Organizers

Paulo Gonçalves is Professor of Management at the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) and Founder and Director of the Master of Humanitarian Logistics and Management (MASHLM). He is also a research affiliate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Science from MIT Sloan and an M.Sc. from MIT. Paulo received an Intel Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award in 2003. For his dissertation, he has won the 2004 Doctoral dissertation award given annually by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). His research combines experiments, simulation, optimization, and econometrics to understand and improve procurement, pre-positioning, inventory, and resource allocation decisions in humanitarian settings.

Mr Paul Molinaro currently serves in WHO Health Emergency Programme, heading the Operations Support and Logistics team. A national of Kenya, he holds a master’s degree in Defence Logistics Management, from Cranfield University in the UK.  Prior to joining WHO last year, Paul was the Supply and Logistics Chief in the UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa. His professional experience also includes other assignments within the UNICEF Supply Division, first within the emergency department, and subsequently with the Change Management Unit, as project lead to transform the global supply function. Paul has extensive experience in managing emergency supply and logistics operations around the world, starting on the Kenya-Somalia border in 1993. Between 1993 and 1999, he performed multiple logistics roles with UNHCR and CARE International.

Dr. Judith Monroe, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation, has dedicated her career to protecting people and saving lives. She joined the CDC Foundation in February 2016 as president and CEO, following her role as a deputy director of CDC and director of CDC’s Office of State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support. In her work at the CDC Foundation, Dr. Monroe advances priority programs that improve the health of people around the world and prepare other nations to better prevent, detect and respond to dangerous health threats, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. During her tenure as the state health commissioner for Indiana she served as president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials through the H1N1 pandemic. Dr. Monroe currently serves on the board of directors for the Center for Global Health Innovation and for the Georgia Global Health Alliance, and is a member of the Milken Institute’s Public Health Advisory Board. Additionally, she serves as a member of the World Health Organization Foundation’s Advisory group, as well as many national advisory committees and boards. Full Bio (PDF)

Edward joined Transaid in 2009 as a Project Manager and was appointed Programmes Support Manager in 2017. Edward has 20 years of experience working in both the private and development sectors relating to transport and logistics. Having worked on many Patient Referral Systems, Fleet Management and Medical Supply Chain projects, Edward has worked in several sub-Saharan African countries such as Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

As JSI's humanitarian resilience and response practice lead, Nadia Olson helps JSI design programs that bridge the humanitarian and development continuum to create resilient approaches to achieving universal health coverage. She is now a senior technical advisor at JSI providing strategic, technical, and operational support for JSI’s portfolio of health system and supply chain strengthening projects and is an advisor to a variety of global initiatives such as the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, the Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crisis, the WHO Framework for Action on Health Systems Recovery in Emergencies, and the WHO Guide for Implementing the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus for Health. Before JSI, Nadia worked on research initiatives, community-level maternal, child, and reproductive health programs, and approaches to mainstreaming a gender focus into international development. She has a BA in applied anthropology from the University of Arizona and an MA in international development studies from the George Washington University.  

Walter Proper currently is the Executive Director of the International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL).  He has over 30 years’ experience working to improve public health systems in the global south.  His extensive work in supply chain includes 7 ½ years of in-country experience as the Zambia country director for the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, SCMS, and JSI Logistics Services projects, providing direction to an office of more than 160 staff with a budget of more than 90 million a year.  He also served as the global director of the Public Health Task Order on the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT managed by JSI.

Mr. Proper has worked extensively in the areas of HIV & AIDS, Reproductive Health, TB, Malaria and Essential Medicine Systems improvement. He has also presented on Supply Chain at international forums, including conducting courses for international organizations such as GFATM and the World Bank, as well as for graduate school programs at the following universities: George Washington, Columbia, Boston, and Tulane. Mr. Proper has direct work experience in more than 30 countries.

David Sarley is an impact investor with BMGF, working on innovations to strengthen primary health care including boosting vaccines coverage and equity. He has 18 years’ experience in public health supply chains.  In the last few years he has been researching the innovation Eco-system. This has included managing Grand Challenges Exploration for Vaccines Delivery and now GDP. Some key investments include in Zipline, Macro-Eyes, the Africa Resource Center for Supply chain and the WFP Innovation Accelerator. He is Chair of WHO’s Immunization Agenda 2030 Innovation Working Group. He established the Foundation's initial supply chain strategy for primary health care and contributed to the vaccines supply chain strategy. Previous work included establishing the VAN control tower concept and supply chain strengthening in Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda. He also managed the initial Implants Access Program Coordinated Supply Planning work. He has worked in public health supply chain consulting with John Snow and economics policy modeling with Maxwell Stamp. He has worked in over 80 countries, managing and implementing long and short term investment, supply chain and economic development projects. He has worked in Philanthropy, NGO, private consulting, manufacturing and for Government. He is currently volunteering with Restart Partners supporting US communities manage their COVID-19 response.

Prashant Yadav is a globally recognized scholar in the area of healthcare supply chains. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, Affiliate Professor at INSEAD, and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Before his current role Prashant worked on supply chain at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and as advisor to global health agencies. He is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications and his work has also been featured in prominent print and broadcast media. In addition to his roles in academia and think tank, Prashant serves on the boards of social enterprises and nonprofits working on healthcare supply chains. He trained as a Chemical Engineer and his PhD was in Management Science & Operations Research.

Shahrzad Yavari is the Director of the Cold Chain Strategy and Advocacy at Nexleaf Analytics. Shahrzad established the cold chain program at Nexleaf, and is responsible for the strategy, growth, oversight, and management of the program and global operations. She serves as the key point of contact for Ministries of Health and partners around the world, as well as for global stakeholders like Gavi. Shahrzad received her B.S. in Public Health Sciences and B.A. in Psychology and Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine, and her MPH degree from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Prior to joining Nexleaf, Shahrzad worked with UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health as a researcher to understand the impact of food insecurity on the prevalence of chronic illness among low-income families in the US. She also served as a health educator for local and global organizations in India and US to address challenges in Maternal and Child Health and chronic illnesses. Her background in psychology and public health enables her to integrate the elements of behavior change and health sciences to develop scalable and replicable data-driven solutions in low- and middle-income countries.

Dominique is the Executive Manager of the People that Deliver Initiative (PtD). She is an international development professional with 23 years of experience in managing programs with a focus on health supply chain management, livelihood, food security and nutrition.

Since 2016, Dominique has been responsible for the management and overall performance of PtD, a broad coalition of governments and international, regional and national organizations working together to raise the profile of the health supply chain workforce as a key strategic area of health systems. Prior to PtD, she worked for ten years on the HIV/AIDS supply chain for John Snow International (JSI) at the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM), which procured and delivered essential lifesaving medicines and related commodities to HIV/AIDS programs around the world.

Dominique also has experience working with multilateral development agencies; the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Finance Corporation. She has both an MBA in International Business Administration and a Master's degree in Nutrition. She is fluent in English, Spanish and Dutch. As a native of The Netherlands and having lived in Latin America (Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela) and Washington, DC, she is now based at UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen, Denmark.