Staff Bios: M-Z

Cheikh Mbengue has 15 years of experience with West African regional institutions and for USAID projects, has served as a technical expert on community development and health sector reform in West and Central Africa. Mr. Mbengue is particularly well versed in the decentralization of priority health services, the community-based health insurance movement, maximizing donor coordination to leverage support for health sector reform, supporting National Health Account activities, responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and developing social marketing programs. An effective advocate and coordinator of regional networks and regional programs, Mr. Mbengue holds a post-master’s certificate in anthropology and a master’s degree in philosophy.
cheikh_mbengue@abtassoc.com

Linda Moll has worked in international development for more than 20 years, the past 10 as an editor/writer and editorial services coordinator for multiple health systems reform projects. Ms. Moll has been on the staff of a major metropolitan daily newspaper and done freelance writing for other major newspapers. She has edited technical documents, including reports, manuals, and presentations, and developed, managed, written, and edited newsletters, brochures, and briefs based on the technical work or independent publications. She also has taught writing at the university level. In addition, she has done events planning, and spent several years managing U.S. educational and training programs of international visitors. Ms. Moll received her BS degree in international relations from Georgetown University and her MA degree in linguistics from the University of Illinois in Chicago; she also has a certificate in editing and publications from Georgetown University.
Linda_Moll@abtassoc.com

Mr. Muñoz is an engineer and a senior associate at Bitrán y Asociados specializing in social sector studies, with a focus in the areas of health economics and poverty reduction. He has worked in Africa (Mozambique, Niger and Rwanda), Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Timor Leste, and Pakistan), Latin America (Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Peru), and the Caribbean (Suriname, Jamaica, Bahamas). His expertise includes: research design for health evaluation projects, particularly including the design of their sample frames, data collection instruments, statistical analysis, and econometrics; the implementation of Living Standard Measurement Surveys; data modeling; the design and implementation of social sectors information systems; and the development of custom software for the social sectors.
rodrigo.munoz@bitran.cl

Takondwa Mwase has 15 years of experience in health services planning, health financing including budgeting and resource allocation and health care management. Currently, Mr. Mwase works on general National Health Accounts (NHA) as well as reproductive health (RH), HIV/AIDS, and child health subaccounts in a number of countries across Africa and the Near East. He is also responsible for facilitating international and regional courses on general NHA and HIV/AIDS, RH, and Child Health subaccounts. Previously, Mr. Mwase was a Regional Advisor for Health Financing and National Health Accounts at the WHO Africa Regional Office. He was responsible for providing technical support to WHO member States in the region on health financing policy design in social health insurance and National Health Accounts implementation. He has also served as a Fellow at the WHO headquarters in Geneva responsible for NHA for the Africa Region. For 8 years, he was responsible for health planning, health financing-assessment of health financing options, budgeting and resource allocation, and development and implementation of NHA, district health accounts, public health expenditures reviews, and economic evaluation at the Ministry of health in Malawi. Over the years, Mr. Mwase has consulted on various issues of health sector reforms for a variety of organizations such as DANIDA, DfID, EU, GTZ, UNICEF, UNDP, USAID, and the World Bank. His extensive experience also includes acting as an advisor in the development of NHA as well as investigator in a number of countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Mr. Mwase holds a master of social science degree in health economics from the University of Cape Town and is fluent in English and French.
takondwa_mwase@abtassoc.com

Kathleen Novak served as regional coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) on the Partnerships for Health Reform project (PHR) and has continued in that role on the Partners for Health Reformplus and Health Systems 20/20 projects. In this role, she provides technical leadership and direction, assures quality, and supervises regional staff for all technical assistance in the LAC Region. Dr. Novak conducted and managed activities that are essential for field-level policy development and implementation, including stakeholder analyses (Egypt, El Salvador), development of advocacy strategies (El Salvador, Peru), and participatory health planning with input from civil society (Peru). Dr. Novak was also responsible for planning, managing, and monitoring the implementation of regional activities under the Latin America Health Sector Reform Initiative. In 2003, Dr. Novak assumed responsibility for the Infectious Disease and Surveillance (IDS) component of PHRplus. The IDS strategy, which calls for a “bottom up” approach that emphasizes sound analysis and use of data at the point of generation, has resulted in improved timeliness and completeness of reporting in two African countries and has increased immunization coverage and decreased vaccine wastage in the Republic of Georgia. Dr. Novak received her bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University at San Jose and her MSW and PhD in clinical social work from Smith College. She is fluent in Spanish.
kathleen_novak@abtassoc.com

Liz Nugent has over 25 years of experience in the administration of publication and communication components of health and international programs. She currently serves as communications director for the Health Systems 20/20 project. Previously, she was associate communications coordinator for the Partners for Health Reformplus (PHRplus) project, overseeing an electronic and hard-copy resource center of over 6,000 select health systems strengthening materials with a searchable database on the web. Under PHRplus, Ms. Nugent served as editor for the project’s Highlights newsletter and directed outreach and dissemination components of the project, identifying channels for proactively sharing information about PHRplus expertise, materials, and achievements. Throughout her career, Ms. Nugent has managed or produced over 100 publications, reports, monographs, and articles in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. She has coordinated and evaluated the performance of health educators, research associates, marketing specialists, photographers, printers, designers, editors, proofreaders, and translators. Ms. Nugent has proven experience in identifying, organizing, and reviewing data to create easily accessed information; in formulating innovative strategies to ensure that information is widely shared with diverse audiences; and in leveraging opportunities for creatively sharing information and building knowledge from the field up. She earned a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in international administration from the School for International Training in Vermont, and a certificate in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in Arizona. Ms. Nugent speaks Spanish fluently and is conversant in French and Portuguese.
liz_nugent@abtassoc.com

Marcia Occomy, a manager with BearingPoint, has 14 years of experience in financial management, public sector budgeting, and developing and implementing decentralized fiscal directives in fragile and transitional states. Ms. Occomy has provided technical assistance in national and municipal budgeting, intergovernmental financial policies, and developing and implementing decentralized financial solutions. As deputy chief of party in the USAID-funded Sustainable Urban Management Program II in Ukraine, Ms. Occomy was responsible for the management of programs and the performance budget-training program for 130 municipalities, including setting quality-control and monitoring procedures and supervising regional office directors. Ms. Occomy also advised the chief of party about local government budget policies and practices and was a technical resource to the National Advisory Committee on budget reform. Ms. Occomy was resident advisor on USAID-funded programs in Iraq, Kosovo, and Kazakhstan. While working at the Office of Management and Budget for the Executive Office of the President, Ms. Occomy recommended guidelines for the federal government’s funding of the District of Columbia. Ms. Occomy holds a master’s degree in public finance and economic development from the University of Chicago. She speaks French and Russian.
marcia.occomy@bearingpoint.com

Ms. Ortiz has more than 15 years experience working in international health with significant experience in health economics and financing in Africa and Latin America. She has specialized in issues of cost recovery and risk sharing, leading numerous evaluations for international agencies such as UNICEF and the French Agence de Cooperation. Ms. Ortiz led a team that conducted an HIV/AIDS costing study in Côte d’Ivoire, providing key information for service delivery scale-up. She also led a team to the DRC to evaluate the business structure and operations of the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, providing technical guidance to senior staff on care provision, referral structure, user fees, and community involvement. Ms. Ortiz’s work has focused on community-based efforts, providing financial advice to community health centers on cost issues, resource allocation, and revenue structure as well as providing training and local capacity development in health financing, budgeting, and cost control to health care workers and site administrators. She facilitated workshops in Nigeria and Ethiopia for UNICEF and the World Bank on streamlining budgeting and using cost data for decision making. As a technical adviser for the French Cooperation Service, and later for the European Commission delegation, Ms. Ortiz managed and contributed to numerous health system reform working groups on health insurance plans and other topics, to better manage costs and improve access to health services in West Africa. Ms. Ortiz received her M.Sc. in health planning and financing from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and her BS from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She speaks English, French, and Spanish fluently.
christine_ortiz@abtassoc.com

Dr. John Osika, a public health physician, serves as HIV and Infectious Disease Advisor for Health Systems 20/20. He spent ten years focused on HIV/AIDS and malaria initiatives for the World Bank and has more than two decades of programmatic and clinical experience working on infectious disease programs. Dr. Osika, trained as an epidemiologist and physician with specialization in public health, is board certified in the United Kingdom and the European Union. Over his professional career he has provided technical leadership to the World Bank’s landmark Roll Back Malaria initiative and has served as the Bank’s principal source of technical advice and leadership on malaria programs and policy. Dr. Osika served as assistant professor in public health medicine at the University of Wales and as senior registrar in public health medicine for the British National Health Service. His combination of hands-on and research experience in surveillance of infectious disease in the UK have allowed him over the years to provide technical guidance and leadership at the highest level of HIV/AIDS and infectious disease policymaking. Dr. Osika has a medical degree from the Minsk State Medical University and a MPH and MHMPP from the University of Leeds. Dr. Osika, originally from Uganda, speaks Russian, Byelorussian, French, Spanish, Welsh, Kiswahili, Ateso, Luo, and Luganda.
john_osika@abtassoc.com

Dr. Nancy Pielemeier is an international health policy and program planner and implementer with 25 years of experience, including over 10 years of residential experience in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She was project director of the three-year $45 million USAID-funded ZdravReform Program, which provided technical assistance in health finance and service delivery reform in the former Soviet republics. From 1997 to 2001, Dr. Pielemeier directed the five-year $65 million USAID-funded Partnerships for Health Reform (PHR) project, providing direction to a staff of more than 120 professionals carrying out technical assistance, training, applied research, and information dissemination on health reform in over 30 countries worldwide. Subsequently, Dr. Pielemeier directed the follow-on $98 million Partners for Health Reformplus project from 2000 to 2005, expanding health systems strengthening interventions to include improvements in health financing, organization and quality of health services, health information systems, and health governance in over 35 countries. Since 2005, as Vice President and Practice Manager for the International Health Division at Abt Associates, Dr. Pielemeier oversees a portfolio of health systems projects throughout the developing world, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Through her years of experience, Dr. Pielemeier has developed unique skills and expertise in dealing with health organizations and systems development. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She speaks Portuguese.
nancy_pielemeier@abtassoc.com

Dr. Prieto is a senior health economist with a PhD in health economics from Boston University and an MS in health economics from the University of Chile. She specializes in the study of health interventions’ cost-effectiveness, evaluation of health financing reform projects, the effects of health status on labor outcomes, accessibility to health services, development of training material in health economics, study of health care markets, including designing and implementing household surveys, provider costs and production, and analysis of equity, efficiency, and financial sustainability. While in Boston, she worked with the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research in two major projects dealing with cost-effectiveness of depression treatment interventions and behavioral patterns in drug abuse treatment and social services. She has worked with Bitrán y Asociados on projects in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Suriname, Paraguay, Argentina, Barbados, Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala.
lorena.prieto@bitran.cl

Pamela Rao has over 24 years of experience in international public health program management, with a focus on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, and reproductive health in developing countries. She has worked in more than 14 countries on four continents both at the grassroots and policy levels. Areas of expertise include monitoring and evaluation, financial management, economic analysis, innovation, project management, project design, information systems, health system research, and organizational development. Ms. Rao previously worked with Social and Scientific Systems’ Global Health and Development Strategies Division where she led and facilitated collaboration with global partners in the public and private sector, including USAID, CDC, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the European Union, NGOs, and private firms. She reviewed the USAID HIV/AIDS portfolio for USAID twice prior to the launch of PEPFAR and later became principal investigator for the PEPFAR program in West Africa. She worked at the policy level on HIV/AIDS for the European Commission in Belgium and served in a key leadership position for the India branch of the Damien Foundation, one of the largest international NGOs in Belgium. For the European Commission, she coordinated a session on "going to scale” that was one of the key events leading to the inception of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Ms. Rao has a master’s degree in economics and public administration from the University of Madras, India; a MBA from the Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Madras, India; a master’s degree in intercultural management from ICHEC Brussels Business School, Belgium; and a master’s in public health from the Free University of Brussels. Ms. Rao speaks French, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Hindi.
pamela_rao@abtassoc.com

Ibrahim Shehata is a senior manager in the Health and Social Protection practice of BearingPoint. He has more than 17 years of experience in health financing and the financial management of health care organizations, domestically and internationally. Mr. Shehata’s understanding of how health systems function is derived from his work with developing countries’ health authorities and providers, as well as with U.S.-based health provider institutions. He spent nearly 4 years as chief of party on a USAID health-sector reform project in Bulgaria where he guided project activities with the ministry of health, ministry of finance, and the Parliamentary Health Commission. Prior to that endeavor, he was the technical manager for the National Health Accounts’ global activities in USAID’s Partnerships for Health Reform and Partners for Health Reformplus projects. He played a key role in the launch of the regional networks in East and Southern Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, and West Africa regions. Prior to his experiences in international health development, Mr. Shehata was a special officer for system integration at a multi-hospital integrated system in western Pennsylvania and was a financial manager at the University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics. He has a master’s degree in health-services management from the University of Missouri and an MBA from Central Missouri State University. He is fluent in Arabic.
ibrahim.shehata@bearingpoint.com

Kimberly Switlick, MPH, is a senior consultant at BearingPoint with 7 years of international development experience. During her career, she has provided advisory services to countries on issues related to health systems development, health insurance and financing mechanisms for the poor, reproductive health policymaking and service delivery, poverty reduction strategies, and organizational development to countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. At BearingPoint, Ms. Switlick is working with the government of India to promote, develop, and regulate the health insurance market, with a particular emphasis on financial protection for health services for the poor and micro health insurance. She is also working with India’s state governments to develop social health insurance programs and is working with microinsurance implementers to strengthen their program activities through the design of a Micro Insurance Resource Center. Ms. Switlick also has accomplishments in research within the area of health disparities, determinants of health outcomes, barriers to care, and policy analysis. Projects and publications include studies of youth-focused HIV/AIDS programming, supply and demand of maternal health services, male involvement in reproductive health, and alternative financing mechanisms for health. She has worked at a variety of institutions such as the World Bank, Futures Group: POLICY Project, PATH, and ICDDR, B: Centre for Health and Population Research in Bangladesh. Ms. Switlick received her master’s in public health and international policy from George Washington University.
kimberly.switlick@bearingpoint.com

Amy Taye, MPH, has 4 years experience in international health promotion with expertise in implementing health systems assessments, human resources for health assessments, and HIV/AIDS service provision programs. For Health Systems 20/20 she works with a local Vietnamese organization to conduct health system assessments in the Ninh Binh and Can Tho provinces. Ms. Taye has experience conducting Service Provision Assessments (SPA) in both Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. She is also involved with work on development of a standardized package of human resources for health assessment tools for use by country human resource managers. Ms. Taye received her MPH from the George Washington University. Prior to joining Health Systems 20/20, she wrote and received a grant to work with a local NGO focused on HIV prevention through needle exchange in Chapaevsk, Russia, conducting a social marketing campaign entitled “The Race for AIDS Awareness.” Ms. Taye speaks French and Russian fluently.
amy_taye@abtassoc.com

Gloria Ubilla is an industrial engineer and an MBA from the University of Chile. She has more than 12 years of experience in economics, management, and operations research in the health sector. Currently, she is the general manager of Bitrán y Asociados, a leading health economics consulting firm in Latin America. She has participated as director and co-researcher in more than 30 studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, including the evaluation of investment projects in the health sector, and work on financing, demand, and costing of health services. Mrs. Ubilla is also executive director of the Flagship Program for Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing in Latin America.
gloria.ubilla@bitran.cl

Juanita Ubilla is an industrial engineer specializing in information systems. She has experience in projects and studies in Honduras, Niger, Panama, and Chile involving database management, web-based information systems, data modeling, and statistical analysis.
juanita.ubilla@bitran.cl

Mr. Urcullo is a senior economist with a master’s in management and public policy and a diploma in labor economics. He has more than 10 years of labor experience in Bolivia’s government holding various key posts for the Council of Ministries in the areas of industry, tourism, telecommunications, mining, environment, and transport. He has also worked in the fields of economic regulation, promotion of the competition, public credit, and decentralization of planning. In addition, while in Bolivia he worked on the formulation of public strategies to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Mr. Urcullo has published widely in the areas of pension systems, regulation, and economical development. Since January 2006, he has worked on health projects in Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador, Bangladesh, and Guatemala for Bitrán y Asociados.
gonzalo.urcullo@bitran.cl

Wenjuan Wang has 6 years of research experience focusing on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections and child’s health. Ms. Wang previously worked on projects at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health assessing the advantages in cost, access to the poor, and quality of services of social franchises over other types of health facilities in delivering family planning services in three developing countries. She has also worked on a number of other projects in reproductive health service delivery, HIV testing and counseling, and STIs and HIV-related behavior intervention. The projects she has been involved with cover Ethiopia, Pakistan, India, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Nigeria, and China. Dr. Wang’s expertise includes research design, data collection, and data analysis with advanced statistical approaches. With the Health Systems 20/20 project, Dr. Wang is involved in an activity tracking HIV/AIDS financing in 8 PEPFAR countries. The activity is expected to shed light on the financial consequences of large global HIV/AIDS initiatives in selected countries. Dr. Wang has training in a variety of disciplines including medicine, demography, and biostatistics. She has a master’s degree in biostatistics and a PhD in population and reproductive health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
wenjuan_wang@abtassoc.com

Jenna Wright has experience with National Health Accounts (NHA), tracking resources through the health system, and has also supported various health system strengthening activities within the Health Systems 20/20 project since inception. Her recent work with NHA in Rwanda branches into health information systems (HIS) and health finance, as well as the international initiative to harmonize NHA and the UNAIDS reporting system on HIV/AIDS expenditure. Ms. Wright’s interests include maternal and child health, family planning, HIS, and service delivery among others. She received her BA in international affairs from the George Washington University.
jenna_wright@abtassoc.com