Konbit Sante - Board of Directors and The Founders

Board of Directors

Eva Lathrop, MD, MPH, President

Eva is the Global Medical Director for Population Services International (PSI), a non-profit global health organization based in Washington DC. Prior to joining PSI she was an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and global health at Emory University. Eva is one of Konbit Sante’s founding board members, and continues to work with Konbit Sante as board member and volunteer to advance initiatives to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes. Eva received her BA from Bowdoin College, her MD from the University of Vermont, and her MPH from Emory University. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Maine Medical Center.

Youseline Telemaque, MD, Vice President

Youseline is a Haitian obstetrician, gynecologist, and family planning expert who is a leader in the field of reproductive health, family planning, and women's rights in Haiti. She has headed family planning programs for various international NGOs, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Jhpiego. Youseline began working with Konbit Sante in 2008, and served as the in-country director in Cap-Haitien from 2010 to 2012.

Jonathon Simon, MPH, DSc, Secretary

Jonathon recently retired from the Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (MCA) Department of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, a position he assumed after a 30-year career in public health research and teaching focused on child survival. Previously, he served at Boston University as director of the Center for Global Health and Development and chair of the Department of Global Health in the School of Public Health. He was named the inaugural Robert A. Knox Professor in 2012, and has worked in more than 25 low-income countries. Jonathon received his BS and MPH from the University of California at Berkeley, and his doctorate of science from Harvard University School of Public Health.

Frank (Rich) Feeley, JD, Treasurer

Rich Feeley trained as a lawyer and began his career in the United States with government agencies managing publicly funded health insurance and the regulation of health providers. Over the past 30 years, he has worked on problems of health financing and management in more than 25 developing and transitional countries. He has served on the boards of two Boston-area hospitals, and is former chair ad interim of the Department of Global Health Department at Boston University of Public Health, where he recently retired as an associate professor. He holds an undergraduate degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and a doctorate of jurisprudence from Yale University.

Adam Silverman, MD

Adam provides clinical care in the pediatric intensive care unit and in the emergency department at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, CT. He is co-founder and director of the hospital’s Center for Global Health, and collaborates on multiple programs in Haiti to increase local capacity for pediatric care through innovative collaborative educational activities. He is also assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Adam holds a BA from Tufts University, an MA from Boston University, and an MD from the Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School.

Andre Jean Pierre

Andre was born in the Northwestern department of Haiti in a small town called Port de Paix. He and his family currently lives in Cap-Haitian, where Andre works for the Center for Nutrition and Education for Women and Children (C-NEW-C), a Haitian organization that seeks to empower families to develop health and self-sufficiency. Based in the heart of Cap-Haitien, C-NEW-C has been a longtime partner of Konbit Sante.

Hugh Tozer, PE

Hugh has worked with Konbit Sante as a volunteer and board member for more than 15 years. He is a water and wastewater engineer with Woodard & Curran in Portland, Maine, and focuses on infrastructure needs to support improved health care in Haiti. He served as the president of Konbit Sante’s Board of Directors for four years, and has traveled to Haiti more than 30 times. Hugh received a BA in chemistry from Grinnell College and an MS in civil engineering from the University of Vermont.

Manuchca Marc Alcimé, MSN, RN

Manuchca works at the Cap-Haitien, Haiti, national nursing school as a nurse instructor and clinical preceptor. She previously worked as a floor nurse in the urology unit at Justinien University Hospital, then at Konbit Sante as a wound care nurse specialist following the 2010 earthquake. Manuchca has a master's degree in nursing education and leadership from Regis College. She joined Konbit Sante’s Board of Directors in 2016.

Pascale S. Gaetjens

Pascale is a 40-year resident of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, with decades of experience in the tourism industry. She is involved in several charitable activities aimed at helping underprivileged children and young adults complete their education and eventually become professionals who are able to provide for themselves and their families.

Sarah Meyer, MSN, RN, CPN, CPNP-AC

Sarah is the Program Director of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship program for Partners in Health and works clinically in the PICU and Emergency departments at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Sarah has been working in Haiti for over 10 years and spent 2 years living in Haiti while she was the Director of Critical Care Nursing Education at the University Hospital of Mirebalais. She speaks creole and is a strong advocate for continuing nursing education in Haiti. She graduated with her Nursing degree from The Ohio State University and her Masters of Science in Nursing with a minor in Global Health from the University of California, San Francisco.

Wendy Taylor

Wendy’s background is in market research and marketing planning. Following graduation from DePauw University, she worked for large financial institutions in Chicago and Colorado, and had a national market research business. Wendy taught marketing at the University of Colorado and critical decision making at the National School of Bank Marketing. She is a past board member of United Way of Greater Portland, where she was involved in community impact work.

Strategic Advisor

Nathan M. Nickerson, RN, MSN, DrPH

Prior to his role as strategic advisor, Nate served as Konbit Sante's first executive director for over 15 years. Nate was involved in the initial planning meetings of Konbit Sante and in the inception of developing relationships with partners in Haiti. During his tenure, he led the organization to develop key programs, built a staff team of employees in Haiti and the USA, and formulated long-term partnerships with Haitian healthcare facilities. Nate has BS degrees from Tufts University and the University of Southern Maine, and a master's degree in nursing from Simmons College. In 2007, he received his doctorate in international public health from Boston University.

Founders

J. Michael Taylor, MD, MPH

Michael is a retired dermatologist in Portland with a career-long interest in international and community medicine. He is a graduate of Amherst College, University of Buffalo Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, and has completed residencies in internal medicine and dermatology at the University of California at San Francisco. Following medical school, Michael went to Nigeria as a US Peace Corps physician. He has taught epidemiology at Dartmouth College and was chief of the department of community medicine at Maine Medical Center, where he helped establish the Family Medicine Department and medical clinics in underserved parts of Maine. Konbit Sante was born from his vision.

Wendy Taylor

Honorary Advisors

Ambassador Brian Dean Curran

Dean served as United States ambassador to Haiti from 2001-03, and subsequently served with North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Italy until his retirement and relocation to Damariscotta, Maine, in 2008. He served on the Konbit Sante Board of Directors from 2009-16. As a member of the U.S Foreign Service, Dean has served in various capacities in Mozambique, Dublin, Paris, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, and Brussels. Dean graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1970. He received a Master's degree from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1972, and a Certificate of Studies from the National School of Administration in Paris, France, in 1981.

Don Nicoll

Don was one of Konbit Sante's founding board members. He served as administrative assistant to U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie and Congressman Frank M. Coffin, and was vice president for planning and public affairs at Maine Medical Center and chair of several State of Maine committees, commissions and working groups. A native of Boston, Don holds a Bachelor of arts degree from Colby College and a Master of arts degree from Pennsylvania State University, both in history and government.

EJ Lovett

EJ has been a volunteer for Konbit Sante since 2002, including serving as vice president and president of the Board of Directors, and has participated in numerous volunteer trips to Haiti. Prior to co-founding Lovett Collins Associates, LLC, in 2002, he served as vice president for research at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, from 1986 to 2002, and was the founding director of the Maine Medical Center Research Institute. He holds a Bachelor of science degree in biology from Norwich University and a Ph.D. in medical sciences from the University of Connecticut Health Center Department of Pathology.

Henry Perry, MD

Henry has been an honorary advisor to Konbit Sante since its founding. He was a resident in general surgery at the Maine Medical Center from 1976 to 1981. He has spent his career working in global health, having lived in Bolivia, Bangladesh, and Haiti, and worked in many other countries throughout the world. Henry is a Senior Scientist in the Health Systems Program of the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is the author of more than 200 publications related to global health.

Malcolm Rogers, MD

Malcolm’s work as a volunteer for Konbit Sante involved helping to teach psychiatry to Haitian colleagues during multiple trips to Cap-Haitien. He also served as a board member for several years. He was educated at Yale University and Harvard Medical School. At the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he focused on the interface between medical and surgical illness and psychiatric conditions, and also operated an adult psychiatry practice. He has served in the Portland-based Veterans Affairs Clinic and in a national Veterans Affairs research project. He currently serves as chair of the Program Committee of Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians and as chair of the board of directors of Piper Shores.

Polly Larned, RN

Polly has been a volunteer with Konbit Sante since 2002, including a stint on the Board of Directors, and currently serves on the Communications & Fundraising Committee. She worked as a community health nurse for the Visiting Nurse Association Home Health Hospice in Maine from 1990-96, and as a registered nurse in the Maine Medical Center Department of Pediatrics from 1984-91. Polly has an Associate’s degree in arts from Briarcliff Junior College and an Associate’s degree in nursing from Westbrook College of Nursing.

Stephen Larned, MD

Stephen has been a volunteer with Konbit Sante since 2002, including a stint as President of the Board of Directors, and has made many trips to Haiti with the organization. He served as Vice President for Medical Affairs for Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, from 1986 to 2002; as a general internist for Spurwink International Medical Associates in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, from 1973-91; as an emergency physician for Maine Medical Center from 1972-73; and as an emergency and staff physician for Fairfax Hospital in Virginia from 1970-72. Stephen has a Bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan and a medical degree from Wayne State University College of Medicine.

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