Core Staff
Ana Langer, MD
Director | Women and Health Initiative, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Ana Langer is a physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology and a reproductive health expert. She is respected worldwide as a leader in using research findings to influence policy and improve the overall quality of health care for women and families. For more than 25 years, she has been a leading researcher, programmer and advocate for the improvement of women’s health.
Rima Jolivet, MSN, MPH, DrPH
Director | Improving Maternal Health Measurement (IMHM) Project; Senior Research Associate | Women and Health Initiative, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Rima Jolivet is a certified nurse-midwife with a doctorate in public health, specializing in maternal health system strengthening and quality improvement. She is an expert coalition builder with extensive experience facilitating multi-stakeholder consensus processes to inform maternal health research, policy, advocacy, and practice.
Jewel Gausman, MHS, ScD
Research Coordinator | Improving Maternal Health Measurement (IMHM) Project; Senior Research Associate | Women and Health Initiative, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Jewel Gausman is an epidemiologist and social scientist whose research interests focus on gender norms, women’s empowerment and vulnerable populations, including refugees and adolescents. Dr. Gausman has extensive experience managing research projects, project evaluation, and data analysis in the fields of SRHR and health system strengthening in low- and middle-income countries.
Research Partners
Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria (IECS) is an independent research organization and NGO devoted to health research, education and technical cooperation. It has a multidisciplinary staff of 60 professionals including physicians, statisticians, epidemiologists, nutritionists, health economists, policy experts and social scientists, and 20 administrative and technical supporting staff.
The University of Ghana School of Public Health has built a reputation that has positioned it to implement cross-national projects with collaborators in various institutions around the world. By combining the support of a number of prominent funding and development agencies, close working relationships with key figures in the Ghana Health Service and Ministry of Health, and faculty and staff with extensive local and international experience, the school has implemented projects in a range of health areas including HIV, health systems strengthening, eHealth applications, maternal and newborn health, enhancing the performance of district health managers, strengthening leadership in disaster resilience, improving sanitation and studying health inequalities.
The Population Council’s India office is a valuable and trusted research partner in India, as evidenced by its close working relationships with various ministries in the Government of India. The PopCouncil India team has extensive experience in primary data collection, strong field presence in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with ongoing evaluations and operations research on self-help groups, health systems strengthening, and deep knowledge of local contexts across states and government institutions.
Collaborators
White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) is a leading advocacy organization for global maternal health. Structured as an international coalition, WRA has a Global Secretariat based in Washington D.C., 14 National Alliances across the world, and a Global Alliance with members from 140 countries. WRA mobilizes this network to amplify voices of citizens and connect advocates, policymakers, and healthcare providers through advocacy campaigns and efforts to hold governments and politicians accountable for plans to improve resources and policies to save lives of mothers and newborns.
The FCI Program of Management Sciences for Health (MSH) engages in activism and capacity-building for maternal, reproductive, and sexual health and rights, working at community and country levels. Partnering with allies and champions in government as well as civil society, the FCI Program of MSH supports the development of stronger policies, increased funding for programs that target maternal, reproductive, and sexual health and rights, and key messaging of technical information.
The World Health Organization’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH) includes the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP). The Department and Special Programme provide leadership on matters critical to sexual and reproductive health through shaping the research agenda, and coordinating high-impact research; setting norms and standards; articulating an ethical and human-rights-based approach; and supporting research capacity in low-income settings.