Msgr. Patrick Aris
Coordinator of the Team Leaders
St. Francois de Sales Hospital
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Msgr. Patrick Aris is coordinator of the team leaders for St. Francois de Sales Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ordained a priest in 1990, he has also served as associate pastor at Saint Peter Parish of Pétion-ville ; chaplain of the Carmelites of Petion-ville and in charge of Youth Ministry; permanent observer of the Haitian Bishops Conference (CEH) for the Civil Society in the context of Electoral Crisis; expert of CEH for Ecumenical Dialogue: Catholics/ Protestants and Catholics/Anglicans; vice-director general of Caritas Haiti; chancellor and episcopal vicar for religious life of the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince; spokesperson of the Haitian Bishop Conference; and advisor of CEH on Theology, Religious Life, Canon Law and Social Issues.
He has earned master's degrees in theology and philosophy from the Catholic University of Lyon, France; a baccalaureate in Canon Law at Canon Law Studium of Lyon / Catholic University of Toulouse, France; and a doctoral degree in theology from Dominican College of Philosophy and Theology, Ottawa, Canada.
David Barash, MD (Invited)
Executive Director, Global Health Programs
Chief Medical Officer
GE Foundation
David M. Barash, MD, is the executive director of the Global Health Portfolio and chief medical officer for the GE Foundation. The Foundation's Developing Health initiatives are approached with the belief that simple interventions, along with strong partnerships and leaders, are often the answer to some of health care's most complex problems.
Dr. Barash is a practicing emergency medicine physician with more than 30 years' experience. He has focused a great deal on understanding how new technologies can be commercialized and delivered to effectively close the gap between brainstorm and bedside.
Prior to joining the GE Foundation, Dr. Barash was chief medical officer of Life Care Solutions and executive medical director of Health Care Services for GE Healthcare. He was also founder and president of Concord Healthcare Strategies, where he provided strategic and operational expertise to medical technology investors and development stage medical technology companies.
Dr. Barash is a graduate of Cornell University and author of several clinical publications.
Alix Cantave, Ph.D.
Program Officer for Haiti
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Alix Cantave is program officer for Haiti for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. A Haitian-born academic and education policy expert, he helps oversee several million dollars in grants each year relating to Latin American and Caribbean economic development. Along with the Kellogg team based in the foundation's Miami offices, emphasizes providing an opportunity for children — as well as the families and communities that raise them — so they can grow up healthy, educated and empowered. They are strategic about how the foundation allocates its resources, in order to have maximal impact given financial, political and other constraints.
When the 2010 earthquake ravaged Haiti, orphaning more than 300,000 children in its wake, Kellogg felt compelled to revisit the country where it had done work in previous decades. In 2012, Dr. Cantave joined Kellogg to help lead the foundation's work in Haiti, with a focus on providing pathways to success for some of the country's most impoverished children.
Dr. Cantave earned his doctarate degree in public policy from University of Massachusetts Boston. He earned a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the Pratt Institute, and a bachelor's degree in environmental design from State University of New York at Buffalo. He has taught university courses on Caribbean affairs, and headed up the University of Massachusetts' Haitian Studies Project. More recently, he established and managed a consortium of approximately 20 universities in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Spain that pooled resources to strengthen higher education systems and institutions in Haiti.
Bruce Compton
Senior Director, International Outreach
Catholic Health Association
Bruce Compton is senior director of international outreach for the Catholic Health Association of the United States. He is based in the association's St. Louis office. Mr. Compton is responsible for assisting and supporting CHA-member organizations in their outreach activities in the developing world. His duties include facilitating collaboration among CHA-member organizations and others, seeking to enhance the impact of international ministries. Additionally, he is responsible for education regarding international outreach issues and encouraging CHA members' participation in various activities of international ministry.
Mr. Compton lived in Haiti from 2000 to 2002, and he continued to work in support of health missions in the developing world after he returned to the U.S. He did so in his capacity as founding president and chief executive of Springfield, Ill.–based Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, a ministry organization bringing surplus medical supplies from Midwest hospitals to medical missions in the developing world.
Sr. Kelly Connors, pm, JCD, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Sponsor Services
CHA
Sister Kelly Connors, pm, JCD, Ph.D., a member of the Sisters of Presentation of Mary of the United States Province, is senior director of sponsor services for the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA). Sister Kelly develops, implements and evaluates programs, services, and resources designed to support sponsors of Catholic health care in the United States, laity, religious and bishops. As a canonist, she also works in cooperation with other service areas within CHA, providing research, development, education and facilitation around forms of sponsorship preparing to meet future ministry needs.
Prior to joining CHA, Sister Kelly served as a canonical consultant to various dioceses and religious institutes. She has an extensive background in education, having taught at the secondary, undergraduate and graduate levels. Most recently, she was an instructor at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine and conducted educational programs with leaders of religious institutes at the Institute of Law and Religious Life at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa.
Sister Kelly earned a doctorate in canon law (JCD) at St. Paul University, Ottawa, and a Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa. She has a master’s degree in theological studies from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass.
Doug Fountain
Vice President, Strategy & Impact
Medical Teams International
Doug Fountain is vice president of strategy and impact at Medical Teams International. He works with the perations support team to provide the medical supplies and medicine, technology solutions, skilled volunteers and efficient work places needed to expand the reach and impact of MTI’s global programs. He has worked with domestic and international health programs, education and evaluation since 1989, including serving in faith-based organizations like Uganda Christian University.
Dianne Jean-Francois, MD, MPH
Country Director -- Haiti and Dominican Republic
Catholic Medical Mission Board, Inc.
Dianne Jean-Francois, MD, joined Catholic Medical Mission Board in 2003 after serving as a pediatrician consultant to the Development des Activities de Santé en Haiti, and as a general physician for the La Madeleine and Carrefour Poy health centers.
Dr. Jean-Francois received her medical degree from the Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie in Haiti and her master's degree in public health from the Johns–Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Jean-Francois is proficient in a number of languages, including English, Spanish, French and Creole.
Timothy Lavelle
Acting Director of USAID’s Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
U.S. Agency for International Development
Timothy Lavelle is a career civil service officer with 26 years as a direct hire with USAID. Former USAID assignments include USAID humanitarian attaché and U.S. alternate permanent representative, United States Mission to the United Nations Agencies, Rome, Italy, from April 2000 to August 2004; special assistant to the USAID director; Food for Peace (FFP) and FFP Emergency Division chief and officer. Prior to USAID, he served overseas for 25 years with CARE, Acción International and Peace Corps in 11 countries throughout Latin American and the Middle East. These assignments involved support to micro-credit institutions, strengthening of production cooperatives, both rural and urban infrastructure construction, production of therapeutic food, emergency feeding, livestock development, health system management, social enterprise support, reforestation, mother-child health interventions, beekeeping, school feeding and irrigation management.
Ruth McDermott-Levy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor/Director for Global & Public Health
Villanova University College of Nursing
Ruth McDermott-Levy, Ph.D., is an associate professor and director of the Center for Global & Public Health at Villanova University's College of Nursing. She teaches and conducts research in public health nursing with a focus on global health, refugee and immigrant health and environmental health. She has worked on a telehealth project in northern Nicaragua to promote health access. She recently completed a Delphi study with her colleagues, Jeanne Leffers, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, and Sr. Jackline Mayaka, MSN, RN, to identify ethical principles of global health nursing practice.
Dr. McDermott-Levy has a doctorate degree from Villanova University, a master of public health degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a master of science degree in nursing from Villanova University and a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Wilkes University.
Andrew S. Natsios, MPA
Director
Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs and
Executive Professor
The Bush School of Government and Public Service
Texas A&M University
Andrew S. Natsios is an executive professor at the Bush School and director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.
He most recently served as a distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and is former administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). As USAID administrator from 2001-2006, Mr. Natsios managed reconstruction programs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. He also served as U.S. special envoy to Sudan in 2006-2007. Retired from the U.S. Army Reserves at the rank of lieutenant colonel after 23 years, Mr. Natsios is a veteran of the Gulf War. From 1993 to 1998, he was vice president of World Vision U.S.A., the largest faith-based nongovernmental organization in the world, with programs in 103 countries. Earlier in his career, Mr. Natsios served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and as the chief financial and administrative officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He also served as the CEO of Boston's Big Dig, the largest construction project in American history, after a cost overrun scandal.
He is the author of three books: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1997); The Great North Korean Famine (2001); and his latest book, Sudan, South Sudan and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know, published in 2012 by Oxford University Press. He has contributed to 13 other books. He earned a Masters of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and his undergraduate degree in history is from Georgetown University.
Annemarie Reilly, MIA
Chief of Staff, and
Executive Vice President, Strategy and Organizational Development
Catholic Relief Services
Annemarie Reilly is chief of staff to Catholic Relief Services President and CEO Sean Callahan, and executive vice president (EVP) for strategy and organizational development. As chief of staff she facilitates the work of the executive team and oversees major agency initiatives on the president's behalf. In her EVP role, she directs the agency's strategy development, implementation and measurement and supports organizational development that advances strategic priorities and supports operational excellence. Along with her 5,000 colleagues around the world, delivering programs and services that reach over 120 million people annually, Ms. Reilly is committed to the agency's mission to protect human life and dignity and provide opportunities for all people to live to their full human potential.
In her 25 years with CRS, she has served the agency in El Salvador, Haiti, Burundi, Liberia, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia. Her field experience includes roles as country representative, regional director and head of CRS' emergency response team. Her headquarters roles included vice president of overseas operations and her current portfolio includes oversight for the office of general counsel and the global knowledge and information management and marketing and communications functions.
She holds a bachelor of arts degree in government and French from the University of Notre Dame and a master in international affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, with specializations in economic and political development and Latin American studies.
Conor Shapiro, MPH
President & Chief Executive Officer
St. Boniface Haiti Foundation
Conor Shapiro, MPH, is president and chief executive officer at St. Bonface Haiti Foundation (SBHF), leading the organization’s operations in Haiti and the United States. Under his tenure that began in 2011, St. Boniface Hospital has emerged as the leading referral hospital in southern Haiti. Mr. Shapiro has overseen the expansion of St. Boniface Hospital to include new buildings dedicated to spinal cord injury, maternal and neonatal health, surgery, an expanded laboratory and a soon to be constructed infectious disease center. During this time, the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation has transformed into a leading NGO in Haiti and has partnered with USAID, the CDC, the GE Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, among others. During his first seven years with SBHF, Mr. Shapiro worked from Fond des Blancs in various capacities, including as director general of the St. Boniface Hospital.
He holds a master’s degree in public health from Boston University and has more than 13 years of experience with SBHF. In 2013, Mr. Shapiro was awarded the Young Alumni Achievement Award by the Boston University School of Public Health in recognition of his commitment to advancing development in Haiti.