Our team brings together a range of views on the key challenges and opportunities for achieving equitable access to medical products, providing academic, industry, government, non-profit, philanthropic and public policy perspectives.
Julie Barnes-Weise is the founder and Executive Director of GHIAA. She trained as a lawyer, and is a global health policy consultant, business development executive, entrepreneur and Certified Licensing Professional.
Julie formerly had a faculty appointment in the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy and was previously a Director of Business Development at Glaxo Wellcome (now GSK). She has decades of experience negotiating IP licenses & alliance agreements and advising companies and institutions on partnering strategies.
Her educational background includes a Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina, a year at the Notre Dame London Law Centre studying international trade law, a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University, and an executive program at Duke University’s Fuqua Business School in International Marketing Leadership.
Bridie Telford manages the continued development of the MAPGuideⓇ
and other GHIAA resources. She has over a decade of experience working in grants management, contract compliance and third-party risk management. Bridie spent ten years at KPMG working with a variety of clients to help them manage financial rights and obligations in licensing, vendor and alliance agreements. She has also worked as a contracts manager at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations where she was responsible for negotiating award budgets, reviewing awardee expenditure and monitoring compliance with awardee financial reporting requirements.
Laura Hoemeke, DrPH, MPH, serves as a consultant to GHIAA. Laura has experience in advocacy, communications, and program design and management, including 15 years of residence in Francophone Africa and short-term assignments throughout Africa and Asia. She is currently an independent consultant and an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. Prior to becoming an independent consultant in 2019, Laura worked for IntraHealth International, USAID, and Africare.
With significant experience in health policy development and analysis, Laura’s passion is working with countries to support country-led health systems strengthening. She has technical expertise in family planning, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and malaria control, as well as good governance, decentralization, health financing, and community health.
Laura has a doctorate in public health in health policy and management from UNC’s Gillings Global School of Public Health and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University, where she received a BS in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism. She is fluent in English, French, and Sango.
Catherine Hennings is the Director of Commercialization & Corporate Partnerships within the Vaccine Development Global Program at PATH. Ms. Hennings is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience working at the interface of research and commercialization within the life sciences industry. Throughout her career, she has focused on bringing the results of research to the public by fostering partnerships and creating pathways to commercialization. Her experience spans both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors and includes licensing and business development, structuring and negotiating research and development partnerships, and clinical development program strategy and implementation. Ms. Hennings has Master’s degrees in both science and business.
Isaac is a Senior Director at the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity and is responsible for the Infectious Diseases Programs. The Foundation is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE and is active in 45 countries globally including Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Previously, he was the Senior Director for Access and Delivery at the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, based in Tokyo, responsible for supporting the GHIT Fund grantees in developing their access plans.
Prior to joining GHIT, Isaac worked with Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) Access Campaign as the Infectious Diseases Advisor, focussing on TB, HIV and Hepatitis C, and prior to that, he worked in the Operations Department in MSF, in several countries across Africa, Southeast Asia, Asia-Pacific and in the MSF Tokyo Office. All in all, he worked for MSF for nearly a decade in various countries and positions, starting as a frontline field doctor and then in various project management positions up to Deputy Program manager for the MSF Tokyo Cell where he oversaw the MSF medical activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Isaac started his medical career in 1997 as a general medical practitioner in his native Zimbabwe. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from the University of Sheffield School of Health and Related Research in the United Kingdom. He has more than 20 years’ experience as a clinician, humanitarian and public health specialist with a passion for improving access to medicines in underprivileged communities. He also sits on the Global Advisory Council at Impact Global Health.
Katrine Thor Andersen was most recently the Deputy Director of Alliance Management within Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Her responsibilities included creating, negotiating, and managing high-complexity global health drug discovery and development collaborations involving public, academic, philanthropic, and private organizations. Before joining the Gates Foundation in 2017, Katrine worked in global pharmaceutical R&D organizations for 18 years covering formulation development and regulatory affairs, R&D outsourcing management, and business transformation consulting. She has held senior leadership roles within research business operations and informatics. Katrine holds an MBA, MSc QA/RA, MSc. Pharmacy.
Paul Fehlner, Ph.D., J.D., is a scientist-lawyer with more than 30 years’ experience in life sciences, particularly focused on intellectual property matters. He is a co-founder and CEO of reVision Therapeutics, Inc., created to reimagine the drug development lifecycle by repurposing products into high-impact, affordable treatments for ophthalmic diseases. He also serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for Spyre Therapeutics. Previously he was the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary for Axcella Therapeutics, a clinical stage company. Dr. Fehlner spent nine years as the Global Head of Intellectual Property for Novartis Pharma in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Fehlner practiced intellectual property law with several firms, reaching the level of partner and life sciences IP practice group leader at Baker Botts LLP, and served as Biotechnology Patent Counsel for Rhône-Poulenc Rorer. Dr. Fehlner assisted the World Health Organization in design of the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) in 2020-21, presented at the 2019 Brocher Foundation expert working group on access to cell and gene therapies, and has been named to the IAM Strategy 300 World’s Leading Patent Professionals multiple times. He earned a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, a Ph.D. in immunology and biochemistry from Rockefeller University (Lois P. Markey Fellow), and a B.S. in chemistry from Haverford College (high honors; Phi Beta Kappa).
Spring Gombe, a Global Health Policy Strategist with over 25 years of experience, brings expertise in policy advocacy for innovation of and access to health technologies, with a focus on the needs of the most vulnerable and neglected populations. Her strategic acumen in designing multi-stakeholder projects and shaping multilateral policies has been pivotal in expanding access to health technologies for underserved communities. Her Board and Advisory roles with Helvetas, the Chanjo Hub at Imperial College, Africa Collective, the Africa-Europe Foundation, and the Novartis Foundation, coupled with her experience with UN agencies and product development partnerships, position her as a valuable asset to GHIAA’s mission of accelerating equitable global access to innovative health solutions.
Thi Hanh Cao is the Director of External Relations at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), an organization focused on developing new treatments for neglected diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest communities. In her role, she is responsible for building partnerships and engaging with stakeholders to advance DNDi’s mission.
With a strong background in international relations, finance, and public health, Thi Hanh has worked extensively in the non-profit sector, advocating for equity in various areas. Prior to joining DNDi, she worked for several microfinance organizations, setting up institutions in Madagascar, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Algeria, and Senegal. Thi Hanh holds a Master’s degree from the Political Science Institute in Grenoble, France, and a postgraduate diploma from the University of Paris Dauphine
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