GA 2025 Program

MSF Movement Evolution:

Dr. Engy ALI, MSF Luxembourg President

Dr Engy ALI is a medical doctor specialized in Critical Care medicine and public health with more than 20 years’ experience working in the medical and humanitarian field.  During her twelve years working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Luxembourg, she worked in as an Operational Research Advisor in the Luxembourg Operational Research Unit (LuxOR), supporting field research projects focusing in humanitarian action in Bangladesh, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria, Lebanon, Syria, Haiti, Liberia, DRC, Philippines, Egypt, Pakistan, and in Europe. During her professional journey, she had worked in several medical and coordination capacities in MSF as a medical coordinator, field coordinator and epidemiologist. As an operational Research fellow, she was involved in the capacity building and development of MSF specific training on operational research, known as SORT IT. She has authored over 50 Publications in scientific journals and written chapters of several books. Dr Ali joined MSF Luxembourg Association Board as a member in 2022. She is currently working for the Luxembourg Health Directorate as Senior Medical Advisor focusing on health care system and as the country focal point for scaling-up integrated care.

Sophie Weidenbach,Transformational Portfolio Lead, MSF International

Sophie is a governance and strategy specialist at MSF International, where she coordinates movement-wide initiatives on governance, the Agenda for Transformation and now SPARC. With over a decade of experience aligning leadership and Boards in complex humanitarian organisations, including MSF, Amnesty International as well as social justice networks, Sophie brings clarity, diplomacy and just enough patience to keep tricky projects on track. Title aside, as Transformational Portfolio Lead, Sophie’s focus remains on advancing principled, people-centred humanitarian action.

Paul Yon, Director of Communications and Association, MSF WaCA

With 19 years' experience in operations, mainly as Head of Mission in war-torn contexts (Iraq, Syria, Chad, Sudan, Burundi) but also in countries requiring complex negotiations (North Korea, Myanmar, etc.), Paul then worked with the President of MSF international for several years to boost the Associative component of our organisation.

For four years, he served as Director of Communications and Association at MSF WaCA, actively contributing to the establishment of the first operational entity based outside of Europe. He is now the Director of Communications at MSF WaCA.

Passionate about the Associative model, Paul has worked with his colleagues to develop the AssociActeurs and Asso-Ops concepts

Taking care of victims of sexual violence:

Wilma Van Den Boogaard, Operational Research Advisor, LuxOR

After 10 years of (intensive care) nursing in Holland she left for humanitarian aid in Indonesia as a volunteer before deciding to join up with MSF. This is more than 30 years ago. She started with MSF in 1993, in emergencies as a nurse supervisor, nutrition assistant and medical team leader before doing a masters in health promotion. Since then she worked in regular projects as health promoter and field coordinator and eventually started in 2001 as medical coordinator as she’d started a family. She worked and lived in more than 10 countries on long term missions mainly in Africa but also in Asia. After finalizing her Masters in Public Health in 2010, she started working in the operational research unit (LuxOR) initially as the program officer and later as an operational research advisor through using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies mainly on the topics related to migration- and mental health but in particular sexual and reproductive health (SRH), being lately more and more SGBV related. This through field visits, dedicated OR trainings and online coaching and mentoring. She still goes sometimes to the field for gap fills in medical coordination positions, which was recently in Haiti for a SRH project with a large sexual violence component.

Claire Reading Zombo,Sexual and Reproductive Health Advisors , MSF Belgium

Claire is one of the sexual and reproductive health advisors with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Belgium. Her role also includes technical support to sexual violence care.

A UK midwife since 2011 with experience & passion for women’s equality and rights. She completed her adult nursing education at Leeds University (2007) and her midwifery education at St. George’s Hospital in London.

From there, Claire worked on assignment with MSF in DRC (2015) and South Sudan (2016 and 2017), with the emergency pool in Haiti (2016) and Sierra Leone (2019). In 2016 and 2019 she worked on strengthening midwifery education in Sylhet, Bangladesh and in Kapoeta, South Sudan with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) UK. 

Claire is passionate about engaging communities to understand how best to tailor services and access to sexual violence care. More recently she has been supporting projects in the OCB portfolio to implement community-based care approaches towards sexual violence in South Sudan, Chad and Sudan.

She holds a masters in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (2018).

OR agenda for AMR: One of the most worrying threats to global health:

Dr Amrish Baidjoe, Director, LuxOR

Amrish Baidjoe is an infectious disease Epidemiologist and Microbiologist specialised in humanitarian health emergencies and is engaged in bridging the needs between operational humanitarian organisations and other partners such as academia. He worked in different larger humanitarian crises around the world. He obtained his PhD from Radboud University Medical Centre and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He holds an Honorary Associate professor at the LSHTM in the department of infectious disease epidemiology. He previously worked in the WHO Health Emergencies Department, the International Committee and Federation of the Red Cross and was part of the outbreak investigation taskforce at Institut Pasteur (Paris) as well as the outbreak analytics Liaison at Imperial College (London). Since 2021, he’s the Director of the LuxOR Unit.

In his current capacity, Amrish offers strategic direction for Operational Research (OR), focusing particularly on MSF-OCB OR policy strategy and vision. He is actively involved in OR capacity building and training initiatives, and plays a pivotal role in designing the structural epidemiology infrastructure within MSF OCB Operations. His primary research interests lie in malaria, vector borne diseases and infectious disease outbreaks, with a broader commitment to promoting proper bioethics, diversity, equity, and inclusion in Global Health."

Dr Shehezady Charfudine Cruz, Medical Doctor, MSF

Shehezady Charfudine Cruz is a Medical Doctor with PGDip in Infectious Diseases with more than 6 years of work experience at MSF (Doctors Without Borders) working from primary healthcare to quaternary level hospitals. Dedicated to caring for patients with infectious diseases such as HIV, TB and serious infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms (MDRO) as part of the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) program.

Currently Antimicrobial stewardship focal point in Beira project that collaborate with stakeholders and lead teams of healthcare professionals in providing healthcare services related to antimicrobial stewardship in a resource limited setting.

Main activities regarding AMR in Beira project:

➢ Supported the implementation of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) program at Beira Central Hospital (BCH), more specifically on antibiotic stewardship (AMS).

➢ Helped to set up a multi-stakeholder hospital AMS committee and provided regular reports on antibiotic resistance and the quality of antibiotic prescribing on the wards to the hospital directors.

➢ Clinical rounds to guide MOH doctors on AMS, management of suspected AMR cases and interpretation of microbiological results to choose appropriate antibiotics.

➢ One of the authors of the hospital empirical antibiotic treatment protocol.

➢ As part of the technical group, have been providing intensive training on AMR for doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

➢ Collect data from blood culture results and use this data for analysis and timely communication of results to clinicians.

➢ Together with the IPC team, support in the management of hospital outbreaks caused by MDRO microorganisms.

➢ Through a multidisciplinary approach, contribute to the advocacy of the AMR program in Mozambique for the sustainability of activities and improvement of case management.

➢ Part of a technical group responsible for developing a study protocol on bacteraemia at BCH in which I will be the principal investigator.

Recent detachment (February-April 2025) to Maiduguri/Nigeria project as AMS focal point supporting the AMS activities in children under 5 years with undernutrition. Implemented antibiotic protocols according to local context and supported in the management of MDRO and Acute bacterial meningitis outbreaks. 

Pilar Garcia-Vello,Operational Research Advisor on Antibiotic Resistance,LuxOR

After completing a Master of Science (MSc) in Pharmacy from the Cumplutense University of Madrid and a second MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Pilar obtained a PhD in Chemistry through the Marie Curie program. Throughout her studies, she held a focus on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Before joining MSF, Pilar worked at the University for Development Studies of Ghana, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), building evidence and providing advice to tackle AMR. 

Currently, Pilar is the focal point for Operational Research on AMR, focusing on infection prevention and control (IPC), antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), Diagnostics & Surveillance (D&S), microbiology laboratory, outbreaks, and transversal activities. Her main interests include the integration of cutting-edge technologies to analyze trends and investigate outbreaks.

Bruno González Zorn, head of the Antimicrobial Resistance Unit at the Complutense University in Madrid

Prof. Bruno Gonzalez-Zorn is full Professor and Head of the Antimicrobial Resistance Unit (ARU) at the Complutense University in Madrid, a multidisciplinary laboratory he founded in 2005 and has brought One Health to the forefront of research on antimicrobial resistance. In 2023 he was elected  Dr honoris causa in Ghana for his continuous support of local Public Health, and he is the Chair of One Health in the Alliance Una Europa. His research focuses on the flux of antimicrobial resistance genes and bacteria between humans, animals and the environment. He gained his DVM in 1996studying in Spain and Germany and his european PhD in 2001. After his Postdoc at the Pasteur Institute in Paris he received a Ramon y Cajal tenure-track contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science to return to Spain. In 2011 he was awarded the National Microbiology Award, from the Spanish Society for Microbiology, the National Antimicrobial Resistance Research Award for his research on mcr-1 and waste-water from the Ministry of Health in 2018, and in 2020 the Award for antimicrobial resistance alternatives from the Veterinary Royal Academy. In 2011 he was elected the first non-clinical member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the JPI AMR, co-authoring the first two Strategic Research Agendas. He is the former President of the Molecular Microbiology Group of the Spanish Society for Microbiology and Head of Department. Gonzalez-Zorn has lead projects with the US, Latin America, Africa and Asia on molecular microbiology and the ecology of antimicrobial resistance, andhas collaborated with Research Institutions world-wide. Gonzalez-Zorn works on the National Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance, and has advised Governments world-wide in the implementation of the One Health approach in their Action Plans. 

Impact of the changing financial landscape on humanitarian aid, global health and

Keri Geiger, Scientific Manager for the Fondation MSF pour la Recherche Humanitaire

Scientific Director of the MSF Foundation for Humanitarian Research. Keri is a registered nurse with field experience with MSF, a PhD in nursing from Johns Hopkins University and experience in field epidemiology, project management and data analysis for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Louise Roland-Gosselin Muamba, Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator 

Louise Roland-Gosselin Muamba joined Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in early 2011 and has since held a range of positions including Humanitarian Affairs Officer, Field Coordinator, Advocacy Advisor, Deputy Head of Mission, and Head of Mission in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium (with a regional focus on European migration), and Greece. In 2018, she contributed to the MSF East Africa sectionhood application process. After two and a half years working on the COVID-19 response with WHO Somalia and in external relations with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Louise returned to MSF in 2022 as a Humanitarian Affairs Advisor, based in Nairobi. She was appointed Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in February 2023. Louise holds an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and has a background in human rights work prior to joining MSF.