Administration & Board - USA

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Tayeb Alhafez, MD, FACP, Founder and President

Tayeb Alhafez, MD, is a practicing physician and healthcare strategist. He has served as a Regional Medical Director while working with a healthcare delivery organization. He fostered communication and knowledge-sharing among medical directors in several hospitals, and provided mentoring and coaching that helped them excel in their leadership positions. His work helped them improve their relationships with their hospitals and affiliated physicians.

Dr. Alhafez has experience leading successful inpatient hospital programs in non-profit, for-profit and academic healthcare settings. He takes on a wide range of responsibilities for improving care and controlling costs. He has practiced in North Carolina, Alaska, Hawaii, South Carolina, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and California.

Dr. Alhafez is continuously working to share his knowledge and expertise in the areas of strategic planning and policy development through active participation in global forums and initiatives in health care.

In September, 2011, Dr. Alhafez was elected to Fellowship in the American College of Physicians. "The FACP status that you now hold reflects your commitment to the internal medicine community. We hope that you will proudly display these credentials after your name." — CPT Jeffrey B. Cole, MC, USN, FACP

A lot of organizations are working on global health issues. Global Health Equity is sort of a meta-leader. Tayeb Alhafez is a natural meta-leader, it’s just an extension of his personality. It’s who he is. “Health equity” is an abstract term, and it’s open to definition, so one of the main things that’s needed is education. With Dr. Alhafez as a leader, GHEF is primed to work well with other groups, with education as a core element. There are other groups ready to take on part of the challenge, but someone has to pull the whole picture together. — Stephanie Goode, Consultant to the Foundation

Paul R. Cook, MD, MHA, CPE, SCLA, Board Member

We need to build a society of health and wellness, not of disease. The education, the knowledge, should be available before anyone ever becomes a patient. We should put access to knowledge, in the hands of everyday people, no matter where they live. — Paul R. Cook, MD, MHA, CPE, SCLA

Paul R. Cook is President and CEO of Rocky Mountain Health Network, Inc. He is responsible for the executive leadership, strategic direction, and oversight for a 530-plus member provider-hospital organization in Montana and Wyoming. The PHO provided advanced medical and business management services for it members, which included over 260 physicians, over 250 of all other allied health professionals, seven hospitals, including St. Vincent Healthcare which is one of two tertiary care health systems in the state of Montana, surgery centers, home health, and other organizations. Provided principal interactions with health plans, state and federal legislators, and various health interests across the state and region. Interview with Paul Cook.

Gergana G. Haralampieva, MS

Ms. Haralampieva is a graduate of The George Washington University's Central European Health Leadership Program. She has master degree in Economy and Management of Social and Cultural Activities from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has worked with the World Bank in health, nutrition, and population and with the National Health Insurance Fund in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Todorka Ignatova Kostadinova, PhD

Ms. Kostadinova is a professor at the University of Medicine in Bulgaria. She holds a Ph.D. in Economy and Management of Social and Cultural Activities from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Professor Kostadinova is Dean of Faculty for Public Health at the Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria. She is an expert at the National Civil Council to the EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection. Ms. Kostadinova has worked with many national and international agencies around the world, including WHO, UNICEF, HOPE, UN, and the Association of Bulgarian Hospitals. She has served as a professor of global health at The George Washington University.

ADVISORY BOARD

Jackie Muri, CGPA, MSL, Director of Business Development, Strategy and Foundation for Holy Rosary Healthcare

In addition to serving on seven boards for community based and regional organizations and recently being named the lead for two new major projects for Holy Rosary Healthcare, Jackie Muri developed an aggressive growth plan for 2012 that will expand the influence and effectiveness of Holy Rosary Healthcare. Interview with Jackie Muri.

Global Health Equity forums brought together a diverse group: city leaders, nurses, hospital CEOs, physicians, business owners, and other community leaders from across eastern Montana. The sheer excitement of these participants was impressive. People met and discussed what the real issues were and how to potentially solve them. They set priorities, and decided where best to begin. It worked because we involved all the key stakeholders. We moved the envelope as to when things could get done. — Jackie Muri

Nancy J. Rosaaen, CEO, McCone County Health Center

Nancy Rosaaen is CEO of McCone County Health Center. She also works with the Montana Hospital Association Frontier Project (F-CHIP) and with Montana Virtual Care Network (steering committee). Rosaaen contributes to work done to fulfill the goals of a telemedicine grant received through Montana Health Network (MHN); is a member of the MHN Education Advisory Committee; is a member of the Eastern Montana Area Health Education Center (AHEC); and is on the Advisory Board of the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) committee.

William A. Hogan, PhD

As prior CEO of a 501c(3) non-profit organization based in Washington DC, Bill brings much knowledge and passion to this field. His experience includes working with over 400 social entrepreneurs in 60 nations, and serving as a judge for the Social e-Challenge at Stanford University. He is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with twenty years of success in founding and managing high-tech companies in the global computer and information technology industries. As CEO at four start-ups he has successfully raised venture capital funding and had exits including M&A and IPO's. He has a strong background in worldwide markets including wireless, telecom, high-availability embedded systems, real-time systems, online information systems, and high-performance computing. Bill currently serves on Boards for Impact Advisors (a socially responsible investment banking group), the Youth Science Institute (providing hands-on science education for 30,000 school children), Arrupu (providing fuel-efficient stoves in Sri Lanka and India) and GlobalGiving (an international philanthropic organization that directly connects donors to grassroots development projects). Earlier he was a Physics Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology.

James Lucas, Attorney

With his years of experience as an attorney, as an active supporter of community events and causes, as an advisor to educational institutions, and as an experienced member of many advisory boards associated with non-profit organizations, Jim Lucas is one of our most valued members of the Global Health Equity Foundation team.

Samara I. Hamze

Ms. Hamze has an M.S. in Biology from East Carolina University and a B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill. She has extensive experience, including numerous publications, in vegetation mapping and plant ecology and has served as an instructor at University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh.

Lois M. Takahashi, PhD (Department of Urban Planning, UCLA)

Lois M. Takahashi, PhD is Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. She has over 50 publications on her research interests, which include access to social services and overcoming the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome in the US, and community participation and environmental governance in Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She has also acted as an independent consultant since the mid 1990s, providing program evaluation and needs assessment assistance to community-based and nonprofit organizations working in homeless services, HIV prevention, and organizational capacity building.