2020 Lead Fellows
Cynthia Mambo
BSc, MA
“I am honored to be a 2020 LEAD fellow/ visiting scientist at the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The fellowship is educational and remarkably transformative. I was at a point in my career where I wanted timeout to reflect on my career path, I received support to better articulate my career goals and gain new skills and advance my professional career.”
– Cynthia Mambo
Cynthia Mambo is a public health professional with over 15 years of experience providing leadership, program management, and strategic advice for consortium health programs in Southern Africa. She has extensive experience collaborating and negotiating with key stakeholders (country host governments, multilateral and bilateral partners, Civil Society organizations, implementing partners, and other donors). Currently, Cynthia is working for the Global Fund in Geneva, Switzerland leading the Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) initiative. She is responsible for providing technical oversight and management of the Strategic Initiative and supports the coordination of AGYW work across the Secretariat. Previously she served as the Malawi Deputy PEPFAR Coordinator overseeing the PEPFAR program and complementing the host country Government’s HIV response. Her achievement in this role was to provide quality HIV services to over one million recipients of care. Cynthia is passionate about AGYW. Her goal is to influence and empower this demographic to commit to their education so that they can grow to take charge and make informed decisions about their lives.
Carmen Contreras
MPH
Carmen Contreras is a public health professional with over 25 years of experience in the field. Contreras has a graduate degree in psychology with qualifications in Adolescent Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health. She is in pursuit of a master’s degree in both Public Health and Health Research and Education. Contreras began her career by working with families of hospitalized minors with adolescent mothers. She then moved into work that supported research on drug use/abuse prevention in adolescents, domestic abuse prevention, and the development of educational mental health materials with the Department of Health. For 19 years Contreras has been employed at Socios En Salud (SES), Partners In Health, Peru. At Socios En Salud, Contreras coordinates diverse research projects on the understanding and improvement of tuberculosis (TB) affected populations, community health, and mental health. Between 2013 and 2016 Contreras was part of the SES Community Advisory Board, a group made up of community representatives that discussed and proposed recommendations to different TB protocols in Peru. From 2014 to 2017, Contreras was a member of the Community Research Advisors Group (CRAG) of the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC) housed at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CRAG is an advisory group consisting of representatives from five continents, established to increase the value and impact of TB research and interventions to bring greater benefit to affected communities.
Aida Kurtovic
MA, LLB
Aida Kurtovic is Head of Partnerships in Health (PH), a prominent civil society organization striving to enable equal access to health to all people and strengthen the health system. Aida brings a comprehensive set of skills including strategic vision, diplomatic sensitivity, and attention to detail, all of which were developed over more than two decades in positions in international development and health program management. In her previous professional endeavors, Kurtovic served as the Chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) from 2017 – 2019. Prior to this role Kurtovic served as the Vice-Chair of the Board of the GFATM from 2015 – 2017. Kurtovic was named the honorary title of the Chair Emeritus of the Board of The Global Fund by the Board in May 2019. From 2012 until 2014, she represented the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and was a member of the Strategic Investment and Impact Committee of the Board of the Global Fund. Deeply involved with Global Fund’s governance reforms, Kurtovic served as the Chair of the Ad Hoc Nominations Committee in charge of the selection of the new Inspector General of the Global Fund. Kurtovic was the Vice-chair of the Country Coordinating mechanism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, focusing on strengthening the health system’s response to HIV and AIDS, development of the national programs, policy papers, guidelines, and support to the key affected populations.