Our Team

Board of Directors

(*indicates founding member)

Jodi Magee, MSW* (Co-Chair)

Jodi Magee was the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the US organization Physicians for Reproductive Health, the model for the Global Doctors for Choice, LLC. She retired from this post in 2020.

Prior to her leadership of Physicians for Reproductive Health, Ms. Magee created programs, directed staff, and raised funds for leading US nonprofit organizations as both a staff member and a consultant. Her professional experience includes working with organizations such as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, and Connecticut NARAL (a domestic abortion rights organization), among others. She has also served on political campaigns and community boards. Ms. Magee holds a Master of Social Work (with a specialty in social policy) and a Bachelor of Social Work, both from Rutgers University. Ms. Magee founded Global Doctors for Choice in 2007 with Dr. Wendy Chavkin, and is currently the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Directors. Ms. Magee founded Global Doctors for Choice in 2007 with Dr. Wendy Chavkin, served as its board chair from 2014 to 2020 and its Immediate Past Chair in 2021.

Dorothy Shaw, OC, MBChB (Co-Chair)

Dorothy Shaw, OC, MBChB, is a Clinical Professor Emerita in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia. She graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh and is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. She recently retired as Vice President, Medical Affairs for British Columbia’s Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Shaw is Past President of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (1991-1992) and was the first woman President of FIGO (2006-2009), when she launched the FIGO initiative for the Prevention of Unsafe abortion and its complications in 46 countries. She was the inaugural chair of the FIGO Committee for Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights (2000-2003). She has a longstanding history of civil society advocacy related to policy in domestic and global Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health. She was the inaugural chair of the Canadian Network for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (2010-2014), remaining on the Board of the Canadian Partnership for Women’s and Children’s Health, until 2019.

Dr. Shaw has received several lifetime achievement awards including the Christopher Tietze Humanitarianism Award from the National Abortion Federation (2012) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Distinguished Service Award (2015).

In 2016, Dr. Shaw was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her work for women’s health and reproductive rights. She is a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group of HRP and a member of the Advisory Board for Vitala.

Chris Fofie, MD, MPH (Immediate Past Chair)

Dr. Chris Fofie is a consultant obstetrician-gynecologist with a Master’s in Public Health from Sheffield Hallam University. He serves as the Deputy Director for Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health at the Ghana Health Service Headquarters in Accra.

Dr. Fofie has years of experience working with GDC in communities in Northern Ghana, including researching conscientious objection. At the International Conference on Population and Development 25 in Nairobi, Dr. Fofie joined the Global Doctors for Choice – Kenya team to share his experience on reproductive health advocacy strategies. Currently, he is exploring approaches to expand access to Medical Abortion at the community level through task-sharing.

Christine Garrison Rosario, MS (Co-Treasurer)

Christine Garrison Rosario has over 15 years of experience in fiscal management and analysis. Her career has focused on being a strategic partner and trusted advisor guiding an organization’s strategy and supporting informed institutional decision making.  Her work includes financial analysis, risk management, strategic planning, budgeting, and financial planning.  Christine provides expert advice and guidance on all financial matters and ensures the seamless integration of financial management and reporting.

She is the Chief Financial Officer for Fòs Feminista, an international alliance for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice.  Christine works to ensure that Fòs Feminista’s funds are allocated to address inequalities, ensure inclusion and diversity, and to empower women by increasing their financial acumen to increase equality in gender roles.

Prior to joining Fòs Feminista as Controller, Christine served as the manager of finance and analysis for Home Box Office and oversaw financial audits for entertainment and media companies with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Christine received her Bachelor of Science in Commerce, and her Master of Science in Accounting from University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. She is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in Virginia and New York.  Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors for the IPPF-WHR Fund and serves as Treasurer.

Nancy Natilson, MBA (Co-Treasurer)

Nancy Natilson has been an independent international development consultant for the last 25 years, specializing in the intersection of microenterprise development with reproductive health. She has developed curriculum on financial analysis, performance monitoring, and strategic planning and budgeting. Recent assignments included: facilitating business management training and access to microfinance to rural private clinic owners who belong to a reproductive health franchise network in Africa; and co-leading financial resilience workshops for social justice NGOs in Africa, Central America and Mexico.  Ms. Natilson was also Financial Advisor for five years to Pro Mujer, an integrated microfinance organization in five Latin American countries.

Prior to her international consulting career, Ms. Natilson spent ten years as an international commercial banker, including five in Venezuela.  Later she taught Women in the Developing World and Bank Management as an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Ms. Natilson is currently on the Board of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida. She received a Masters in Business Administration from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  She joined GDC Board of Directors in 2015 as Treasurer.

Wendy Chavkin, MD, MPH*

Dr. Chavkin is professor of public health and obstetrics/gynecology at Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Dr. Chavkin founded Global Doctors for Choice in 2007 with Jodi Magee and is a former member of the Board of Directors. Previously, she helped found and served as chair of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Reproductive Health in the US. She has served as director of The Bureau of Maternity Services and Family Planning in New York City’s Department of Health, editor-in-chief of The Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, associate editor for The American Journal of Public Health and director of several postdoctoral fellowship programs focused on reproductive health and rights.  She has received various awards for advocacy and a Fulbright Fellowship for research on policy responses to declining birth rates Dr. Chavkin has written numerous peer reviewed articles and four books about  a range of reproductive health issues, including the consequences of welfare reform for the health of women and children, work and pregnancy, abortion, HIV, illegal drug use in pregnancy, globalized motherhood and fatherhood and assisted reproductive technologies. Dr. Chavkin received her medical degree from the State University of New York in 1978 and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, in 1981.

Mary Favier, MB BCh

Dr. Mary Favier is a founding member of and serves on the executive committee of Doctors for Choice Ireland, an Irish organization of doctors founded in 2002 that supports a woman’s right to choose by advocating for the provision and regulation of safe, legal abortion in Ireland.

Dr. Favier is a Principal and Partner in Family Medicine since 1998, a Member of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (UK).  She holds additional Diploma qualifications in Medical Education, Child Health, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She is a guest lecturer to the undergraduate Medical School in University College Cork (UCC) and to the Postgraduate Family Medicine training programme in UCC.

Dr. Favier is current President of the ICGP and chairs its Council; and has been an executive member of the ICGP and Chair of the ICGP Education Committee. She was appointed to the Department of Health National Public Health Emergency Team. Dr. Favier was elected to the Medical Council and sat on the Fitness to Practice committee as a Non-Consultant Hospital Doctor. She sat on the board of the Medical Protection Society, the world’s largest provider of medical indemnity, for two four-year terms from 2005-2013. She dedicates 75% of her time to clinical practice and the rest to providing expert legal opinion reports on breach of duty.

Dr. Favier joined the Global Doctors for Choice Board of Directors in 2015 and served as GDC’s board co-chair from 2021 to 2023 and its immediate past chair in 2024.

Michelle V. Hall, MA

Michelle Hall is the managing director of the Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence at Columbia Business School, Columbia University. With a rich and diverse background in education, Michelle Hall brings three decades of experience to her current role at Columbia Business School. Her journey began in secondary education before transitioning to prominent roles at Columbia University, where she spent seventeen years contributing to the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

Michelle has been a guiding force, offering cross-campus leadership and strategic direction in instructional design services, technology platforms, and educator development. Her influence has been instrumental in shaping the educational landscape for faculty and academic departments.

Ms. Hall joined the Global Doctors for Choice Board of Directors in 2015 and shares her program design and digital content expertise. She served as GDC’s board co-chair from 2021 to 2023 and its immediate past chair in 2024.

Saba Kidanemariam, MA

Saba Kidanemariam is currently working as a global consultant on women’s reproductive health and rights. She works on program direction/management and advocacy, community engagement, enhanced health services access, operational research and evaluation. She is enthusiastic in coaching, mentoring and professional development.

She was the Ipas Country Director for Ethiopia from 2000 to 2021. She provided program leadership to the country office and coordinated technical support to the Ministry of Health on sexual and reproductive health. She led a multi-disciplinary team in the country office and served as a key advocate in-country on women’s health and rights. She has been the moving force behind the movement for the review of Ethiopian abortion law and more importantly the progression to implementation of the law and access to safe abortion for Ethiopian women and girls. She continues to play a prominent role in advocating for safe abortion in Africa.

Before joining Ipas, Ms. Kidanemariam was deputy general manager of a national poverty alleviation program focused on community interventions in the form of basic social and economic services. She led multi-disciplinary technical teams composed of education, health, water supply & sanitation, small scale irrigation and promotion & training units. She coordinated and collaborated with sector line ministries across eleven regional offices.

Jamila Burgess Perritt, MD MPH FACOG

Dr. Jamila Perritt is a fellowship trained, board-certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist and President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH).

Dr. Perritt has a comprehensive background in family planning and has worked more than 20 years in the reproductive health, rights and justice spaces. She provides on the ground, community-based care focusing primarily on the intersection of sexual health, reproductive rights and social justice.

In addition to her work as a clinical provider in the Washington, DC area, she has led PRH as their President and CEO since 2020.

Dr. Perritt is a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine and completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. She completed a fellowship in Complex Family Planning at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. During her fellowship training, Dr. Perritt received a master’s degree in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Perritt’s work as a passionate advocate for reproductive health, rights and justice has allowed her to work closely with many organizations in support of access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including Advocates for Youth and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She is a member of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA) and a writer with Echoing Ida, a community Black women and nonbinary writers that seeks to shift culture and build movements through narrative change, and a founding member of Centering Equity, Race, and Cultural Literacy in Family Planning (CERCL-FP), a collective of family planning providers who employ critical race theory and reproductive justice frameworks to dismantle structural racism within all sectors of the family planning discipline.

Dr. Perritt serves via Mayoral appointment to Washington DC’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee. She is a Fellow of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a member of the Society of Family Planning and serves as Chair of ACOG’s Committee for the Health Care for Underserved Women.

Jung-won Yoon, MD

Dr. Jung-won Yoon is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist in South Korea. She is also the co-founder of Center for Sexual Rights and Reproductive justice (SHARE), the only Korean NGO dedicated to sexual and reproductive health and rights, founded in 2015. With this group, she has been active as an advocate on reproductive justice as well as an abortion provider, and played a leading role in the Constitutional decision that decriminalized abortion in 2019.

Currently on the board of Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center and Korean Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ health, Dr. Yoon has also been passionate about sex education, LGBT health, and physicians’ role in protecting sexual violence survivors. She has been collaborating with civil society developing education curriculums for sex educators, sexual abuse counselors, social workers, and educating medical students and residents on sexual violence as a member of the Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

She graduated from Yonsei University College of Medicine and completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and a fellowship in gynecology oncology at Severance Hospital in Seoul, South Korea. She received a commendation from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (2018).

 

Former Board of Directors Members

GDC recognizes and appreciates the contribution of the following former Board and Steering Committee Members to the creation and vision of Global Doctors for Choice:

(*indicates founding member)

John Koku Awoonor-Williams, MD, MPH, MPP, PhD

Dr. John Koku Awoonor-Williams is the Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation for the Ghana Health Services, and the architect of Ghana’s Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) strategy. He also is a Senior Lecturer at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, a founding faculty of Columbia University’s Advancing Reproductive and Community Health Systems (ARCHeS) of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, a member of the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of Ghana AIDS Commission, and Chair of Ghana National eHealth Project for which he also coordinates the Ghana Telemedicine Project. Previously, he was Regional Director of Health Services for the Upper East Region of Ghana, District Medical Officer for the Nkwanta District of Ghana, Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) for the Ghana Essential Health Intervention Project (GEHIP), and currently Co-PI Implementation of CHPS.

Alfonso Carrera, MD*

Dr. Alfonso Carrera, the founder of GDC/Mexico, is the Medical Director of Marie Stopes Mexico. He also has served as an Associate Professor in research and ethics for gynecology and obstetrics at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. His research has focused on maternal morbidity and mortality, fertility, and reproductive health. He is an international member of the American Fertility Society and the Mexican Association of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and a member of the Mexican Association of Reproductive Medicine.

Monica Dragoman, MD, MPH (Immediate Past Chair)

Monica Dragoman, MD, MPH, is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in Complex Family Planning. She holds multiple roles at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, including System Director in the Division of Complex Family Planning, Program Director for the Complex Family Planning Fellowship, and Assistant Professor.

Previously, Dr. Dragoman served as the Medical Director for Clinical Research and Training at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York. She has also worked as a Medical Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, contributing to the development of family planning guidelines and consulting on reproductive health projects for various organizations. Her research interests encompass improving the quality of abortion care, contraceptive access, and safety. Dr. Dragoman’s work has been published widely in peer-reviewed journals.

She is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society of Family Planning, where she serves on the Clinical Affairs Subcommittee. She obtained her medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio and a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a fellowship in family planning at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Cristião Fernando Rosas, MD*

Prior to retirement, Dr. Rosas served as the Obstetrics Clinic Director at the Maternity School of Vila Nova in São Paulo, Brazil. He also has served as the president of the National Commission of Sexual Violence and Legal Abortion of the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Associations (FEBRASGO), the coordinator of the Southern Cone Committee on Sexual and Reproductive Rights at the Latin American Federation of Societies of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FLASOG), an advisory board member of the Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI), a member of the Initiative for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), the secretary of the National Commission at the Sexual Violence and Legal Abortion of the Gynecology and Obstetrics Society of Brazil, and a member of the Technical Board of Women’s Health of the Regional Medical Council of the State of São Paulo.

Laura Gil, MD

Dr. Laura Gil is an abortion provider and co-founder of the Grupo Médico por el Derecho a Decidir- Colombia. She has been active in abortion training and in disseminating the concept of the health exception after abortion was partially decriminalized in Colombia in 2006. She currently is the program director of ESAR , a foundation that provides training in sexual and reproductive health services in ten countries in Latin America. She serves as an advisor for FLASOG’ s Sexual and Reproductive Rights Committee and part of the FIGO Safe Abortion Committee.

Dr. Gil has been a speaker at “La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres ” (the Women’s Life and Health Coalition), focusing on topics such as the standards and concepts of Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (VIP) in Colombia, with an emphasis on health-related causes. She has also provided support for specific VIP request cases that have been instrumental in the pursuit of defending women’s health rights. She received her medical training from the National University of Colombia and completed training in sexual and reproductive health research in developing countries at the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research in association with the World Health Organization.

Selma Hajri, MD

Dr. Selma Hajri is a Specialist in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Reproduction, and resides in Tunis, Tunisia.

She has 25 years of clinical and research experience in hormonal contraception and medical abortion. Specialized in endocrinology, her career has focused on clinical research and clinical trials of introducing medical abortion with Gynuity Health Projects and the National Office of Family and Population (ONFP) in Tunisia since 1997.

She was a member of the steering committees on long-acting contraceptives at the HRP/WHO 1988 and 1994, the International Consortium for Medical Abortion (ICMA) from 2002 to 2005, the African Network for Medical Abortion (ANMA) and the ANMA Network Coordinator from 2010 to 2012.

She is the founder and former president (2012 to 2016) of Groupe Tawhida Ben Cheikh, a Tunisian NGO dedicated to sexual and reproductive health and rights in Tunisia.  She is currently the Secretary General of Groupe Tawhida Ben Cheikh and Vice President of ASFAMM (Association for Women’s Health in Africa, the Maghreb and the Middle East) in France, and a member of the advisory committee of the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion (ICWRSA). Since 2020 she is also the project manager of RAWSA (Right and Access of Women to Safe abortion), a new regional network in the MENA region, aiming to build a platform for the right to safe abortion.

Moses Mulumba

Moses Mulumba is the Director General for Afya na Haki Institute where he is leading work on generating knowledge and building advocacy capacities in Health, Human Rights and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHRs) using Afrocentric approaches within a national and global context.

Prior to this, Mr. Mulumba was the founding and Executive Director for the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) www.cehurd.org, where he led teams that have undertaken ground-breaking legal advocacy work including undertaking major constitutional litigation that has challenged the government of Uganda for failing to provide basic maternal health services.

As part of his work, Mr. Mulumba oversaw the launch of the Coalition to Stop Maternal Mortality Due to Unsafe Abortion (CSMMUA) which has led major advocacy campaigns on access to safe and legal abortions in Uganda.

Ntandho Patrick Godi, MBChB, FCOG (SA)

Dr. Ntandho Patrick Godi is Chief Specialist and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rob Ferreira Hospital. Dr. Godi is a member and Provincial Representative of the National Committee on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in South Africa, and trains doctors and midwives in Emergency Management of Obstetric Emergencies (ESMOE). He serves on the Mpumalanga Maternal and Child Health Discussion Forum, the Mpumalanga Chronic Diseases Forum, and the South African Human Papilloma Virus Advisory Board. He is a current fellow of the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of South Africa. He is country contact person for the African Network on Medical Abortion and received a scholarship to participate in the Physicians for Reproductive Health Leadership Training Academy, an intensive advocacy program organized by the US-based organization.

Ana Cristina González Vélez, MD, MS, PhD Candidate*

An expert in sexual and reproductive health and rights, health care reform, and advocacy, Dr. González Vélez has worked as a consultant and conducted research with the support of the WHO, the Pan American Health Organization, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the United Nations Population Fund, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the Ford Foundation, among others. She served on various national boards, including the National Institutes of Health, Colciencias, and INVIMA, as well as international boards, such as the Association for Women’s Rights, Advisory Panel for the Americas, and Senior Technical Advisory Group of the World Health Organization (WHO). She has been actively involved in the women’s movement at both the local and international levels, has been a featured expert at the United Nations conferences, and her work has been published in international journals and books on sexual and reproductive health. Dr. González Vélez worked as a physician and an advisor at PROFAMILIA in Bogotá and as the national director of Public Health in Colombia.

Beverly Winikoff, MD, MPH*

Dr. Beverly Winikoff is the president of Gynuity Health Projects. Previously, Dr. Winikoff was employed for 25 years at the Population Council where she was Director for Reproductive Health and a Senior Medical Associate. She developed and managed the Council’s Ebert Program on Critical Issues in Reproductive Health, including work on safe motherhood, prevention of STDs/AIDS, prevention of unsafe abortion, provision of safe abortion care, and improving postpartum care for mothers and babies. Dr. Winikoff also served as Assistant Director for Health Sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation.

She has served on numerous boards of directors, including the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, Physicians for Reproductive Health, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, the National Abortion Federation, The MediTeam Trust in South Africa, The Society of Family Planning, and Medicines360. Dr. Winikoff received the Carl S. Schultz Award from the American Public Health Association in 2007 and the Irvin M. Cushner Lectureship award from the Association for Reproductive Health Professionals in 2009. Dr. Winikoff is a professor of clinical population and family health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. She graduated from Harvard University, earned her M.D. from New York University and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Rodica Comendant, MD, PhD

Dr. Rodica Comendant is an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Moldova “Nicolae Testemitanu,” from which graduated and received her PhD. She also serves as the head of the Reproductive Health Training Center (RHTC) in Chisinau, and the Regional Training Center for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region, the coordinator of the Regional Coalition on sexual and reproductive health and rights. For the last 20 years, RHTC has been the leading organization in Moldova for the sexual and reproductive health and rights field, including in safe abortion and family planning.

Dr. Comendant also serves an international trainer for medical abortion and manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) and has conducted trainings on comprehensive abortion care (CAC) for Ipas and the National Abortion Federation (NAF) in Russia, Georgia, Kirgizstan, Ukraine, and other countries in EECA region. Currently she is a Consultant for Concept Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the Global Combipack Initiative. Additionally, Dr. Comendant has been a consultant for WHO and has led numerous Strategic Assessments on safe abortion in Eastern European countries.

Previously, Dr. Comendant served as the Coordinator for the International Consortium for Medical Abortion (2005-2015), the regional coordinator for FIGO Initiative for Preventing Unsafe Abortion for EECA region, a Senior Consulting Associate at Gynuity Health Projects for several years, being the principal investigator for numerous clinical studies that contributed to the successful implementation of medical abortion in Moldova.