Team Members
Rachel T. Moresky, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Program on Forced Migration and Health and in the Columbia University Department of Emergency Medicine, as well as an Honorary appointment at the University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Moresky has combined her expertise in engineering, emergency medicine, and global public health inequities through her work on improving complex adaptive emergency care systems by strengthening the integration of high-quality primary care and acute care systems in the Global South. In 2004 she founded the Columbia University sidHARTe - Strengthening Emergency Systems Program. The sidHARTe Program has partnered with national and local governments, universities, medical associations, and NGOs through technical exchange, data-driven policy development, and implementation support and science. The sidHARTe Program has worked with governments in India, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Honduras, and Cambodia with support from NGOs, foundations, USAID, CDC, Global Fund, and the World Bank.
Dr. Moresky is also the founding director of the Columbia University Global Emergency Medicine Fellowship, a program that mentors Emergency Physicians in humanitarian action, disaster response, and health systems implementation research. Since 2006 the Fellowship has produced global health leaders. These former fellows’ have taken leadership roles at organizations such as the WHO, Global Health Cluster, IRC, MSF, IMC, CDC, Ministries of Health, and Emergency Medicine programs worldwide.
Sneha Patel, MSW, MPH, is the Associate Director of Implementation Science for the Developing Acute Care and Emergency Referral Systems (ACERS) Project, a USAID-funded implementation research project focused on improving maternal and neonatal outcomes in Ghana. Sneha is responsible for the collaborative development of ACERS’ research design and implementation strategy, program planning, iterative systems learning, and dissemination of findings. She previously served as the Director of Evaluation and Research at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response where she led the evaluation of NYC's public health emergency response operations. She has also served as a consultant on UNICEF; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; and Rockefeller Foundation projects, and has experience with community-based health systems programs in Ghana and India. Sneha holds Master’s degrees in Public Health and Social Work from Columbia University, and a Bachelors in International Relations from Boston University.
Elizabeth F. Jackson, PhD, MHS, is an epidemiologist who focuses on improving health services and systems. She supports sidHARTe’s implementation research project in Ghana to improve health services for women and their newborns experiencing obstetric or neonatal emergencies. She is also part of a team working in partnership with Ghanaian universities and the Ghana Health Service to conduct research that improves Ghana’s community-based primary health care strategy, CHPS.
Dr. Jackson has worked in a number of African countries in topical areas that include child health, family planning, fertility, female genital mutilation, sexual risk behaviors of marginalized adolescents, as well as improving the future health and livelihood of vulnerable older adolescents. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina and previously worked with the Population Council and Family Health International.
Brennan Bollman, MD, completed her residency training at the Louisiana State University ‘Spirit of Charity’ program in New Orleans, and attended Harvard Medical School and undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to fellowship, she worked primarily in Haiti in various public health programs and humanitarian response. During fellowship, she is focusing her primary research attention on the Acute Care and Emergency Referral Systems (ACERS) program in rural Ghana, particularly in helping develop a novel emergency dispatch center for maternal/neonatal emergencies. She is also researching indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic: globally with sidHARTe and locally in the Columbia Emergency Department. She serves as a Clinical Mentor for the International Rescue Committee’s Cox’s Bazar COVID-19 response.
Hana Thomas is a family physician and a doctoral candidate at the Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health, Columbia University. Hana practices medicine in rural and remote Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario. She is also a research scientist with Systems Improvement at District Hospitals and Regional Training of Emergency Care (sidHARTe) on the Acute Care & Emergency Referrals Systems (ACERS) project based in Ghana. In her research role, Hana provides technical and clinical support to the project's Implementation Research efforts aimed at improving emergency obstetric and newborn outcomes in rural Ghana.
Alexander Sloboda, MD, MPH, is an Instructor in Emergency Medicine and Columbia University Global Emergency Medicine Fellow at Columbia University. His interests in Global Health include Emergency Medicine training development in West Africa as well as health care system and social services development. He previously worked in Ghana and Nigeria on similar endeavors. During fellowship, Alex has worked on the Acute Care and Emergency Referral Systems (ACERS) consortium in rural Ghana. He has contributed to a Chart Review Quality Assurance initiative as well as developing a framework for collaboration between Community Emergency Transport Systems (CETS), Ghana Health Service, and the National Ambulance Service for referrals systems for emergency obstetric and newborn care. He is also continuing to work with a teaching hospital in Nigeria in their development of Emergency Medicine training and Emergency Medical Services.
Rohit Mukherjee is a United States Fulbright Research Fellow supporting the Acute Care & Emergency Referrals Systems (ACERS) project in Ghana. Rohit will support the program in establishing a novel Emergency Dispatch Center in the Northern and Oti regions, integrating into the National Ambulance Service to improve maternal and child health outcomes. Under the supervision of the Ghana Health Service and the National Ambulance Service he will contribute to the development the implementation research tools. With years of demonstrated leadership as a serial entrepreneur developing non-profits funded through the Clinton Foundation, acquiring clinical training as an US Emergency Medical Technician, and as CEO & Co-Founder of GlobeConnect LLC, Rohit represents one of over 2,100 American students who will conduct research, share knowledge, and foster mutual synergy as a cultural ambassador of the United States Department of State. In addition to his international work, Rohit is a Dual Master of Public Health & Public Affairs candidate at Brown School of Public Health and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Following his research fellowship, he will embark on his studies in medicine with focuses in health care delivery systems, policymaking, and digital health innovation.