About > Leadership

Initiative Co-Chairs

JLICA's two lead Co-Chairs oversee the Initiative's scientific and advocacy work and represent JLICA in a range of international forums along with Learning Group Co-Chairs, who in turn, guide the research agenda and process in keeping with the goals of the Initiative. Collectively, the Initiative's leadership embodies a unique concentration of global expertise and leadership on children and HIV/AIDS.

Learn more about JLICA operations and leadership.

Learning Group 1	Learning Group 2	Learning Group 3	Learning Group 4
Strengthening Families	Community Action	Services & Human Rights	Social & Economic Policies
Linda Richter	Geoff Foster	Jim Yong Kim	Alex de Waal
Lorraine Sherr	Madhu Deshmukh	Lydia Mungherera	Masuma Mamdani

Peter Bell

Peter Bell is a senior research fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University. He also co-chairs the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS and chairs the facilitation group for the NGO Leaders Forum. Before joining the Hauser Center in September, he was a visiting fellow at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Previously, he served for ten years as president of CARE, one of the world's leading private relief and development organizations. From 1988 until 1995, he had been a member of CARE's Board of Directors, including five years as its chair.

Mr. Bell has a long-standing commitment to fighting poverty, advancing human rights and preventing violent conflict. As president of The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation for nine years, he sought to improve conditions for people who are poor and disadvantaged, primarily in the United States. Mr. Bell was a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 1984 to 1986, and president of the Inter-American Foundation, which supports grassroots development in Latin America and the Caribbean, from 1980 to 1983. He served as Deputy Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Carter Administration and oversaw the program for the resettlement of Indochinese refugees in the U.S. Earlier, he worked for the Ford Foundation for 12 years, including ten with its Latin American program. Mr. Bell's volunteer positions include being vice-chair of the Inter-American Dialogue, vice chair of the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, and a trustee of the World Peace Foundation. He was formerly chair of the ONE Campaign, co-chair of the Inter-American Dialogue, a trustee of Human Rights Watch, chair of the Refugee Policy Group and chair of the advisory council of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.

Mr. Bell has published articles on international affairs in major newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Christian Science Monitor, and in various journals and books. He is also author of Fulfilling the Public Trust: Ten Ways to Help Nonprofit Boards Maintain Accountability. A native of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Mr. Bell is a graduate of Yale College, and obtained a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese, and has lived in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Ivory Coast and Japan.

Agnes Binagwaho

Dr. Agnes Binagwaho is the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission. This institution oversees the planning, monitoring and evaluation of all activities in Rwanda connected with the response to HIV and AIDS. Dr. Binagwaho is also a member of the Rwanda Country Coordinating Mechanism for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and serves as Chair of the Rwandan Steering Committee for the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In addition, Dr. Binagwaho is responsible for the management of the World Bank MAP Project in Rwanda and is a member of the High Commission on Aid Policy. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Public Library of Science (PLOS) and serves on the board of the Steven Lewis Foundation, the Health Advisory Board for Time Magazine, and the Advisory Board of the Friends of Global Fund Africa. Dr. Binagwaho is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and of the Steering Committee for the Multi-Country Support Program on SSR/HIV/AIDS, an advisory body of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Amsterdam. Dr. Binagwaho co-chaired the Millennium Development Goal Project Task Force on HIV/AIDS and Access to Essential Medicines, under the leadership of Professor Jeffrey Sachs, for the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Currently, she is global Co-Chair of the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA). She is a founding Board Member of the Tropical Institute of Community Health and Development in Africa (TICH), based in Kisumu, Kenya.

Dr. Binagwaho obtained her medical training in Belgium and France. She is a paediatrician specializing in Emergency Paediatrics, neonatology and the treatment of HIV/AIDS in children and adults, practicing part-time in Kigali. She is Chair of the Rwandan Paediatric Society. Dr. Binagwaho has authored more than 100 presentations and articles for international conferences and journals on paediatrics, HIV/AIDS, and program management. In Rwanda, Dr. Binagwaho participated in developing national PMTCT standards, as well as protocols for paediatric HIV/AIDS care and treatment. She is active in advocacy and political mobilisation on behalf of women and children, in Rwanda and internationally.