Yvonne joined Rwanda Works in March 2010. She uses her skills and experience to efficiently manage RW’s financial transactions for the smooth operation of program activities. Prior to this she worked as an intern for The Access Project from 2007 -2008. Yvonne holds a BBA in accounting from the school of Finance and Banking at the National University of Rwanda.
Staff
Yvonne Ingabire
Accountant
Grace Lesser
Program Manager
Grace joined Rwanda Works in October 2010, led by her passion for public health and her commitment to improving stability and prosperity in the developing world. She is involved in the planning, organizational development, financial management, and implementation of Rwanda Works' activities and those of its related initiatives, including Rwanda Ventures and the Kivu Dairy Project.
Grace came to Kigali from Washington, D.C., where she had been providing programmatic and research support to the health and reproductive rights program at the National Women's Law Center. She has experience working on HIV/AIDS, harm reduction, and child health issues, and as a community organizer. A graduate of Wesleyan University with a degree in Sociology, Grace was the recipient of the Anna Julia Cooper Prize for overall academic, moral, and intellectual excellence and work against discrimination.
Josh Ruxin
Founder and Director
Josh is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the founder and director of the Access Project, the Millennium Villages Project in Rwanda, and Access' Neglected Tropical Disease Control Program. Josh has extensive experience operating at the intersection of public health, business and international development. In 1996, Josh joined Monitor Group and in 2000, he co-founded and served as vice president of ontheFRONTIER, a strategy consulting firm. During his years there and at the Monitor Group, he led projects in a several developing countries and was an advisor to government and private sector leaders on business strategy and economic development.
He holds a B.A. in History of Science and Medicine from Yale University, where he was a Truman Scholar. He received a Masters of Public Health from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in History from the University of London, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He is currently based in Kigali, Rwanda, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
Advisors
Felix Kayigamba
Country Director, Access Project
Dr. Felix Kayigamba provides operational leadership, daily coordination, and implementation oversight of the Access Project and the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Control Program.
Previously, Dr. Kayigamba served as a technical advisor and public health specialist as the Adult HIV Care and Opportunistic Infections Officer at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Rwanda. Prior to his work with the CDC, Dr. Kayigamba was the medical director of Ruhengeri District Hospital and the District Health Management Team. Dr. Kayigamba has a keen interest in operational research and has presented and participated in several international conferences in Africa, North America and Europe. Dr. Kayigamba holds a Masters in Public Health and a Bachelor's Degree in Medicine and Surgery (MBCHB) from the National University of Rwanda.
Karen Schmidt
Deputy Director, Access Project
Karen is the Deputy Director of the Access Project and Millennium Villages Rwanda, both initiatives of The Earth Institute. She directs the New York-based operations for these initiatives, ensuring smooth operation of the field office in Rwanda, monitoring project progress, and developing operational and programmatic plans to ensure continued progress toward objectives. In 2003-2004, Karen was based in Kigali, Rwanda, as the project manager for the Macroeconomics and Health Project.
Before joining Columbia, Karen spent more than two years in Nairobi as a Michigan Population Fellow at Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). With PATH, she worked primarily on the USAID-funded IMPACT project, using behavior change communication for the prevention of HIV and STIs, especially among adolescents. Before going to Kenya, Karen served as the Community Director for Yale University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. She has worked as an independent public health consultant for PATH, Family Care International, and Family Health International and others, with projects including documentation of HIV and AIDS programs in Ethiopia and the Philippines and research on long-term and permanent contraception in Malawi.
Karen earned an MPH at Yale University; she also holds an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, and worked as a newspaper and radio journalist for more than 10 years. She received a BA in French from the University of Virginia.