Directors

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  Karen Blyth, MS Director, East Africa Programs

  Karen Blyth has more than 25 years of leadership and technical program management experience in public health projects in Africa and Asia. She formerly served as chief of party for the IntraHealth-led Capacity Project in Rwanda; prior to moving to Rwanda in 2003, she was the associate director of program development for the global, IntraHealth-led PRIME II Project. For 15 years she worked in quality improvement, training systems, and supervision with ministries of health in Kenya, Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritania, and Guinea. She is an authority on international adult education and has developed curricula and programs in on-the-job training, training of trainers, and preservice and in-service training.

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  Perle Combary, PhD Acting Director, Monitoring, Evaluation, & Research

  Perle Combary has over 25 years of experience with programming, management and evaluation in the areas of population, child survival, reproductive health, health financing, community-based services, and health personnel performance improvement.  She has served 14 years as IntraHealth’s Senior Program/Evaluation Officer and as Associate Director of Programs for West Africa and 12 years within a USAID country office in Africa. She has worked in Burkina Faso, Togo, Senegal and Benin. As Benin Country Director, Combary provided overall technical guidance to the ACQUIRE/Benin’s program and from 2006 to 2009, she served as Technical and Operations Managers providing technical and management support to Senegal, Togo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Madagascar and Mali. Combary has a PhD in Sociology from the Université of Paris VIII in France and a Masters in Information Science. She is fluent in English and French.

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  Laura Hoemeke, MPH Director, Strategic Communications

  Laura Hoemeke has 20 years of experience in health communication and international health, including field assignments in the Central African Republic, Benin, Senegal and Rwanda, and short-term assignments throughout East, West, and Central Africa.  Hoemeke began her career as a journalist in Chicago, focusing on health and social issues. After working with Africare and for USAID in Benin, in early 2003, she joined IntraHealth as the Regional Director for West and Central Africa, overseeing country and regional efforts for the PRIME II Project and other initiatives.  From 2005 through early 2010, Hoemeke served as the Chief of Party in Rwanda for IntraHealth’s $30-million USAID-funded Twubakane Decentralization and Health Program.  Hoemeke has an MPH in International Health from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and a BS in journalism from Northwestern University. 

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  Matthew McMichaels Director, Information Technology

  Matt McMichaels has worked in the IT field for 15 years. His leadership includes the development and implementation of IntraHealth’s global information and communication technology systems and infrastructure. He also spearheaded IntraHealth’s internal systems support teams, including the Helpdesk, network/systems administration and the internal systems development team. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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  Sara Pacqué-Margolis, MPH Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, CapacityPlus

  Sara Pacqué-Margolis has over 25 years of global health experience in program and policy development, project management, program monitoring and evaluation, research, teaching, and training. Her previous roles include director of program monitoring and evaluation at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, senior advisor for strategic information with the Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator/PEPFAR, and several positions with USAID/Washington. Pacqué-Margolis has held field positions in Mali as a research fellow at the Center for Applied Research on Population and Development and as the population advisor for USAID. Pacqué-Margolis earned her Master’s of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

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  Laurie Noto Parker, MPH Director of Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Middle East/North Africa Programs

  Laurie Noto Parker has two decades of experience in managing and leading maternal, child, and reproductive health programs in the US and developing countries. From 2006 through 2010, Parker directed IntraHealth’s $25-million USAID-funded Vistaar Project. She has extensive experience in working with USAID. She led the Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) program, worked for CARE India, and directed two global health projects led by IntraHealth: PRIME II and the Capacity Project. Parker received her MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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  Marcus Pridgen Director, Contracts, Grants & Procurement

  Marcus Pridgen joined IntraHealth in 2007. He has extensive experience working for USAID, the Futures Group International, International Foundation of Elections Systems (IFES), Pal-Tech, Inc., Triumph Technologies, Inc., and Primerica Financial Services. He also served eight years in the military.

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  Hazel Ryon, CPA Director, Finance for Programs & Proposal Development

  Hazel Ryon has worked in international development for over 20 years. She joined IntraHealth in 2006, and now serves as director of finance—External Affairs and Programs, a key component of effective program development and implementation. She has extensive expertise in accounting, auditing, and program monitoring. Previously, as a training specialist and program manager with RTI International, Ryon led programs funded by USAID and the World Bank to expand the financing systems and capacity of local governments in developing countries. 

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  Lucille Siegel, MPH Director of Program Development

  Lucy Siegel’s career in public health spans almost three decades, with a primary focus on reproductive, maternal, and child health. Prior to joining IntraHealth, Siegel worked at FHI 360 for eight years as director of research for resource development and subsequently, director of knowledge management. From 1999-2003, she served as founding executive director for the Center for Maternal and Infant Health at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and is currently an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health in the School of Public Health. Siegel was director of the Eugene du Pont Prevention Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute at Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Delaware and held several positions prior to that in the Delaware Division of Public Health. She spent three and a half years with the U.S. Peace Corps in Nepal, where she began her career as a health volunteer. Siegel holds a Masters of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education from UNC-Chapel Hill.

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  Deborah Smulyan Director of Development

  Deborah Smulyan brings more than 20 years of experience, much of it in Washington, DC, leading teams, mobilizing resources, and building development campaigns in the public, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors. Smulyan held senior positions on Capitol Hill and served as executive director of the Democratic Leadership Council, the organization largely credited with creating the New Democrat agenda and helping to catapult its chairman, then-Governor Bill Clinton, into the White House. She led business development for Emmis Communications, acquiring new radio licenses and radio stations in emerging markets throughout Latin America and Central Europe. Most recently, Smulyan served as director of development for the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), a North Carolina-based nonprofit dedicated to cultivating markets, policies, and communities that support socially just and environmentally sound family farms. Smulyan played a strategic role in raising RAFI’s profile and growing its private resources.

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  Barbara Stilwell, PhD, MS, FRCN Director, Technical Leadership

  Barbara Stilwell is an internationally-recognized expert in human resources for health and health systems strengthening, and a principal author of the World Health Report, 2006. She is best known for her influence in advancing the role of nurse practitioners as an important cadre of health workers in the UK. She was recently named one of the most influential nurses of the past 40 years by the UK’s Nursing Times. Stilwell worked for the World Health Organization for almost a decade in health systems development. She has published extensively and currently lectures on topics such as the global health workforce shortage, impacts of health worker migration on developed and developing health systems, and educating nonphysician clinicians in sub-Saharan Africa.

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  Sara Stratton, MPH Director, West and Southern Africa Programs

  Sara Stratton has more than a decade of experience managing international and domestic public health programs. She has extensive experience in the areas of program planning, management and evaluation, performance improvement, maternal and child health services, and community health training. Her field assignments have included Ethiopia, Benin, Rwanda, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Kenya, India, and Thailand. Prior to joining IntraHealth, Stratton directed a nonprofit organization promoting maternal and child health, as well as an HIV and substance abuse outreach program.

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  Kate Tulenko, MD, MPH Deputy Director for Clinical Services & Service Delivery Strengthening, CapacityPlus

  Kate Tulenko has worked at the highest levels of health workforce, health financing, and health policy development with institutions around the world. She has been an advisor to national governments on health policy and reform, and served on expert panels for the World Bank, World Health Organization, AFRO, American Public Health Association, Global Health Workforce Alliance, American Hospital Association, and more. Tulenko has published on a wide array of topics. Her most recent book is Passport to Crisis: How Insourcing Jobs Hurts Health Care Here and Abroad. She also holds academic appointments at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the George Mason College of Health and Human Services. Tulenko holds an MD and MPA from Johns Hopkins University, and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, Emmanuel College.