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MEET THE EXPERTS
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W. Garrison Jackson

President
Jackson leads Nu Strata Logistics’ US and Liberia

Garrison Jackson has over twenty-five years of experience in marketing, communications and brand management. Promoted to his current position of President in August of 2013, Jackson leads Nu Strata Logistics’ US and Liberia, West Africa operations, as the company establishes and operates service and social infrastructure projects supporting the nation’s poverty reduction efforts to rebuild Liberia as it recovers from decades of conflict and civil war. Before Nu Strata, Jackson served as President and CEO of Circulation Expertí, Ltd, the nation’s oldest black-owned public relations firm.
Selected as one of “America’s Best and Brightest” Young Men by Dollars & Sense magazine in its inaugural 1984 round up and as a 40 under 40 in the inaugural Network Journal Magazine award recognition, Jackson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and communications from Boston College.

Targeted Communications

Juan Manuel Urrutia

International Private Public Partnership Specialist
Panagora Group

Is a private sector health and public-private partnership specialist with over 30 years of experience with strategic planning, design, and project management in private sector health.

Juan Manuel was appointed by the Colombian President to serve as General Director with Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF), managing a budget of $400 million and 5,000 employees working across Colombia. He also served as Regional Manager for The Futures Group International responsible for social marketing Programs. Most recently Juan Manuel served as Deputy Director with NetMark, where he designed public/private sector partnerships for five international manufacturers in seven African countries to provide insecticide treated bed nets at low cost.

Juan Manuel has his BA in Mathematics from Institut National de Sciences Appliquées, France and his MBA, from Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.

Frances Villafañe

Health Systems Manager
American Cancer Society, Inc.

Frances Villafane is a Health Systems Manager for Primary Care at the American Cancer Society (ACS) with over 12 years of experience in the non-profit sector. In her role, Frances partners with primary care systems to engage them in the overall mission of improving cancer screening rates. Frances is a past Community Manager for Health Initiatives at the ACS and she oversaw initiatives for introducing cancer prevention and early detection methods to vulnerable communities in the US and developing healthy local volunteer communities in North Texas. Frances managed a committee of eighty professional and grassroots Hispanic volunteers who assisted in cultivating relationships with the medical community, media outlets and faith based leaders, among others. From 2008-2014 Frances participated as a facilitator in the area of volunteer management for the ACS University in Latin America.

Patient & Volunteer Management

Alessandra Durstine

Principal
Catalyst Consulting Group LLC

Has 25 years of international experience working in business development, marketing, media engagement in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa. She has extensive work experience in both the non-profit and for-profit arenas.

Her for-profit media experience includes ten years as Vice President of International Marketing at ESPN where she oversaw all aspects of communications, marketing and branding of ESPN’s 21 international networks. At ESPN she was one of the highest-ranking women and was a recognized woman leader at the parent company, Walt Disney. Her eight year tenure as Vice President at the American Cancer Society put her in charge of global advocacy, NGO capacity building and media in low and middle income countries. In 2012 Ms. Durstine founded Catalyst Consulting Group LLC to create innovative advocacy strategies to raise awareness, mobilize resources and build capacity for social change in global low resource settings. 

Alessandra has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.

Successful Fundraising

Laura Margarita Vidales Flores

Presidenta Ejecutiva y Directora General
Aquí Nadie Se Rinde

Es sobreviviente a la muerte de un hijo con  cáncer. Nació en la Ciudad de México el 11 de abril de  1958. Es Licenciada en Comunicación por la Universidad Anáhuac del Norte asimismo estudió la Maestría y Doctorado en  Responsabilidad Social en la misma Universidad. Es Chef, graduada por la Universidad Iberoamericana. Actualmente es Presidenta Ejecutiva y Directora General de Aquí Nadie Se Rinde, asociación civil en México que ayuda a niños y niñas con cáncer y sus familias.

Aquí Nadie Se Rinde es una asociación sin fines de lucro. Nace en 2005 gracias al sueño de Andrés, un niño con ganas de ayudar al prójimo. Día a día aumenta esfuerzos para ver a más niñas y niños beneficiados gracias a los resultados que surgen de la labor que los voluntarios, empresas y fundaciones que se unen a esta causa con gran responsabilidad y dedicación. Durante la primera mitad del 2015 Aquí Nadie Se Rinde A.C pudo ayudar  aproximadamente a más de 1200 familias.

Cristina Parsons Perez

Senior Director
Catalyst Consulting Group LLC

Cristina Parsons Perez, PhD, has over 10 years experience in patient advocacy and in strengthening patient NGOs in Latin America and other world regions. Cristina is Senior Director at Catalyst Consulting Group and is currently project director for the NCD Alliance's programme strengthening in-country advocacy. She worked at the American Cancer Society's Global Health Department where she was Advocacy Director. She directed the advocacy strategy to include cancer in UN processes and outcomes, including the UN's High level Meeting Non- Communicable diseases in 2011. She helped launch ULACCAM, the LatinAmerican Union on Women's Cancers. Cristina managed the American Cancer Society's Latin America program where she oversaw the disbursement of over $1.75 million in grants to civil society in the region. She worked in a British NGO, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, where she developed policy on hereditary breast cancer in support of advocacy efforts. She has a PhD in gene therapy and is a fluent speaker of Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Advocacy

Laurent Huber, MS Ed

Executive Director
Action on Smoking and Health

Laurent is the Director of Action on Smoking and Health and the Director of the Framework Convention Alliance, a coalition of NGOs  widely recognized for its role in shaping the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control .
 
Laurent is fluent in four languages and holds a post graduate degree in Exercise Physiology. He has authored and contributed to numerous public health publications; he regularly speaks at public health events around the world and serves on a number of Advisory Boards including the Steering Committee of the NCD Alliance.

He received the American Lung Association’s C. Everett Koop Foundation Award in 2005 and under his leadership the FCA received the Luther Terry award and the WHO World No Tobacco Day award.

Lucy Keightley

Director
Scott Gray Associates Ltd

Lucy has over 20 years of experience in communications and marketing, working globally but notably in South America, United Arab Emirates and India. Her career started in the private sector but latterly in the non-profit sector – specifically healthcare.

Her early career was spent running brands within the telecommunications industry, which then led to moving into trouble-shooting – restructuring marketing departments within businesses going through periods of significant change.

Five years ago she took her transferable skills and began working in the healthcare sector, initially within the NHS in the UK working on projects to make services more accessible to patients and then at World Heart Federation (WHF) in Geneva. Here she led a large global communications programme to increase both the general public and media awareness of secondary prevention of heart attack and stroke, skillfully demystifying the science and enabling people to better understand how they can engage in maximizing their own health.

Lucy graduated from Harper Adams University in marketing and business administration; she is also a qualified NLP and business coach.

Strategic Planning

About United Patients

United Patients is a global initiative that builds on the years of knowledge of health NGOs sharing their best practices and expertise to help patients advocate for themselves.

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