Governing to Improve Quality Workshop
August 9 – 11, 2017
Jakarta, Indonesia
Facilitator Profiles
Altea Cico, MS, MPH
Associate/Scientist
Abt Associates
Altea Cico is a multilingual health financing, economics, and systems specialist with over 9 years of experience. Her primary focus areas include health financing, costing and economic evaluation, financial management, financing of pharmaceuticals, and quality in health care. She is currently leading a study on institutional arrangements linking health financing to the quality of care in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand; as well as the development of a practical guide for defining the roles and responsibilities of health financing actors in governing quality. Previously, she assisted Jordan’s national healthcare accreditation agency to achieve financial sustainability through sound financial management and business planning. She holds an MS in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University, an MPH from The George Washington University, and a BA from Tufts University. She has worked in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.
Leizel Lagrada-Rombauau, MD, MPH, PhD
Independent Consultant/ Facilitator for Joint Learning Network
Leizel Lagrada-Rombaua is an independent consultant working on health financing reforms, policy and system research, quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation and collaborative learning facilitation. She previously served in concurrent positions as Head Executive Staff (2010-2015) for the Chairman of the Board and Group Vice-President (Officer-in-Change) for Quality Assurance at the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (2013-2014) with prior appointment as Senior Manager for Accreditation Department and Standards and Monitoring Department (2012-2013). Dr. Lagrada-Rombaua started as a Municipal Health Officer in Palawan, Philippines (1997–2001) administering rural health services in a variety of roles: physician for the community, health educator, medico-legal officer and public health advocate. She also worked as Medical Officer and later as Division Chief for Health Policy and Planning at the Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau of the Department of Health (2001–2010).
Dr. Lagrada-Rombaua has over seven years’ involvement in global health community, primarily through the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN), previously as country representative and member of its Steering Group; and currently in a technical support capacity for network governance and quality assurance. She has served as a speaker and workshop facilitator on health financing and UHC, sharing policy-relevant experiences with peers from low- and middle-income countries, like the Philippines, pursuing similar UHC-related reforms.
M. Rashad Massoud, MD, MPH, FACP
Director, USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project,
Chief Medical and Quality Officer/ Senior Vice President
University Research Co., LLC
Rashad Massoud is a physician and public health specialist internationally recognized for his leadership in global health care improvement. He is Director of the USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project. He is also Chief Medical and Quality Officer and Senior Vice President of the Quality and Performance Institute at University Research Co., LLC (URC), leading URC’s quality improvement efforts in over 30 countries to deliver better results in global health priority areas. Rashad is President Elect of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Alumni Council and a member of the Palestine Health Policy Forum.
Tiernan Mennen, JD
Vice President, Governance
Abt Associates
Tiernan Mennen, as Vice President for Governance, is focused on supporting participatory governance processes that empower citizens and promoting accountability and transparency across sectors. Mennen, a lawyer by training, has more than 15 years of experience in international development in more than 40 countries, including long-term positions in Sri Lanka, Bolivia, South Sudan and Hungary.
Before joining Abt, he was chief of party for a USAID-funded justice reform and civil society project in Sri Lanka, helping to build the capacity of civil society organizations to advocate for governance reforms, increase access to justice through improved court management and institutional effectiveness, and promoting reconciliation through transitional justice mechanisms.
Prior to that, he was Chemonics International’s Director for Governance, Human rights, and Land reform projects, including responsibility for a $60 million portfolio with more than 70 staff in Colombia, Rwanda, Tajikistan, and the Dominican Republic. He also was Deputy Chief of Party for a Justice Administration Project in Bolivia.
Mennen spent several years as an International Human Rights Lawyer for the Open Society Foundations and has been a regular consultant for the United Nations, World Bank, and other international organizations on issues of land rights, access to justice, and good governance. A native of Buffalo, NY, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras.
Mennen holds a Juris Doctor from Cornell Law and a Masters in International Development and Economics from SAIS-Johns Hopkins.
Nana Mensah Abrampah, BSc, MSc
Technical Officer for the Universal Health Coverage & Quality (QHC) unit within the Service Delivery & Safety Department (SDS)
World Health Organization
Nana A. Mensah Abrampah serves as a Technical Officer for the Universal Health Coverage & Quality (QHC) unit within the Service Delivery & Safety Department (SDS) at WHO. In this role, Ms. Mensah Abrampah oversees the WHO global learning agenda on quality UHC as well as providing technical and strategic programmatic support in a number of areas pertaining to focused efforts on quality of care (policy and collaboration). In addition, she provides focused technical input to work areas of health service resilience &health security convergence as well as twinning partnerships for improvement. Ms. Mensah Abrampah serves as global partnerships manager for the WHO collaboration with the USAID ASSIST project. She holds a BSc Econ and an MSc in International Health.
Lisa Tarantino
Senior Governance Specialist
USAID’s Health Finance and Governance (HFG) project
Abt Associates
Lisa Tarantino is a Senior Governance Specialist on USAID’s Health Finance and Governance (HFG) project. She has over 15 years of experience in health system strengthening, private sector development, health financing and governance, and has worked in over 20 countries worldwide. Ms. Tarantino is currently working with a team from WHO, USAID’s ASSIST Project, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and the Joint Learning Network (JLN) to develop a guide to institutional roles and relationships for governing the quality of health care. In addition to her global health governance work, Ms. Tarantino is the manager of HFG project’s Eastern Caribbean regional program. Formerly the Deputy Project Director of the Banking on Health project, and Technical Director for Access to Finance for the SHOPS project, Ms. Tarantino has significant expertise in private health sector development. Ms. Tarantino holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University and is a proficient Russian speaker.
