Racial Diversity in Global Health Initiative Announces Advisory Committee

Press contacts:

in Leeds (UK) – Dr. Fifa Rahman | +44.7955.809114 | frahman@matahari.global;
in Windhoek (Namibia) – Nyasha Chingore-Munazvo | +264(61) 300381| nyasha@arasa.info;
in San Diego (USA) – Gisa Dang | +1.858.252.8025 | gdang@matahari.global

 

26 April 2021— The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) and Matahari Global Solutions (Matahari) are elated to introduce the founding members of the 2021 Advisory Committee for the race and global health initiative.

 

Dr. Stellah Bosire holds a Bachelors in Medicine and Surgery, a Master in Global Health Policy and an MBA in Healthcare Management. She is the Co-Executive Director of UHAI – The East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative: Africa’s first indigenous activist fund for and by sexual and gender minorities as well sex workers. UHAI supports civil society organizing across seven Eastern African countries and Pan-African organizing to address poverty and violence, ensuring that education, employment, housing, and healthcare are accessible to all, without prejudice, while fighting oppression and injustice.

 

Dr. Stellah has extensive international and domestic experience with foreign government agencies and private donors; her expertise is in monitoring and appraising public/global health programs; effectiveness, and strategic development. At programming, she is an expert in SRHR, healthcare development, and infectious diseases management with a gender cross-cutting theme; in influencing laws, policies, and programs beyond Kenya. Her leadership positions include Board member of Funders concerned about HIV/AIDS; former CEO of Kenya Medical Association; former Board Chair of the National Gay Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and former Vice-Chair of the HIV/AIDS Tribunal of Kenya. She is currently pursuing a Law Degree.

 

Colleen Daniels has 23 years’ experience as a Director, Project Manager, and Technical Advisor in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, gender, human rights, harm reduction, challenging operating environments, and community systems strengthening, working to deliver access to essential health services. She initiated the global strategy on TB and human rights and worked with TB and HIV civil society to increase their capacity to engage with the Global Fund, UN agencies, donors and governments; worked to catalyze global leadership to accelerate momentum toward universal access for high-quality HIV and TB services; and accelerated funding and progress in R&D for better tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat TB/HIV. She is a current member of the Technical Review Panel for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. She has worked in programs globally and has lived and worked in Australia, Kenya, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, the Kingdom of Tonga, the USA and UK.

 

Colleen is called on as an expert in addressing decolonization and racism in global public health, including in articles and blogs. She is currently working on the impact of the war on drugs on health, the gendered impacts of drug policy, and on colonialism and the war on drugs. In addition, she advances this work through research and advocacy, strategic litigation and regional alliance building.

 

Prof. Luiz Carlos S. Faria Jr. is a Brazilian lawyer and Professor of International Public Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). He received his LL.M in Law and Innovation from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil and is a PhD Candidate in State Theory and Constitutional Law at the PUC-Rio. Luiz Carlos has 10 years’ experience as Project Assistant and Researcher in the field of Human Rights and Business, collaborating in studies about global health, transnational corporations and international organizations. He is a researcher and anti-racism activist with expertise in environmental racism, critical race theory, Decolonial Thought, Global Governance and International Human Rights Law.

 

The three members of the Advisory Committee were selected from among participants of the initiative’s first Inception Roundtable in February 2021. The Inception Roundtable determined the parameters for the first qualitative research project by the initiative, scheduled for July and August this year. The three members of the Advisory Committee will provide accountability and strategic oversight to the first year of the initiative, and contribute to fiscal and operational planning for its future. The Advisory Committee members will build global awareness of initiative findings, including through circulation of research reports, media appearances, and contribution to publications that derive from the initiative.

 

The ARASA and Matahari team are grateful to the Advisory Committee and the guidance from the Inception Roundtable, as we prepare this years’ research among 30+ Black and Brown leaders in global public health to assess challenges and opportunities to solve racism in global health. The research will include the perspective of white leadership at leading multilateral organizations based in the Global North. A formal research report will be published before the end of 2021.