Susana Mendoza Birdsong, MA
Contracts and Operations Manager
Susana Mendoza Birdsong has over ten years of experience with family planning programs at IRH. She is responsible for supporting the overall administration of the Institute, including contractual, personnel, logistics and travel matters, as well as supporting knowledge sharing and internal staff skill-building. Susana holds a master's degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University and speaks French and Spanish.
Franccesca Cesti-Browne, MPA
Director of Finance and Operations
Franccesca Cesti-Browne has over 10 years of experience in finance, operations and contract management. She also has over 8 years of experience in program management, grant writing and business development. Franccesca holds a master's in Public Administration from Florida International University. As the Director of Finance and Operations, she leads the team that supports the Institute's operating functions: HR, Contracts, IT, Field Operations, Administration and Finance. Franccesca manages the Institute's annual budget, provides leadership and strategic management to all administrative, financial and operational functions.
Sandra Chipanta, MPH
Sandra Chipanta has over six years of experience in the management and implementation of international development interventions in Africa (Benin, Niger, and Togo) and in Asia (Bangladesh and Nepal). She has worked in the areas of maternal, newborn, and child health, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS. At IRH, Sandra manages the Fertility Awareness for Community Transformation (FACT) Project in Nepal and reviews French translations. Prior to joining IRH, she supported capacity building activities for social franchises in Francophone West Africa and Madagascar. Sandra obtained her BA from Mount Holyoke College and MPH from George Washington University. Originally from Togo, she is fluent in both French and Ewe.
Oumou Cissé, BA
Program Associate
Oumou comes to IRH having spent many years living and working overseas. She has experience providing street outreach and housing-first case management to numerous clients experiencing homelessness in Montgomery County, MD. Oumou also served as a Youth Development Volunteer with Peace Corps where she facilitated programs and dialogues with youth in her village in Fiji on topics such as consent, empowerment, sexual reproductive health, and leadership. She received her B.A. from Lawrence University in Cultural Anthropology and Studio Art. She is Originally from Bamako, Mali and speaks French and Bambara.
Cait Davin, MA
Cait supports FACT, Passages, Learning Collaborative, and Masculinities, Faith and Peace projects. Prior to joining IRH, she interned at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where she supported international development projects on women's empowerment and gender equality. Cait has a BSPH in Health Promotion and Education from Kent State University and a MA in International Administration from the University of Denver.
Jamie Greenberg, MPH
Jamie Greenberg has seven years' experience in program management, research, and technical writing for both international and domestic health projects. Prior to joining IRH, she worked on international health systems strengthening projects and conducted qualitative research on reproductive health service implementation. She has an MPH from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and a BA in Biology and Community Health from Tufts University.
Liya Haile, MHS
Liya Haile manages research and programmatic activities for mobile solutions at IRH, including the Dot Efficacy Study and monitoring and evaluation of the CycleBeads app in several African countries. Prior to joining IRH, Liya's research interest was in reproductive biology, specifically IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies. She transitioned to focusing on social and behavioral research after teaching sexual and reproductive health education to middle school students in Baltimore. Liya holds a MHS Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Sammie Hill, MPS
Sammie is a communications generalist who works across all projects at IRH, supporting teams in creating and disseminating a wide range of materials including program tools, presentations, and webinars. She generates content for the Institute's digital channels and manages internal communications efforts. Prior to joining IRH, Sammie worked as Digital Media Specialist for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She holds a bachelor's degree in International Peace Studies and Journalism from the University of Missouri and a Masters in Professional Studies from Georgetown University's Public Relations and Corporate Communications program.
Victoria H. Jennings, Ph.D
Director, Principal Investigator of the FACT Project, and Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Georgetown University Medical Center
Dr. Jennings, an anthropologist whose academic interests focus on health behavior and culture change, has 30 years experience in the international family planning and reproductive health field. She is a recognized leader in fertility awareness as well as in research, capacity building, and scaling up health interventions. She is responsible for overall direction of the Institute and serves on numerous boards and task forces on international health issues.
Anjalee Kohli, MPH, PhD
Senior Research Officer
Dr. Anjalee Kohli has over a decade of international health and development experience focusing on research and practice for prevention of gender based violence, violence against children, HIV/AIDS and promoting improved mental health and resilience. Anjalee works as a Senior Research Officer, providing strategic leadership, research expertise and technical vision under the Passages Project. Anjalee received her PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and holds an MPH. Anjalee previously worked with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.
Rebecka Inga Lundgren, MPH, PhD
Director of Research; Research Instructor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Georgetown University Medical Center
Dr. Lundgren has over 25 years of comprehensive, hands-on experience developing and testing reproductive health and behavior change programs, with particular interest in expanding family planning choice, youth and engaging men in reproductive health. Rebecka's current research interests include systematic approaches to scale-up, social barriers to family planning use and prevention of gender-based violence. As an applied anthropologist, she has expertise applying qualitative and ethnographic methods to her work, and has developed innovative mixed method approaches to evaluate fertility awareness and gender transformation programs for very young adolescents. She received an MPH from UCLA's School of Public Health in the Department of Population and Family Health in 1987, and her doctorate in applied anthropology from the University of Maryland.
Courtney J. McLarnon-Silk, MSc
Courtney brings has over six years of experience in international development, coordinating and managing initiatives related to gender equality and mainstreaming, women's rights, and women's empowerment. At the Institute, Courtney works on the Passages project, focusing her time on project management, management of the Transforming Masculinities/Masculinite, Famille et Foi intervention, and on establishing regional Communities of to strengthen regional work on normative change
for AYSRH. Courtney also manages the Institute's​ ​ongoing​ ​work on bringing CycleTel to market. She received an MSc from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA from McGill University. Originally from Montreal, Canada, she speaks fluent French.
Nasratullah Noori, MBA
Nasratullah Noori has over 10 years of professional experience in Finance and Accounting with profit and nonprofit organizations ⁠— such as United nations, G&D Currency Technology, an international bank and multinational companies ⁠⁠— and extensive knowledge in managing accounts payable & receivable, cash management, budgeting, financial reporting and bank reconciliation.
Nasratullah Noori holds a bachelor degree and a two-year diploma in business administration. He is currently pursuing his Master's Degree in Accounting. At IRH, he works as a finance officer supporting financial functions for the IRH team. Originally from Afghanistan, he fluent in Hindi, Dari, Pashto, and English.
Lea Satta, MA
Lea supports the Passages Project and the Learning Collaborative to Advance Normative Change. Prior to joining IRH, she worked for the Patient Advocacy and International Services department of Georgetown University Hospital. Lea has national and global-level experience in the field of women's rights, and interned at the McCain Institute for International Leadership where she worked on human trafficking in the United States and corresponding legislation, and later at a women's rights association in Morocco. Lea holds an MA in Political Science from Segalen Bordeaux II University, an MA in International Relations from Jean Moulin Lyon III University, and speaks fluent French.
Dominick Shattuck, PhD
Senior Research Officer and Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Georgetown University Medical Center
Dr. Shattuck has 20 years of development experience, focusing on rigorous public health research, implementation science approaches, and behavior change interventions that increase access to health services, education and economic opportunity. With vast experience leading social behavioral research projects around the world in the areas of HIV, gender, and family planning, Dr. Shattuck prioritizes collaborative work with government officials and grassroots organizations to define locally relevant solutions. At IRH, Dr. Shattuck leads the FACT Project's work in Nepal, developing family planning messages and game-based approaches. As a known champion for the inclusion of men in reproductive health work, he is an active advocate of vasectomy services, publishing research articles, blogs, presentations and other thought pieces for a variety of audiences. Dr. Shattuck received PhD from NC State University in Psychology, his B.A. in History from Clark University. He speaks Amharic (Ethiopian National Language).
Bryan Shaw, PhD, MPH
Senior Research Manager
Dr. Bryan Shaw has over a decade of international health and development experience, focusing on rigorous public health research and behavior change interventions. At IRH, Bryan works as a senior research officer, largely providing strategic leadership and quality control for research studies under the Passages Project. He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in International Health and also holds a MPH and MS in Applied Medical Anthropology. Bryan worked previously with Population Services International (PSI), UNICEF, and USAID.
Natacha Stevanovic-Fenn, PhD
Natacha Stevanovic-Fenn has over a decade of gender and international development experience, focusing on rigorous qualitative research design and analysis conducted in the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia, and sub Saharan Africa. Her areas of technical expertise include: sexual and reproductive health; child marriage; gender-based violence; male engagement and masculinities; social norms; youth migration; migration-development nexus; and gender analysis. At IRH, Natacha works as a senior research officer, providing technical leadership and oversight on the conceptualization and operationalization of research projects. She received her PhD in Sociology from Columbia University, MA in Social Anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining IRH, Natacha worked with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and UNICEF. She is a French native and she is fluent in English, Spanish and Serbian.
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