Meet Our Collective
Established in 2020, Pandemic Periods is a global group of volunteers on a mission to drive sexual and reproductive health rights – specifically knowledge and expertise in menstrual health at the country level that will feed into the indicators for the UN’s sustainable development goals (2030). Our multicultural, interdisciplinary, and regionally diverse group work together to push the global narrative and ensure it is included on the global health agenda!
We practice ethical leadership and discussion and aim to elevate each other. Together, we are more robust and more creative.
Leadership
Dr. Jennifer Martin
Global Director
Jenni has led the global menstrual health movement, Pandemic Periods, since its inception in 2020. She continues transforming global menstrual health by elevating activists from 27 countries by offering them a platform to share their unique insights into menstrual health in their context.
Jenni is a dedicated activist; she has advocated for menstrual health since 2014 through grassroots initiatives and global programmes. She founded women in global health Finland, is committed to supporting early career professionals to break into the global health market, and is a mentor to several young women worldwide.
Jenni is an award-winning researcher, technical specialist, and activist with over 14 years of experience in public health programmes focusing on gender equality, social innovation, and sexual and reproductive health.
She has an NIHR-funded PhD in Public Health from the University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and a master’s from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Sabrina Browne
Board Chair
Sabrina Browne is an award-winning PR Executive, menstrual equality advocate, and DEI champion. Starting her career off at legacy Burson-Marsteller in 2016, Sabrina quickly proved herself to be a rising star within the agency.
After serving as a political PR consultant in New Jersey, Sabrina hit the ground running as an Account Executive, earning herself a reputation as driven client team member and a collaborative internal culture partner. Sabrina counsels Fortune 500 clients on integrated communications, media relations, executive thought leadership, and DEI. She also became involved in shaping the culture of the agency and serves as the North American Lead for the African American Employee Resource (AAER) Group.
Outside of the office, Sabrina advocates for menstrual equality in the Garden State and works to eradicate period poverty. One in five American girls has missed school due to period poverty according to Always, the leader in feminine care. To date, Sabrina has secured more than 6,000 menstrual health products to support women and girls at risk.
Sabrina’s advocacy is fueled by her personal adversity and passion, as well as the relationships she’s cultivated through her various board roles. She serves on leadership boards for Girl Scouts of Greater New York, Pace University’s Lubin School of Business, and PRSA-NY.
To date, Sabrina has received many awards and recognitions including Crain’s Notable in Marketing and PR Award, PRSA-NY’s 15 Under 35 Award, and Top 100 Women Leaders of New Jersey.
Board of Senior Advisors
Halima Lila
Tanzania
Senior Advisor
Based in Tanzania, Halima is the Regional Coordinator for Menstrual Health and Youth Participation for the UNFPA African Coalition for Menstrual Health Management, she is the Founder and Executive Director of Hope Centre for Children, Girls and Women in Tanzania, and she Leads SheDecides, Tanzania. She considers herself to be a global public health specialist, with a special interest in international sexual and reproductive health and rights advocate.
Victoria Heaney
Senior Advisor
Founder of #FreePeriodsScotland
Courtney Carson
USA
Senior Program Officer at Pandemic Action Network
Courtney Carson has over a decade of experience working in public policy, advocacy, and communications, and brings a track record of advancing advocacy campaigns and policy to promote health and wellbeing for all at the national and multilateral levels. She is currently a member of the Policy and Advocacy Team at Pandemic Action Network, where she advances sustainable, forward-looking policy for pandemic preparedness, and recently managed policy and advocacy at Women Deliver, securing health and rights for women and girls with the United Nations, WHO, and Universal Health Coverage. She also led U.S. policy for the Global Health Technologies Coalition, advancing R&D for neglected and emerging global health concerns. Before her career in advocacy, Courtney led global health policy in the U.S. Senate, where she upheld U.S. commitments in health and foreign aid.
Dr Karan Babbar
India
Research Advisor
Research Consultant, India
Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Business School
Karan Babbar is an assistant professor at the jindal global business school, sonipat. His research focus lies in the intersection of education and sexual and reproductive health with a focus on gender. He critically engages with issues of social concern like gender, menstruation through media articles, movies and documentaries, and creating awareness about them on the social media platform.
Jackie Nyaberij
Kenya
Public Health & Health systems strengthening advisor, consultant, researcher and mentor, Migration & Health, Menstrual Hygiene Advocate, Public Health, Global Bioethicist,
Dr. Mosinya Nyaberi is a Fellow of the inaugural Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Programme, Kofi Annan Foundation, Africa CDC. She is a Public Health & Health Systems lecturer and researcher in the School of Public Health at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. She is also an associate consultant and technical expert for the WHO-Public Health Emergencies, Migration and Health in addition to consulting with other organizations in Public Health, Health systems strengthening and Monitoring and Evaluation.
Mosinya is a mentor and passionately ignites one to think differently to be authentic at personal and professional level. She is an experienced corporate trainer, consultant,facilitator and conference organizer.
Mosinya is the founder and CEO of Ayanna Health Foundation where they champion community work for and with girls, adolescents and women in Africa in the area of health, education, menstrual health and hygiene and Endometriosis awareness. Mosinya holds a PhD in Public Health (Health Services Management); a Master in Public Health (Health Systems Management); and a Master of Science in Global Bioethics. She is an expert, specialist and advisor in these areas.
She is also a guest columnist in Nation Daily News Paper, Kenya and now an author. Mosinya is a passionate networker and a servanthood leader.
Dr Philip Chigiya
Zimbabwe
MB.Ch.B Hons.
Secretary ALMA Youth Advisory Council
Global Shaper at Global Shapers Harare Hub
Medical Freelancer
Phillip Chigiya is a practicing medical doctor who is passionate about health and period justice. He has acquired vast experience on health equity working in low- and middle-income countries with several organisations which include the International Federation of Medical Students (IFMSA), Higherlife Foundation, Zimbabwe Medical Students Association and the World Economic Forum Global Shapers. In 2017, Phillip was the director of the IMUNZI project which worked on reducing HIV prevalence among Zimbabwean youth and training young girls in rural Zimbabwe on the production of re-usable sanitary wear.
Currently, Dr Phillip serves as the secretary for the youth advisory council for the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and is an active member of the Global Shapers Harare Hub.
The Team
Becca Residorf
Research Lead
Alhelí Calderón
Mexico Correspondent
Laura Nyiha
Kenya Correspondent
Mara Ferrari
Research Assistant, Italy
Mara Ferrari is a graduate Master of Global Health student at Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). She obtained her Nursing Degree in 2012, followed by a Tropical Nursing Diploma at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). She has eight years of clinical experience as a Registered Nurse in various hospital departments. She has also served as Capacity Building and a Nurse Coordinator in humanitarian missions in African refugee camps and a paediatric hospital in South-East Asia. She is an active member of SaluteGlobale.
Dina Saintilmon
Haiti Correspondent
Dina is a medical student from Haiti. She is also a social activist who has participated in many projects of the Haitian association of medical students (AHEM-IFMSA) – first as coordinator of the commission on human rights, then as coordinator of health campaigns, and finally as vice president of external affairs.
She is a dynamic girl with a critical mind. She has an interest in social medicine, public health, research, women, and children’s rights.
Ateeb Ahmad Parray
Senior Editor
Ateeb Ahmad Parray is a global health researcher and intersectional feminist based in Bangladesh at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University. He works in the areas of gender, sexual and reproductive health, humanitarian emergencies, intersectionality, health systems and health policy with a special focus on vulnerable and marginalized populations including urban informal settlement dwellers and displaced populations. Ateeb Co-Chairs the SHAPES Thematic working group of Health Systems Global and serves as the Country Director (Bangladesh) of the STAR Scholars network which envisions to advance global social mobility by using research and advocacy. Ateeb is also co-lead of the ‘intersectionality’ and ‘humanitarian emergencies’ sub-groups under Gender and COVID-19 initiative. Ateeb holds a Masters degree in Social Sciences from the University of Dhaka and a Masters degree in Public Health from BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University.
Ruth Oladele
Nigeria Correspondent
Ruth Oladele is a gender-equality advocate, a multiple award-winning researcher and a seasoned physical therapist. Her research interest is in sexual and reproductive health and rights, with focus on vulnerable populations and underserved groups in slum and rural communities. She is a Senior Research Associate at Slum and Rural Health Initiative Research Academy, where she leads a team of over 100 researchers in sexual health research projects on vulnerable communities. She also facilitates the Sexuality Information Mental Behavioural Initiative (SIMBIHealth) advocacy project, which utilizes an artificial intelligence-driven application to teach comprehensive sexuality education to adolescents and youths.
Eunice Kilonzo
Crisis Communications Specialist
Eunice Kilonzo is an award-winning Health Communications and (Social) Media Specialist currently a Manager, Content Generation at Safaricom PLC. Her immediate former role was with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) HQ in Nairobi, Kenya as a Social Media and Content Consultant. Eunice has extensive hands-on experience in organizational communications and media management across a range of sectors: health, science, environment, technology, financial services and development. Her expertise includes multimedia editorial development, storytelling training, stakeholder management, internal communications, social media and digital publishing.
She is fascinated with newer forms of storytelling and content creation, generation and sharing. She also creates monthly video series, #KalundeLearns, an online storytelling platform for creators and creatives. The monthly video series affords you a front-row seat to learn how people have turned their passion into a lifestyle and a living.
Regan Moss
Research Associate
Ruth Kamu
Monitoring & Evaluation Lead
Ruth Kamau is a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRH) advocate with experience in social and behaviour change communication based in Kenya. She advocates for for access to affordable SRH services and story-telling to influence positive change in matters Gender Equality. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Population Health and is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Public Health with 3+ years’ experience in the NGO sector. She is passionate about working and running programs with women and girls from Low and Middle Income Countries by empowering them and passing on knowledge about their freedom and rights when it comes to their reproductive health. In her spare time, Ruth enjoys reading self-help books, moving to a good Latin dance or hiking and chasing waterfalls.
Ursula Maschette
Brazil Correspondent
urdula is a psychologist and menstrual health researcher, with a master’s degree in education, health promotion and international development from university college London. Her studies at UCL focused on menstrual health promotion and education in Brazilian schools. she has 10 years of experience working in community-based research with. focus on SRH, menstrual health, education, health promotion, and public health.
Erza Selmani
Research Associate
Erza Selmani, orginally from Kosovo, is completing her master’s dissertation at the University of Strathclyde in Digital Health Systems. Her experience is mainly in research and projects closely related to health and social science. Her ambition is to become a change-maker in the field of health in particular for socially disadvantaged groups.
Janet Hawa Koroma
Communications associate, Liberia
Joan Masinde
Communications Associate, Kenya
Claire hunt
Ireland Correspondent
Claire Hunt is the founder and general manager of Homeless Period Ireland, a volunteer initiative that was founded to provide free period products to women & girls in need.
Claire is passionate about changing the negative perceptions of menstruation and normalizing the subject of women’s health through education.
In 2019 Claire was the driving force behind an all-female cross-party motion in
Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament) that proposed the provision of free period products in all schools and universities which was passed by the house.
Torgyn Issa
Kazakhstan Correspondent
Ivett Avendaño
Colombia Correspondent
A non-binary activist, passionate writer, educator, and human rights advocate. Ivett is a Social Anthropologist with a Master’s degree in International Relations. Over the years, she has worked with ONG initiatives and research projects in decolonization, feminist, queer, and youth studies. Prioritizing and politicizing mental health, diversity, sexual and reproductive rights, menstrual dignity, anti-racism, radical tenderness, and no-violence in every space -even the internet-is her advocacy agenda aimed toward acknowledging the Global South voices and resistance. Ivett participated in international platforms like the Generation Equality Forum and, most recently, at the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. For her, community and creativity both are the threads that weave the path to building equality and justice
Maria Anna Kupczyk
Research Assistant
Maria is a current trainee clinical embryologist in the NHS Scientist Training Programme (UK) and a master’s student of Embryology at the Manchester Metropolitan University. She completed her bachelor’s in biomedical science in 2020 from the University of Sussex, followed by a master’s degree in Prenatal Genetics and Fetal Medicine at University College London. During her studies, her research focused on sexual health, analysing toxins and antitoxins of pathogenic gonorrhoea species and women’s health investigating non-invasive means for diagnosing endometriosis. She has also worked as a laboratory scientist in a preimplantation genetic testing laboratory.
Zuhrat Inam
Deputy Bangladesh Correspondent
Zuhrat Inam is a global health professional based in Bangladesh and currently working in the Rohingya refugee response in Cox’s Bazar at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). She completed her Bachelors in Economics and Political Science from the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities and her Masters in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She previously worked as a researcher at the BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, also in the Rohingya refugee crisis. She is enthusiastic about health in humanitarian emergencies, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and refugee health.
Veronica Corbellini
Research Assistant
Veronica Corbellini is an Italian Gender Specialist, Child Psychology practitioner and feminist. Her international experiences as a researcher and consultant pivoted her focus on women’s universal health and rights. She recently graduated with a MA in “Gender and Development” at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), analysing menstruation assessment and intervention in protracted humanitarian crises. She is an active advocate for menstrual health in Italy.
Victoria Heaney
Senior Advisor
Founder of #FreePeriodsScotland
Courtney Carson
USA
Senior Program Officer at Pandemic Action Network
Courtney Carson has over a decade of experience working in public policy, advocacy, and communications, and brings a track record of advancing advocacy campaigns and policy to promote health and wellbeing for all at the national and multilateral levels. She is currently a member of the Policy and Advocacy Team at Pandemic Action Network, where she advances sustainable, forward-looking policy for pandemic preparedness, and recently managed policy and advocacy at Women Deliver, securing health and rights for women and girls with the United Nations, WHO, and Universal Health Coverage. She also led U.S. policy for the Global Health Technologies Coalition, advancing R&D for neglected and emerging global health concerns. Before her career in advocacy, Courtney led global health policy in the U.S. Senate, where she upheld U.S. commitments in health and foreign aid.
Dr Karan Babbar
India
Research Advisor
Research Consultant, India
Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Business School
Karan Babbar is an assistant professor at the jindal global business school, sonipat. His research focus lies in the intersection of education and sexual and reproductive health with a focus on gender. He critically engages with issues of social concern like gender, menstruation through media articles, movies and documentaries, and creating awareness about them on the social media platform.
Jackie Nyaberij
Kenya
Public Health & Health systems strengthening advisor, consultant, researcher and mentor, Migration & Health, Menstrual Hygiene Advocate, Public Health, Global Bioethicist,
Dr. Mosinya Nyaberi is a Fellow of the inaugural Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Programme, Kofi Annan Foundation, Africa CDC. She is a Public Health & Health Systems lecturer and researcher in the School of Public Health at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. She is also an associate consultant and technical expert for the WHO-Public Health Emergencies, Migration and Health in addition to consulting with other organizations in Public Health, Health systems strengthening and Monitoring and Evaluation.
Mosinya is a mentor and passionately ignites one to think differently to be authentic at personal and professional level. She is an experienced corporate trainer, consultant,facilitator and conference organizer.
Mosinya is the founder and CEO of Ayanna Health Foundation where they champion community work for and with girls, adolescents and women in Africa in the area of health, education, menstrual health and hygiene and Endometriosis awareness. Mosinya holds a PhD in Public Health (Health Services Management); a Master in Public Health (Health Systems Management); and a Master of Science in Global Bioethics. She is an expert, specialist and advisor in these areas.
She is also a guest columnist in Nation Daily News Paper, Kenya and now an author. Mosinya is a passionate networker and a servanthood leader.
Dr Philip Chigiya
Zimbabwe
MB.Ch.B Hons.
Secretary ALMA Youth Advisory Council
Global Shaper at Global Shapers Harare Hub
Medical Freelancer
Phillip Chigiya is a practicing medical doctor who is passionate about health and period justice. He has acquired vast experience on health equity working in low- and middle-income countries with several organisations which include the International Federation of Medical Students (IFMSA), Higherlife Foundation, Zimbabwe Medical Students Association and the World Economic Forum Global Shapers. In 2017, Phillip was the director of the IMUNZI project which worked on reducing HIV prevalence among Zimbabwean youth and training young girls in rural Zimbabwe on the production of re-usable sanitary wear.
Currently, Dr Phillip serves as the secretary for the youth advisory council for the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and is an active member of the Global Shapers Harare Hub.