Technical Advisory Group
Prof. Amina Abubakar
Bio: Professor and Director
Extended Bio: Amina Abubakar is Professor and Director for the Institute for Human Development, Aga Khan University (AKU). She is a Senior Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme and Visiting Academic at the University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry.
She is a trained Developmental Psychologist with more than 18 years research experience working in rural settings in Kenya within multidisciplinary teams. She is interested in both acquired and congenital brain disorders. Specifically, her research interests lie in a) quantifying the neurocognitive burden of early childhood diseases; b) developing culturally appropriate psychological measures for use in SSA and; c) identifying culturally appropriate intervention strategies for at-risk children in SSA.
Organization: Institute for Human Development, Aga Khan University (AKU)
Mahmuda Akhter
Bio: Executive Director ICHD,
Extended Bio: Mahmuda Akhter is the Executive Director of the Institute of Child and Human Development (ICHD). She is also the Vice-Chair of Bangladesh ECD Network (BEN) and the Convener of South Asia Forum of Early Childhood Development Professionals (SAFECDP). She is a member of the National ECCD Technical Committee under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. She is a Member of the Management Board of Bangladesh Shishu Academy which is the National Academy for Children. She was the founding Head of the ECD Resource Centre at BRAC Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University from 2005 to 2011. She was also a member of the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) Steering Committee (2008-2016). Under the guidance of Ms. Mahmuda Akhter, a significant number of research studies were conducted in the field of Early Childhood Development. She had a lead role in designing and developing the Post Graduate Certificate, Diploma, and Master Degree Program in Early Childhood Development at BRAC IED jointly with Columbia University USA and Open Society Institute London. She has been working as a faculty in this program of BRAC IED, BRAC University since 2008.
Organization: Institute of Child and Human Development (ICHD)
Laura Aoudeh
Bio: Programmes Manager
Extended Bio: Lara Aoude, born in Lebanon in 1987, currently the Programmes Manager at The Arab Resource Collective (ARC) and the Arab Network for Early Childhood (ANECD). Beholds a BA in ECE from the Lebanese University, and a Masters degree in Socio-cultural engineering from Saint-Joseph University (USJ). Advocate of early childhood in the Arab world. An ECD expert and regional trainer: Participated in the development of several Resources for Caregivers, educators, and ECD practitioners in Arabic. Creative writer: Developed scripts for more than 80 ECD videos directed to caregivers, and wrote ECD articles that align with the Arab world context. Designed several ECD interventions. Contributed to the ARC and ANECD internal structuring and strategic planning.
Organization: The Arab Resource Collective (ARC) and the Arab Network for Early Childhood (ANECD)
Muideen Bakare
Bio: Chairman of Childhood Neuropsychiatric Disorders Initiatives (CNDI)
Extended Bio: Dr. Muideen Owolabi Bakare is presently the Chairman of Childhood Neuropsychiatric Disorders Initiatives (CNDI), a Non-Profit Organization registered in Nigeria that is committed to the objective of promoting physical, social and mental well-being of children and adolescents in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. Dr. Bakare is a trained Psychiatrist practicing in Nigeria. He is a Chief Consultant Psychiatrist and Head of the Child and Adolescent Unit of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria. He has participated in impact conferences like World Psychiatrists Association (WPA) World Congress, International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), International Association for Child and Adolescents Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) on various subjects relating to Childhood Neuropsychiatric Disorders in Africa. He has contributed impactful research in the subject area of Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Bakare was a Member of the WHO Extended Peer-Review Group for classification of Intellectual Developmental Disorders (IDD) for the proposed ICD-11. Dr. Bakare was also part ofthe Delphi Panelists that contributed to the rounds of Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health initiative. He is the Secretary, WPA Section for Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability (SPID).
Organization: Childhood Neuropsychiatric Disorders Initiatives (CNDI)
Lisa Bohmer
Bio: Director, Global Early Childhood Development
Extended bio: Lisa Bohmer directs the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Global Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiative, working with governments and civil society organizations in East and Southern Africa as well as the U.S. Bohmer is trained in public health with over 30 years of experience in supporting children and families and in technical areas including HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, reproductive rights and the empowerment of women and girls. Her experience includes leadership roles with UNICEF, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Nike Foundation, Ipas, and the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS.
Organization: Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Claudia Cappa
Bio: Senior Adviser for Statistics and Monitoring in the Data and Analytics Section
Extended Bio: Claudia Cappa is a Senior Adviser for Statistics and Monitoring in the Data and Analytics Section, at the UNICEF headquarters. She is the focal point for data collection, data analysis, and methodological work on Early Childhood Development, Child Disability, and Child Protection from Violence, Exploitation, and Abuse. The support for these activities includes elaboration of survey questionnaires and data collection tools, estimations, development of methodologies, indicators, tools, and normative guidelines, capacity building, data analysis, production of reports, as well as delivery and dissemination of final results. In this capacity, she has led the preparation of a number of data-driven publications and is responsible for interagency collaborations and partnerships.
Prior to joining UNICEF, she was working at the University of Geneva and at the Institute for Social Studies of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Claudia Cappa holds a MA and a doctorate in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland.
Organization: UNICEF
Javier Curcio
Bio: International Consultant, Director of the Economics Department FCE / UBA, Professor FCE / UBA, Researcher IIPE BAIRES – UBA CONICET
Extended Bio: Javier A. Curcio is an international consultant and researcher at IIEP-BAIRES (UBA-CONICET). He previously worked as an official for UNICEF, specializing in Social Investment between 2004 and 2008 and is a consultant for international organizations such as UNICEF, CEPAL, UNAIDS, UNPD, UNESCO, the World Bank and BID among others.
Currently, he is the director of the Economics Department at FCE-UBA, adjunct professor of Public Finance at FCE-UBA and researcher at IIEP BAIRES – UBA CONICET. Additionally, he teaches for a variety of Masters programs including the Masters of Economics at UBA, Masters of Administration and Public Policy at the Universidad de San Andrés and the Masters in Design and Management of Policy and Social Programs at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLASCO) among other programs.
He previously was also an advisor for the Secretary of Finance, Secretary of Economic Policy and the Ministries of Education, Science and Technology of Argentina. He is the author of numerous works on public policy, social investment, economics of education and protection and social security.
Curcio has a degree in economics from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) with a concentration in the monitoring and evaluation of public policy, economic social policy and fiscal policy.
Organization: IIEP-BAIRES (UBA-CONICET)
Bernadette Daelmans
Bio: Head of Child Health and Development Unit in the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing
Organization: World Health Organization
Romilla Karnati
Bio: Director in Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)
Extended bio: Dr. Romilla Karnati is the Director of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) at Save the Children, US. She provides strategic leadership to the ECCD team and technical assistance to countries in Africa and Asia. Romilla is the focal point on programming for children 0-3 years and co-developed the Building Brains Common Approach. Romilla provides ECCD technical assistance to USAID’s flagship nutrition project called Advancing Nutrition, USAID Momentum and Country Global Leadership, Save the Children’s global Sponsorship programming as well as private donor-funded early childhood projects. She is a member of the Nurturing Care working group and a mentor on the World Bank’s Early Years Fellowship Program. Prior to joining Save the Children, Romilla worked as an ECCD Consultant at UNICEF Headquarters and provided technical guidance on parenting programs; research on linking women’s empowerment and child care as well as global advocacy efforts. Her earlier work experience included being Director of educational content at Sesame Workshop. She also managed a team researching transition initiatives in early childhood in the US and internationally at Teachers College, National Center for Children and Families, New York. As a Research Specialist at the International Literacy Institute in Philadelphia, she helped to design a literacy and numeracy curriculum for multimedia software. While completing her PhD in Human Development from the University of Pennsylvania, she acquired teaching experience in the early grades. Her dissertation research focused on the impact of computer-aided education for out-of-school children in India.
Organization: Save the Children
Melissa Kelly
Bio: Lead, Engaging Policymakers in Early Childhood and Early Years Fellowship Programs
Extended Bio: Melissa Kelly leads the Early Years Fellowship and co-leads the Engaging Policymakers in Early Childhood Programs at the World Bank. She has over 15 years of experience in early childhood focused on design, implementation and workforce strengthening of parent education, early learning and community engagement programming across education, social protection, child protection and health sectors in Central America, East and Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, and South and Southeast Asia. She served on the Executive Group of the ECD Action Network (ECDAN) from 2017-2020, was the chair of the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) from 2016-2019 and co-leads the Nurturing Care Framework Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group with UNICEF and WHO partners. Melissa’s previous roles include Director of Program Strategy and ECD Senior Advisor at ChildFund International; ECD Specialist at Save the Children US; ECD Program Manager for Save the Children Mozambique; Project Director at the New York City Department of Education and Program Assistant at the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). Melissa holds a master’s degree in International Educational Development from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Organization: World Bank Group
Wanjiku Kuria, MPH
Bio: Advisor- Sanitation and Hygiene
Extended bio: Has over 18 years experience in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector having worked in both refugee and development setups in various non-profit organizations. Masters in public health and a post-graduate certificate in global health from Drexel University.
Organization: World Vision Kenya
Stephen Lye, PhD, FCAHS, FRCOG
Bio: Interim Director Senior Investigator Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Executive Director, Alliance for Human Development, ScotiaBank Scientist in Child and Adolescent Health Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute Sinai Health System
Extended Bio: Stephen Lye Ph.D., is a Senior Investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Sinai Health System where he is the Scotiabank Scientist in Child and Adolescent Development and the Women’s Auxiliary Chair in Women’s and Infants’ Health Research. Dr. Lye is a Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Physiology, and Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lye leads the Alliance for Human Development, a transdisciplinary initiative that seeks to improve the health and well-being of all children, everywhere, by focusing on optimizing their development in early life.His research has integrated discovery, clinical and translational studies including the commercialization of discoveries in partnership with industry. Dr. Lye has established international research consortia focused on identifying interactions between an individual’s genetic make-up and their environment during the first 2000 days of life that underlie obesity and cardio-metabolic disorders. He has published over 300 research papers on pregnancy and maternal-child health with a special focus on mechanisms underlying preterm birth and other pregnancy complications. Dr. Lye has received numerous awards and honors, including Fellowship of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (UK), the President’s Scientific Achievement Award from the Society for Reproductive Investigation and John R. McArthur Distinguished Scientist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Organization: Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute Sinai Health System
Katie Murphy
Bio: Senior Technical Advisor for Early Childhood Development
Extended Bio: Katie is the Senior Technical Advisor for Early Childhood Development at the International Rescue Committee and has over fifteen years experience working in the field of early childhood development, education and sustainable development. Katie began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador, where she lived in a rural community for two years teaching and designing health education and income generation projects. She began working with the IRC in 2005 as the education manager in Chad, supporting Darfurian refugees to build and improve educational and recreational programs for children and youth. Katie served as the Deputy Director of the Global Master’s in Development Practice Secretariat at the Earth Institute at Columbia University and returned to work at the IRC in 2015, and served as the technical lead for the design of the Ahlan Simsim program, which received the inaugural 100&Change award from the MacArthur Foundation. She is currently the co-chair of the ECD Task Team for the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). Katie holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University, an EdM from Harvard Graduate School of Education in International Education Policy and an MPH from University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Katie is currently a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development at the University of Pennsylvania focusing on the implementation, quality measurement, and developmental outcomes for early childhood programs in crisis and conflict settings. She has also conducted research in early childhood development in Central America, Ecuador, India, Lebanon, Kenya, Mexico and Thailand. Katie lives with her husband, two young boys (ages 3 and 6) and their dog Wallace in New Haven, Connecticut (the city where she was born).
Organization: International Rescue Committee
Ana Nieto
Bio: Early Childhood Development Specialist
Extended Bio: Ana is an Early Childhood Development Specialist at UNICEF Headquarters. She leads field engagement, partnerships, and capacity-building initiatives related to the financing of ECD programs and system strengthening across sectors. She is a member of ECDAN’s Technical Committee, as well as the Nurturing Care Inter-Agency Core Group. Prior to joining UNICEF, Ana spent several years working for education and early childhood related foundations, including Dubai Cares and Qatar Foundation. Ana also worked for several years with Plan International in several countries. She holds a MA in International Development from the University of Barcelona, and an MSc in Public Policy from SOAS, University of London.
Organization: UNICEF
Dr. George Evans Owino
Bio: Programme Manager, Knowledge Generation and Dissemination
Extended Bio: Dr Owino is the Research Programme Lead at the Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN). In this role, he leads AfECN initiated studies and participates in collaborative studies co-designed with partners. He also provides technical support to the Knowledge Generation Working Group of the African Union CESA ECED Cluster. Dr. Owino holds a PhD from the School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, Germany and prior to joining AfECN, he spent over 10 years teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the Department of Sociology, Gender and Development Studies at Kenyatta University. Besides teaching, he also engaged in other administrative duties including being chair of the Departmental Postgraduate Studies Committee. In addition to his experience from academia, Dr. Owino has accumulated a wealth of experience in evaluation research where he consulted for several organizations as an external evaluation consultant. Additionally, he is also a program implementation specialist, having worked as a Behaviour Change Officer implementing an HIV prevention project at the community level in rural Kenya. Furthermore, he has extensive experience and excellent mastery of the social science and behavioural research processes with special strength in qualitative research methodology.
Organization: Africa Early Childhood Network
Jill Popp, PhD
Bio: Senior Researcher
Extended Bio: Jill Popp is currently a Senior Researcher at the LEGO Foundation focusing on building evidence on learning through play, whole child development, and lifelong learning. She is particularly interested in understanding ways to support positive play experiences between parents and children within the home environment. In addition, she is involved in a research project looking at cultural variations in young children’s perceptions of play and learning. Dr. Popp has a Doctorate in Child Development and Family Studies from the University of Connecticut. Her previous research focused on young children with chronic illness and the impact of stress on young children’s narratives and parent-child relationship quality. Along with this, she has worked as a researcher on several large-scale community intervention programs in the United States.
Organization: LEGO Foundation
Vidya Putcha
Bio: Senior Program Officer
Extended Bio: As a senior program officer for R4D’s education portfolio, she leads projects on early childhood development related to supporting and strengthening the early childhood workforce, and increasing financing for early childhood development services. This often involves strategic guidance for policymakers, funders, and implementers on topics such as tracking investments, standards, and training and professional development. Ms. Putcha holds a master’s in international relations and international economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a BA in development studies from Brown University. She speaks English and Telugu
Organization: Results for Development
Maureen Samms-Vaughan, CD, MBBS, DM (Paed.), PhD (Epidemiology)
Bio:
Extended Bio: Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan is known internationally for her seminal research, clinical work and policy development in the field of child health and development. She is an advocate for the well-being of all children, but particularly those at the early childhood level and those with developmental disabilities. She works very closely with families of children with autism spectrum disorder. Maureen Samms-Vaughan is Professor of Child Health, Child Development and Behaviour at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. She is known locally, regionally and internationally for her clinical work as a developmental paediatrician, as a policymaker for children’s matters, and as a researcher in child development, particularly in Jamaica and the Caribbean, in the areas of early child development, developmental disabilities, and birth cohort studies. She has been an academic at the University of the West Indies (UWI) since 1993, and was appointed UWI’s first Professor of Child Health, Child Development and Behaviour in 2006.
She has been Consultant Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrician at UHWI and Director of the weekly Child and Family Clinic for children with developmental disabilities since 1993, when she first conceptualised the clinic. Prof. Samms-Vaughan was appointed the first Chairman of Jamaica’s Early Childhood Commission, a new agency of government responsible for guiding policy and programme development to advance early childhood development in Jamaica. She was instrumental in the development and implementation of Jamaica’s comprehensive and cross-sectoral National Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Development, now recognised as an international model. In 2007, she was the recipient of a national honour from the Government of Jamaica, the Commander of the Order of Distinction for pioneering work in early childhood development.
She has published over 120 papers and other works. Prof. Samms-Vaughan has over 150 publications, including three books, several book chapters and peer reviewed papers, on a range of child development and developmental disabilities. She has also completed numerous consultancies in child development for the IDB, the World Bank, UNICEF and PAHO. She has received numerous research grants for child development research from the CDB, UNICEF, the IDB, the World Bank and the National Institutes of Health. Her research has influenced public policy in the areas of parenting, early childhood development, mitigation of childhood exposure to violence and the development of early childhood Indicators. She has received a number of local and international awards, including, the Commander of the Order of Distinction (CD) by the Government of Jamaica in 2007 for pioneering work in early childhood development and child health care.
Organization: Professor, of Child Health, Child Development and Behaviour, UWI
Consultant Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrician, UHWI
Director, Child and Family Clinic (for Developmental and Behavioural Disorders of Childhood), UHWI
Cassandra Scarpino
Bio: Senior Advisor, Early Childhood Development
Extended bio: Cassandra Scarpino is the Senior Advisor for Early Childhood at ChildFund. She is an experienced Early Childhood Development, Foundational Skills, and Intergenerational Learning professional who has provided technical support to programming in Africa, Asia, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to providing technical assistance to civil society organizations and government partners, Cassandra has worked as an Early Childhood Educator with infants and young children, and facilitated parenting programs for families that had recently immigrated in the US.
Organization: ChildFund International
Melanie Swan
Bio: Global Technical Lead for Early Childhood Development
Extended Bio: Melanie Swan is the Global Technical Lead for Early Childhood Development for Plan International. Prior to joining Plan in 2001, she worked as a physician (in the NHS (UK) and with DFID in the Solomon Islands, and obtained a Masters (Hon) in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/London School of Economics. In Plan, she has worked as the health/ECD advisor at the country level (Brazil), regional level (Latin America), and, since 2015, at the global level. In her current role, her work focuses on supporting Plan teams working across four regions (Americas and the Caribbean/Middle East and Eastern and Southern Africa/West and Central Africa/Asia and Pacific) and development and humanitarian settings to progress gender-transformative ECD programming, with particular emphasis on play-based early learning and parenting/caregiver education and support programs, including male engagement.
Organization: Plan International
Mark Tomlinson
Bio: Professor of Maternal and Child Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University, Belfast UK and Co-Director Institute for Life Course Health Research, Stellenbosch University
Extended Bio: Professor Mark Tomlinson is the Co-Director of the Institute for Life Course Health Research in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University. He is also Professor of Maternal and Child Health in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University, Belfast, UK. His scholarly work has involved a diverse range of topics that have in common an interest in factors that contribute to compromised maternal health, to understanding child and adolescent development in contexts of high adversity, to understand the impact of maternal depression on child health and development, and how to develop community-based interventions to improve health and development across the life course. He is currently a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic and Technical Advisory Group of Experts (STAGE) for Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health & Nutrition. He was elected as a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa in 2017. He received the Chancellors Award for Research at Stellenbosch University in 2015. He has published over 310 papers in peer-reviewed journals, edited two books, and published numerous chapters.
Organization: Queens University and Stellenbosch University
Zorica Trikic
Bio:Senior Program Manager
Extended Bio: Zorica Trikic is a Senior Program Manager in International Step by Step Association (ISSA). She holds a Master’s degree in Education and Human Resources Development. Zorica has over 30 years of international experience in the early years sector, working on programs and policy development focusing on accessibility of high-quality early childhood experiences for all children, especially the most marginalized ones – Roma and refugee and migrant children. She has extensive experience working on policy development and capacity building on different levels of early childhood systems and across sectors, with a particular focus on bridging educational, health, child protection, and welfare systems and services. In various capacities (author, co-author, editor, peer reviewer), she contributed to developing some of the foundational ECD guidance and knowledge products in the ISSA region. As a Sr. Program Manager, Zorica leads different ISSA initiatives, including the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative, Embracing Diversity, Quality in ECEC, Supporting Families for Nurturing Care, and Playful Parenting.
Organization: International Step by Step Association (ISSA)
Aisha K. Yousafzai, PhD
Bio: Associate Professor of Global Health, Department of Global Health and Population
Extended bio: Dr. Aisha K Yousafzai completed her doctoral degree at the Institute of Child Health, University College London with a focus on international child health, nutrition, and development. Her research has focused on understanding integrated early childhood interventions. She has 20 years of field research experience in low- and middle-income countries having lived and worked in South Asia and East Africa and led programme evaluations in Central and Eastern Europe. The goal of her research is to promote early childhood development and to support capacity in order to develop, evaluate and improve early childhood interventions. Her work primarily focuses on:
- Developing new interventions and approaches to promote early child development with a particular interest in how to strengthen child and caregiving-related outcomes through existing health, nutrition, and education systems.
- Analyzing for whom early childhood interventions work, how they work, in which contexts, and for how long.
- Understanding the implementation structures and processes for early childhood interventions to achieve sustainable impact at scale.
- Promoting capacity development in local communities, services, and systems for the effective delivery of interventions to promote early child development.
Dr. Yousafzai also serves on a number of global advisory groups on ECD for agencies such as UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank.
Organization: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health