SHE is a lean, non-hierarchal organization with direct communication lines.

Current Core Team

Elizabeth ScharpfElizabeth Scharpf
Founder and Chief Instigating Officer
Elizabeth is an entrepreneur who has spent most of her professional career starting up ventures or advising businesses on growth strategies in the health care industry.  She has spent time as a strategic management consultant at Cambridge Pharma Consultancy as well as stints at the Clinton Foundation and the World Bank in Asia and East Africa, respectively.  Elizabeth has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPA in international development from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a BA from the University of Notre Dame. Despite all the academic acronyms, she thinks her best education has come from talking with those sitting next to her on buses around the world. Photo Credit: Michael George Photography

 

Julian IngabireJulian Ingabire
Chief Operations Officer, Rwanda
Julian is a Rwandese who was born and raised outside of her country but returned after the genocide to participate in the rebuilding of her country.  Most recently, she helped start-up and lead operations for a successful coffee business in Rwanda.  She went to university in India, and although she holds a Bachelors degree in Finance, she has a passion for women's issues which explains her involvement with SHE as the head of operations.  She likes watching movies, reading books, and collecting coins--but not all at the same time.

 

CeCe CamachoCeCe Camacho
Chief Operating Officer, Global
CeCe joins SHE after working in the field of education and international health. Previously, CeCe worked for Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, overseeing their summer programs. She is the former director at the Cornell Public Service Center where she oversaw the K-12 programs. She worked for the International Women's Health Coalition's Africa program, promoting girls' and women's reproductive health and rights in Nigeria and Cameroon. CeCe also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in both Yemen (Middle East) and Gabon (West Africa), working on maternal and child health projects and coordinating women in development initiatives. CeCe has an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Mupenzi Fesi JacklineJackline (Jackie) Fesi Mupenzi
Advocacy and Policy Manager
Jackie is a Rwandese who has over 10 years of working experience in the public and private sectors in Rwanda including working for several government agencies in Rwanda, running her own business and consulting for various agencies and most recently, was managing TradeMark East Africa’s research & advocacy programs.
Jackie has also led advocacy and assessments of the trade facilitation bottlenecks affecting women in Informal Cross-Border Trade (ICBTs) and women-led Micro and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) with each country’s private and public stakeholders (Rwanda and Burundi) under the International Trade Center (ITC). Jackie has the passion and experience in advocating for an improvement in women’s socio-economic status. She holds an MBA from Mount Kenya University-Rwanda. Photo Credit: Perttu Saralampi

 

Sylvere MwizerwaSylvere Mwizerwa
Business Development Officer, Rwanda
As SHE’s Junior Business Development Officer, Sylvere is integral to SHE’s industrial-scale program and subsequent scale-up in Rwanda. A Rwandese, Sylvere received a Bachelor’s degree from the National University of Rwanda. Before Sylvere joined SHE, he worked at EOS Visions Rwanda, an East African leading tour company, as an operations officer and has experience working for both non-profit and for-profit organizations.

 

 

 

Gerardine BenimanaGerardine Benimana
Marketing Officer, Rwanda
As SHE’s Marketing Officer, Gerardine is passionate about the opportunity to directly contribute to girls’, women's and her country's economic development. Gerardine won a scholarship from Generation Rwanda to study at National University of Rwanda, earning a bachelor's degree in clinical psychology.

 

 

 

Connie Lewin
Director of Strategic Partnerships and Marketing, Global
Connie manages SHE’s business development efforts and directs its marketing initiatives for SHE Global. Prior to joining SHE, Connie was a Assistant Marketing Manager for a luxury beauty brand. She has also worked at Girls Quest, a youth development organization, for three years as a Development Associate. Connie received an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Simon School at the University of Rochester.

 

 

Nadia HitimanaNadia Hitimana
Health and Hygiene Officer, Rwanda
Nadia is a Rwandese who has extensive experience in Health Education. Before joining SHE, Nadia worked as a Health Education Coordinator at ARC (American Refugee Committee). Nadia holds a Bachelor’s AM degree from Kigali Institute of Health where she specialized on Environmental Health Sciences. In her spare time, Nadia enjoys reading novels and biographies about those who have changed the world, cooking, and swimming. Photo Credit: Perttu Saralampi

 

 

 

Lydia SingermanLydia Singerman
SHE Intern, Global
Lydia is currently a senior at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine where she is Gender and Women’s Studies major and Chemistry minor. As the SHE Global Intern, she assists with the development of R&D technical documents and open global sourcing our hygiene management resources.

 

 

 

Founding Team Members: Fatima Sabar, Hannah Poole, Hannah Brice, Bernice Huang

 

Board

Michelle ClaymanMichelle Clayman
Founder, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer of New Amsterdam Partners LLC
Founder, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer of New Amsterdam Partners LLC, an institutional money management firm in New York. Ms. Clayman has been published in the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Investing and NYSSA Financial Professionals' Post. She is a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and other financial media. In addition, Ms. Clayman sits on the Boards of the Society of Quantitative Analysts (of which she is a past President), and The Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, and is a volunteer for the CFA Institute.

 

 

 

Sheila Hollender
Sheila is a leading authority on women’s issues, environmental health and sustainability. Following a distinguished career as a partner in her own New York law firm, she co-founded Seventh Generation with her husband Jeffrey, and helped it become America’s leading brand of natural consumer products.
She served on the board of Seventh Generation from 1995-2011, while also directing the company’s Women’s Environmental Health Advocacy program. Currently Sheila sits on the board of the Breast Cancer Fund and ReSource Vermont. Sheila also serves on the advisory boards of Practically Green, and the Planned Parenthood Leadership Council.

 

 

Jean Nganji
Jean Nganji was born in Rwanda but now lives in the US for the last 20 years. His background is in computer software and system analysis with companies that cater to health care solutions such as Amicas Inc./Merge Healthcare Inc. and Dictaphone Corp./Nuance Communications, Inc. He currently works at Kronos Inc., a global workforce management solutions company.
Jean is an advisor on a couple of projects that take him to Rwanda every year: the annual Rwanda film festival and Sager Ganza, a micro-finance program for women. He is on the board of many US based organizations that create linkages and empower communities. His belief is that each community is fruitful and with the right approach, tools and strategies, it has the capacity to solve its own problems.

 

Nina S. Gidwaney
Nina is the Executive Director of the Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation and, alongside Jacki Zehner, focuses her efforts on advancing the cause of women and girls in the context of wealth, investing and social change. In this role, she is also heavily engaged with Women Moving Millions, a growing peer-to-peer movement of women who have made gifts of a million dollars or more to organizations and initiatives that support the advancement of women and girls around the world. Nina’s career has spanned practicing law at one of Canada's top firms, energy investment banking, structured finance at Goldman Sachs and high impact philanthropy. She has also had the privilege of working with The World Bank on policy issues related to financial services firms and stolen asset recovery. Nina was a founding team member of Humanity Calls, which launched the world’s first platform where crowds of people assemble online to evaluate non-profits and make donations to those organizations that perform best. She currently sits on the boards of Kopernik.

Susan J. Ganz
Susan is the Chief Executive Officer of Lion Brothers Company Inc., a manufacturing firm based in Baltimore, Maryland. Lion Brothers Company Inc. is a world leader in the manufacturing and distribution of embroidered and appliquéd emblems. Lion is a female-owned business today that operates manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and China employing more than 700 individuals worldwide. Suzy obtained an MBA in Finance and Multinational Management from Wharton. Suzy has driven innovation at Lion Brothers by successfully keep at pace with global market shifts and demands in the manufacturing space and forming strategic partnerships, most notably with the Girl Scouts of USA. Suzy’s Wharton MBA and financial background as an international equities trader and as a Bond specialist with Merrill Lynch has provided a good foundation for her role as CEO and as our Board Member.

 

Elizabeth ScharpfElizabeth Scharpf
Founder and Chief Instigating Officer
Elizabeth is an entrepreneur who has spent most of her professional career starting up ventures or advising businesses on growth strategies in the health care industry.  She has spent time as a strategic management consultant at Cambridge Pharma Consultancy as well as stints at the Clinton Foundation and the World Bank in Asia and East Africa, respectively.  Elizabeth has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPA in international development from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a BA from the University of Notre Dame. Despite all the academic acronyms, she thinks her best education has come from talking with those sitting next to her on buses around the world.

Core Technical Partners

SHE and its partners developed a ground-breaking, patent-pending, mechanical process to make an absorbent material, the foundation of the pad, from agrowaste (e.g., banana fibers) without using any chemicals and/or super absorbent polymers. SHE, along with teams of professors and students at the following institutions have designed
a low-cost, high quality, eco-friendly sanitary pad, the SHE LaunchPad, for Rwanda and beyond.

Current Advisory Board

Additional Contributors

The following individuals have also significantly contributed to SHE with their expertise

 

       
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