We bet (or at least we hope) that at some point you thought to yourself, "I wonder who's behind all the fun at defeatDD."
Here, we take an opportunity to introduce ourselves. Read our profiles below to get to know the people behind the scenes (and blogs and tweets).
Eileen Quinn
We may tease Eileen for color-coding her emails and calendar appointments, but we can’t really blame her. As the director of the mischievous (and fun) diarrheal disease communications and advocacy team and mom of two funny and clever teenage boys, it’s no wonder that organization is a priority – and no surprise that her mediation skills are consistently put to good use. This word nerd’s impressive career history in media and communications, along with her rotating office cube exhibit of original magnetic poetry, points to her penchant for puns, punctuation, and parsing. In her 27 minutes of free time, you can find her avoiding the kitchen, watching the latest “Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and perfecting her fake British accent.
Deborah (Phillips) Kidd
For years, this perceptive pixie has been using her wit, precision and uncanny people skills as a force for good. A former magazine editor turned global health communicator, Deb leads the defeatDD team’s social media strategy, provides crack communications for a range of media and outreach efforts, and is our crew’s ace-in-the-hole for translating science into, well, something the rest of us understand (Read: She’s the smart one). Don’t think her whimsy and talent are confined to the office, though. Outside the cube you’re equally likely to find her slinging her skillz as a semi-professional hip hop karaoke artist, dissecting the latest Duke basketball game, creating a Halloween costume, heading to yoga, or mulling over unicorn hats.
Ashley Latimer
We knew that Ashley, the newest member of the Poo Crew, would be up for any challenge: both as an energetic and passionate advocate for child health and as the best (who are we kidding: the only) athlete on our team. One might even say that Ashley puts the "A" in team. She spent four years as a star basketball player at the University of Rochester, wakes up at 6am daily to hit the gym, and shows up to the office ready to kick diarrhea’s butt. As an active member of the Health/WASH Network for nearly two years, Ashley has proven herself to be impressively resourceful, facilitating both local and global partnerships to get the job done. We would expect nothing less from this globetrotter who, among other adventures, has visited every country in Central America. And even though we didn’t bring her on board so we could become beneficiaries of her new recipe experiments, we’d be lying if we said it isn’t a major bonus.
Allison Clifford
Allison is the kind of person who drives small-minded people batty. She possesses talent in spades in two of the human race’s seemingly competing qualities: organizational skills and a rocking sense of humor. Combine these with her many years of experience in communicating about women’s issues and new health technologies, and Allison is well placed to carry the defeatDD team’s load (pun intended) in communicating about PATH’s rotavirus, enterotoxigenic E. coli, Shigella vaccine work to the world. (As if those words aren’t hard enough, it’s been said before that Allison is also conversant in adjuvants and assays.) As the newest mom on the team – to future rockstar + genius Nate – Allison has an everyday reminder about the little lives her work is helping to improve around the world.
Hope Randall
Hope might try to tell you to “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” (The Wizard of Oz) because one of her many talents is quoting movie lines—and entire chunks of dialogue. But better to pay no attention if she tries that line, because she’s the “man” behind this website, managing it, as well as the blog, 3D newsletter, and several of our social media channels, plus tons of other work too. Hope joined the team on April Fools’ Day, 2009, hailing from Erie, PA, where one of her claims to fame was winning the Erie Times News Spelling Bee. She thinks the workday starts way too early, that sunshine is suspect, and food is mandatory at Happy Hour. Our only quibble is that with Hope around, we never get a chance to say, "What we've got here is...a failure to communicate." (Cool Hand Luke).
Of course, we're not the only folks at PATH working to defeat diarrheal disease. While we're raising awareness about disease burden, other colleagues are implementing lifesaving research and public health programs. To learn about just a few of our great colleagues, click through the names below:
Debbie Atherly, Senior program officer, Vaccine Access and Delivery
John Boslego, Director, Vaccine Development
Lou Bourgeois, Scientific officer, Vaccine Development
Alfred Ochola, Primary health care coordinator, Enhanced Diarrheal Disease Control Initiative in PATH-Kenya
Evan Simpson, Program officer, Enhanced Diarrheal Disease Control Initiative
Emeritus Team Members
Janie Hayes
“Iron” Janie Hayes is a lean, (but not at all) mean partnering machine. From Lilongwe to London, people see her coming and know they are in for a provocative, thoughtful, and always memorable chat about poop. (We’re not sure, however, if it was a topic of choice when she hung out with Flava Flav.) Diarrhea is not the easiest point to raise, but as a world-class triathlete, Janie knows first-hand the challenges of an uphill climb—plus creative problem-solving when it’s not so simple to find a place and time to “go.” We’ll spare you the details of how she’s overcome that, but we’ll expound to no end about the local and global coalitions she’s forged by bridging water and health issues. Among her many achievements on the track and in the office, the Health/WASH network counts her among its founders. And in 2010, Janie led a diverse group that refreshed Kenya’s DD programming and is saving lives already. Ask her for a commemorative t-shirt.
Turi Omollo
Turi holds down the proverbial fort for PATH’s defeatDD team in Nairobi, Kenya. From day to day, you might find her corralling journalists to cover the issue, visiting slums or rural areas to check in on projects, or helping to organize events – like the world’s largest handwash – but you’ll always recognize her infectious laugh and endless enthusiasm. In her spare time, you can find Turi on the rugby field, at church, or lazing at home. She is also the proud mom to four children.