Leadership Team

Daniel Zoughbie Founder, CEO, and President Daniel Zoughbie is the Founder, CEO, and President of MCI. He also serves as the organization's Principal Investigator, and in this capacity, directs all research activities. Dr. Zoughbie's research interests and community service activities combine the fields of international development, global health, international relations, and higher education. He received his BA in Urban Studies (2006) with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies (Phi Beta Kappa and Highest Honors) from the University of California, Berkeley, his MSc in Social Anthropology from Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, and his DPhil (PhD) from Oxford as a Weidenfeld Scholar.	Kathleen T. Watson Chief Operating Officer and Senior Executive Vice President Katie Watson is Chief Operating Officer and Senior Executive Vice President. She also serves as the organization's co-Principal Investigator, and in this capacity, helps oversee all research activities. She attended New York University where she received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor Middle Eastern Studies. After graduation, she has pursued two primary areas of interest: cognitive neuroscience research and public health. Watson's interest in global development led her to Amman, where she worked with Daniel Zoughbie, the Founder of MCI to establish a pilot project in Jordan with the aim of serving Jordan's diabetic population. She was named the UCSF Clausen Fellow, under the guidance of the Global Health Sciences Division headed by Dr. Haile Debas. Katie has since joined the GMCP leadership team as it continues to expand its operations globally. She has a wide range of other interests including writing, travel and learning languages, including improving her spoken Arabic and French.	Leila Makarechi Executive Vice President for Program Management and Strategic Development Leila Makarechi is the Executive Vice President for Program Management and Strategic Development. Makarechi previously worked as Senior Project Manager for MCI, spearheading the microclinics in India. Prior to MCI, she worked for the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. During her time at UNDP she focused on gender and development, poverty reduction, and democratic governance. Working directly with the Senior Advisor for Social Policy, she helped manage a $46 million fund covering more than 92 projects throughout 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Additionally Leila co-founded and serves as Vice-President of the Board for 180 Degrees, a non-governmental organization working with marginalized communities in the Dominican Republic to improve health, education, and community development. She has also worked for NGOs and government officials in the Middle East, focusing on public administration and conflict resolution. She has received many honors including a John Gardner Public Service Fellowship. Her research spans a range of development issues, such as a recent paper on the link between security and development, Haiti: A Future Beyond Peacekeeping? and the creation of the world’s first-ever human security monitoring system which will be implemented with UNDP in Chernobyl affected communities. She has a BA in political science and social welfare (Phi Beta Kappa and Highest Honors) from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Master of Public Affairs from the Institut d’Études Politiques (Sciences Po) Paris. She speaks English, Persian, Spanish, and French fluently and she loves working with communities and policy makers to deliver tangible progress in human development.
Jodie Dallara Chief Financial Officer Jodie Dallara is the Chief Financial Officer of MCI. Jodie graduated from the Stern School of Business in 2004 with a B.S. in Finance and Marketing. Post-graduation, she worked as an event planner for some of NYC’s top restaurant groups. In 2007, Jodie decided to change paths and pursue a career in corporate finance. Before joining GMCP, she worked for the Associated Press as a Senior Financial Analyst for the Technology and Digital Divisions. Jodie has a range of interests including travel, reading and music.	Matt Werner Vice President of Marketing and Communications Matt Werner is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for MCI. He maintains the website, assembles MCI multimedia and marketing materials, and helps write and edit MCI's internal and external communications. During his five years at McSweeney’s Publishing in San Francisco, Werner helped edit, fact check, and research for many titles, including the first serialized installments in the Believer Magazine of What is the What by Dave Eggers (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and also the Voice of Witness Series books Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, and Out of Exile: Narratives from the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan. His first book of short fiction is Papers for the Suppression of Reality. He's currently working on his second book Oakland in Popular Memory, which features interviews with artists from Oakland, California and beyond (Thought Publishing, March, 2012). Werner received his BA in English in 2007 (Phi Beta Kappa and Highest Honors) from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the Winston Churchill Scholarship by the English-Speaking Union of San Francisco for his Master’s in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He currently works at Google and volunteers with MCI's communications outside of Google.	Chas Salmen Senior Vice President, Special Projects Chas Salmen is Senior Vice President for Special Projects at MCI. He grew up in the mountains of Western Colorado. As a pre-med undergrad at Duke University, Chas studied English Literature and Arabic Language. Following graduation, Chas volunteered for six months in Eldoret, Kenya in the Community Mobilization Department for the Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH). He has received many honors and awards including the Rhodes Scholarship to study Medical Anthropology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Chas' research passions are in infectious disease, environmental sustainability, and social justice. His dissertation at Oxford focuses on the human ecology of HIV/AIDS along the shores Lake Victoria in Kenya. While at GMCP, Chas has led the Organic Health Response (OHR)-GMCP HIV/AIDS Initiative.
Nancy Bui Vice President of Translational Research and Evaluation Nancy Bui is the Vice President of Translational Research and Evaluation for MCI. She coordinates the financial, operational and compliance reviews of GMCP's activities, prepares proposals, conducts needs assessment, and measures outcomes related to the strategic research goals, objectives, and reporting requirements. Bui originally joined GMCP as the second Clausen Fellow, where she designed the monitoring and evaluation system for the pilot project in Amman, Jordan. Prior to working with GMCP, she worked at the University of California, San Francisco, Global Health Sciences where she gained a better understanding of health issues that transcend borders and the need to improve the health workforce around the world. She brings to the GMCP her experience working in HIV/AIDS, older adult and adolescent health, community health education, reproductive health, program planning and evaluation. Her professional interests include working to reduce health inequities and improve community health through capacity building, improving access to services and resources, and focusing on determinants of health and illness. Bui holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Community Health Education from Hunter College/CUNY, and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, with a concentration on health and social behavior.	Sean Hanlon Senior Financial Advisor Sean Hanlon is Senior Financial Advisor for MCI. Sean received his BS in Management Science, with an emphasis in Accounting and Economics, in 2006 (Magna Cum Laude) from Boston College. After graduation, Sean joined Jesuit Volunteers International, serving in Nepal until 2008. While there, he helped coordinate mobile health clinics at 21 sites around the Kathmandu Valley as well as helping establish a computer lab and curricula for underserved high school students. Sean received his Certification as a Public Accountant in California in 2010. Sean has also held the roles at GMCP of Chief Financial Officer and VP, Financial Administration and Planning.	Hal Campbell Vice President, Health Promotion, Education, and Innovation Hal earned his master's degree in English literature from the University of California and served in the Peace Corps in Malawi, Africa, in the 1970s. After returning to the United States, he taught autistic and severely handicapped children before earning his doctorate in education from Johns Hopkins University. In the 1980s and 90s, he worked in the field of interactive training design and started his own training company in Colorado in 1998. He has designed game-based training programs for a wide array of professions, from physicians and roofers to hotel maids and power generation personnel. In 2003, he decided to focus on health promotion and earned his MPH from Johns Hopkins. He returned to Africa with his family as associate field director of HIV Community Mobilization in western Kenya for Indiana University School of Medicine from 2006-2008. He developed innovative games and activities to teach Kenyan audiences about the biology, transmission, and prevention of HIV. Hal Campbell has published in the fields of education, training, patient wellness, and poetry.
Eric Ding Director of Epidemiology Eric Ding is the Director of Epidemiology for MCI. He is currently a Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, Director of the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, and a Fellow of the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation, New York, NY. In 2006, he played a major role leading a two-year-long investigation into the controversial drug safety of Vioxx® that drew national attention. Priority published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), as chief author, Eric was recognized and named in the New York Times and USA Today. In 2004, he received the Health Commissioner's Commendation Award from the Baltimore City Health Department. In 2003, he co-founded and served as editor of the journal Epidemic Proportions, awarded the 'Best Johns Hopkins Publication 2005' and recognized by deans of Johns Hopkins University and the director of the National Institutes of Health. A cancer prevention advocate, he founded the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, and was featured in Newsweek. As director of the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, currently with nearly 5 million members, he was profiled in the book CauseWired (Wiley & Sons, Inc). His efforts have raised more than $100,000 in unrestricted public donations for cancer research. Born in Shanghai, China, Eric was raised in the Great Plains and the Appalachia of Pennsylvania. A Sigma Chi, he earned his BA from The Johns Hopkins University with Honors in Public Health and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Trained as an NIH National Cancer Institute predoctoral fellow, he earned his doctorate in epidemiology and doctorate in nutrition at age 23 from Harvard University, where he was the youngest-ever graduate from his dual doctoral programs. At Harvard, Eric has taught and lectured in more than a dozen graduate courses throughout Harvard University and undergraduate courses at Harvard College, for which he received the Derek Bok Distinction in Teaching Award. In addition to teaching, he has published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association, and actively contributes as a reviewer. His 2 dozen publications have received over 400 external citations, garnering an H-INDEX scientific impact factor of 10. He currently also serves as an appointed expert committee member on the World Health Organization's Global Burden of Disease Project.	Michelle C. Fernandes Program Associate Michelle Fernandes is a Program Associate at MCI. She coordinates collaborative efforts, research strategies, budgeting and logistics for the organization’s projects in India. She is also Junior Dean at Exeter College, University of Oxford and a doctoral candidate at the University Department of Psychiatry. Her research interests lie in non-communicable diseases, public health and child health. Dr. Fernandes was solely responsible for the planning and execution of the Solur Mother and Baby Project (SMBP) - a 3 phase longitudinal study of mother and infant health in rural South Karnataka in 2009-10. Her dissertation at Oxford focuses on the influence of depression in mothers during pregnancy on fetal and infant development, in the rural developing world. She was awarded the Donald J Cohen Fellowship from the European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for her research. She is the recipient of the Clarendon Fund Scholarship and the Exeter-Kokil Pathak Scholarship at Oxford University, and the Harold Hyam Wingate Scholarship. Michelle received her medical degree from St. John's Medical College in India where she worked extensively with diabetes clinics in urban, semi-urban and rural settings. Dr. Fernandes also worked as a consultant for Forum 19.1(a) and Unite for Sight-Bangalore and has carried out research in occupational health, traumatic spinal cord injury and postpartum depression in India.	Alexia Green Senior Vice President, Knowledge Management and Administration Alexia Green is the Senior Vice President, Knowledge Management and Administration. She previously worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a Presidential Management Fellow where she focused on performance management and strategic planning. Alexia recieved her MPA with with an emphasis on Public Finance and Nonprofit Managment from Brigham Young University and her B.A., also from Brigham Young University, in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Amman, Jordan 2004-2005 and has worked with several organizations in Jordan including Jordan River Foundation, INJAZ, and the Community Development Center of Sweilah. She has also conducted extensive research in Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, Kuwait, and Egypt on technology and changing social patterns.
Edmond Fu New Media Advisor Eddie Fu is the New Media Advisor for MCI. He attended New York University, where he received his B.A. in Political Science and minored in Mathematics and Computer Applications. Post-graduation, he worked as a paralegal while pursuing a career in law. In 2007, Eddie decided to change paths to the music industry, where he worked in management and marketing. Prior to joining MCI, he did freelance work as a web designer and wrote extensively about mobile technology. Eddie has a range of interests including music, sports, and technology.	Leslie Lang Senior Vice President for Strategic Development Leslie Lang is the Senior Vice President for Strategic Development. Prior to joining MCI, Leslie worked for the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and the World Bank. As a John Gardner Fellow at the World Bank, Leslie coordinated access to finance initiatives in the Africa region and worked with the Legal Department on several insolvency law projects. Leslie has also spent time at governmental institutions such as the United Nations, the African Development Bank, and the Supreme Court of Rwanda. While attending university, Leslie established a student program that provided social workers with volunteer interpreters to better serve non-English speaking welfare recipients. Leslie received her B.S. in Business Administration and B.A. in Rhetoric (Phi Beta Kappa and Highest Honors) from the University of California, Berkeley as a Regents Scholar and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.