Healthcare

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.

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.

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.

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.

Muhammad Shafique: Behavior Change Communication Specialist

Muhammad Shafique is a specialist in communication and behaviour change with areas of expertise in malaria and dengue prevention and control, maternal and newborn health, and polio eradication. He has worked with Malaria Consortium, Save the Children, and Merlin organzations and in many countries, including Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Pakistan.

Christina Shoemaker Simmons: Consultant

Christina Shoemaker Simmons is a consultant with areas of expertise in education, immigrant accultration, public health and pacific islanders. She has worked extensively in Hawaii, United States with social services and schools and community groups while applying the Positive Deviance approach for over seven years.

Dr. Arvind Singhal: Academic, University of Texas El Paso

Dr. Arvind Singhal describes himself as a sense maker and amplifier of positive deviance. Dr. Singhal has been involved with the in-depth documentation of the Positive Deviance approach. He has served as a co-facilitator of numerous PD meetings, has guided several graduate theses on positive deviance, and has raised the “volume” on PD in his courses, lectures, and keynotes in the past six years.

Monique Sternin: Co-Founder, Positive Deviance Initiative

Monique Sternin is one of the pioneers of the PD approach and has worked closely with diverse communities and organizations worldwide to teach and implement the PD approach for over 20 years. Her work spans various sectors including education, public health, and displaced populations, among others.

Randa Wilkinson: Consultant and Academic, Tufts University

Randa Wilkinson has worked with the Positive Deviance Initiative in many capacities and has used her experties in facilitating the Positive Deviance approach in diverse organizations and sectors. Randa has over fifteen years of experience in PD in nutrition, healthcare, education and emergency relief. She has worked in the United States, Western and Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.