The CORE Group Board of Directors
The CORE Group Board of Directors is the governing body of the organization and is dedicated to advancing CORE’s mission, values, strategies, goals priorities and policies.
CHAIR
Judy Lewis
Haitian Health Foundation
Judy Lewis is a public health sociologist who has been on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center for over 35 years. She is currently a professor of Community Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of Global Health Education. She served as a founding member and president of the Global Health Education Consortium, the chair of the APHA MCH Section International Health Committee, and is a member of the Management Committee of the Women and Health Task Force. Judy has collaborated with the Haitian Health Foundation for the past 25 years, and currently serves as the Research and Technical Advisor. She authored, “The Health of Women/Mothers and Children,” in the text Understanding Global Medicine and Health, as well several articles about work on maternal newborn and child health in Haiti, Ecuador and Sri Lanka. She has worked in 30 countries conducting research, program evaluations and training. Judy was the co-chair of the CORE Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Working Group for several years. She has been on the CORE Board since 2008.
VICE-CHAIR
Demet Gural
Pathfinder International
Demet Güral is a physician and a public health specialist with more than twenty five years experience in sexual and reproductive health programs and primary health care management, 20 years of which have been spent developing programs, managing large-scale projects, and provisioning medical and technical assistance for projects on both a long- and short-term basis. Currently, as Vice President of Programs at Pathfinder International, Dr. Gural oversees the implementation of Pathfinder strategies through both her supervision of the Programs Systems, Technical Services, and Research & Metrics Units, as well as her oversight of the country management teams which support Pathfinder offices around the world. Dr. Gural received her medical degree from Ege University School of Medicine in Turkey, her MPH from Boston University School of Public Health, and a Masters in Archaeology from Istanbul University in 2007.
TREASURER
Jed Hoffman
World Vision
Jed joined World Vision US in February 2009 as the Senior Director of the Health and HOPE team in the International Programs Group after many years at Catholic Relief Services, most recently as the Chief of Party for AIDS Relief. He received his MA from University of Wisconsin-Madison, held a Fulbright research grant in Peru and he plans to finish his second MA (International Policy and Practice) from George Washington University next year.
SECRETARY
Diana DuBois
WellShare International
Diana is the Executive Director of Minnesota International Health Volunteers (MIHV). She has spent 23 years working on public health issues, including 5 years of professional work in Africa. Prior to her current position, she served as a Family Planning Specialist, working with Somali refugees on reproductive health issues at Neighborhood Health Care Network. She also served as the Country Co-Director for the International Rescue Committee in Ghana for 3 years, where she launched and ran a comprehensive health, education program for Liberian women refugees.
TECHNICAL LIASON
Emmanuel d'Harcourt
International Rescue Committee
Emmanuel d'Harcourt has been involved with the CORE group since 1999, when he joined the International Rescue Committee as manager of its Child Survival Program in Kibungo, Rwanda. He now serves as a Senior Technical Advisor for Child Health for IRC. Emmanuel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal working as a community health worker. After Peace Corps, he went to medical school and completed a pediatric residency. He also has a Master’s of Public Health.
AT-LARGE
Lisa Bowen
White Ribbon Alliance
Lisa is responsible for providing strategic and technical leadership to Plan International field offices across the globe in the areas of Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health. She has backstopped projects in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea, Bolivia, Brazil and Guatemala. Prior to her work with Plan, Lisa served as the Technical Trainer for Community Health for the US Peace Corps in Ecuador. Before completing her MPH degree at UNC Chapel Hill, Lisa was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala where she worked as a community health educator.
AT-LARGE
Jaime Carrillo
Curamericas Global
AT-LARGE
Paige Harrigan
Save the Children
Paige Harrigan is a nutrition specialist with over 15 years experience in international nutrition programming with progressive technical, management and representation responsibilities. Paige has specialized experience in improving infant and young child feeding practices, behavior change, and monitoring and evaluation. Paige currently serves as Nutrition Team Leader for SCUS in its department of Health of Nutrition, where she provides strategic and technical guidance and support to nutrition programming and is responsible for providing technical support to field programs through program design, monitoring and evaluation assistance, proposal and implementation/workplan support, and documentation. She recently co-authored with the CORE Group and FANTA-2 the “Nutrition Program Design Assistant.” Paige has worked in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Nepal, and Zimbabwe. Previous to her position at SC, she worked for the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) Project as a Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Specialist. She holds a M.S. degree in International Nutrition from Tufts University.
AT-LARGE
Mary Hennigan
Catholic Relief Services
Mary Hennigan graduated from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She has worked for different US PVOs on health and nutrition activities. Mary began her work in the public health field when she was assigned to the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer and worked with Catholic Relief Services. Since 2003 she has been a Senior Technical Advisor in Health for CRS. She serves as co-chair of CORE Group’s Nutrition Working Group.
AT-LARGE
Areana Quinones
Catholic Medical Mission Board
Since July 2010, Areana Quinones has led the Grants Acquisitions and Management team in the development of strategic program proposals for CMMB’s work in Maternal and Child Health, HIV/AIDS, NTDs, and Chronic Disease. At CMMB she works to develop partnerships in order to help CMMB generate resources for collaborative activities in its eight field offices and looks for opportunities to further grow CMMB’s work in additional countries. Upon arriving at CMMB she was thrilled to reengage with the CORE Group on our behalf as she had spent nearly five years as member of the CORE staff where she managed Malaria Working Group and RMB Activities, contributed to developing proposals for CORE’s work, and worked closely with the NGO Malaria networks in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Areana has a Masters in Public Health, is dedicated to concepts of collaborations to strengthen community health programs and is thrilled to be able to bring her knowledge of corporate giving, partnership, and corporate social responsibility as well as her experience with US Government and foundation funding to offer a unique fundraising perspective to the CORE Board as it moves to indentify resources and new opportunities for CORE and its members.
AT-LARGE
Ben Schwartz
CARE
AT-LARGE
Marilyn Patton
HOPE Worldwide
CORE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Karen LeBan
Since 2002, Karen LeBan has served as the Executive Director of CORE Group. She is responsible to create a forum that nurtures collaboration among CORE members and partners ensuring that the members’ ownership of CORE Group is maintained. She provides strategic and operational leadership and overall management of the CORE Group to achieve its mission, strategy, annual goals and objectives. Karen has worked in Bolivia, Maldive Islands, Sri Lanka and Thailand and has provided short-term technical and management support to community programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and Latin America/Caribbean through various positions with the USG and NGOs over the past 25 years. Karen holds Master’s degrees from American University/National Training Laboratories and Southern Illinois University.