Our Team

Bri is delighted to join Fistula Foundation. As she comes from a family of nurses, she has known about fistula for many years and is honored to be part of an organization working to end it within a generation. Outside of work, she spends time volunteering and aiming to raise awareness of social inequalities, as well as helping to provide resources and solutions for those in need. She is currently working on obtaining her Bachelor’s from Berklee College of Music.

Darren Blankenship is glad join Fistula Foundation as Database Administrator. Darren brings over twenty years of experience working with various Bay Area non-profits and educational institutions. His passion is for systems integration and data integrity, and he is excited to bring this to Fistula Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University. When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time with his family, reading science fiction, and catching up on recent developments in science and technology.

Katherine Weller joined Fistula Foundation as Marketing Communications Writer in 2017. She brings a background in nonprofit program support and journalistic writing, as well as a B.A. in cross-cultural sociology. Katherine formerly served as co-chair of the Young Professionals Council at the St. Anthony Foundation, an organization serving homeless and low-income San Franciscans.  She is honored to be a part of Team Fistula’s mission to create a world where no woman is ostracized for trying to bring a child into the world.

Megan Smart is the Administrative Assistant at Fistula Foundation. She brings with her over 6 years of experience in the administrative field. She is thoroughly excited to join the team and is passionate about the Foundation’s mission to make sure that women in need receive the care they need and deserve. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her daughter and family.

Mirabel Miscala joined Fistula Foundation in December 2015. As Digital Engagement Manager, Mirabel is delighted to communicate Fistula Foundation’s work through exciting and innovative means. Graduating from San Jose State with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Digital Media Art, Mirabel holds a background in web technologies, content management, and various digital skills in diverse fields. Prior to the Foundation, Mirabel has worked in multiple roles and projects relating to web and technology, including teaching for classrooms and content production for start-ups. Influenced by Silicon Valley tech culture, she holds a passion for the arts and technology, bringing start-up experience and creative skills to the team. Mirabel is excited to contribute innovative skills in supporting the Foundation’s excellent projects, while helping women in need.

Pam is a seasoned strategist who combines expertise in digital communications with a lifelong passion for medicine and human health. Most recently as Content Lead for Stanford Health Care, Pam developed an enterprise content program for the health system’s network of complex-care and primary clinics, solving for key touch points across the care journey Pam’s commitment to service-driven communications builds on earlier experience as a journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and roles at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco and Centro Adelante Campesino, a migrant farmworker center in AZ. In her free time, Pam enjoys cycling, climbing and mixed-art projects.

Sajira Mae The is excited to join Fistula Foundation as Special Assistant. Sajira is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University (MA, Transformational Urban Leadership) and the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA, Community Studies). She first learned about obstetric fistula in a global health class for her masters, when she was assigned Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. In joining Fistula Foundation, Sajira continues a career path in the nonprofit sector, supplemented by an impressive personal tradition of volunteer service.

Dr. Steve Arrowsmith has been working with Fistula Foundation for many years, but has recently become an official member of the staff. Currently based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Steve has treated fistula throughout Africa and Asia for nearly 30 years and is an esteemed mentor and trainer for new fistula surgeons. He received his undergraduate degree from Miami University, his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Ohio, and he is a Urologist by surgical training. Steve says his inspiration comes from the women he helps, starting with his first fistula surgery, and it has continued unabated.

Habiba Corodhia Mohamed is Program Manager for Fistula Foundation’s Action on Fistula program in Kenya. In this role, Ms. Mohamed works at the local level to educate communities about fistula and help identify and refer women for treatment. She also trains other community health workers in western Kenya to do the same. Ms. Mohamed began her career as a community veterinarian, assisting livestock farmers by treating their sick animals. Though this close contact with the community she began to see the myriad social challenges face by rural communities and became passionate about working with women facing reproductive health challenges. She is the founder of Women and Development Against Distress in Africa (WADADIA), a community based organization working in the western region of Kenya that provides psycho-social support, economic empowerment and reproductive health to women in need. Prior to joining Fistula Foundation, she worked on fistula for nearly a decade. In this time, she was able to publish a research paper on the psychosocial consequences of fistula to young mothers in western Kenya, and developed Habibathananga, a fistula reintegration model currently under pilot in western Kenya.

In merely the first five months of her work on Action on Fistula, Ms. Mohamed oversaw the training of more than 70 community resource workers, who have conducted outreach visits and community rallies that resulted in reaching more than 4,500 community members, and the treatment of 80 women who were successfully referred to treatment Action on Fistula sites.

Ms. Mohammed holds an undergraduate and Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Mt. Kenya University.

Sarah Omega Kidangasi is a fistula survivor and maternal health advocate. Sarah became an advocate for the Campaign to End Fistula, served as a senior spokesperson with UNFPA, and is Outreach Manager in Western Kenya for One By One’s Let’s End Fistula initiative. Sarah is an eloquent and powerful spokesperson for fistula patients. Her own labor was obstructed and doctors lacked supplies to treat the obstruction; as a result, her baby died and she developed a fistula. In May 2007, she had successful surgery after suffering from fistula for 12 years. Sarah now serves as Communications Officer for our Action on Fistula program in Kenya.

Bwalya Magawa Chomba is the Program Manager for the Fistula Foundation Zambia office. Bwalya is responsible for supporting referrals for fistula patients to partner hospitals, serves as key liaison between the hospitals and the community, and strengthens partnerships with government ministries and community and faith-based organizations.

Bwalya has been working as a Social Worker and Community Development Officer for 13 years, most recently based with the Ministry of Community Development and Social Welfare in Nakonde District. Bwalya has also worked with Caritas / Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Mpika Diocese, where she worked as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, coordinating revisions of project strategies with key stakeholders and ensuring a shared understanding of strategic and informational needs. During her tenure as District Development Facilitator with the NGO Africare Zambia, she learned about obstetric fistula and took up an active role in mobilizing suffering women, successfully referring 200 women for life-transforming surgery.

She has always believed that local community participation is an important way to achieve sustainable development, particularly in the fight against obstetric fistula. Bwalya holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Mulungushi University in Kabwe, Zambia.

Emmanuel Chiluba is a Program Officer at Fistula Foundation’s Zambia office. He works with representatives of the Ministry of Health, assists in training and supervising Community Health Volunteers, and holds sensitization meetings for community leaders in Zambia’s Central Province.

Emmanuel holds a diploma in social work, and has over 18 years of experience working with both grassroots organizations and international NGOs. Before joining Fistula Foundation, Emmanuel worked with the Association of Lay Missionaries of Italy, the Churches Association of Zambia, and the Caritas Mpika Catholic Diocese.

Emmanuel believes that community activities need full commitment and participation to achieve our goal: to help the many vulnerable women still suffering from obstetric fistula.

Malumbe Shichilenge is a Program Officer at Fistula Foundation’s Zambia office. He is responsible for community sensitization, patient mobilization, and treatment referrals in Zambia’s Muchinga Province.

Malumbe worked with the Zambian Ministry of Health as a lab assistant for 7 years prior to joining Fistula Foundation. He also worked in the local community as a blood donor recruiter under the Zambia National Blood Transfusion Services (ZNTBS), helping the community understand the importance of donating blood.

He heard about obstetric fistula in early 2017, quickly developed a strong interest in the area, and joined Fistula Foundation the same year. Malumbe holds a bachelor’s degree in Development Studies form the University of Zambia in Lusaka.

Kelly Brennan is a Managing Director at Citadel Securities. She runs the global ETF business and specializes in helping clients to execute large trades in US and global exchange traded funds and equities. Prior to joining Citadel, Kelly managed several teams within Goldman Sach’s Securities Division in New York for nearly thirteen years. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2005 as an associate and was named managing director in 2010. Kelly started her career at Susquehanna International Group as an equity and equity derivatives trader. Kelly is an active member of Women in ETFs and served on Goldman Sachs’ Women’s Network. She was on the advisory council for Goldman Sachs Hispanic/Latino Network. She has served as member of Two Together, a mentoring program for disadvantaged youth in Manhattan and volunteer for Puppies Behind Bars.Kelly earned a BA in Political Economies with a concentration in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000.

William ‘Bill’ Mann is Chief Investment Officer for Motley Fool Asset Management and specializes in identifying companies with underappreciated competitive advantages and assets. He has experience analyzing a wide range of industries, and it was his expertise in corporate governance that led the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to ask him to be an expert witness at a 2001 hearing regarding the collapse of Enron.

A sought-after public speaker, Bill has frequently appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, CBS, and numerous business radio programs. Before joining The Motley Fool in 1999, Bill was a co-founder of a specialty international telecommunications carrier, and he previously worked in the energy and telecommunications industries. Bill holds a degree in international service from American University. He was named a 2011 Rising Star in the Mutual Fund Industry by Institutional Investor. Bill became passionate about obstetric fistula after a visit to Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Mr. Robson enjoyed a lengthy career at Johnson & Johnson, from which he recently retired in 2014. While at J&J, he held several senior positions in International business management such as Director for African Affairs and General Manager of the Medical Device business in Africa and the Middle East.

In these capacities, he collaborated regularly with Fistula Foundation on projects such as a small grants program, distribution of affordable fistula repair kits and sponsorship of a fistula forum in Scotland.

Mr. Robson is now enjoying retirement and, in his spare time, pursues volunteering opportunities and acts as a healthcare advisor to NGOs on women’s health issues and surgery in Africa. He is an active Rotarian and past President of his local club (twice) with a particular interest in the work of their International Committee. His geographical focus is currently on projects in Malawi where he serves on the Board of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, a national network that supports people to people links between the two nations.

Mr. Robson is an Honorary Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) and the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) and graduated in Business Studies from the Scottish College of Textiles.

Mal is the founder and chairman of Mal Warwick | Donordigital (www.malwarwick.com, Berkeley, CA, and Washington, DC), a fundraising agency specializing in integrated, multi-channel fundraising and marketing that has served nonprofit organizations nationwide since 1979. The agency has helped raise more than a billion dollars for many of America’s biggest and most-loved causes and institutions.

For decades, Mal played a leadership role in the fundraising and direct marketing fields both nationally and internationally. He lectured or led workshops on fundraising and marketing on six continents for NGO executives from more than 100 countries. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer.

Mal has written or edited a total of twenty books, including the best-selling fundraising text, How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals, now in its third edition. Among the books he has written about the role of business in society today is The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers, winner of a 2014 Axiom Business Book Award, which he co-authored with the late Dr. Paul Polak.

For more information, go to www.linkedin.com/in/malwarwick.