Arachu Castro

Arachu Castro is Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America and Director of the Collaborative Group for Health Equity in Latin America at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She conducts research on women’s health and reproduction and on early childhood development in contexts of poverty. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010. Before joining Tulane in 2013, she was Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is the Past President of the Society for Medical Anthropology.

Bethany Hedt-Gauthier

Bethany Hedt-Gauthier is a biostatistician and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. She leads a body of research on provision and outcomes of c-section care at rural district hospitals in Rwanda. Bethany received a BS with distinction in mathematics from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1999. Immediately following her undergraduate training, she served three years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Namibia, where she was introduced to the needs and challenges of global public health and the role of research in addressing these gaps. In 2003, she began a PhD program in biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health. During this training, she took a leave of absence to complete a fellowship in strategic information at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Malawi. She received her PhD in 2008 and completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the same department in 2010.

Brian Heuser

Brian Heuser is an Assistant Professor of the Practice of International Education Policy in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He has research and work experience in more than 30 countries, including as a US Embassy Policy Specialist in the Republic Georgia, where he worked on issues related to scientific and academic research conducted by tertiary institutions of the post-Soviet region. His research includes the role of universities in creating economic development, issues related to the relationships between global health policy and education policy, and cross-national differences in higher education functions.

Jana Zindell

As Ubuntu Pathways’ Chief Strategy Officer, Jana Zindell oversees the strategic development, impact measurement, and implementation of all programs. Over her 15 years at the organization, Jana has professionalized the grassroots service delivery model, creating a global blueprint for community transformation. She has been instrumental in the creation of all aspects of the model. She has led the creation of a comprehensive pathway of interventions taking orphans and vulnerable children from cradle to career, drove complex organizational change, and guided the development of Ubuntu's capacity building program, a globally recognized best practice in recruitment, empowerment, and retention in low-resource settings. In 2010, Jana spearheaded the design and building of the Ubuntu Centre, a 24,000 square foot, state-of-the-art building that houses a mother-and-child clinic, an early childhood wing, and job skills training hub. Jana is a passionate advocate of contextualized, locally-driven poverty solutions as well as the importance of staff development, creating a learning culture, and the value of intrapreneurship. She writes and speaks regularly about these topics. She currently leads the Ubuntu Advisory, the consulting arm of Ubuntu Pathways. The Ubuntu Advisory provides consulting, training and coaching to organizations that wish to grow responsibily and deepen impact by applying the principles of the Ubuntu Model.

Moderator: Paul Ellingstad

Managing Partner, PTI Advisors Paul advises and accompanies leaders who want to innovate and grow by effectively navigating breakthrough change. He is a veteran of the technology sector and worked at iconic brands Gateway, Compaq and HP. Paul is now Managing Partner at PTI Advisors, where he works with clients in all three sectors, especially on the growing importance of sustainability and responsible business in society. He is a lifelong learner and a systems thinker. He is passionate about mentoring and believes that mentors normally learn more than they can ever possibly teach. Paul is a fellow in the Aspen Institute’s Business & Society Program, he serves as a director on several boards, he is a youth leadership advocate and a life-long member of the Scouting movement.

Marie Martin

Marie Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine and serves as the Associate Director for Education and Training at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH). She received her B.A. in English from Vanderbilt University and M.Ed. in International Education Policy from Vanderbilt’s George Peabody College of Education and Human Development. She completed her Ph.D. at Tennessee State University in Public Administration. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of global health, public policy and education with a particular focus on agenda-setting and public finance. Previously, Marie was a Fulbright Scholar to Japan in international education and worked for three years at the Global Education Office at Vanderbilt developing international service-learning programs. Her professional background includes seven years as an assignment editor for CNN.