page contents
 

OUR MISSION

To supplement, support and enhance healthcare systems in communities across the world that have been incapacitated by natural disaster, extreme poverty, and/or regional conflict. A multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals will a) provide primary and surgical care in strategic areas to best mitigate the effects of resource deficits while working collaboratively with local providers for follow-up care and b) form partnerships and implement curriculum guided by local healthcare workers to expand technical skills and common practice.

 

OUR METHODS

  • Train local physicians, residents, nurses and other healthcare professionals to expand their knowledge and skills

  • Surgical care in collaboration with local hospitals and care providers

  • Provide primary healthcare with thoughtful, safe, and effective use of pharmacotherapy

  • Collaborate with local healthcare workers to promote continuity of care

  • Basic health education to increase health literacy

  • Donation of basic medical supplies to local health facilities and schools

 
 
 

WHO WE ARE

 

Ambereen Sleemi, MD, MPH

Executive Director and Surgical Director

Ambereen is a female pelvic medicine reconstructive surgeon (Urogynecologist) and trained obstetric fistula surgeon. She serves as an obstetric fistula surgeon for the Eritrean Women’s Project in Mendefera, Eritrea since 2007, and as a surgical team co-leader for Medicine In Action’s spring trip to Kingston, Jamaica as well as on the medical board. She spent 6 years on the executive committee of the International Society for Obstetric Fistula Surgeons (ISOFS) and is still an active member. In January, 2013, she developed the Haitian Women’s Heath Collaborative in partnership with the Department of Ob/Gyn at the National Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This project has expanded to a partnership with St. Boniface Hospital in the southern part of the country, continuing our pledge to increase safe surgical capacity in Haiti. 

She holds an MD/MPH from George Washington University School of Medicine, and is currently pursuing her M.S. in Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She trained in Ob/Gyn at Louisiana State University in New Orleans, LA, in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at Maimonides Medical Center and in obstetric fistula surgery in Northern Nigeria.

Josh Schiller, MD

Medical Director

Joshua is currently an Attending Physician, Director of International Programming, and Assistant Program Director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. In addition he has served on the Risk Management team as an advisor to the Executive Board for the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding since 2012. He has held positions in the past with the International Organization of Migration, Council on Foreign Relations, and United Nations Development Programme.

He holds an A.B. in Business Economics from Brown University, Providence, RI, a Master of International Affairs with a Certificate of Expertise in Middle East studies from Columbia University, NY, NY, and an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, NY. He trained in Emergency Medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook, NY. Joshua grew up camping and fishing, and spends as much time as he can getting out to the beaches and forests around the NYC area.

Mayano Ochi, CNM

Managing Director

Mayano is a Nurse-Midwife in Los Angeles providing full scope midwifery care to a mostly low-income, underserved patient population. Mayano has a strong passion for women's health and prior to becoming a midwife she worked as a labor and delivery nurse, a birth assistant at a free-standing birthing center, a Child Protective Specialist for the City of New York, and an advocate for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. She is committed to volunteering her skills both domestically and abroad. 

Mayano holds a B.A. in Sociology from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, a B.S. in Nursing and an M.S. in Nursing - Nurse Midwifery from SUNY Downstate, Brooklyn, NY.

 

Board of Directors

gillian greene

Neema kaseje, md

sean kirk

Ana Patel