with her family and friends. 

Rachel Bedenbaugh, Intern & COHI Summit Coordinator
Originally from South Carolina, Rachel holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Animal Sciences from Clemson University. She was first exposed to public health while working at a local community health center, where she helped design and implement a diabetes program to help the patient population better understand and “self-manage” their diabetes with limited resources. She is currently completing her MPH at Boston University’s School of Public Health focusing in international health, and more specifically women and children’s health. Rachel is also currently involved in the Massachusetts Not For Sale campaign, and is working with other students and local officials to combat human trafficking here in the United States and abroad.

Sera Bonds, MPH, COHI Founder and President of the Board of Directors
Sera is a social justice, grassroots activist committed to working towards balancing the scales of access, equity, and availability in women's reproductive health care. She has training in massage therapy, midwifery, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Women's Studies, and a Master's degree in Public Health. Her community organizing background ranges from reproductive rights to violence against women, to welfare and poverty issues to anti-war campaigns. She has worked on women's health issues with teenage and minority moms in rural areas of the Western U.S.; with refugee communities in Boston, Massachusetts; and with rural midwives in Northern India, Guatemala, Tibet, Palestine, tsunami-affected Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, and Israel; with commercial sex workers on issues of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam; and with female evacuees from hurricanes Rita and Katrina in Louisiana. She founded Circle of Health International with the hope of giving voice to conflict- and disaster-affected women's reproductive health needs on an international scale. Sera recently served as a visiting lecture and Public Health Scholar-In-Residence at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel, an International Reproductive Health Fellow at NARAL-Texas, and was recently selected as a recipient of Boston University's School of Public Health's Distinguished Alumni Award. She currently lives and works 20 miles from Gaza with her husband and newborn son.

Candice Becker, Board of Directors Member
 

Terri Clark, PhD, MSN, CNM, RN, Board of Directors Member
Terri Clark is an Associate Professor at Seattle University College of Nursing. She has a degree in philosophy from Yale College, a PhD in sociology from University of California, San Diego, and an MSN in Maternal-Newborn Health/Nurse-Midwifery from Yale School of Nursing where she was also on faculty for many years. She has a total 25 years of clinical experience as a CNM, including nine years as Director of Obstetrics Education in a Family Practice Residency Program the South Bronx in the 1990s. She has worked in Southern Africa, Mexico, Cambodia and Haiti where she developed and participated in global midwifery educational and service partnerships, as well as volunteered in HIV nursing educational collaboratives. Her most recent publication is a Malaria, HIV, and TB clinical resource guide in the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health.

Mindy Levy, Board of Directors Member
Mindy Levy currently works as a homebirth midwife and a midwifery educator in northern Israel. She worked as a hospital midwife for nine years in Haifa, left the hospital three and half years ago and has been working independently ever since. She has a Masters Degree in Women's Studies from Lesley University. Mindy teaches midwives, midwifery and nursing students, doulas and childbirth educators. Her special interest is trauma and its effect on women's maternity experiences, a topic that she has researched in the past and continues to investigate today. She is now training to become a Somatic Experience Practitioner. She serves as the Israeli coordinator for the Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence Project and joined the Kisarawe-Kilimanjaro Challenge in Tanzania last summer.

Courtney T. Hilbert, MSN, CNM, RN, Board of Directors Member
Courtney T. Hilbert is a nurse-midwife practicing in the United States. She brings to COHI her extensive business background and her passion for providing health care to women in underserved areas of the U.S. and abroad. She has worked at two community health centers in Connecticut as a member of the National Health Service Corps and has provided health care services to women in South Africa, Nicaragua, and Honduras. She has also trained local midwives in Haiti. Courtney received her Bachelor of Science in Economics (BSE) degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree from the Yale School of Nursing.

Laura Fitzgerald, Board of Directors Member
Laura Fitzgerald, a Connecticut native and certified nurse-midwife, comes to COHI with a clinical and programmatic background in women's health and HIV/AIDS. After receiving an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Bowdoin College, Laura served with the Peace Corps in Malawi. She then attended Yale School of Nursing where she received her Masters of Science in Nursing. The belief that all people, particularly the world's most vulnerable, have a right to high quality, compassionate, and comprehensive health care has taken Laura to South Africa, Haiti, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Lesotho. Currently, she works for Jhpiego, an international health organization based in Baltimore, Maryland. When Laura isn't traveling for work, she is traveling for pleasure, lost in a book, scribbling down a story, or jogging somewhere along the Atlantic coast.

Sharon Craig Economides, Board of Directors Member
Sharon Craig Economides is a licensed midwife, currently working in a homebirth practice in California's San Francisco Bay Area. She has worked in Afghanistan, Russia, and the Philippines as a midwife and maternity health educator trainer. Sharon coordinated Birth Life-Saving Skills (BLiSS) trainings in Afghanistan, where maternal and infant mortality has been the second highest in the world. Sharon is currently completing her Masters degree in Midwifery through the University of Sheffield in the UK and continues to write freelance for midwifery publications and teaches courses through the Aviva Institute of Midwifery.

Jordyn Bonds, Founders Circle Member
Jordyn specializes in web and print wizardry, spinning straw into gold for non-profits and rock bands across the nation. She also has a deep background in feminist issues, focusing on pro-choice and reproductive rights. Jordyn's area of focus at COHI is in design and web-related activities. She is a student of religion and critical theory, and an activist for feminism and music.

Sarah Chynoweth, Founders Circle Member
Sarah was one of the founding members of COHI. From 2004 to 2005, Sarah managed COHI’s Tibet program on maternal and newborn health. She currently oversees International Planned Parenthood Federation’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme in Crises and Post-crises in East, South East Asia & Pacific (SPRINT Initiative) which focuses on building local capacity throughout the Asia Pacific to implement priority sexual and reproductive health service in humanitarian settings. Prior to working with IPPF, Sarah worked with the Reproductive Health Program at the Women's Refugee Commission for almost five years. Sarah's professional experience includes projects in China, Germany, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Romania, Sudan (Darfur), Thailand (Burma border), Tibet and Timor Leste. She holds a Master's degree from Columbia University in Human Rights and Health. Sarah is a certified carpenter, lives in Kuala Lumpur and is originally from small village in Germany.

Dr. Nathalie Kapp, Board of Advisors Member
A warm and motivated OB/GYN hailing from Idaho, Nathalie Kapp is a Medical Officer in the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization in Geneva. She completed her training at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in New Hampshire after graduating from the University of Utah Medical School. Her current research topics include innovations in techniques of induction abortion, medical eligibility for use of contraception and detection of fetal genetic material in maternal blood. She recently completed her Masters in Biostatistics at Boston University's School of Public Health. She is an active member of multiple professional associations. When she is not providing instruction or conducting research, she practices yoga, is an active modern dancer and fabulous chef, plays a mean game of boggle, and passionately pursues adventures in rock climbing.

Kerri Kimball, Founders Circle Member
An advocate for global humanitarian and environmental causes, Kerri Kimball focuses her time at COHI on financial planning, management, and strategy. She earned her BA in Business Administration and Finance from Brigham Young University and went on to work for eleven years in corporate advertising and financial management in San Francisco, Sydney, and New York City. Currently a financial planner and coach, Kerri is also a student of Buddhism, ontology, and modern literature.

Adam Rosenbloom, MPH, Founders Circle Member
Adam is a budding young humanitarian aid worker who is currently earning his MD at Columbia University's Middle Eastern affiliate, Ben Gurion University, focusing on International Health. Adam served as COHI's Project Manager, demonstrating his ability to lead, work under incredibly challenging conditions, and his commitment to women's health. He has circumnavigated the globe (only once) and hopes to continue his journey while working to alleviate the suffering of the poor through small and focused community-based programs affecting women and children. Adam cites his experience as a High School teacher in rural Henderson, North Carolina, as a catalyst to use his privilege to serve those who are less privileged in an attempt to address issues of inequity. In his free time, Adam likes playing music, listening to music, and dancing to music.

Monica Onyango, RN, MPH, Volunteer
Monica is currently working at Boston University (School of Public Health) as a lecturer on Reproductive Health in disasters and emergencies. Monica focuses her attention with COHI in technically advising on issues of programming in emergency settings, and she recently conducted COHI's needs assessment in Sudan to determine COHI's programming in the region. She worked for more than six years with international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in relief and development in Southern Sudan, Kenya and Angola, managing community health programs and training health workers. She served in the Kenya Ministry of Health (MOH) for ten years as a nursing officer in management positions at two hospitals, and as a lecturer at the Nairobi Medical Training College – School of Nursing. She has a proven ability to start and manage health programs under difficult conditions. She is presently earning her Ph.D. at Boston College in Nursing while focusing her research on Post-Abortion Care in conflict settings.