WomenLift Health is about action
Action taken by women, men, organizations and societal leaders that, together, adds-up to transformative change.
Amie Batson
President
Shereen Bhan
Leadership Development & North America Director
Ling Liang
Operations Director
Lizz Ntonjira
Communications and Engagement Director
Amie Batson guides the strategic direction of WomenLift Health. She has over 30 years of experience in the design and implementation of global health policies and financing. Most recently, Amie designed and led WomenLift Health during its incubation at Stanford’s Center for Innovation in Global Health. Prior to her work there, Amie served as the Chief Strategy Officer and VP Applied Analytics and Learning at PATH. Previously, she was a senior deputy assistant administrator in the Global Health Bureau at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she led the agency’s engagement in the President’s Global Health Initiative and represented the agency on the GAVI Board.
Throughout her career in global health, Amie has been a leader in innovation and partnership, spending over a decade at the World Bank leading work on immunization and innovative financing for health that resulted in billions of dollars in new funding for global health and the establishment of GAVI. Prior to the World Bank, she designed and implemented work on vaccine and immunization financing at the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
Shereen Bhan’s career spans 20+ years of experience in designing and implementing training and technical assistance programs for LMICs across the globe. In her current role at WomenLift Health, she oversees the design, contextualization, and implementation of WomenLift’s signature Leadership Journey and other leadership training modalities for mid-career women in global health. As part of the senior leadership team of WomenLift, she actively contributes to the strategic planning and management needed to support a growing and complex initiative to reach women leaders in health around the world at scale.
Prior to her current role, she was the Assistant Director and a Senior Research Associate at the International Center for Public Policy at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. There, she oversaw a wide spectrum of multi-million-dollar technical assistance and training projects and managed the design and implementation of numerous public finance capacity-building programs. Clients included the World Bank, IMF, country governments, USAID and UNDP. During her time at AYSPS she also led the design and implementation of a Leadership training program in Public Management for cohorts of the Young African Leaders Initiative, an Obama administration effort,  from 2015-2017.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of leadership development, gender equality, behavioral change, and public health. She has an MBA in Finance and a BA in Economics.
Ling strongly believes in social change and justice and has over 17 years of experience in the non-profit sector. Prior to joining WomenLift Health, Ling worked at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank for close to 10 years, where she was the Director of Programs. Starting with the Commodities Supplemental Food Program serving 12,000 seniors, Ling grew her areas of focus to also encompass SNAP, expanding the program from 1 staff member in San Francisco to two teams of 10 serving multiple counties. Ling was also instrumental in implementing the Food Bank’s first pantry enrollment system, allowing the Food Bank to assist 12,000 more families in need each week.
Prior to the Food Bank, Ling did economic development work for low-income neighborhoods in San Francisco and taught English in Japan.
Ling graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in Political Science and has a Master in Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Lizz Ntonjira is a strategic communications, advocacy, and policy specialist with extensive experience gained within several roles in the public, private and international development sectors spanning over 16 years. In her current role at WomeLift Health, Lizz leads and implements WomenLift Health’s communications and engagement strategy across the world with an initial focus in Africa, South Asia, and North America. Lizz has been pivotal in transforming brand perception, developing internal and external communication strategies, resource mobilization, media management, stakeholder mapping and engagement, policy facilitation, and has led in numerous public/private partnership dialogues in her various capacities over the decade. Lizz has received a myriad of awards and recognitions throughout her tenure, and in August 2020, Lizz self-published and released her first book about youth and leadership, titled #YouthCan; an anthology of powerful and inspiring stories from youths breaking barriers across 22 African countries.
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Lizz holds a bachelor’s degree in Law from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, a post graduate Professional Diploma in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in the UK, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from Strathmore University. She is also a Public Policy Management Fellow from Virginia Commonwealth University in the US, and a recipient of former US President Barack Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders (2015).Â
Norah Obudho
Health Integration & East Africa Director
Shagun Sabarwal
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning & South Asia Director
Rupinder Chawla
Operations Coordinator, Cross Regional
Neha Dass
Facilitator, India
Morgan Denno
Program Coordinator, North America
(Interim Executive Assistant)
Norah comes on board with a wealth of experience in leadership, management and public health. She is a qualified medical doctor and public health specialist.Â
Her career spans over 15 years with a genuine interest in the interface of public health and project management. She has designed, managed and led teams in various public health programs including HIV, MNCH, Sexual and Reproductive health and rights and empowerment programs. She has led projects funded by USAID, CDC, EU, GF, VLAD, HP and World Bank.Â
Norah is a graduate of the Nairobi University with a Bachelor degree in Medicine and Surgery. In addition, she attained her Master degree in Public Health at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel where she maintains an alumni membership. Norah is also a proud alumni of the Afya Bora Consortium where she attained a certificate in Global Health Leadership. Norahenjoys outdoor activities, music, reading and travel.
Neha is an experienced professional with over 18 years of experience in Leadership Development, Learning and Development and Talent Management.
She has worked with reputed IT MNCs, Media Houses and the Healthcare sector, leveraging end to end initiatives to strengthen the leadership pipeline, developing high potentials and other talent pools.
 An MBA specializing in Human Resources and Organization Behaviour, Neha is also a Psychometric Practioner, an Image Consultant and a Storyteller.
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Shagun comes with more than 13 years of experience in social policy and development research, focusing on improving gender equality and health in India. Over the years, Shagun has led a portfolio of projects to support governments to scale evidence-based solutions, has designed evaluation research, created capacity building programs in monitoring and evaluation, and provided technical advisory on evidence-informed policy design.
Before joining WomenLift Health, Shagun was the Director of Policy, training and communication at J-PAL SA and the Director of CLEAR SA. She led engagements with governments, donors, and civil society organizations to initiate new research, disseminate policy lessons, and scale up evidence-based programs.
She completed her Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard University.
Rupinder is an experienced administrative professional with over two decades of Operations experience, including organising and coordinating corporate events. Rupinder has had an impressive career working with several Fortune 500 companies and International Organizations, where she not only provided operational support but also executed several end-to-end corporate events ranging from large scale international exhibitions to coordinating high-level visits to India by board members and dignitaries.
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Rupinder is a voracious learner who is constantly striving to improve her abilities in a variety of areas. She enjoys contributing to people’s well-being by inspiring and motivating them and spreading positive energy. She enjoys travelling, listening to music, and reading books.
As the Program Coordinator, North America, Morgan supports the WomenLift Health North America Director and Program Lead to design, build, and implement the systems and processes to efficiently track and support the signature training program, The Leadership Journey. Morgan is incredibly passionate about inclusivity and derives meaning from her role, empowering incredible mid-career women leaders in global health in the U.S. and Canada. She enjoys creating a positive culture of kindness, is always on the hunt for process improvements, and strives to free up her team to focus on the work that they love most. Â
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Prior to joining WomenLift Health, Morgan worked in Coordinator roles and Assistant roles within diverse industries, including health, architecture, and engineering. She studied Journalism at San Diego State University and currently resides in Portland, Oregon.Â
Avantika Dhingra
Senior Program Manager, India
Irene Gitonga
Senior Program Coordinator, East Africa
Lindsey Holliday
Digital Manager, Cross Regional
Terry Kigundu
Lead Facilitator, East Africa
Liberty Kituu
Communications Manager, East Africa
Avantika has over 14 years of experience, most of which has been focused on human capital development.
Before joining WomenLift Health, Avantika was a Senior Manager at J-PAL where she worked on a national programme to build capacity and support career journeys of public officials using a competency-driven approach. Prior to that, she led the classroom instruction & practice team at Central Square Foundation, where she worked with private foundations, nonprofits and government institutions, to improve foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes for students.
Avantika holds a MA in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS.
Irene brings in nine years of program coordination experience; working with clients in the public, private and development sector. Prior to joining Womenlift Health, she was an associate program coordinator for a HR consultancy firm which specializes in organizational development capacity building. Irene was key in handling all logistic operations for participants from across Africa, UK, US and Indonesia.Â
Irene’s early career was as a program officer where she grew her passion in coordinating programs, developing leadership materials for teenage girls and organize leadership workshops for youth in low incomes areas.Â
In her spare time, she is engaged in different initiatives geared towards bringing awareness andÂ
advocating for children with special needs. She believes that changing society’s mindset towards this group will encourage others to treat them with dignity and respect and see them as equal to the task in contributing to the societyIrene holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management with a minor in Psychology. She is also a certified life coach and PAGS practitioner (a special needs assessment tool)Â
Irene believes in creating spaces for women where they can nurture their skills and meet with other like-minded women who are occupying spaces of key decision making like boards where they can make the change they want to see with boldness.Â
Lindsey brings a diverse working background and a decade of experience in digital communications. Before joining WomenLift Health, she worked in many industries including SaaS, travel, and law. She currently lives in Denver, CO where she devotes her time to many social justice movements including women’s rights and gender equality. Joining WomenLift Health and empowering women to step into their full, authentic selves is her passion and personal mission.Â
She has a Bachelors in Business with a concentration in marketing and media arts.
Terry Kigundu oversees the instructional design cycle from training needs assessment, design, contextualization, implementation of WomenLift’s Leadership Journey and other leadership modules for mid-career women in Health in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.  She is an enthusiastic professional with over 15 years’ experience in coordinating development programs in both local and international liaisons in Kenya and Africa at large. She is a versatile trainer, with broad-based experience putting together needs based training packages, particularly targeting women in Africa. Terry is passionate about women leadership and decision making, mentorship and coaching and  women economic empowerment, all aimed at advancing Gender Equality.
Terry was formerly the Course Leader at the Africa Centre for transformative and Inclusive Leadership (ACTIL), an establishment between UN Women East and Southern Africa Region and Kenyatta University, Nairobi- Kenya. During her time at ACTIL she also led the design and implementation of Transformational Leadership journey for over 3,500 women and youth in over 60% of the countries in Africa in both Anglophone and Francophone.
Terry holds a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies, Masters in Project Planning and Management, ongoing PhD in Gender and Development Studies. She is also a Certified Facilitator and Executive Coach.
Liberty is a multifaceted Communications Specialist with experience in the design and implementation of communications strategies, as well as the strategic use of multimedia channels such as print, radio, television, and digital to help organizations achieve strategic goals.
He has over ten years of experience in diverse industries, including mainstream media, civil society movements, local governments and international development institutions working in East Africa for the emancipation of girls and women’s rights organisations (WROs).
Prior to joining WomenLift Health, he worked as the communications lead at The Mawazo Institute, a women-led African organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, with a presence in the United States supporting early-career women researchers as they work to find solutions to local and global development challenges, and as a communications officer and strategist at the Community Advocacy and Awareness (CRAWN) Trust, a change catalyst that provides African women and girls with the tools, voice and platforms through which they can effect change. He has a BA in development communications, ongoing MA in diplomacy, development and international security.
Alistair Lindawson
Program Lead, North America
Johnasies McGraw
Operations Lead, Cross Regional
Audrey Muttimos
Operations Coordinator, Cross Regional
Prachi Sharma
Program Manager, India
Rachel Knopf Shey
Instructional Design Lead, Cross Regional
Alistair brings ten years of experience working in global and public health. Most recently, she served as the Associate Director for Research Programs at the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences (PHS) where she curated, managed, and evaluated PHS’ portfolio of sponsored research. Prior to her time at PHS, Alistair served as a Senior Program Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) where she oversaw MEI’s engagement strategy with the Elimination 8 (E8) Regional Initiative, an eight-country initiative used for joint planning and accountability towards malaria elimination across southern Africa. Prior to joining UCSF, Alistair served as a Program Assistant for the U.S. Agency for International Development President’s Malaria Initiative (USAID/PMI) where she provided headquarter support to the PMI Uganda country team. Alistair holds an MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC and a BA in International Studies from the University of California, San Diego.
Johnasies brings over a decade of experience working with a number of community-driven organizations where he has held a variety of support roles.  Most recently he worked as Operations and Contracts Manager at MPact, Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights (formerly the Global Forum on MSM & HIV), an advocacy organization based in Oakland, California that brought funding, policy, and research support to regional and in-country LGBT-led organizations across 62 countries. Prior to this role, he worked as an Operations Manager at Lotus Bloom Child and Family Center which provided child and family programs throughout Oakland, such as multicultural playgroups and nutrition workshops for families with children ages 0-5 .Â
Johnasies also spent the early part of his career working with commercial district revitalization programs and administering an AmeriCorps program that provided support to local community development corporations and other community-serving organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Johnasies has a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Urban Studies and continues to maintain his interests in community development and global issues.
Audrey is a veteran administrative professional with a decade-plus experience in executive office management and coordination. She is a natural organizer, an efficient and reliable team player who thrives on team success, has boundless energy, and has a relentless drive for continuous learning and development.
Audrey has led an impressive career working in the hospitality and FMCG industries. She was a finalist for the 2022 Office Management Awards – International Office Manager of the Year category, held by the UK-based Office Management Group. She is also a recipient of the 2020 ‘Be The Ultimate Assistant’ (BTUA) workshop scholarship in Paris, France, and a finalist in the 2019 East Africa PA Awards. While serving as the Executive Secretary at Radisson Blu Hotel, Upperhill Nairobi, Audrey played a role in championing a favorable environment for working mothers in the hotel.
Audrey holds a BSc degree in International Business Administration from the United States International University in Nairobi, where she was also the School of Business Representative for the class of 2004. She enjoys building bonds with family and friends, outdoor activities, and culinary tourism in her free time.
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Prachi comes with eight years of experience in program management, knowledge management, and advocacy. Her expertise range across several thematic areas including sexual reproductive health and rights, maternal and child health, violence against women and education across India and Africa. Prior to joining WomenLift Health, Prachi worked with Piramal Foundation on the Aspirational Districts Programme and The Tribal Health Collaborative where she extensively engaged with NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Government of India and various leading development partners. A proud feminist, Prachi was recognised as a young gender leader by the Swedish Institute in 2019.
She holds a master’s degree in Women Centred Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and has also been a GRO GEST Scholar at the University of Iceland. Always on the lookout for crime thrillers, she is an avid consumer of cinema.Â
Rachel has spent her 15+ year career bridging public health theory and practice while working to achieve health equity. Prior to taking her dream job at WomenLift Health, Rachel was a clinician in the South Bronx where she worked holistically with an international population throughout the lifespan. Directing the public health program at The New School, she worked collaboratively to create and support a leadership program very similar to the WomenLift Health Leadership Journey: a cohort-based program with mentoring, coaching, peer support, alumni co-facilitation, and impactful leadership projects. As a founding member of The Faculty Center at The New School, Rachel supported a global faculty with an emphasis on compassion, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and foundational pedagogy.
Rachel earned her BS in Community Nutrition, and her MPH from the University of Michigan, has trained at the Women’s Therapy Centre Institute, is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, and practices mindfulness meditation.
Ashley graduated from Duke University with a major in Environmental Sciences and Biology. Shortly after, she moved to San Francisco where she served as an Executive Assistant and then Program Coordinator at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. As Program Coordinator, she worked with community partners in the Sunset, Potrero Hill, Oceanview, Merced, and Ingleside neighborhoods to ensure community members have access to nutritious, weekly groceries and food insecurity-alleviating resources.Â
Ashley loves supporting social justice movements, especially ones that involve empowering women.Â
Careers
Interested in joining the WomenLift Health Team?
View our open positions.
Mission
Our mission is to expand the power and influence of talented women in global health and catalyze systemic change to achieve gender equality in leadership.
Vision
Our vision is a world where diverse, accomplished leaders collectively transform global health outcomes.
Where we work
We are establishing partnerships to support Country Implementation Hubs, beginning with the United States and Canada, India, and East Africa.
