Project Muso is a collaboration between an American non-profit called Under the Baobab Tree (UBT), and a Malian association called Action Developement Social Musoladamouli (ADS-ML). Below you will find biographies for the Health Educators (facilitatrices) who train each class of the Women's Education Program, the Malian ADS-ML team, the American UBT Board of Directors, the UBT Board of Advisors, and our current volunteers. We also proudly count the hundreds of program participants on our team, and they truly are the most important members.

Education Program Facilitators

Hawa Coulibaly was one of the top graduates from Project Muso's 2007 Women's Education program, and she has always dreamed of being a healer.

Djeneba "Muy" Koité was one of Project Muso's top graduates in February 2007. She is particularly passionate about clarifying health issues for others, such as the difference between hepatitis and malaria. 

Yamoussa Toure is a facilitateur in the village of Bakorobabougou.  He studied telecommunications at ITO in Oran, Algeria. His previous non-profit experience includes work as an animator and coordinator with the NGO AES in Mali, in the field of socio-sanitary development, and with the NGO ADES (Action for the Right to an Education and to Health), where he was in charge of the Environmental Impact program.   

Minata Koté was a Health Educator for Project Muso's training site in Yorojanbougou. Minata, another former top graduate from Project Muso's education program, was so dedicated to her job as a Health Educator that she walked five kilometers each day to teach her class in Yorojanbogou (whose name literally means "the neighborhood that is in a far away place"), until she could save up enough from her salary to buy a motorbike.

Oumou Coulibaly teaches in Kadobougouni, a community on the outskirts of Yirimadjo.

Mariam Doumbia completed the Women's Education Program, where she learned to read and write in Bambara and to make traditional mud cloth, called bogolan.  Mariam wanted to become a facilitatrice so that she could help others learn how to read and write in their native language. 

Djeneba "Nene" Konté is a facilitatrice in the zone Modibo Diarra.  Prior to becoming a facilitatrice she participated in Community Education and Literacy Campaigns and graduated from Project Muso’s Women’s Education Program. 

Maimouna Coulibaly participated in the Women's Education Program, where she learned revenue generating activities such as making liquid soap and mosquito repellent.  She now teaches in the heart of Yirimadjo, at the mayor's office. 

Mama Diallo is the youngest facilitatrice, at only 19 years.  She teaches in the zone Medine

Amadoun A. Cisse facilitates in the zone Yirimadjo Nord.  He studied economic management at the University of Bamako and the techniques of socio-educational animation at the National Institute of Youth and Sports. 

Fatoumata "Tata" Koné was inspired by her facilitatrice to become a facilitatrice herself.  She teaches at a center located in her mother's compound and is motivated by her desire to help others learn.  

Juliette Dakouo says that "it pleases her greatly to be a facilitatrice." She previously taught 5-7 year olds at a private school in Yirimadjo.  It was learning to read and write that led her to become a facilitatrice.  She now teaches in the zone Kouloubleni, where she has over 130 participants.

Alimatou Diallo is a facilitatrice in the zone Yorodjambougou Est.

Nanaissa (Nani) Koné has been trained in artisan fabric dying and in preschool education.  In addition to her role as a facilitatrice she is also the director of a preschool that is located in the same compound in which she lives. 

ADS-ML Team

Ichiaka Koné, MD (President, Program Coordinator) is a physician with a degree in internal medicine from the University of Bamako-FMPOS. He is currently working on his Masters degree in Public Health through a special off-site program with Nancy University in France. Dr. Koné trained in community-mobilization, and human rights and responsibilities with Tostan in Senegal, and has presented Project Muso’s CBMP as a best practice model at several national and international conferences and meetings, including a recent World Bank conference in Accra, Ghana co-sponsored by DFID and the World Bank. Dr. Koné coordinates Project Muso’s operational and research efforts, facilitates our CBMP pilot steering group with local, regional, and national Ministry of Health officials, and contributes his medical expertise to health curriculum development and evidence-based clinical training of Project Muso’s CHWs and CSCOM staff. 
 
Moise Samake (Director of Educational Programs) supervises Project Muso's education programming, providing ongoing support to Project Muso's health educator team. He has a degree in Education from the University of Bamako-FLASH School of Education. His thesis discussed the decentralization of non-formal and basic education in Mali.  In addition to his role with Project Muso, Moise is the director of AJRSBS, a community-based organization that provides books to primary school students in his village and its surrounding areas in rural Mali.

Fatoumata “Fatim” Traore (Director of Economic Empowerment Programs) coordinates all enterprise and microfinance programming for Project Muso. She works with the women's cooperatives to ensure on-time loan repayment, supports women to improve the businesses they have launched, and coordinates economic empowerment trainings. She has worked formerly with the international aid organization World Education and with the national urban development organization Alphalog.  From 2001-2003 she was the Community Development Assistant at Asa Subaahi Gumo (ASG), a national NGO in Mali whose accomplishments include creating schools.

Djoume Diakite, MD (CHW clinical supervisor) has a diploma in primary care and surgery from the University of Bamako-FMPOS. Dr. Diakite is one of the founding members of Action Developpement Social Muso Ladamunen.   He is currently the Health Program Coordinator for Project Muso, as well as the head doctor of the Cabinet Médical de la Mosquée au Badialan 3 Bamako. He facilitates weekly group supervision and weekly ongoing clinical training of Project Muso’s CHWs, and provides monthly one-on-one clinical supervision to the CHWs. In addition, he is on call to CHWs 24 hours/day for clinical backup and assistance with referrals, triaging, and medical and social emergencies. He also provides CHWs emotional support and offers strategies for coping with the demands of their work.

Belco Cissé (Financial Manager) is an accountant with a license in accounting management from FSEG, Bamako's Economic and Management Sciences University.

Kadidia Sounfountera (CHW team leader) has been working with Project Muso since its inception in 2005.  She is a powerful advocate and activist, and is talented at mobilizing the women of her community around women's causes in particular.   In addition to other CHW duties, Kadidia assumes the additional responsibilities of providing administrative and programmatic support to the entire CHW team. She assists with day-to-day troubleshooting and performance improvement and coordinates logistical and scheduling issues for the CHW team.  In 2007, she traveled to Senegal with Moise and Ari to learn about the revolutionary grassroots community mobilization techniques of our partner Tostan.

Korotoumou Diarra (Field Supervisor) provides logistical and programatic support to Project Muso's education program facilitators and participants. She was previously a education program facilitator for Project Muso's training class in Bakorobabougou.  Korotoumou enjoys teaching and discussing health themes from Project Muso's education program with her 12 children and her grandchild, as well as farming peanuts and raising animals, including sheep, chickens, and an eagle.

Fousseni Traore, (Field Supervisor) provides logistical and programmatic support to Project Muso's education program facilitators and participants. He is a doctoral candidate in Pharmacology at the University of Bamako-FMPOS.  He is the co-director of a local youth action organization and the former president of a local women's advancement association. Fousseni recently organized a conference in Bamako about the role of women in traditional education. He is a member of the National Congress of Young Malians and of the Congress of Young People for Development.    

Mohamed Lamine Traore (Community Mobilization Supervisor) provides logistical and programmatic support to the Community Management Committees.  He was one of the members of Project Muso's orginal Community Action Committee. 

UBT Board of Directors

Jessica Beckerman (Co-Executive Director, founder) coordinates Project Muso’s team to develop, revise, and plan programs and evaluate the impact of our work, and provides technical support to our operational team. She studied international development and public health at Brown University and has worked in Mali since 2004, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. Jessica has worked in West Africa with several organizations including the groundbreaking NGO Tostan, and she has also worked as a Project Manager at Partners In Health’s PACT Project, designing new community-based health care delivery systems for marginalized patients. 

Whitney Braunstein (founder) plays a crucial role guiding Project Muso's development and also served as Project Muso's "home base" in Washington, DC.  She graduated from Brown University in 2004, where she studied Visual Art and the HIV/AIDS epidemic from an anthropological and sociological perspective. She has worked in New York at Speak Truth to Power and the Coro New York Leadership Center and in Washington, DC as a project manager at Management Systems International.  In 2009, Whitney is joining the MIT Sloan School of Management to pursue an MBA. 

Edward M. Cardoza, MA is the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Still Harbor. He received a Masters in Arts in Ministry from Saint John's Seminary School of Theology in 2003. He completed a practicum in spiritual direction at the Center for Religious Development through the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. Ed also serves as a volunteer solicitor and member of the Development Committee at Partners In Health, where he previously served as Vice President for Development

Ally Dick (Secretary) graduated from Brown University in 2007.  She majored in Visual Art, focusing on photography and video, and took many classes in the area of international development.  While at Brown she went to Mali to create a documentary film about women’s perspectives on HIV/AIDS in conjunction with the Global Alliance to Immunize Against AIDS.  She returned to Mali to work as an on-the-ground coordinator for Project Muso Ladamunen in 2006.  She currently works at Progreso Latino in Central Falls, Rhode Island with the immigrant community.

Ari Johnson (Co-Executive Director, founder) is a fourth year student at Harvard Medical School. He provides technical support and helps to coordinate research and evaluation, program design, and development efforts. He has conducted research at the National Institutes of Health, the International Health Institute, the Medical Research Council of South Africa, Brown University, Harvard University, and the Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Jerusalem. He has published peer-reviewed articles and essays in the fields of infectious
disease, health policy, neurobiology, AIDS, and migration. Ari was a National Goldwater Scholar and the 4-time winner of the Research at Brown Award. 

Ethan S. Johnson, MBA is currently a research analyst for an institutional investment manager in New York City.  His prior professional experience includes mergers and acquisitions, private equity and equity research.  Ethan also founded On Your Feet Project, a nonprofit organization engaging young people in community service.  He received an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Kat Johnson (Treasurer) was the on-the-ground Education volunteer in Yirimadjo through May 2009 and is now Project Muso's treasurer.  She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2006, where she majored in French and Sociology and spent a semester abroad in Cameroon.  Prior to joining the Project Muso team, Kat spent two years with Common Ground, a housing and community development organization in New York City.

Patricia V. Symonds, PhD is a medical anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brown University.  A Brown alumna (A.B., 1979: Ph.D., 1991), her research focuses on the impact of culture, political economy, and cosmology on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. She specializes in the impact of HIV/AIDS on minority hill dwellers in Thailand.  Professor Symonds is responsible for bringing together the original founders of Project Muso, who were all at one point her students at Brown, and she has provided crucial guidance and support to Project Muso since its inception.

UBT Board of Advisors

Arachu Castro, PhD is a medical anthropologist trained in public health and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School (HMS) Department of Social Medicine. She is also Project Manager for Mexico and Guatemala at the non-profit organization Partners In Health (PIH). PIH, in concert with local sister organizations, aims to provide high-quality, comprehensive primary health care to people living in poverty. Dr. Castro’s work involves improving access to health care for populations living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD is co-founder of PIH. Beginning in Haiti in 1987 PIH has now expanded to include programs in Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, and the US. Dr. Farmer is also the Presley Professor at HMS and an attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston (BWH). Dr. Farmer has guided the design of Project Muso’s health services delivery program since its inception, particularly in the area of health care system capacity building. 

Jim Kim, MD, PhD who co-founded Partners In Health, recently stepped down as Director of the World Health Organization HIV/AIDS Department and Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, to become Dartmouth’s University’s 17th president. He previously
directed the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and served as Department Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Division Chief at the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Kim provides key guidance to Project Muso’s scale-up and replication strategy.   

Molly Melching, the founder and Executive Director of Tostan, has pioneered a model for non-formal education and community mobilization that has been implemented in thousands of villages in Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Somalia, and the Gambia. She is highly regarded for her expertise in non-formal education, human rights training, and social transformation issues. Tostan is the winner of the 2007 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and the 2007 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, and has partnered with USAID in a number of implementing countries, including Mali. Molly supports the positive synergies between the Tostan-Project Muso education and community action systems and our community-led approach to health services delivery.
 

Mali Field Volunteers 2009-2010

Rebecca Kosowicz is the on-the-ground technical coordinator for the malaria prevention and treatment program for Project Muso Ladamunen. She has been living in Mali since July 2007 as a Peace Corps Health Extension Volunteer.  She graduated in 2007 with a B.S. in biology from Bucknell University.  Additionally she studied public health in South Africa, led the Bucknell Brigade to Nicaragua, participated in Hurricane Katrina Recovery efforts, and was an active member of Students for Fair Trade and Labor, Habitat for Humanity, and Bucknell Tour Guides.

Kristine Johnston is in Mali through summer 2010 as the Education Technical Support Volunteer.  She graduated in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied International Relations and French and spent a semester studying in Lyon, France.  While at Penn, Kristine worked with the Appalachia Service Project, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and Women’s Campaign International.

Daniella Allam is the on-the-ground Microfinance and Marketing and Communications officer and will be in Mali until Fall 2010. She graduated in 2009 from Harvard College where she studied social anthropology and visual and environmental studies. She grew up in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and has spent time in Mali and in Lebanon doing ethnographic research and studying music and dance.

Cailey Gibson is serving as the Microfinance Technical Support Officer.  A 2007 graduate of Carleton College, Cailey received degrees in International Relations and Environmental Studies.  She wrote her senior thesis on changing perceptions of gender and development as marked by the UN Conferences on Women. This past summer, she had the chance to participate in a microfinance study tour in Nicaragua.  Prior to arriving in Mali, Cailey worked for the William J. Clinton Foundation on their Climate Change Initiative in Boston.  

International Volunteers

Mary Virginia E Thur was the volunteer for the Malaria program for 2008-2009 and now manages Project Muso's donation processing. Mary Virginia originally hails from the D.C. area, but comes to Project Muso from the Sikasso region of Mali, where she worked as a Health Extension Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural maternity for two years before joining the Project Muso team. Before working for Project Muso/Peace Corps she worked for the NGOs Clean Water Action and Working America (2004-2006). She graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Biology and a B.S. in Political Science in 2004. “Be strong, Believe”.

Anjali Saxena was the in-field Springboard Microfinance Program Technical Support officer during 2008-2009. She continues to support the growth and strategic planning of the microfinance program and also helps with development and fundraising efforts. Before joining Project Muso, she worked in HIV/AIDS research at Massachusetts General Hospital, with a focus on the HIV epidemic in India, HIV/TB co-infection, and HIV transmission in South Africa. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2006 with a degree in Science in Society, in concentrations in Neuroscience & Behavior and Sociology.

Kate Brackney is Associate Editor of The Johns Hopkins Medical Letter. She is a Brown University graduate and Teach For America alumna, and she is currently coordinating Project Muso's grant-writing team.

Lucas Foglia is a graduate of Brown University. His photographs are exhibited nationally and he has received many grants and fellowships for his work. His photographs are included in permanent collections including the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, the Newport Art Museum, Light Work, Sprint Systems of Photography, the Margulies Collection and the Starr Foundation. In 2007, Lucas created a photographic series on the work of Project Muso, and some of his photographs can be seen throughout this site.

Kevin Hepner is the senior financial advisor for Project Muso. He works closely with the Project Muso team to enhance the efficiency and organization of our financial bookkeeping system, and he has developed organized and extendable accounting structures for our organization. A Certified Public Accountant, Kevin is the President and CEO of United South End Settlements, a 116-year-old nonprofit located in Boston's South End. He is an instructor of non-profit accounting and finance at Boston University and is the former Vice-President of the Judge Baker Children's Center. Kevin has served on many nonprofit boards and is currently the Board President of the South End Community Health Center.

Sangeeta Tripathi works as a Sub-Saharan Africa consultant with Unicef. From 2004-2009 she worked with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) in West Africa focused on strengthening national pediatric AIDS treatment programs. Sangeeta graduated from Brown having concentrated in international development, has taught in NYC public schools, and has spent a good bit of time working in Mali and throughout the region.  Sangeeta has provided crucial advice and support to Project Muso's efforts over the past year.

Tibet Sprague is a software developer for FuseCal.com who designed and developed this website.