IHI Developing Countries Team Biographies
Learn more about IHI's staff and faculty who are working in South Africa, Malawi, and Ghana.
Pierre M. Barker, MD
Director/Technical Advisor, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Dr. Pierre M. Barker is Medical Director of Clinics at the Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Pulmonologist at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He is the senior technical director for the Developing Countries program and the director of IHI's HIV/AIDS improvement projects in South Africa. He is also a technical advisor to Project Fives Alive! and works at a variety of health care facilities, ranging from urban tertiary care to deep rural primary care. Pierre grew up in Durban, South Africa, and returned to South Africa on sabbatical leave in 2004-2005 to establish IHI's projects in his native country. Outside of his IHI work, Pierre is interested in pediatric lung diseases, is an attending physician for pediatric pulmonology, and leads health care system transformation projects for UNC at Chapel Hill.
Brandon Bennett, MPH
Project Manager, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Brandon Bennett works as an Improvement Advisor for each of the Developing Countries programs. He has lived and worked in South Africa and, in addition to health care improvement, Brandon is interested in the link between poverty and disease, and the associated impacts of treating one, the other, or both. He is also interested in how models of care can be made sustainable and how they can allow for responsible leadership to grow within a community. Prior to working with IHI, Brandon was a program manager for Reach Out Mbuya, a small NGO targeting people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.
Cathy Green, BSc, MBA
IHI Faculty, Cape Town, South Africa
Cathy Green moved from the UK to Cape Town, South Africa in 2005 to join the IHI’s Developing Countries team. After working for three years as an Improvement Advisor to projects in Gauteng, North West Province, and Eastern Cape, she became an independent consultant. Cathy is now a member of IHI’s faculty and works closely with MaiKhanda in Malawi and Project Fives Alive! in Ghana. In addition to her work in Africa, she is supporting a USAID-sponsored collaborative in Afghanistan that aims to reduce maternal & neonatal deaths. Prior to her move to South Africa, Cathy was a senior civil servant in the UK Department of Health, working to improve healthcare at a regional and national level. Cathy continues to explore her other professional interests that include culture, the psychology of change, and leadership.
Uma Kotagal, MBBS, MSc
Senior IHI Faculty Member/Technical Advisor, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
 Dr. Kotagal is a senior faculty member at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a member of the Developing Countries team, for which she is lead technical advisor for maternal and neonatal mortality rate reduction in Malawi. She currently serves as the Senior Vice President for Quality and Transformation
at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kotagal is also Director of the Division of Health Policy and Clinical Effectiveness and Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cincinnati. A health services researcher by training, she has been a pioneer in application of industrial sciences to health care to dramatically change medical and quality of life outcomes, patient and family experience, and value. Dr. Kotagal was born and grew up in India and graduated from the University of Bombay Grant Medical College, where she received her MBBS degree. She completed her internship at the University of Bombay JJ Group Hospitals in India and Detroit General Hospital, Wayne State University. In addition, Dr. Kotagal received a MSc degree in Clinical Epidemiology/ Effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Nicholas Leydon, MPH
Project Manager, South Africa
Nicholas Leydon works as an Improvement Advisor and Project Manager in South Africa (Eastern Cape and Northwest). He is currently based in Johannesburg, but is originally from Massachusetts. Before moving to South Africa, Nicholas worked as a Project Manager at IHI in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and prior to that was a Political Organizer for Physicians for Human Rights, also in Cambridge. Nicholas has a Masters in Public Health (Health Law, Bioethics, Human Rights) from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Boston College. His health care interests include AIDS, population health, access, and vulnerable populations. Outside of health care, Nicholas is interested in writing music, cycling, baseball (mainly the Boston Red Sox), and political advocacy.
Agnes Makonda-Ridley
Director, Lilongwe, Malawi
Agnes Makonda-Ridley is Program Director for the MaiKhanda project, a Health Foundation funded program focused on improving maternal and newborn care in Malawi. She has over 20 years of experience in management, health, development and academia covering a wide range of organizations, including UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, Edinburgh City Council, the Swiss Tropical Institute, and the University of Malawi. Agnes has a Master of Arts degree in Literature from Leeds University, England, and an Honors degree in social sciences from the University of Malawi. She is also a graduate member of the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Malawian by birth and British by marriage, Agnes recently returned to her native Malawi after living and working in various countries, including South Africa, Canada, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland for 25 years. Agnes has a deep passion for tackling health and development challenges borne out of first-hand experience of losing siblings and other close relatives to preventable conditions such as AIDS and pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications.
Charles Makwenda, Dip. Lab Tech and BSc Enviro/Process Engineer
Program Manager, Facilities Intervention, Lilongwe, Malawi
Charles Makwenda grew up in the southern and central region of Malawi but has lived mostly in the southern region, along the lake town of Malawi. He currently works under the MaiKhanda project, a program working to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity rates in the three districts of the central region in Malawi. Charles works with quality improvement teams in the nine collaborative facilities plus the 32 health centers, teaching improvement methodologies, and mentoring and coaching the staff. Before joining the Collaborative’s work in Malawi he worked as a Medical and Industrial Laboratories Technologist focusing on quality management aspects. He also worked as Quality Manager and Process Engineer for Lafarge Cement South East Africa and as Quality Manager for Malawi Blood Transfusion Service.
Kedar Mate, MD
Content Director, New York, New York, USA
 Kedar Mate is a Content Director for IHI and an internal medicine hospitalist in New York City. He has been working in international health for the past 10 years with Partners in Health, the World Health Organization, and the Clinton Foundation. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in American History and from Harvard Medical School with his medical degree. He trained at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is from New Jersey and now lives in New York (when not on the road for IHI). He loves to cook, eat, run, and play ping pong and ultimate Frisbee.
Sarah Olver
Project Manager, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
 Sarah Olver is based in the IHI Cambridge office and supports each of the Developing Countries programs. After graduating from The College of William and Mary with a double major in Chinese and Sociology, she moved to Beijing, China, where she worked with a law firm and a small, grass-roots human rights NGO. She is interested in the effects of social norms on self-care and sexual and reproductive health.
Barbara Tobin
Director, IHI Developing Countries Program, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
 Barbara Tobin serves as Director of the Developing Countries Program at IHI. She oversees each of the Developing Countries programs and often travels to Malawi, South Africa, and Ghana to contribute firsthand to the development and growth of the projects. Before joining IHI, Barbara worked at Management Sciences for Health (MSH) for fifteen years, with projects dedicated to strengthening the quality, effectiveness, and sustainability of the health sectors of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Barbara worked on a public health project in Kenya for five years and has completed multiple short-term management and technical assignments in Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique. She has also lived and worked in Nepal, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Marshall Islands. Barbara has a master’s degree in Intercultural Management. Outside of her global health work, she follows Boston sports teams and collects Asian and African textiles.
Nana A. Y. Twum-Danso, MD, MPH
Director, Ghana
 Nana A. Y. Twum-Danso has been the Director of Project Fives Alive! since February 2008. In that role, she oversees all strategic, operational and administrative aspects of the project. Prior to joining IHI, Dr. Twum-Danso worked for the Task Force for Child Survival and Development in Atlanta, Georgia, USA for almost seven years, as an Associate Director and later Director of a public-private partnership to control soil-transmitted helminth infections in children in Africa, Asia and Latin America for which she provided strategic, technical and managerial leadership. As a physician with specialization in preventive medicine and public health, Dr. Twum-Danso has more than 10 years of experience in public health program planning, management, policy development, monitoring and research. Her professional interests are quality improvement in health, health systems strengthening, community-based healthcare delivery, health promotion, emergency preparedness, and road traffic safety. Dr. Twum-Danso holds a bachelor’s degree in Biochemical Sciences and a medical degree, both from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. She also has a master’s degree in public health with specialization in Health Policy and Management from Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Twum-Danso is board-certified by the American College of Preventive Medicine, and is a member of both the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Patty Devine Webster, MPH
Project Manager, Gauteng, South Africa
Patty Webster is originally from the US and has lived in Johannesburg, South Africa, since July 2006. She currently works in urban Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni District with local clinics and NGOs to help improve HIV care in tertiary, secondary, and primary health care settings. Before joining IHI, Patty conducted research for health education campaigns (HIV and child obesity) for a health communications firm, provided program management for a health care research/consulting firm, and provided technical assistance and training on patient- and family-centered care to hospitals. She is especially interested in ensuring patients and families are active participants in systems improvement efforts and promoting family-centered care practices.
Michéle Youngleson, MBChB BSc (Hon)
Project Manager, Western Cape, South Africa
Dr. Michele Youngleson is a South African medical practitioner who completed her medical training in Cape Town. She works in Cape Town in a variety of settings, including urban/peri-urban antiretroviral (ARV) clinics at public tertiary and secondary hospitals, as well as primary health care clinics. Michele has an interest in the psychosocial aspects of chronic illness and the opportunity illness presents for personal growth. In addition to her improvement work with IHI, she has a private medical practice with a special interest in psychotherapy.
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