Maha Abusamra is a consultant/trainer with over 20 years of experience in gender and programme management. She applied the Positive Deviance approach in the areas of gender equality in the Middle East and is one of the founders of the Palestine UN Gender Innovation Lab. She worked with UNDP, UNRWA and Catholic Relief Services on Gender, Governance, Social Development programmes, as well as in the private sector.
Diane Baik: Nutrition Consultant
Casey Blochowiak: Director of Curriculum and Learning, School District of Menomonee Falls
Casey Blochowiak is the director of curriculum and learning for a K-12 public school district. She has 2 years of experience using the positive deviance approach in the U.S. to provide a framework for school districts to look within and identify teachers whose instructional approaches/strategies yield increased academic success for students.
Samir Chaudhuri: Director, Child in Need Institute
Samir Chaudhuri is the director of the Child In Need Institute with expertise in nutrition, mother & child health, adolescent health & nutrition, and child protection. He has worked with CINI, UNICEF, Dept. of Women & Child, and the government of West Bengal, India and has over 25 years of experience with the PD approach.
Djibril Cissé: Consultant, Program Manager
Dr. Cissé holds a PhD in Food and Nutrition, and brings over 15-years of professional experience in coordinating and managing health and nutrition programs. He was responsible for the conception and implementation of nutrition activities including support to the Food, Nutrition and Child Survival Division (DANSE) of the Ministry of Health in Senegal and played a key role in promoting the PD/hearth model approach in Senegal.
Lucia Dura: Academic and Consultant
Lucia Dura is an academic and consultant with areas of expertise in qualitative methods and evaluation with the positive deviance approach. She has prior experience implementing positive deviance in the areas of vulnerable populations, education, healthcare, and most recently, correctional prison populations. She has worked in many countries, including the United States, Uganda, and Indonesia.
Michael Dardam: Director, Ontario Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control
Michael Gardam is the Director for Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Michael is a PD Champion for the reduction of the hospital-acquired infection MRSA. Within Canada, he has helped a number of hospitals control outbreaks and develop their infection control programs.
David Gasser: Consultant
David Gasser has been interviewed for numerous Positive Deviance publications for his abilities to apply the Positive Deviance approach in diverse areas like the private sector, public agencies, health-care and education. David works as a consultant and has been applying the Positive Deviance approach for over 12 years.
Ahmet Günes: Consultant
Tamotsu Ito: Consultant
Masamine Jimba: Academic, University of Tokyo
Inger W. Johannsen: Consultant
Inger W. Johannsen is a partner at Reflexio based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She brings over five years of experience to the Positive Deviance approach and has extensive knowledge working in sectors like vulnerable populations and education. She has worked with institutions for institutionalized children, and within the educational sector.
Paul I Kadetz: Academic
Since 2002, Paul I Kadetz has examined health and development interventions in his research and scholarship from a perspective of assets-based approaches, particularly Positive Deviance. With over 18 years of experience with the PD approach on 5 continents, he specializes in population health and international development with a focus on China, Philippines, and the United States.
Siaka Konate: Consultant
Siaka Konate is an independent consultant on the use of the Positive Deviance approach in West Africa. Born and raised in Mali, Siaka has worked for Save the Children US and trained numerous organizations on the use of the approach to combat childhood malnutrition and scaled his approach to over 387 communities around Africa.
Dileep Kumar: Project Manager
Dileep Kumar is a Public Health Specialist, PhD Scholar and USAID-funded project manager who has worked with organizations like RSPN and HANDS on Positive Deviance related projects including a polio eradication program, Nutrition, Family Planning and a Maternal and Child Health Program funded by DFID, USAID and WHO. He has over 6 years of experience implementing the Positive Deviance approach in Pakistan.
F. James Levinson: Professor, Tufts University
Jane Lewis: Consultant
Jane Lewis is a consultant that has worked with the government, third sector, universities, and commercial companies through a social enterprise organization. She taught Positive Deviance at Oxford University, HEC Paris, and Oxford Brookes University. With over nine years of experience with the Positive Deviance approach, she has many publications dedicated to the approach.
Curt Lindberg: Director, Billings Clinic Partnership for Complex Systems and Healthcare Innovation
Curt Lindberg has 14 years of experience using the PD approach specifically within the healthcare and educational sectors in North and South America. His work has been received by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among many other international organizations.
Jon Lloyd: Consultant
Jon Lloyd is a senior clinical advisor for Plexus Institute and a Senior Associate at the PD Initiative. He worked on a community-wide effort to eliminate endemic Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Dr. Lloyd is currently coaching several of these hospitals and is also applying PD to the problems of youth violence and the twenty five year disparity in longevity that affects people with serious mental illness.
Debora Niyeha: Nutritionist
Debora Niyeha is a Resident Advisor working with Institute for International Programs at Johns Hopkins University coordinating National Evaluation Platform in Tanzania with over 12 years of experience in PDH programming. She played a key role in establishing PDH programing at World Vision and Aga Khan Foundation both in Tanzania and Uganda. She continues to be PDH champion and provide support to other institutions across East Africa Region.