Board of Directors
The Universities Allied for Essential Medicine (UAEM) Board of Directors is the authority that handles all of the business affairs of UAEM, as well as providing long-term guidance to the student-led organization. The Board has the power, inter alia, to appoint and remove officers of UAEM, to manage the affairs of UAEM and make new rules for the organization, to determine its principal location, and to manage the non-profit’s financial resources.
Members
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President: Rachel Kiddell-Monroe Rachel, a member of the United Kingdom Law Society since 1991, has worked in the humanitarian field for over 20 years. After starting an advocacy organisation in London as a result of witnessing injustices faced by indigenous peoples in Asia, she began working with Medecins sans Frontières in 1991. Rachel began her extensive field experience with MSF as head of mission in Djibouti. She went on to head emergency humanitarian missions in Rwanda (1994-1995) and Democratic Republic of Congo (1993, 1994, 1996-7), travelling and working extensively throughout Africa. After starting up an advocacy office for MSF in Ottawa, Canada, she was asked to spearhead a Regional humanitarian/advocacy coordination office for MSF in Latin America. Rachel worked for 4 years travelling widely over the South American continent. Returning to Montreal, Canada in 2003, Rachel was asked to head MSF’s Access to Medicines Campaign in Canada. She became well-known and respected for her groundbreaking work on the Canadian initiative to allow the export of generic versions of brand name drugs to developing countries under the 2003 World Trade Organisation patent waiver. Rachel was appointed to chair the new UAEM Executive Board on 1 September 2007. |
| Dave Chokshi Dave Chokshi is a final-year M.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He holds graduate degrees in global public health and comparative health policy from the University of Oxford and undergraduate degrees in chemistry and public policy studies from Duke University. Dave’s work experience spans the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, including positions at the Louisiana Dept. of Health, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, and MalariaGEN, a global malaria research consortium. He also has clinical experience in diverse settings in the United States, India, Botswana, Guatemala, Ghana, and Peru. Dave has been involved with UAEM since 2003, serving on the national coordinating committee, leading the Penn chapter, and helping organize the Philadelphia Consensus Statement. |
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Kavitha Kolappa Kavitha is currently a 4th year medical student at Johns Hopkins University. A North Carolina native, she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BA in International Studies in 2005. She then left to work for the Global Health Council where she was involved in various advocacy initiatives and led the University Coalitions for Global Health (UCGH). Her interest in the global access movement was sparked by her work in the summer of 2006 with the Positive Women's Network (PWN+), a Chennai-based organization advocating for affordable treatment and programs for women and children affected by HIV in India. Kavitha has been involved with UAEM ever since, helping to revitalize the Hopkins chapter, serving on the national coordinating committee, and helping shape fundraising strategy and grant writing. She enjoys warm cups of tea, dogs, and yoga. |
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Rebecca Goulding Rebecca Goulding works at the Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation as a postdoctoral fellow and currently researches alternative intellectual property, regulatory and financial strategies to promote neglected disease drug discovery and development. Prior to this position she was a postdoctoral fellow (2008-2009) with the Intellectual Property Policy and Research Group (IPPRG) at the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, where she worked alternative intellectual property regimes and upstream genomic research. Rebecca completed her BSc in genetics and MSc in hematology/oncology at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. She continued her graduate studies at the Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer Research Centre, finishing her PhD in genetics at University of British Columbia in 2008. For her thesis, Rebecca studied Ras protein signaling pathways in lymphocytes and the molecular genetics of leukemia development. During the last years of her PhD, she became involved with UAEM, which inspired her interest in global health research, particularly in the area of neglected disease drug research. |
| Rebecca LeGrande | |
| Paul Park | |
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Virginia Zaunbrecher Virginia Zaunbrecher is a lawyer currently living in Los Angeles. She graduated with comprehensive honors and with distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in molecular biology and history. Virginia also spent three years performing molecular genetics research and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her law degree from the University of California-Berkeley, where she focused her studies on intellectual property and international development. Virginia led the Berkeley chapter of UAEM and was a member of the National Coordinating Committee for two years. Virginia has also worked on large scale corporate restructurings in New York City. |
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Sandeep Kishore Sandeep (Sunny) Kishore is enrolled in the Weill Cornell Medical College/ Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Institute Tri-Institutional MD-PhD program. His scientific research concerns characterizing gene activation in the parasite responsible for malaria. He has been involved in student-led global health efforts through assembling a Forum on Neglected Diseases, integrating global health and neglected disease issue into current medical school curricula, and successfully advocating for the inclusion of a cholesterol-lowering statin on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines. He currently serves as a Global Health Specialist for the Earth Institute at Columbia’s Master’s in Development Practice program and consults for the New York Academy of Sciences Scientists Without Borders program. He completed his B.S. in Biology at Duke University in 2004 and his M.Sc in Immunology at Oxford University in 2006. |
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Matthew Price Matt works in Africa as an Analyst for New Initiatives on the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative’s Drug Access Team. Before joining the Clinton Foundation, he worked with Duke University’s Program on Global Health and Technology Access and Oxfam America. He graduated from The College of William and Mary in 2006, where he studied Biology and Biochemistry. Matt has been involved with UAEM since 2005. |
| Samantha Chaifetz Samantha Chaifetz is an appellate lawyer for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, she clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (for Judge Betty B. Fletcher) and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Philadelphia (for Judge Louis H. Pollak). She received her B.A. from Harvard College and her J.D. from Yale Law School. While at Yale, Samantha drew upon work experience in strategy consulting for life sciences companies as she focused on issues at the intersection of law and public health. She was co-Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics, and was one of the founding members of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines in 2002. |
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Huguette Ekambi Mbella Huguette joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in 2002. There she is working with the Controller’s Department and held various positions including oversight responsibility for loans, equity and derivatives accounting within the Financial Reporting Unit or Head of the Information Quality Group. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she worked with Dexia Bank, New York ; gained extensive experience with Derivatives at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in Paris. Huguette is currently part of the Internal Control & Special Projects Division mandated with the task of reviewing IFC's system of internal controls over financial reporting to ensure that it is adequately designed and operating effectively. IFC promotes sustainable private sector growth in developing countries. Huguette has been involved with UAEM since 2008. |
