Debora B. Freitas López, MS
Executive Director
Executive Director
Chief of Party
Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria
Team Leader
Indonesia, Guatemala, Angola
Director, Research and Evaulation
Team Leader
Burundi, Cameroon
Team Leader
India
Team Leader
Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Niger
Team Leader
Malawi, Liberia, Kenya
Team Leader
Sierra Leone, Nigeria
Director, Capacity Strengthening
Team Leader
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda
Director, Strategic Communication Programs Unit
Chief of Party, Tanzania Control Vector Activity
CCP Country Representative
Tanzania
Director, Public Relations and Communications
Chief of Party, Communication for Improved Health Outcomes
CCP Country Representative
Mozambique
Team Leader
Mali, Senegal
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Director
Sierra Leone
Director, Business Development
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Ethiopia
Director, The Challenge Initiative
Nigeria
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Nepal
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Mali
Director, Finance and Administration
Chief of Party, Bangladesh
Regional SBC Advisor, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Senegal
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Democratic Republic of Congo
Chief of Party
Cameroon
Team Leader
Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Guatemala
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Kenya
Chief of Party, Social and Behavior Change Activity
CCP Country Representative
Uganda
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Malawi, Zambia
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Côte d’Ivoire
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Tanzania
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Liberia
Team Leader
Ghana, Guyana
SBC Director, ACCESS Health Program
CCP Country Representative
Madagascar
Director, Breakthrough ACTION
Director, Digital Strategy
Director, Communication Science
Director, Knowledge Management
Director, Knowledge SUCCESS
Team Leader
Baltimore
Senior Program Manager
Breakthrough ACTION
Togo
Team Leader
Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Ethiopia
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Guyana
Caroline Jacoby, MPH
Danielle Piccinini Black, MBA, MPH
Jennifer Orkis, MHS
Tyler Best, MSW, MPH
Hunter Harig, MPH
Saori Ohkubo, MA, MBA
Marla Shaivitz, MA
Caroline Jacoby, MPH
Cori Fordham, MPH
Benjamin Soro, MA
Sarah Harlan, MPH
Joanna Skinner, MA, MHS
Esete Getachew, MA
Beth Mallalieu, MPH
Benjamin Soro, MA
Ruwaida Salem, MPH
Sharmin Sultana, MPH, MSc
Rene Nkenyi, MPH, MGHS
Gabrielle Hunter, MHS
Stephanie Clayton, MPH
Marjorie Nana, MPH
Maria-Elena Figueroa, PhD
Erin Portillo, MPH
Brittany Goetsch, MA, MPH
Receive the latest news and updates, tools, events and job postings in your inbox every month
Executive Director
Debora B. Freitas López, MS, is the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. She is a global leader in social and behavior change communication with broad-based experience leading programs in health and non-health sectors across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East. Debora has more than 20 years’ experience establishing sound initiatives for specific social issues and strengthening the capacity of public and private sector and civil society actors so that they can develop local solutions for challenges they face. She has a demonstrated record of success in program design and implementation, strategic planning, partner engagement and communications.
Debora has served on various global boards and technical groups, including recently as the chair of the Global Alliance for Social and Behaviour Change. She also is part of FP2030’s Family Planning High Impact Practices Technical Expert Group and served two terms on the Steering Committee for the SBC Working Group of RBM Partnership to End Malaria. Additionally, she was part of the 2022 North American Cohort for WomenLift Health’s Leadership Journey, an initiative designed to support women through the challenges and opportunities of advancing to senior leadership positions in global health. Her leadership project focused on diversifying leadership through a behavior-led systems thinking approach. She has an MS in Health Evaluation Services/Epidemiology from the University of Virginia.
Chief of Party
Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria
Shittu Abdu-Aguye is a public health physician with more than 17 years of public health program implementation and leadership experience. He received his MBBS from Ahmadu Bello University, and his MPH degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has played key roles in implementing multiple maternal, newborn and child health programs in Nigeria, providing technical and programmatic leadership on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and family planning and maternal, newborn and child health intervention projects. Before becoming chief of party for Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria, USAID’s largest country investment in social and behavior change, he led the integrated reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health plus nutrition social and behavior change and family planning interventions. In this role, he conceptualized and led implementation of innovative social and behavior strategies while supporting overall project management and operations.
Team Leader
Indonesia, Guatemala, Angola
Robert Ainslie is a Team Leader for Indonesia, Guatemala, and Angola working in projects for family planning, malaria, nutrition, COVID-19, WASH and capacity building.
He has more than 30 years’ working in social behavior change communication covering a range of health areas. He has overseen and implemented projects in Latin America, Africa and Asia. He holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs (Communication & Development) from Ohio University.
Director, Research and Evaluation
Stella Babalola is the director of research and evaluation at CCP and is a professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A demographer by training, she has more than 30 years of experience in behavioral research and has worked extensively in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Over the past five years, her research has focused largely on family planning, malaria and adolescent reproductive health. She has conducted research and published extensively on multiple reproductive health issues, including family planning, malaria, maternal health, sexual and gender-based violence, adolescent sexuality and HIV/AIDS. She was recently a visiting professor with the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa under the Carnegie African in Diaspora Program. The program affords Africans in diaspora the opportunity to visit African institutions for short periods of time to strengthen the capacity of faculty members and graduate students. Stella has a PhD from the Université de Paris.
See Stella Babalola’s published research.
View Dr. Babalola’s faculty page at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Team Leader
Burundi and Cameroon
Sara Berthe is a Team Leader for Burundi and Cameroon, while also providing technical social and behavior (SBC) guidance to an integrated health project in Guinea. Sara works across various health areas including family planning, maternal and child health, Global Health Security, COVID-19, and most notably malaria. Sara also serves as the co-chair of CCP’s Malaria Community of Practice.
A proven problem solver, she has more than 15 years of experience in managing complex health programs across francophone Africa, including Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea Mali, and Senegal, including her role as Chief of Party for the CCP-led Breakthrough ACTION project in the DRC. Sara previously worked on global malaria projects NetWorks and VectorWorks, researching the misuse of mosquito nets for fishing in Malawi and helping various National Malaria Control Programs to consider new channels of mosquito net distribution to ensure the most vulnerable were protected.
Sara holds an MPH in Maternal and Child Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Team Leader
India
Uttara Bharath Kumar is CCP’s senior social and behavior change (SBC) and capacity strengthening advisor and team leader for India. She currently supports Breakthrough ACTION’s population and reproductive health work in the Philippines and manages projects in India supported by the World Bank and the Bernard van Leer Foundation. She is also the CCP lead for the USAID-funded Momentum for Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics project, currently in Nigeria, India, Mozambique and Mali.
She has more than 29 years of experience in the field of health communication and behavior change. Uttara has worked on a range of health issues including HIV and AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, nutrition, malaria, early childhood development, non-communicable diseases, tuberculosis and cancer in more than 20 countries and has led and co-facilitated more than 25 Leadership in Strategic Communication workshops globally on behalf of Johns Hopkins University’s Training and Capacity Strengthening Division.
Uttara earned her MHS in International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BA in English from Wellesley College.
Team Leader
Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Niger
Kirsten Böse is a public health and communication specialist with over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing projects in reproductive health and family planning, HIV/AIDS, malaria, child survival and adolescent health promotion.
Kirsten has worked extensively throughout Africa and Asia. Previously, she lived in Malawi and Tanzania when she was chief of party for USAID-funded programs. She was deputy director of Knowledge for Health (a global knowledge management project) and director of the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3), USAID’s global flagship social and behavior change program from 2013-2018.
Her current interests focus on tapping the power of new technologies and communication channels to strengthen capacity approaches for program implementers. Kirsten enjoys working together with communities to inspire solutions for better health. She currently manages Francophone Africa programs for CCP.
Kirsten earned her BA in Anthropology from Stanford University and her MHS in Maternal and Child Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Team Leader
Malawi, Liberia
Jen Boyle is responsible for oversight and management of CCP projects in Liberia and Malawi.
In Liberia, Jen manages the Breakthrough ACTION Liberia project, a multimillion-dollar investment designed to deliver effective, quality SBC activities that will result in improved demand, access and use of health services. In Malawi, Jen oversees several smaller Breakthrough ACTION projects focused on ending child marriage, increasing COVID vaccine uptake and implementation of a malaria behavioral research study. Jen has managed and supported CCP country programs since 2001, including time spent in Malawi as project director for BRIDGE II, an HIV prevention and mitigation project led by CCP.
Jen previously worked with Baylor College of Medicine in Malawi as deputy director for the Tingathe Project and was deputy director for a local NGO called Dance4Life in South Africa. Prior to beginning her career, Jen volunteered with Straight Talk Foundation in Uganda, conducting school visits with teams of health workers to talk to students about sexual and reproductive health issues.
Jen holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Denver.
Team Leader
Sierra Leone, Nigeria
Andrea Brown Anschel has worked with CCP as a program officer since 2010 and has more than 14 years of experience working in international health. Andrea has vast experience in training and capacity building. With a Baltimore-based team, five times she has organized and co-facilitated CCP’s signature four-week Leadership in Strategic Communication Workshop held in the United States. She has also co-led in the organization and facilitation of five two-week leadership workshops in Senegal, Barbados, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda.
Andrea is currently a senior program officer supporting Breakthrough ACTION, CCP’s global social and behavior change project, as a team leader for Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Specifically, Andrea supports supervision, management and oversight on several technical areas including zoonotic diseases, malaria, COVID-19, WASH, family planning/reproductive health and maternal, newborn and child health.
Andrea previously provided technical and operational support on CCP’s global malaria program. She has creative community outreach experience and has a proven commitment to social change and advocacy. Andrea has also worked as a health educator for rural mothers and children and a project coordinator for famine-stricken communities in Madagascar. She also has extensive experience working with domestic organizations, including non-profits that provide skills and opportunities for marginalized populations. Andrea has a master’s in social work from the University of Maryland with a concentration in community development and social action.
Director, Capacity Strengthening
Team Leader,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda
Arzum Ciloglu has more than 20 years’ experience in public health in the areas of family planning, reproductive health, maternal health, post-abortion care, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. She is CCP’s director for capacity strengthening.
Arzum has worked extensively in the development and implementation of capacity building programs including the development of curricula and training materials for strategic health communication program planning and advocacy. A team leader, she has specific expertise in strategic leadership and management, advocacy, quality and performance improvement and knowledge management.
At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Arzum received her DrPH in Population, Family and Reproductive Health, was a Nafis Sadik Fellow and received a certificate in health communication. She is an associate in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and has worked extensively in Africa, Asia and Near East/Eastern Europe. She is fluent in Turkish.
Director, Strategic Communication Programs Unit
Lisa Cobb is the Director of CCP’s Strategic Communication Programs Unit, the unit that designs and implements CCP’s Social and Behavior Change programs around the world. Ms. Cobb is a social and behavior change leader with more than 25 years of public health experience. In her more than two decades at CCP, she has worked across SBC practice, from materials design to the development of effective communication strategies to organizational change management. In her role as Unit Director, she has focused on key management issues such as career progression, organizational culture, and business development to help the center thrive.
She holds a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Stephanie Desmon has been director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs since June 2017. In this role, she oversees all aspects of communications for the center, including the website, social media, marketing materials and media relations.
Stephanie is also a co-host of Public Health On Call, a podcast focused on COVID-19 and produced by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Prior to joining the center, Stephanie was director of media and public relations at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for three years and spent nearly five years in the media office at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Stephanie, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, spent the first 15 years of her career as a newspaper reporter, winning a number of national awards in various positions at the Baltimore Sun, the Palm Beach Post, the Florida Times-Union and the Birmingham Post-Herald. She has a Master of Arts in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University.
Chief of Party, Communication for Improved Health Outcomes
CCP Country Representative
Mozambique
Patrick Devos is CCP’s country director in Mozambique. He has more than 24 years of field experience in social behavior change communication (SBCC) across a range of health and social development issues including HIV prevention, HIV services support, voluntary medical male circumcision, family planning, adolescent reproductive health and infectious diseases such as COVID-19 in three African countries (Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique).
Patrick has led teams who implemented several cooperative agreements with USAID since 2007 including designing and managing a wide variety of health communication programs such as national strategies, demand generation campaigns, vaccine uptake, participatory community methodologies and entertainment education.
As country director, he provides strategic leadership for CCP’s diverse SBCC programs and technical guidance.
Patrick has a master’s degree in moral sciences. He speaks English, Portuguese, French and Dutch.
Team Leader
Mali, Senegal
Issiaga Daffé has nearly two decades of diverse public health experience. He started as a physician in Coyah Prefecture, Guinea, where he learned about rural communities’ public health needs and what works to address them. He has applied his clinical and public health skills in a series of increasingly senior positions based in Guinea and Mali as chief of party/country director and has provided short-term technical assistance elsewhere in Africa.
As team leader, Issiaga provides oversight for CCP country programs in Senegal and Mali, including motivating the team to achieve organizational goals, overseeing team member work for quality and empowering members with skills to improve their competence and productivity.
As Global Health Security Agenda technical advisor for Francophone countries, Issiaga works with country teams to help develop, review, implement and monitor technical approaches and strategies for strengthening risk communication and community engagement-related work plans and interventions.
Prior to CCP, Issiaga worked as the State of Maryland HIV clinical quality program manager and as a manager at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Adolescent and Young Adult HIV Program.
Issiaga has an M.D. from the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania, and an MPH from George Washington University.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Director
Sierra Leone
James Sulaiman Fofanah oversees field office staff and operations of the Breakthrough ACTION Sierra Leone project. James provides management support and oversight of technical, administrative and financial aspects. He is also responsible for providing strategic direction and technical assistance for the development, implementation and monitoring of Breakthrough ACTION project activities. James has more than 12 years of experience leading SBC programs in Sierra Leone prior to joining CCP. He holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Wolverhampton in the UK.
Cassandra Mickish Gross has a decade of professional and academic experience developing, implementing and evaluating health and human services programs. She works with teams across the center and organizations around the world to form strong partnerships to solve critical health problems with creative solutions. She has also led digital health activities in South Africa and Uganda to support pregnant women living with HIV to stay in care and have healthy babies.
Prior to her current role at CCP, Cassie provided technical assistance to State governments to significantly improve processing of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applications to ensure timeliness, efficiency and accuracy in benefit determinations. She holds an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Ethiopia
Simon Heliso is currently leading the Breakthrough ACTION project (known as Communication for Health) and other related CCP programs in Ethiopia. He has been with CCP for seven years and has a diverse background leading multisectoral international development and emergency response programs in Burundi, South Sudan and Ethiopia with international organizations such as World Vision and Alight (formerly American Refugees Committee International).
Simon has a doctorate in business management from the Swiss Management Center Switzerland and a master’s degree in development economics from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
Director, The Challenge Initiative (TCI) for CCP in Nigeria
A public health physician, she has a wealth of experience in implementing reproductive health and family planning programs within the public and private sectors. She is passionate about integrating best practices in government systems and engaging stakeholders to strengthen health systems.
She previously led CCP’s Post Pregnancy Family Planning Project from inception to close-out and was recently the senior technical adviser for the Momentum Safe Surgery Project funded by USAID. Taiwo holds an MSc in Global Health Policy and Management from Brandeis University and an MD from Obafemi Awolowo University.
Breakthrough ACTION Chief of Party, Nepal
Shreejana K.C. is currently leading Breakthrough ACTION Reducing child early and forced marriage project (R- CEFM Project) in Nepal. She has been with CCP for more than 10 years and has expertise in social and behavior change capacity strengthening.
Shreejana has experience in providing strategic and technical leadership in implementing local-level social and behavior change systems strengthening and advocacy, community mobilization, and development of various SBC tools to provide technical assistance to strengthen capacity at all levels of the government and in the private, and NGO sectors. She is an accomplished SBC trainer and a mentor with contextualized experience from the local levels.
She recently led the process of designing and creating the “SBC Palika Package”, a job aid for designing, implementing, and mentoring social and behavior change activities at the local level under the Breakthrough ACTION project. Also led the Integrated Nutrition Project ‘Suaahara-I’, an integrated nutrition project which was implemented in 42 districts of Nepal.
She has experience in reproductive health, adolescent reproductive health, anti-trafficking, family planning and nutrition. Shreejana has a master’s degree in sociology and rural development from the Tribhuvan University of Nepal.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION Mali
Aoua oversees technical, programmatic and administrative aspects of Breakthrough ACTION’s work in Mali. She provides strategic direction for the development, implementation and monitoring of project activities and ensures timely activity implementation. Aoua has 22 years of experience in program and project management; monitoring, evaluation and research; and social and behavior change and risk communication. She is a medical doctor and has a master’s degree in population and health.
Director, Finance and Administration
Daa’iyah Lang, the interim director of finance and administration for CCP, has worked in financial management for public health for more than 15 years. During her time at CCP, she has held many roles in the United States, Africa and Asia, from overall financial oversight for projects to providing technical assistance to other CCP financial professionals worldwide. Before taking on the role of interim director of finance, she served as CCP’s director of finance in Uganda, and was CCP’s director of operations in Tanzania prior to that. In these roles and others in CCP’s Baltimore office, she has ensured compliance and financial integrity for the programs she supports without losing sight of the pressing urgency of the public health work.
She is also a member of CCP’s core leadership teams and its Anti-Racist Action Group.
Chief of Party, Bangladesh
Dr. Faisal Mahmud is responsible for leading CCP’s projects in Bangladesh. He has more than 26 years of experience managing diverse programs, including social and behavior change communication and integrated program development. He oversees program design, implementation, supervision, monitoring and evaluation and finance administration. Faisal holds a medical degree and a MPH, with specific training in strategic communication.
Prior to joining CCP, Faisal held senior strategic positions with BBC Media Action, Norwegian Church Aid, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Concern Worldwide, Save the Children, CARE and Handicap International in multicultural settings.
Regional SBC Advisor, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Senegal
Mamadou Mbaye is the country representative in Senegal and senior technical advisor for the Breakthrough ACTION Sahel RISE II projects in Burkina Faso and Niger. Prior to joining CCP, Mamadou developed social and behavior change communication (SBCC) strategies in Senegal for the Ministry of Health and non-governmental organizations. He has experience working with the BASICS project, FHI360, Intrahealth and ADEMAS. He has a broad understanding of the challenges of SBCC as well as the various approaches that have been used in Senegal and West Africa. Mamadou has an MA in Marketing & Communication from the Eticca Dakar School of Communication.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Democratic Republic of Congo
Didier Mbayi Kangudie is the Chief of Party for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He spent 11 years with USAID as a senior health advisor and has more than 25 years of experience blending clinical work, public health and global health programming.
Didier has managed complex portfolios in the areas of maternal, newborn, and child health; social and behavior change; nutrition; fistula; HIV/AIDS; malaria; Ebola; and private sector engagement. His experience cuts across Central, Southern and West Africa. He holds MD and MPH degrees.
Chief of Party
Cameroon
Before joining CCP team, Patrick Mbia was the director of the Health Systems Department at the Cameroon country office for Helen Keller International. His expertise covers a wide range of programs and project management responsibilities including strategic program planning, work planning and budgeting, and financial, administrative, and contractual management.
Patrick comes with many years of experience in the international development sector focusing on the coordination and management of nationwide multi-donor health programs. He has led teams in health program design and health program implementation involving close collaboration with representatives of the Government of Cameroon, universities, NGOs, local government, and communities across Cameroon’s ten regions.
Patrick holds a degree in computer engineering from the University Institute of Technology, in Ngaoundere-Cameroon, a master’s degree in economics and management from the Catholic University of Central Africa and he is presently preparing another master’s degree in health management.
Team Leader
Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea
Shannon McAfee currently serves as team lead for CCP’s country programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea, which include projects focused on integrated health, the GHSA portfolio, education, Ebola, and the COVID-19 response.
She has 25 years of experience designing, leading and implementing health and development projects across 16 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Her areas of specialty include health service delivery, social marketing and social and behavior change.
Prior to joining CCP, her experiences include technical and programmatic support to USAID’s flagship maternal and child health integrated programs and to multiple social marketing projects.
For 13 years, she was based in Madagascar, where she received the honor of knighthood, with the “Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite de Madagascar.” She has an MPH from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Guatemala
Maritza Méndez is the Chief of Party for Breakthrough ACTION project in Guatemala. The project aims to improve health and nutrition of children to contribute to stunting prevention through social and behavior change interventions.
Maritza holds a degree in nutrition from San Carlos University and an MPH from Rafael Landívar University, both in Guatemala.
She has extensive experience in the design, implementation and follow-up of strategies, programs and plans aimed at prevention of all forms of malnutrition and the improvement of food security, both as part of the Guatemalan government and with the United Nations and other non-government organizations.
She is passionate about working to improve the future of children and those most vulnerable to malnutrition and disease.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Kenya
Grace Miheso is responsible for providing strategic and programmatic oversight in the implementation of social and behavior change initiatives for malaria control and prevention as part of Breakthrough ACTION’s work in Kenya. She has more than 20 years of experience in health and development supporting regional and national institutions and communities in the East African region.
Prior to joining CCP, Grace worked with USAID/Kenya, USAID/East African Mission and UNICEF. She holds an MPH from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a post-graduate diploma from the University of Nairobi.
Chief of Party, Social and Behavior Change Activity
CCP Country Representative
Uganda
Glory Mkandawire is responsible for leading the USAID-funded Social and Behavior Change Activity in Uganda. She has worked for CCP for more than 17 years implementing social and behavior change programs in Malawi, Eswatini and recently in Uganda.
Prior to joining CCP, Glory taught nurses and midwives at Malawi College of Health Sciences in Malawi. She has a Master of Public Health from University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Public Health.
Chief of Party
Breakthrough ACTION Malawi and Zambia
For nearly 15 years, Chime has worked with CCP, managing large social and behavior change projects including ones that create demand for various services in reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health (RMNCH), malaria and COVID-19, as well as working to end child marriage and rebuilding public confidence in health systems.
Her country experience includes work in Zambia, South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Malawi. She has worked with government ministries, faith-based organizations, multilateral institutions, international and local NGOs, national civil society organizations and development partners.
Chime has a master’s in public health from Royal Tropical Institute in Holland. She is a member of the American Management Association, and has attended various management-related international courses including the International Workshop on Improving the Quality of Health Services from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
Côte d’Ivoire
Protais Ndabamenye joined CCP as chief of party for the Breakthrough ACTION project in June 2021.
Protais has long worked in the field of social and behavior change. This experience includes USAID programs that have addressed integrated health, maternal, neonatal and infant health, HIV and AIDS, malaria control and pandemic infections. Most recently, before joining Breakthrough ACTION, Protais was chief of party for USAID’s “Services de Santé à Grand Impact” in Mali where he collaborated closely with CCP’s Keneya Jemu Kan project.
He has an MPH from Mount Kenya University School of Public Health in Kigali, Rwanda.
Chief of Party
Breakthrough ACTION Tanzania
Waziri Nyoni is chief of party for Breakthrough ACTION Tanzania where he provides leadership in strategic design and implementation of all aspects of the project and also provides overall financial management and leadership for the Breakthrough ACTION country office.
Waziri previously worked for FHI360 and, prior to 2019, as chief of party for CCP’s VectorWorks project. During that project, he led the project to pilot and scale up countrywide the health facility-based distribution of long lasting insecticide-treated nets. He led the project to integrate school-based distribution into the local government structures while significantly improving efficiency and reducing costs. Under his leadership, VectorWorks set up a net accountability system that for the first time could account for every net distributed in Tanzania.
He has managed large malaria campaigns, designing and implementing several SBCC activities at all levels: community initiatives, mass media campaigns and facility-based interventions.
He previously served as the director of programs at Tanzania Communication and Development Center, where he founded the organization and provided overall leadership and oversight in all aspects of TCDC’s program implementation ranging from social and behavior change communication technical assistance to financial management.
Waziri holds an MSc degree in public health from Queen Margaret University, UK. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in project management and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Dar as Salaam, Tanzania.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Liberia
Saratu Olabode-Ojo is responsible for providing management and oversight of all technical, administrative, operational and financial aspects of Breakthrough ACTION in Liberia. She has more than 12 years of experience in managing and implementing complex developmental programs, including health programs in sexual and reproductive health; maternal, newborn, and child health; and HIV and AIDS. She has worked for CCP for five years.
Saratu holds an MPH from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.
Team Leader, Ghana, Guyana
Jen Orkis is a Senior Program Officer II and Team Leader at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. She has more than 17 years of experience designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating SBC programs in East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, including 10 years of experience based in Uganda and Tanzania advising on integrated health programs.
Jen has worked across multiple health areas, ranging from HIV, family planning, maternal and child health and malaria to tuberculosis, COVID-19, Zika, and zoonotic diseases. Her of expertise include strategy development, campaign design, human-centered design, entertainment-education, stakeholder coordination, and capacity strengthening.
Jen serves as co-chair for the Behavioral Economics and Human-Centered Design Community of Practice and is part of the CCP Leadership Group. She holds an MHS degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a BS from Cornell University.
SBC Director, ACCESS Health Program
CCP Country Representative
Madagascar
Tovo Ranaivomino is CCP’s country representative in Madagascar and Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Director for ACCESS Health Program, in which CCP is a partner. Tovo is a highly experienced project manager and SBC practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in designing and implementing SBC projects addressing family planning, reproductive health, child health and nutrition and HIV/AIDS in Madagascar. Before coming to CCP, he has worked with JSI, PSI and Marie Stopes International.
Tovo holds a DSS in Management and Corporate Development from ISCAM and has a DUES II from Ambohitsaina University, Antananarivo. He is fluent in Malagasy, French and English.
Director, Breakthrough ACTION
Elizabeth Serlemitsos directs Breakthrough ACTION, a five-year, $300 million initiative funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to lead its social and behavior change programs around the world.
Elizabeth has worked in the field of international development and public health for more than 30 years, 26 of those while residing in Africa. She has served as chief of party of two USAID-funded projects in Zambia, team leader of a DFID-funded project, and regional director for CCP’s Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) Ebola program in the Mano River Region.
Prior to and during her work on Ebola, her approach has a consistent theme: helping create a new generation of African health communication professionals. In her previous work, she built the capacity of individuals through the “by the youth for the youth” HEART campaign which, launched 15 years ago in Zambia, which remains a part of the vocabulary of Zambian youth today. She also mentored Zambian youth through the formation of three local NGOs.
Elizabeth comes most recently from her role as senior technical advisor-capacity building for the Tanzania Capacity and Communication Project (TCCP). TCCP designed and launched an innovative mentoring program, helped Muhimbili University to create a master’s degree in health communication, designed and implemented a radio distance learning program for community volunteers and rolled out a Tanzanian adaptation of the Leadership in Strategic Health Communication course to regional and district health managers across the country.
Marla Shaivitz has been director of digital strategy for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs since February 2018. In this role, she works closely with the center’s leadership team to identify, analyze, recommend and execute digital technology priorities and vision.
Since joining CCP in 2013, she has been instrumental in a number of digital initiatives including the development of numerous websites, mobile applications and data visualizations, as well as interactive and instructional design content. In 2017, Marla led the team that was a Webby Award finalist for a digital documentation of CCP’s work in West Africa during the Ebola crisis. She authored a proposal to the UNICODE consortium advocating for a mosquito emoji, which was approved and implemented across operating systems in the fall of 2018. She was the technical lead for the KAP COVID and COVID Behaviors Dashboard series of data visualizations and in 2024 received Anthem-award recognition for digital strategy on the CCP-led Knowledge SUCCESS project.
A seasoned technologist with over 20 years’ experience managing and leading digital projects, Marla has a passion for innovations in technology and those working toward social good. Prior to joining CCP, Marla was a founding member of a technology consulting firm that works with trade and professional societies as well as government agencies in their strategic use of web-based technologies. She spent nine years working for a strategic health philanthropy directing all online initiatives and working with grantees to build capacity and create efficiencies around technology and online systems. As a contributing writer for a popular tech blog focused on technology companies and their founders, she has interviewed entrepreneurs across the United States and Africa. She holds a Masters in Liberal Arts from the Johns Hopkins University.
Director of Communication Science
Prominent communication scholar Suruchi Sood, PhD, whose research focuses on social and behavior change, is CCP’s Director of Communication Science.
In addition to her work at CCP, she is also a faculty member in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Health, Behavior & Society.
Suruchi’s career has spanned areas inside and outside of academics for 30 years, specifically around research processes associated with the design, implementation and evaluation of health communication efforts to promote behavior and social change. She has managed communication research within a variety of contexts – social media, mass media, interpersonal communication, community mobilization, social marketing and advocacy. She has worked on five continents.
She is well-known for developing a social norms framework, specifically examining how social and behavior change communication can be used as a mechanism for shifting norms around a given harmful practice.
Suruchi earned an MA in Communication and Development Studies from Ohio University and her Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication (with a public health minor) from the University of New Mexico. She spent her early career at CCP and returned in 2023 from Drexel University School of Public Health, where she was an associate professor for a decade.
Director, Knowledge Management
Director, Knowledge SUCCESS
Tara Sullivan leads CCPs knowledge management program, is the project director for Knowledge SUCCESS and teaches in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has worked for more than 20 years in international health with a focus on program evaluation, knowledge management (KM), quality of care and family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH).
Tara has bridged a knowledge gap in the field of KM by developing frameworks and guides for KM program design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation and by exploring the contribution that KM makes to strengthening health systems and improving health outcomes. Her research has examined knowledge needs at multiple levels of the health system and has investigated how social factors (social capital, social networks, social learning) contribute to knowledge sharing outcomes. Tara also has researched factors that influence the provision of quality of care in global FP/RH programs. She has lived and worked in Botswana and Thailand and holds degrees from Cornell University (BS) and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (PhD, MPH).
Team Leader
Baltimore
August is the team leader for the CCP’s Baltimore-based projects and has more than 15 years of experience in partnering with community organizations and government agencies on community health initiatives to address health outcomes and health disparities through formative research, strategic planning, health communication and evaluation and monitoring.
August earned Master of Health Science Degree in Clinical Epidemiology and a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Senior Program Manager
Breakthrough ACTION
Togo
Hilaire Tokplo leads the Togo country program for the West Africa Breakthrough ACTION regional project. He has more than 18 years of experience leading social and behavior change programs in West and Central Africa (Benin, Cameroon, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Prior to joining CCP, Hilaire was the National Coordinator of the Redressement Économique et Social Inclusif du Lac Tchad project in Cameroon. He has a master’s degree in communication from the National University of Benin and a certificate in public health from the Regional Public Health Institute in Ouidah, Benin.
Technical Co-Lead, Entertainment Education
Sanjanthi (Sanji) Velu is a senior program officer and team lead at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Program.
She has a PhD in communication and more than 17 years of experience in the field of social and behavior change communication, including six years leading CCP’s projects in India. Her expertise spans strategy development, multimedia production, capacity strengthening, and project management. She has worked across multiple health areas addressing family planning, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS prevention, tuberculosis, tobacco control, vaccine communication, water, sanitation, and environmental communication.
Sanji is passionate about entertainment education (EE), participatory planning, building a shared vision, and co-creation with end-audiences. She is currently based in Baltimore, MD and supports programs in South Asia and East Africa.
Chief of Party, Breakthrough ACTION
CCP Country Representative
Guyana
As Chief of Party, Sean Wilson is responsible for the strategic oversight of Breakthrough ACTION in Guyana. He has more than 20 years of experience managing health and development projects with international and national organizations. Prior to joining CCP, Sean worked with the United Nations in Guyana. He holds a MSc degree in project management from the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.
