Gillian Slinger is a midwife who holds a bachelor of science degree in health management, a master’s of science in public health, and a teaching certificate. After completing her nurse and midwifery training in the UK, Gillian worked as a midwife for 10 years in French-speaking Switzerland, before joining Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) and Save the Children as a field midwife and trainer in numerous countries, including Mali, Chad, DRC, Kenya and Sierra Leone. As part of her MSF duties, Gillian managed maternal health programs in more than 20 countries across Africa and Asia, and had an active role developing projects for women with obstetric fistula.
For the last 20 years, Gillian has been an international activist for fistula. During this time, her involvement in fistula work increased considerably, taking her to New York for four years to head the global Campaign to End Fistula with the United Nations Population Fund, where she was instrumental in establishing the UN-approved International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, then to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) in London in 2014, where she led the FIGO Fistula Surgery Training Initiative for more than 10 years.
In addition to her board position at Fistula Foundation, Gillian teaches in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and has served on the Board of Directors of MSF Switzerland.